This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Avatar photo

Edward Ferguson

British Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia

Part of UK in Bosnia and Herzegovina

21st October 2014

Young people: The future of Bosnia and Herzegovina

One of the advantages of being a relatively youthful Ambassador is that, during the three months I have been here, I have met a lot of young people. Many have been well-educated, articulate and talented young men and women with a huge amount to offer to the future of this country. But when I ask them what they would like to be doing in five years time, too often the answer is the same: they want to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina, and work abroad.

It’s not hard to work out why. According to estimates by the International Labour Organisation, and at a staggering 57.5%, Bosnia and Herzegovina has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the world. What is more, in order to get one of the rare jobs available, young people often have to align themselves with a political party. Many refuse to do so, due to the widespread perceptions of political corruption and incompetence. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that, according to a recent study, Bosnia and Herzegovina has the second highest rate of exodus of young people in Europe (after Ireland). No country can afford to lose this sort of talent.

So the new government must look hard at the challenges facing young people in this country, and do something about it. I think there are three main areas that need to change.

  • First, education. As I’ve said in a previous blog, the segregation in some schools of children from different ethnic groups is storing up problems for the future. It is breeding a new generation that is ignorant about their neighbours and so ripe for political manipulation. Building understanding and tolerance within and across the diverse communities of this country is an absolute priority. And so is raising standards. The introduction of a universal syllabus would be a great start, and would help to address the inevitable confusion that comes from having 12 Ministries of Education – none of them at the State level.
  • Second, employment. Political leaders have to offer opportunities to talented young people, irrespective of their political views, if they are to slow the brain drain. The best way to do this is to stimulate the private sector, and to generate new, sustainable jobs. That’s why the first priority of the new government must be to implement the reforms in the Compact for Growth and Jobs.
  • And third, empowerment. Young people have to be given the opportunity to express themselves. And that includes the ability to express discontent, if they do so peacefully and within the law. Any clampdown on civil society is counter-productive and, in the long term, dangerous. Political leaders should open up their policy-making to new ideas and invite young people to participate more actively, both from inside and outside their own parties. Change is not a choice in this country; it is a necessity. And young people can be a great source of energy and inspiration.

The British Embassy is already active in all these areas. In education, this year we will be offering nine, fully-funded Chevening scholarships for talented young people from this country to study postgraduate courses in the UK. The deal is that they must return and put to use their new skills and knowledge for the benefit of the country. It’s not too late to apply. The deadline is 15 November. If you’re interested, go to www.chevening.org.

On employment, we worked hard to ensure that socio-economic issues were at the heart of this year’s election campaign. We recently funded the publication by the Association of Employers of the Federation, setting out their demands from the new government on how to build a better business climate. We’ll continue to press for early reforms that can help to create new jobs, particularly for young people.

And through our Fellowship programme, we aim to empower aspiring leaders in business, government, politics, media or NGOs, by taking them to London for a three-week bespoke programme to learn about the UK political system, including how we make and deliver policy within a devolved system of government. In this way, we hope to create a cadre of influential alumni who can bring new ideas and positive change to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During my time here, I hope to connect with people of all ages right around the country, through my travels and on social media, and to press for further progress on these three ‘E’s – education, employment and empowerment. What do you think, what’s the best way to do this?

10 comments on “Young people: The future of Bosnia and Herzegovina”

  1. Great thinking and afcous the future is youth I can feel that because I am attach with student organization and working in National committee but we have to understand the basic problem of youth
    Regards
    Bhushan Penchalwar
    National General Secretary
    NSUI

  3. The new initiate of German and British governments is to support establishing the state Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Previously, many British experts have been involved in implantation of EU projects more or less on this topic and it is time that such story be effectively realised. We enormously need the EU funds to prepare agricultural sector for better competition of agricultural products as a whole and particularly in dairy sector.

