Although there have been many past achievements in the Dominican Republic, public youth policies have had an especially strong effect at the end of the 90s, reaching its height with the approval of the General Youth Law in 2000, which created the State Youth Secretariat (SEJ). This entity receives, by law, 1% of the budget of the Secretary of States.  At the same time, all of the municipalities within the country were obligated to build at least one Youth House in their area and designate 4% of the budget to the development of youth programmes.
 
During its first term, the State Youth Secretariat (specialized entity with the greatest institutional range in Latin America) put into practice many diverse initiatives, but in reality, they were not able to concrete the allotment of resources stipulated by law. In several specific areas, the 2000-2003 economic crisis greatly affected various social programmes, particularly, the new youth-related initiatives.

The new government is trying to renew actions that were made during the previous administration (whose framework created agreements that were shaped between the old and new governments.)  The prior government was accused of not fulfilling their established agreements and managing irresponsibly the assigned resources, which have created additional difficulties, sparking various debates.  The future of the State Youth Secretariat is uncertain; because there are certain sectors of government that wishes to change it or shut it down altogether. We will have to wait for an outcome.

In this framework, and despite the presented difficulties, the new government continues revealing several excellent initiatives.  In the framework of fulfilling the commitments of the Millennial Development Goals, with a vision towards the coming decade (2005-2015), initiatives in health, education and youth labor rights rely on diverse organizations in regional cooperation interested in collaborating with the various initiatives.

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