On 24th October, SCiDEV and UZOR hosted a blended event to disseminate the findings of Mapping of Youth Participation in Digital Democracy in Albania and in Montenegro, with the participation of representatives from public institutions, youth and civil society organizations.
The event was moderated by Ms. Nevila Xhindi (CCIS) and was greeted Ms. Bora Muzhaqi, State Minister for Youth and Children in Albania. In her opening remarks, Miss Muzhaqi thanked SCiDEV, as the lead of the EYDR cohort for including the National Youth Agency in Albania for the first time in an ERASMUS+ Youth Capacity building project. Furthermore, she recognized as an added value of EYDR its innovative interconnection between digital skills and digital democracy, as an emerging yet unexplored field of youth participation.
The event proceeded with two consecutive presentations of the Mapping from Albania and Montenegro, where Lutjona Lula (ESN ALBANIA), Jesmina Sengla (SCiDEV) and Maja Nikolic (UZOR) presented the key findings. Lack of engagement, superficial social media interaction (slacktivism) and a mismatch between youth self-assessment and their actual skills especially those related to cyber security were identified in both countries taken into analyze, suggesting that Albania and Montenegro share similar challenges in meaningful youth engagement onsite and online.
The presentations were followed up by a reflective session led by Orkidea Xhaferaj, Digital and Innovation Policy Expert from SCiDEV, which led a discussion with the participants about their thoughts on the study and the current state of youth awareness, digital rights and legal framework.
Throughout the discussion the participants stressed that while youth is aware about cyber security risks and the importance of digital rights, they lack proper skills to address their concerns, thus resulting to limited meaningful digital participation. Regarding legal framework, the participants believed that in the Albanian Context the most pressing issue is not updated legislation, but improved implementation of the current and investing in building a good general understanding of youth about digital rights, privacy and cyber security principles through current educational programs, thus leaning from a solely technical curriculum to a more holistic and inclusive curriculum on digital skills.
The EYDR cohort expresses its gratitude towards CRCA Albania, National Agency of ICT in Albania, National Cyber Security Authority, all the other CSO representatives and youth participants for their collaboration and valuable inputs.
The findings of the Mapping reports and the feedback provided by stakeholders present in the event will be reflected in the Youth Digital Democracy Accelerator Programme which will be co-designed by the project partners throughout November 2024.
