Through the Youth Fund of the Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe, We are supporting regional projects that will contribute to the improvement of youth activism, participation and policy making skills at the local and national level. We are increasing the political participation of women, empowering young people for changes in the community, for dialogue, fostering peace and integration, advocating for a green future and the Youth Guarantees.
Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe – RYDE is funded by European Union.
PROJECT: Empowering Youth to Advocate for Green Future
Organization: Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society (Fondacija BFPE za odgovorno društvo), Serbia.
Project: Empowering Youth to Advocate for Green Future.
The project is fully in line with the Call objective since it will foster active citizenship and strengthen participatory democracy by active engagement of young people in the life of their communities. Specific objective of the project is improved role of local youth councils/LYCs from five targeted cities/municipalities in decision-making processes pertaining to environmental policies that affect youth.
Key results achieved:
- The project team conducted meetings and strengthened cooperation with key institutional stakeholders, including representatives of local governments, Local Youth Councils, Youth Offices, and municipal environmental protection departments.
- Updated and improved database on Local Youth Councils in Serbia, identifying 12 municipalities with inclusive but insufficiently functional councils; cooperation has been established with 5 priority municipalities (Dimitrovgrad, Leskovac, Raška, Senta, and Kraljevo) for the implementation of project activities.
- Enhanced capacities of 21 CSO and local youth councils representatives from Dimitrovgrad, Leskovac, Raška, Senta, and Kraljevo to actively engage in youth-related policymaking and advocacy in the field of environmental protection, with a particular focus on waste and water management, air quality, and clean energy.
- Five local CSOs gathered valuable inputs from 498 young people on local environmental issues that concern and affect them, creating a foundation for developing concrete local policy recommendations
- Developed 55 public policy recommendations based on inputs from young people and analyses of local strategic documents in five municipalities to improve local environmental policies and strengthen the functioning of LYCs, addressing issues such as water and air pollution, waste management, lack of green spaces, and low youth participation in ecological activities.
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The Youth Fund „Local Youth Initiatives“
The Youth Fund „Local Youth Initiatives“ is a FSTP (financial support to third parties) i.e. sub-granting activity of the three-year regional project „Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe“ (RYDE), funded by the European Union in the period 2023-2026 through EU Civil Society Facility and Media Programme in favour of the Western Balkans and Turkey for 2021-2023 (IPA III). The RYDE project is being implemented by the Center for Democracy Foundation from Serbia as a lead partner in cooperation with the partnering civil society organizations from the Western Balkans: Academy of European Integrations and Negotiations (Albania), Youth Act Center (Albania), Kosovar Stability Initiative (Kosovo*), Network of Progressive Initiatives (Bosnia and Herzegovina), NGO Info Center Foundation (North Macedonia) and Regional Academy for Democratic Development (Serbia).
Regional Youth Dialogue for Europe – RYDE
