30 June 2019 – On 29 and 30 June 2019, Balkans Group organised the first edition of the training programme “Youth in Politics”. This component is part of a large project “Advancing Kosovo’s institutions, democratisation, and regional cooperation”. It seeks to offer young individuals and members of the political parties throughout Kosovo a chance to develop a practical toolkit to help them overcome some of the most critical hurdles to their progressing career.
We have organised series of focus groups and workshops and developed a modern curricula for the training programme with youth representatives of political parties and experts.
The first cohort of 25 participants comes from LDK, PDK, AAK, LVV, PSD, NISMA and AKR and from eleven municipalities throughout Kosovo; equally represented by gender.
The first course including training on: Political parties and ideologies, Regional cooperation and Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Economic Development and Social Policies, and Gender and Social Inclusion. Each training module was also built around a specific skill on which participants were trained, such as debating skills, strategic communication, drafting memo, and critical and conceptual thinking. The modules were delivered by renowned professors at RIT Kosovo, including Dr. Shqipe Mjekiqi, Garentina Kraja, Mentor Nimani, and Dr. Linda Ziberi.
To provide additional practical examples for each module, we invited two guest speakers to share their insights on the respective topics, namely Fisnik Rexhepi- an expert on the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue process and Rozafa Ukimeraj- General Secretary at the Ministry for Local Governance. The presentations made by them sparked an interesting discussion among the youth participants, as they were eager to learn more about several decision-making processes within Kosovo institutions, that both speakers were experienced in.
The next session will be held in the fall. The training will offer four additional modules consisting of issues and skills, such as Good Governance and Rule of Law, Educational Policies, Health and Social Policies, and EU Integration. Besides that, the participants will be taken to a local study visit to key institutions in Kosovo, to see in real-life how the policies they have been learning about throughout the training are being implemented.
This project is funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Pristina, and is implemented in cooperation with AUK- Training and Development Institute.
