\ Global Youth Development Index and Report 2016 2015. Belgium, Romania and Albania improved by 10 per cent or more, which helped the latter two countries graduate from the high to the very high YDI category. Poland was the only European country whose YDI score deteriorated by over 5 per cent. This was largely due to its scores for a few indicators: not having a youth policy and increases in the rate of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, mental disorder YLL and mortality among its youth population. There were large improvements in Civic Participation and Political Participation domains in Belgium and Romania, but very little movement in the other three domains. The existence of youth policies in all countries by 2015, coupled with a large increase in the number of youth who helped a stranger, were behind most of the positive change. Austria introduced a youth policy in this period, which helped its score in the Political Participation domain. Albania improved in all five domains, most substantially in Civic Participation, as the proportion of youth who helped a stranger nearly tripled and those who volunteered time doubled in the past five years. Employment and Opportunity is the domain that poses the greatest challenge to youth development in Albania. The proportion of NEET youth in the country is relatively high at 31 per cent, when compared with the global average, which stands at 20 per cent, and Europe��s regional average rate of 15 per cent. 2.5.4  Middle East and North Africa The MENA region has 126 million young people and is home to 7 per cent of the world’s youth population. Youth makes up 28 per cent of the region’s total population. The MENA region ranks seventh out of the nine regions in overall YDI scores. Its scores are better than the global average in the Education and Health and Well-being domains, with the latter being its best-performing domain in comparison with the rest of the world. Figure 2.16 shows the regional YDI change in the MENA region between 2010 and 2015. Levels of youth development improved very marginally in the MENA region between 2010 and 2015. Scores in four out of the five domains went up, with Civic Participation and Employment and Opportunity improving the largest. Political Participation rates for young people in the region deteriorated by 9 per cent, making it the only region to show a decline in this domain between 2010 and 2015. Of the 20 countries from the region in the YDI, 11 (55 per cent) improved their YDI scores and those in three of them – Bahrain, Iraq and United Arab Emirates – jumped by more than 10 per cent. Of the countries whose scores deteriorated between 2010 and 2015, the largest decline was in Algeria, by 8 per cent, largely driven by falls in the Civic Participation and Political Participation domains. While the YDI scores for the State of Palestine, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Sudan, Israel and Yemen also deteriorated, it was by quite a small amount. Figure 2.16  Regional YDI change in MENA, 2010–2015 1 9 11 Improvement 50 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 11 Improved 9 Deteriorated Source: Commonwealth Secretariat 0.2 Civic Participation 0.1 Education 0 2010 2011 Source: Commonwealth Secretariat Employment & Opportunity Health & Well-being Political Participation YDI overall score 2012 2013 2014 2015