Since democratic restoration in 1990, the major political parties that govern Chile have executed a wide range of innovative public policies en different fields, which, in most cases, have made considerable impacts.  In this framework, they have implemented many public youth policies that have successfully made important advances in incorporating material on society’s youths (better educational coverage, better access to health care, limitations on labour and employment, etc) without achieving, at the same time, important levels youth participation (where youths continue to be apart of many current public policies, and only in a few cases, involved in political and electoral processes).

Since the beginning of the current democratic administration in 1990, the National Youth Institute was created within the Ministry of Planning and Cooperation, where they were assigned specially concentrated functions on different public policies directed toward youths.  Also, various programmes were put into practice and have made important impacts in such areas as access and permanence for youths in media education (MECE Media) and in terms of work training (Chile Joven). These and other initiatives are defined in PROJOVEN (Programme of Youth Opportunities), with specific answers. The completed evaluations have permitted the examination of advances and limitations, in the framework of operative practices emphasized in the region. 

The INJ (now the INJUV) has acted as the Inter-Ministerial Commission Technical Secretariat and has operated as an entity specializing in advising regional governments and municipalities. For this, it has been equipped with tools for field work in generating knowledge (youth surveys, studies, investigations, etc) and spreading this information (Youth Information Centres), thus informing human resources. However, in some stages of development it was decided to include direct execution of plans and programmes in the field. The few results obtained have placed this specialized institution in roles of articulating and encouraging public youth policies.  INJUV contracts services of many diverse NGOs and specialized academic institutions (such as CIDPA of Viña del Mar and the Silva Henríquez University’s Centre of Youth Studies) for much of its specialized work.

In a country that has been able to maintain high rates of economic growth while, at the same time, decreasing poverty by half, public policies have been consolidated to achieve great continuity in the management, therefore, accumulating important experiences through their own work.  Nonetheless, the exaggerated focus on obtaining the “material” achievements has led to the overwhelming neglect of “symbolic” integration dimensions, especially those with regard to the dynamics of youth cultures, which, in a large extent, depends on an important development of the national territory.  This “pending issue” will certainly be an important priority for the next government administration in 2006.

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