Hungary

According to the EU Youth Wiki, the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 provides long term direction for the improvement of living conditions for youth and helps stakeholders in the field plan, organise and implement measures related to youth.

The three main objectives of the strategy are:

1. Fostering equal opportunities to prevent the social exclusion and marginalisation of young people;
2. Developing the relationship between Hungarian youths living in Hungary and beyond the borders to pass down their cultural traditions to future generations and to represent the values and objectives of the social and youth policies declared by the European Union;
3. To develop society's approach in order to meet the set of criteria for sustainable development.

The government has also adopted the Youth Policy Programme for the Future Generation (2012), which introduces a new approach to thinking about youth and acts as a "framework programme that defines the government's youth policy goals, the necessary areas of intervention, and the series of measures necessary to achieve the desired effect." It identifies four areas for intervention:

1. Citizenship;
2. Housing and starting a family;
3. Career and self-sufficiency;
4. Leisure time - sport, entertainment, and culture.

According to the EU Youth Wiki, the programme has not yet been continued since the pandemic, because an alternative organisational framework may be adopted in 2023 once a decision has been made on the use of funds for the 2020-2027 EU budget cycle.

Since the formation of a new government in 2022, the youth sector is part of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (KIM). According to the Organisational and Operational Regulations of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the State Secretariat for Families within KIM exercises "professional and political control in the performance of youth policy tasks" and "is responsible for youth policy development." Furthermore, the State Secretariat for Families coordinates the Deputy State Secretariat for Youth Affairs and the Department of Youth Affairs. According to the EU Youth Wiki, in 2023 the Deputy State Secretariat for Youth Affairs will focus on mental health, career guidance, and employment.

The National Youth Council (NIT) is an umbrella for youth organisations in Hungary that considers the "development of youth affairs and raising the attention of young people to public life issues to be our mission." According to its website, NIT aims to:

• Represent young people and member organisations;
• Reach young people and convey their problems to decision-makers;
• Create a dialogue between representatives of the youth sector;
• Make matters related to youth understandable and accessible to the public;
• Develop the youth sector;
• Facilitate the realisation of the horizontal goals of the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024.

NIT also represents youth at the international and European level and is a member of the European Youth Forum.

While there is no formal definition of youth work nor specific youth work strategy or law, the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 does contain a specific objective on youth work. The strategy calls to strengthen the educational objectives of youth work, elaborate the qualification requirements and training standards, and recognize the equality of the professions of youth assistants and youth specialists. According to the EU Youth Wiki, the current youth worker education is at the BA level. While the programme name does not include youth work, the Youth Community Coordination specialisation of the Bachelors in Community Coordination serves as formal educational background to youth work.

According to the Proposed Law on the Central Budget of Hungary 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (KIM) is allocated HUF 951.7 billion (USD 2.8 billion). While there is no specific budget allocated to the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 nor the Youth Policy Programme for the Future Generation (2012), the central budget does allocate HUF 2.2 billion (USD 6.5 million) to children, youth, and family policy programmes.