SARAJEVO – RYCO Local Branch Officer in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ms Berina Bukva participated in the event “Coffee with…”, an open discussion with the representatives of the Embassy of Sweden in BiH, the Ambassador H.E. Mr Anders Hagelberg and General Director for Development of International Cooperation at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr Johannes Oljelund. The event, organized by the Institute for Youth Development KULT, aimed to discuss the challenges of BiH’s youth.
The Swedish delegation talked with the young people, former and present trainees of the Institute’s training, youth activists and young politicians.
“To be more constructive and result-oriented, I believe that it is necessary for Bosnia and Herzegovina to have a constant link and qualitative approach between formal and non-formal education. This way, young people become more attractive to the labor market and get better opportunities for employment, mobility and generally, better life“, said Ms Bukva.
Participants agreed that young population don’t desire more tensions and nationalistic constructs. They are keen to be more educated and competent, connected and mobile.
How young people see their challenges in Bosnia and Herzegovina and how would they prioritize those in problem-solving structure were the main topics of the discussion. Very openly, representatives of the Swedish Embassy in BiH asked what young people think is the priority area which they could support in the next period. According to them, the three main areas of priority work, of the Swedish Embassy in BiH are: Democracy, human rights and public administration, Economic development and the business community, as well as Environment and climate changes.
The participants also discussed the challenges around these three areas in context of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The participants shared concrete information about the topic and overall situation of the young population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They mentioned young people as voters and their attitudes towards the upcoming elections, which are more optimistic than the public/media image of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina as voters. Also, they indicated problems in education, employment, and the negative influence of the media on the attitudes of young people.
“Coffee with” was organized as the initiative of the Embassy of Sweden Embassy in BiH to get honest opinions of young people in BiH on various topics, especially on those relevant to the areas in which the Embassy will work in the coming period.