The second annual Regional Youth Forum for Local Democracy was held from the 16th to the 18th of November in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. With approximately 80 participants and 18 panelists from several European countries, the three-day event reached its objective to encourage democratic engagement of young people and raise awareness for enhancing the culture of regional dialogue through different activities for youngsters and youth workers.
The forum was opened with a conference on the 16th of November. The participants were welcomed by the speeches of the Mayor of Mostar, Mr. Ljubo Beslic; Mr. Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, head of the EU delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ms. Dzenana Dedic from LDA Mostar and Mrs. Stanka Parac Damjanovic, South East Europe coordinator for ALDA - The European Association for Local Democracy.
The conference included three thematic panels: Regional co-operation in the Western Balkans: present challenges and future perspectives; Role of Civil society in fostering youth mobility in the Western Balkans and Youth policies for enhancing regional mobility and EU integration perspectives.
During the second day, Youth Engagement Workers from five different Western Balkan countries attended a cultural visit and an interactive workshop. During the cultural visit, the participants were introduced with the cultural heritage of Mostar and its surroundings. The aim of the workshop was to offer youngsters cross-cultural perception of remembrance seeing monuments from several different points of view.
On the third day of the forum, youngsters had the chance to visit the National Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and discuss issues relevant to them with Members of Parliament. Maja Gasal-Vrazalica and Senad Sepic, Members of Parliament openly discussed about the current situation of youth in the country with the visitors.
The Regional Youth Forum for Local Democracy was organized as part of the Balkan Regional Platform for Youth Participation and Dialogue, which is funded by the European Union and it was supported by the Programme for decentralised cooperation France-Balkans and the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Find more photos of the forum on our Flickr account here.