  4. One of the goals could be to help Bh farmers to export their product on the EU market, and thus the UK as well. There are many ways to do this, but one has to allow it for enabling international fairs of agriculture and food in the UK. Another way is to support promotion on third markets (e.g. The Arab countries).
    It might be a last-minute to enable performance of BiH traditional food on the EXPO 2015 Milan such as Livno’s and Travnik’s cheeses, wine, ecotourism, handicrafts …. and this is a real opportunity for youth employment because EXPO takes 6 months, and for food products and it is a very good position for overtaking the EU market.

  5. Dear Mr. Ferguson,

    My name is Siniša Orolić and I am the founder and CEO of Eurokids which is PR, marketing and event agency.

    After 14 years spent in EU countries I came back to Sarajevo.

    http://www.eurokids.ba

    Thank you for taking your time and energy to create this blog that communicates your desire to help.

    One of the major unexploited potentials of the city of Sarajevo lies in the field of congress tourism.

    There should be no doubt that Sarajevo is incredibly strong brand in itself as I found myself during 14 years that I have spent in EU countries: everybody knew very well about Sarajevo.

    In regard to Sarajevo city brand awareness and visibility, Sarajevo is second-placed in Balkans (after Athens) and is without any doubt in the top 50 in Europe.

    Millions of kids globally learn about the city where the WW1 started every year.

    Thousands of articles that mention Sarajevo have been written in the last 100 years, thousands of books that mention Sarajevo have been published and thousands of news reports from Sarajevo have been made.

    In order to exploit Sarajevo’s strong city brand, we designed a global event branded CITY CHALLENGES FORUM that is fully compatible with Sarajevo’s brand and its image.

    Sarajevo is million times more appropriate stage for such a forum than Monaco or St.Moritz.

    The CCF’s slogan is ‘Bringing cities, challenges and solutions together’.

    According to our timeline, the first CCF should take place in November of 2015.

    CCF should take place every year at the same time.

    In our vision, CCF will fulfil its potential to become a leading global forum that deals with specific city challenges.

    Unlike World Economic Forum in Davos and similar high-profile forums and conferences, CCF will bring together city mayors, city experts and companies that provide solutions to the most pressing issues that affect cities.

    It will consist of several mini-forums, some of which will discuss WW1 city challenges:

    1. CITY WW1 HOME FRONT FORUM
    2. CITY WW1 DISABILITY FORUM
    3. CITY WW1 PTSD FORUM
    4. CITY WW1 SHORTAGE FORUM
    5. CITY WW1 WOMEN FORUM
    6. CITY WW1 CHILDREN FORUM

    Other possible thematic mini-forums that will tackle global city challenges are:

    1. CITY SAFETY FORUM
    2. CITY EMERGENCY FORUM
    3. CITY RECONSTRUCTION FORUM
    4. CITY DISASTER FORUM
    5. CITY DEFENCE FORUM
    6. CITY FIRE FORUM
    7. CITY FLOOD FORUM
    8. CITY EARTHQUAKE FORUM
    9. CITY DROUGHT FORUM
    10.CITY IMMIGRATION FORUM
    11.CITY SOCIAL FORUM
    12.CITY FINANCE FORUM
    13.CITY HEALTH FORUM
    14.CITY EDUCATION FORUM
    15.CITY POLLUTION FORUM
    16.CITY GREEN FORUM
    17.CITY SANITATION FORUM
    18.CITY RECYCLING FORUM
    19.CITY RENEWABLES FORUM
    20.CITY AVIATION FORUM
    21.CITY TERRORISM FORUM

    to name but a few 🙂 , it’s true, we have designed more than 60 possible expert mini-forums that should take place simultaneously in tens of Sarajevo’s hotels’ venues.

    CCF is city diplomacy, networking and fundraising international event.

    UK cities (not only London) could take part as mentors/leaders of the CCF’s mini-forums.

    We follow closely the UK government’s initiative designed to empower UK cities.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/giving-more-power-back-to-cities-through-city-deals

    https://storify.com/DeputyPM/city-deals

    We are in the process of building CCF’s website and then we will start contacting CCF’s potential Strategic Partners.

