Forum: Strengthening youth’s participatory democracy, Shkodër

On 20 July 2012, EMA in cooperation with National Endowment Fund (NED) and the European Info Centre in Shkodra organised a TV forum entitled “Strengthening youth’s participatory democracy”. This activity is a continuation of a series of activities aimed at increasing youth engagement in local decision-making as a form of participatory democracy. Moderated by Miss Emi Kalaja, Journalist of Rozafa TV, the forum brought together university and high-school students and NGO representatives, from Young Intellectuals’ Hope and Youth Parliament (Parlamenti Rinor).

The event was opened by the welcoming speech of EMA’s Executive Director, Mr. Gledis Gjipali, who presented a briefing of EMA’s work and its contribution in the matter. In addition, Miss Blerta Hoxha, Researcher at EMA, held a small presentation on the process and the role of decision making in local government.

Further on, the debate took place, where students and Mr. Blendi Dibra, Shkodra’s Coordinator of Parlamenti Rinor, engaged in a constructive discussion on participatory democracy. Many students presented their experiences and strived to analyse and elaborate different channels that young people can pursue in order to become part of the decision making process in local and central government. Worth noticing was the fact that beside the general disappointment that had taken over the discussion, there were several positive experiences that helped enhancing the optimism among participants, as well as among the audience — mainly deriving from students that were part of the internship programme fulfilled in the Municipality of Shkodra.