NUR-SULTAN – The Youth Development Index aimed at unifying various approaches to implementing and monitoring youth-related policies will be developed and introduced to the Parliamentary legislation by the end of the year, reports the Akorda press service. The announcement was made during the 24th meeting of the Youth Policy Council chaired by First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Kazakh President Dauren Abayev on May 21.
Young people make up 20.2% of the total population of Kazakhstan. Photo credit: Gov.kz
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev first proposed to introduce the Youth Development Index in January when he set the improvement of the youth policy as one of the main tasks of the government at the moment. The Index will increase the responsibility of state bodies for achieving specific results, especially at the local level, by equipping them with national standards for evaluating youth-related policies.
Director of the Youth Scientific Research Centre Ayan Sakoshev offered his expert opinion on the practice and commented that similar indexes can be found in other countries and serve as an indicator for assessing the development of youth policy in the country and for assessing the level of support for young people in order to create conditions for self-development.
“This will give a certain positive impetus for the development of youth policy. Following the international methodology, we will see how conditions to support young people will be created,” said Sakoshev in an interview for Kazinform.
The Index will be included in the Tauelsizdik Urpaktary (Generation of Independence) national project, which will combine all measures of state support for youth into a single document, as well as establish awards and grants to support new talented generations. Other measures that will be developed include the Youth Social Services project and NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) Generation Youth.
Members of the Council also had the opportunity to present their multidimensional ideas on more effective support for youth. Entrepreneurship served as the main focus, as members proposed to expand state grants in IT, business, and socio-economic development industries.
Director of The Institute of Nuclear Physics in Nur-Sultan and Associate Professor Maxim Zdorovets proposed to introduce long-term grant competitions in the field of science with a five-year implementation period, which will allow Kazakh scientists to set long-term goals and to reach new levels with promising research.
“All state support measures should have the common effect of helping young people to lead an efficient life. This applies to such things as vocational guidance and the right choice of profession, taking responsibility for one’s health and preventing diseases, issues of mental maturity and openness to risks and pragmatism,” said Abayev.
