Promotion of the brochure “Instrument of Citizens’ Question – Your Right to know”

On July 5, 2017 in the municipality of Raska, the official presentation of the brochure containing conclusions and recommendations from the project “Instrument of Citizens’ Question – Your Right to Know” was held. Project was realized in the period of March-June 2017 by Development Center for Youth, with the support of the  European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

The brochure offers an analysis of the situation in the field of youth participation in public and political life of the community through case analysis from 12 local communities, as well as recommendations for further action in order to improve the participation and activism of young people.

Presentation of the brochure, attended by project participants and members of the expert team, as well as representatives of the local self-government of the municipality of Raska, various local institutions and organizations, local office for youth, media, and also young people from this municipality, was officially opened by Mrs. Danijela Matovic, coordinator of the local youth office and member of the Municipal Assembly of Raska.

Afterwards, the attendees were addressed by the experts Mrs. Aleksandra Knezevic and Mr. Vladimir Mitrovic, who presented the recommendations and conclusions from the brochure as an introduction to the panel discussion “Participation of young people in life of the local community”. During the panel discussion, four project participants shared their experience on the challenges young people are facing on the local level, suggestions on how to overcome them, and shared motivational messages about why it was important for young people to be active at the local.

We dealt with following questions: in which extent are young people represented in local assemblies and other institutions at the local level; which is the level of interest of young people for participation in different processes of importance at the local level; how do young people observe elections and whether they believe in the possibility of their own influence on processes in the environment in which they live; why women’s parliamentary networks are being formed, but there are no youth networks, as well as a number of others.

We recall that the project is focused on connecting young people with local institutions (primarily local assemblies as the highest representative bodies), presenting them in detail how the system works, in order to become active individuals in society. Young participants learned about the electoral process, establishing and maintaining contact with elected representatives, the possibility of influencing institutions in order to respond better to the needs and priorities of citizens, primarily young people, and to examine the current situation regarding the participation of young people in public and political life of local communities.

The project “Instrument of Citizens’ Question – Your Right to Know” included a set of various interactive and dynamic activities: an initial four-day training for 24 participants; visits to local assemblies by participants in order to connect theory and practice; peer workshop in the places from which participants come; visit to the Assembly of the City of Novi Sad, as well as to the Assembly of AP Vojvodina; preparation of narratives for the final brochure. In addition, an eight-member delegation visited Sarajevo and was able to expand knowledge and information on their representative systems, getting to know the work of institutions and organizations for youth of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is an introductory step in a series of activities that Development Center for Youth plans to launch with its partners – Intermedia from Blace and CIVITAS from Trstenik at the national and regional level on the topic of more active participation of young people in the life of local community.