Throughout the programme, young researchers worked in regional teams across seven policy areas with direct relevance to young people and to the democratic, social and economic development of the region: youth participation in policymaking; youth migration and brain drain; employment of young persons with disabilities; prevention and recognition of femicide; media and information literacy; regional cooperation in higher education; and the digital and green transition, with a particular focus on e-waste management.
Despite the differences between these policy areas, the research reveals a common regional pattern: formal commitments and policy frameworks often exist, but implementation and accountability continue to lag behind. Institutional fragmentation, limited resources, weak coordination and uneven regional cooperation continue to prevent existing policies and legal frameworks from delivering meaningful and sustained change.
What the evidence shows
Across Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia, formal mechanisms for youth participation exist, yet young people rarely receive clear feedback on how their contributions affect institutional decisions. In the regional survey, 76% of respondents described youth participation as mostly symbolic, while 72% rated institutional trust at only 1 or 2 out of 5, pointing to a significant gap between formal participation and meaningful influence.
While young people and persons with disabilities are covered by existing policy frameworks, young persons with disabilities are rarely treated as a distinct group facing intersecting barriers. Inaccessible services and workplaces, weak transitions from education to employment, insufficient reasonable accommodation and limited institutional coordination continue to restrict their opportunities for sustainable employment.
Across the three countries, young and educated people continue to leave in search of better employment, professional development and stronger institutions, while critical sectors simultaneously face skills shortages. The research links these migration trends not only to wages, but also to skills mismatches, limited career opportunities, employment conditions and weak institutional trust, making brain drain a broader structural challenge rather than solely a question of individual mobility.
The research on femicide identifies regional legal and institutional gaps. North Macedonia has introduced femicide into the Criminal Code, while Albania and Serbia do not recognise it as a standalone offence. Across all three countries, risk assessment, protection, monitoring, data collection and institutional accountability remain inadequate.
Although media and information literacy is increasingly recognised in policy and education, its implementation remains uneven and continues to depend considerably on individual educators, civil society organisations and project-based support. This limits both its sustainability and equal access and points to the need for stronger institutional ownership and cooperation.
Universities across Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia maintain bilateral agreements and participate in regional cooperation, but actual academic mobility remains limited and uneven. Erasmus+, CEEPUS and other externally financed programmes continue to enable much of this cooperation, while dedicated national support for regional academic mobility remains largely absent.
Finally, the research on e-waste identifies shared weaknesses in data collection, producer responsibility, collection systems, institutional capacity and public awareness across the three countries. The similarity of these challenges demonstrates not only the need for stronger national responses, but also the potential for coordinated regional approaches.
Taken together, these seven research strands point to common challenges that extend beyond individual sectors and national contexts. While the findings and recommendations were developed by the RYLMP fellows, SCiDEV, YEF and YIHR consider the patterns they identify to warrant a broader institutional response. On the basis of this youth-led evidence, and drawing on our respective work with young people, civil society and public institutions in the three countries, we jointly endorse the following priorities for action.
Regional calls for action
We therefore call on relevant national and local institutions in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as regional actors where appropriate, to:
- Strengthen national and regional action to prevent femicide. The justice and interior ministries, social-protection authorities, police, prosecution services, courts and equality bodies in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia should advance legal recognition where absent, improve risk assessment and protection, and establish regional monitoring, accountability and data-exchange mechanisms.
- Create an accountable feedback cycle for youth participation by requiring institutions to communicate clearly how young people’s proposals have been considered, which recommendations have been accepted or rejected, and the reasons for these decisions. This would strengthen the link between participation and actual institutional decision-making. This should be a task for the ministries responsible for youth and local self-government in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia, together with municipalities and youth offices.
- Recognise young persons with disabilities as a distinct priority group in employment policies and strengthen regional cooperation on measures that support the transition from education to decent and sustainable employment, including accessibility, reasonable accommodation and the meaningful participation of young persons with disabilities in designing employment measures. This should be the responsibility of the ministries for employment, social protection and education.
- The ministries of education, and relevant educational authority bodies should consolidate sustainable structures for media and information literacy by establishing Media and Information Literacy Networks in Albania and Serbia, strengthening the existing initiative in North Macedonia, and creating stronger regional cooperation for sharing educational resources, methodologies, expertise and effective practices.
- The ministries responsible for youth, labour and the economy, education and diaspora affairs should address the structural drivers of youth migration and brain drain through evidence-based policies that improve employment quality, respond to skills mismatches, expand opportunities for professional development and strengthen trust in institutions, while creating more effective mechanisms for knowledge circulation and engagement with young people and professionals in the diaspora.
- Develop a sustainable regional framework for academic mobility. The education ministries, public universities, accreditation bodies and qualification-recognition authorities in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia, together with relevant regional actors, should establish national co-financing and regional coordination for predictable student and staff mobility, short-term exchanges and long-term university cooperation.
- Strengthen regional cooperation on e-waste governance. The environment ministries and agencies, municipalities, inspectorates, producer-responsibility organisations and licensed waste operators in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia should align data and reporting, strengthen producer responsibility, improve collection and recycling, and exchange effective practices.
From recommendations to action
The similarities identified across Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia demonstrate that many of the challenges facing young people do not stop at national borders. Regional cooperation should therefore not depend exclusively on external funding or short-term projects, but should become a practical instrument for improving national policies and institutional responses.
Young people must also be recognised not merely as beneficiaries of these policies, but as partners in their development, implementation and monitoring. The experience of RYLMP demonstrates that young researchers can generate evidence, identify institutional gaps and formulate concrete policy solutions when provided with meaningful opportunities to engage across borders and with decision-makers.
As SCiDEV, YEF and YIHR, we remain committed to continuing cooperation through the RYLMP fellows and alumni network, jointly promoting the recommendations developed through the programme, supporting further advocacy, and strengthening dialogue between young people, civil society organisations, institutions and decision-makers.
We invite responsible institutions in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia to review the seven regional policy papers, consider their recommendations within ongoing and future policies, reforms and strategies, and engage with young researchers and civil society organisations on their implementation.
Regional challenges require regional cooperation. Turning evidence into policy requires institutions willing to listen, cooperate and act.
Supported by the Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans.
The views expressed in this Joint Communiqué are those of SCiDEV, YEF and YIHR and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans.
Centre for Science and Innovation for Development (SCiDEV), Albania
Youth Educational Forum (YEF), North Macedonia
Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), Serbia
