© Kosovo/2011/Milica Milovic
Kosovo's youth participating in Recycle smART, a project funded by UNICEF's Innovation Lab. Recycle smART aims to use art as a tool for raising awareness on environmental issues and education for sustainability.

By Rudina Vojvoda

New York, USA, 15 June 2011 – With an estimated 53 per cent of its population under the age of 25, Kosovo is considered to be the youngest area in Europe. Twelve years after the height of the devastating 1999 conflict, Kosovo’s young people have witnessed significant progress. Towns and villages have been rebuilt, most of the people who fled violence now have returned home, and local institutions are functioning. Yet, the youth of Kosovo is coming of age in a society that is still ethnically divided, with the worst socio-economic, health and education indicators of Europe. According to UNICEF, more than 70 per cent of young people are unemployed, the majority of them unskilled.

Many schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina still reflect the ethnic tensions that triggered the 43-month siege of Sarajevo in the mid-1990s.