    We would love to see some of the UK cities and UK companies taking on role of a Strategic Partner.

    Would you like to be informed about CCF in detail and maybe get involved at this early stage?

    CCF is a huge opportunity for UK cities and UK companies to share, network and trade with cities from around the world.

    I am available to meet you at any time and place that suits you.

    Let’s walk the walk.

    Your participation and help would be most appreciated.

    Yours sincerely,
    Siniša Orolić, Eurokids founder and CEO

  7. Wonderful blog post! I like your positive energy and enthusiasm, Mr Ferguson. Looking forward to read more stories from you.

  8. Great blog and good to read that the UK is committed to tackling this problem. As you have mentioned, BiH has the second highest rate exodus of young people in Europe, maybe tapping into this resource could prove worthwhile. As a graduate working in UK local government (of Bosnian Heritage), I would be open to establishing a network across Europe to help inform policy direction in BiH and assist in ensuring the conditions in BiH are right for young people to get the most out of education and employment. Overall, consensus across key stakeholders, active engagement and tangible actions are the way forward.

    1. Thanks Dzenana. It sounds like an interesting idea. There’s clearly a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the BiH diaspora and it would be good to see some of this feeding back into the political debate here.

Comments are closed.

About Edward Ferguson

Edward Ferguson took over as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Serbia in July 2023. Before coming to Belgrade, Edward served as the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington…

Edward Ferguson took over as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Serbia in July 2023. Before coming to Belgrade, Edward served as the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington DC in September 2018. Together with the Defence Attaché, he led the British Defence Staff (United States), a network of 1,000 people spread across 28 States. As the UK’s senior policy adviser on defence relations with the United States, he was responsible for UK-US collaboration on strategic planning, nuclear policy and programmes, trade and acquisition, and science and technology. He was the US Network’s lead on HMG’s Integrated Review and AUKUS, and the senior champion for the Race, Ethnic and Cultural Heritage Group.

Previously, he served as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 to 2018, where he created and led a new international strategy, co-launched by the British and German Foreign Ministers, that re-energised Euro-Atlantic integration after years of stagnation while stimulating economic growth and reducing high levels of youth unemployment.

A former Exhibitioner and Choral Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, where he was also Treasurer of the Oxford Union, Edward graduated with First Class Honours in Classics in 2001. Joining the Graduate Fast Stream of the Ministry of Defence, he started out in the Naval Staff before joining the Iraq Secretariat during the build-up to and subsequent execution of Operation TELIC. In 2003, he was involved in financial and requirement scrutiny of the Department’s future helicopter procurement programme.

From 2004 to 2006, he managed a national award-winning £300-million programme to consolidate the MOD estate in Greater London and to redevelop RAF Northolt. In 2006, he volunteered for an operational tour, serving as Political Advisor to a British Battlegroup in Maysaan Province, Iraq (while his brother was a troop leader with the British Army in Basra). On his return, he took on responsibility for the strategic management of the UK’s bilateral defence relations with the United States, Canada and Western Europe.

From 2007 to 2009, he worked as Private Secretary to three Defence Secretaries, acting as their closest adviser on issues relating to operations in Iraq, the £6-billion defence equipment programme, science & technology, counter-terrorism and counter-piracy.

In 2009, he was appointed the Head of Afghanistan and Pakistan Policy, responsible for advice to the National Security Council on the policy, financial, legal, parliamentary and presentational aspects of the UK military contribution to operations in Afghanistan, and on the long-term defence role and interests in Pakistan.

From 2011 to 2014, he was Head of Defence Strategy and Priorities, leading two teams, one responsible for leading the MOD’s contribution to developing the 2015 National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review, and the other for prioritising the MOD’s international defence engagement activities. In 2013, he graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc with Distinction in Strategy and Diplomacy. He has been a member of the RCDS Strategic Advisory Panel, a member of the US Air Force Grand Strategy Advisory Board, and is a graduate of the PINNACLE Command and Staff course.

Follow Edward

Links