This section of the Visible Value aims to provide a quick overview of the state of the affairs about the recognition of youth work in the countries covered by EU-CoE Youth Partnership. In total it covers 53 country profiles (including 3 profiles for Belgium and 4 profiles for the UK).

The content in this section is based on several sources, including:

The sources of information are indicated at the end of each profile.

Back Bosnia and Herzegovina

Youth work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the national level, has not been defined.

At the regional (entities and Brcko District BiH BiH) level, youth work or working with youth is defined differently at each level. 

In Federation BiH Law on youth in Article 4 – Definitions it is stated that: “Working with youth means planned, purposeful and conscious youth support through youth voluntary participation”.

The Republic of Srpska Law on youth organization in Article 2, defines youth work as follows: “Youth work represents the part of youth activities organized with and for youth, which takes place within the free time of young people and is performed in order to improve conditions for personal and social development of young people and the general social benefits in accordance with their needs, opportunities, and with their voluntary participation”

Brcko District BiH BiH Law on youth in Article 2, defines youth work as follows: “Youth work" refers to forms of socially useful work in the field of interest of youth in which they are involved and which contributes to the improvement of the position of young people”. It is important to mention that this law in the same article is defining the Youth worker by stating that: “Youth worker” is a person who works with young people in non-formal and formal content, focusing on personal and social development through one-on-one and group work”. This is the only formal definition of youth worker in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

There is no national or regional level of Quality assurance in youth standards but local youth organization PRONI Center for youth development have signed agreements with ten municipalities and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina where those local communities (Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar, Bihac, Cazin, Prijedor, Bosanski Petrovac, Bijeljina, Trebinje and Brcko District BiH BiH) accept PRONI Center quality assurance mechanisms in youth work as their quality assurance standards. 

The definition of a youth worker is given only in the Law on Youth in Brcko District BiH BiH. This still means that the other two entities nor the state level have the definition of youth worker.

Association of Professional Youth Workers (APOR) founding Assembly was held on June 7th 2008 gathering 11 youth workers from PRONI Center for youth development, Center for youth education and Institute for youth development KULT. Founders of the Association of PYWs (APOR) choose their organization to be membership-based and open to receive in membership status youth work practitioners, not their organizations and/or institutions. Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, responsible for the registration of the associations and verifying compliance of the NGOs’ statutes with Law on associations and foundations in BiH, reply to APOR’s application two years later, in August 2010. asking for some revisions and additions. As a response to the Ministry letter, APOR has suspended the registration process and no major steps were not undertaken since then.    

Institute for youth development KULT have managed to make a certain move towards the recognition of the youth work profession in Federation BiH through their UMiD initiative. 

There is no occupational standard for youth work in Bosnia and Herzegovina since it is not a recognized profession by Bosnia and Herzegovina Qualifications Framework. 

(From the Contribution of Non-programme countries to EU Youth Wiki)