On 26 November 2020, the Congress held a webinar “Youth engagement in political life at local level in Ukraine”, to share experiences and results of youth-related projects in Ukraine and across Europe. It brought together 90 participants, including representatives of 19 Ukrainian municipalities working on youth engagement in their local communities, students from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, young activists and subject-matter experts on local democracy and human rights.
“Young people are citizens of the towns and regions in which they live, and if a culture of youth participation is to be developed, it is at these levels that it can take root and grow”, underlined Congress Director Rafael Benítez quoting from the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life. He pointed out the particular role that local and regional authorities play in the process of youth engagement. Mayor of Fastiv Mykhaylo Netyazhuk emphasised the role of youth in building a future Ukraine. “Young people in Ukraine are more than active members of society – they are taking full responsibility for the future of our country”, he stressed,
The participants presented examples of fostering youth engagement locally. Tetiana Avksentyuk, from the Fastiv City Council, highlighted the work of her municipality, which included a youth council created to bring young people together and allow them to develop and implement projects relevant to their specific needs, a youth forum, educational programmes around environmental responsibility and sustainable packaging, a walk for freedom and various trainings to raise young people’s awareness and give them the opportunity to learn about project management, fundraising and teamwork, and to collaborate with local authorities.
In Balta, which has been implementing – with the Congress support – the local initiative “Strengthening local democracy with youth participation”, the youth council has become in 2020 a genuine driver of progress for the city. In Austria, the “Workshop Young Vienna” initiative, which had involved 22,000 young residents over the past two years, was presented as a good strategy for engaging not only young citizens active in youth organisations, but also those who are harder to reach. This initiative showed a particular importance of making sure that the voice of young citizens is heard in all policymaking processes, since their needs are cross-sectorial.
Convinced that youth engagement requires a concerted approach not only at local and regional level, but also at national level, the participants proposed to create a nationwide network or partnership of municipalities which could combine efforts and experience on youth-related policymaking and develop innovative approaches to youth engagement.
The webinar is part of the continued efforts of the Congress in fostering youth participation in local decision-making in Eastern Ukraine, including a training of trainers on local democracy and human rights in April 2019, a training for youth in January 2020 for students from vocational schools in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and continuous coaching support to training participants. It will be followed by a full-day webinar on 10 December 2020 specifically devoted to youth and practical tools to develop effective co-operation with local authorities.
The webinar was organised as part of the project "Strengthening democracy and building trust at local level in Ukraine” implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018‑2021. The project aims to improve the quality of local democracy in Ukraine by strengthening institutional frameworks and by supporting local authorities and their national associations in their efforts to promote ethical decision-making and more citizen-oriented, inclusive and transparent local governance.
