The training “Enhancing capacities of youth wings of political parties 2023” is organised for the second year in a row aiming to strengthen the capacities of youth wings of political parties in their unified goal in enhancing the policy-making and the situation of youth in North Macedonia.
The participants of the training were 20 representatives from the youth wings of six political parties - Alliance for Albanians, Alternativa, Democratic Union for Integration, Liberal Democratic Party, Social Democratic Union of Macedonia and VMRO-DPMNE, political parties which have MPs in the Club of Youth Affairs and Policies of the Assembly.
The welcoming speeches were delivered by Sherife Ismaili, Program Officer of the Local Branch Office of Regional Youth Cooperation Office; Valon Sadiki, Program Coordinator of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Davor Pasoski, Program Manager of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, who gave short overview of the functioning of their offices and their engagement in encouraging active cooperation and involvement of youth in decision-making processes with the aim of enhancement of the youth agenda in the country. Furthermore, bringing together the youth from six political parties is an added value to this event, as it is crucial to provide mutual opportunities for youth wings in building their capacities, and interact unified in enhancing their mutual goal.
The first part of the training was delivered by external expert on youth policies, Ivona Krstevska on sessions focusing on priorities and recommendations of the youth of political parties for improving the implementation of the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies and on their commitments for improving the situation of the youth.
The second part of the training was dedicated to the role of media and politicians in creating an informed electorate, the domino effect and the destruction of the market for quality information, which was delivered by the experts of the Investigative Reporting Lab – IRL.
Furthermore, the last day of the training was dedicated to a panel discussion with the presidents and other representatives from the highest leadership of the political parties’ youth, where the participants had the opportunity to discuss the enhancement of the policies for youth participation and mutual cooperation.
A key takeaway of the training was the development of the Joint Declaration of the youth wings of the political parties as a mechanism for increased youth participation and cooperation. When finalized, the Joint Declaration will be signed by the Presidents of the youth of political parties involved in its development, which provides a commitment of the youth wings of political parties to strongly support the process of enhancing the youth agenda in North Macedonia.
