Regional Youth Leadership Mobility Programme

Objectives

• RYLMP aims to strengthen regional youth cooperation and advocacy for youth-related issues in Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia. The programme seeks to support young people, students, and youth activists with opportunities to improve their competencies and pursue areas of their interest.
• The objectives are:
  • To enhance youth mobility and cultural understanding among young people from Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia;
  • To strengthen and promote young people as advocates by improving their skills and competencies for research, leadership, advocacy, creation, and monitoring of youth-related policies;
  • To support the regional networking of civil society organizations/implementing partners

Thematic Areas

• The call encourages participants to propose data-driven advocacy actions in the following priority thematic areas:
  • Regional cooperation and European Integration: Regional initiatives and EU integration (perceptions of young people on regional cooperation; challenges and opportunities of EU integration; benefit of Erasmus+ or youth mobility; youth strategies & comparisons with EU countries);
  • Education and employability (curricula and quality of education (VET)–the mismatch of the education and labor market; requalification policies; recognition of diplomas; recognition of non-formal education; employment policies analysis; the efficiency of Youth Guarantee Programme and similar Active Labour Market Policy; higher education and research opportunities for youth);
  • Migration and brain drain (reasons to leave; career development; which professions are leaving; push and pull factors; from brain drain to brain gain or circulation – examples and success stories. Policy on the movement of students/education; Regional initiatives as a place for brain gain; systemic shortcomings that underpin brain drain and generate opportunities to leave);
  • Youth Participation (social & political factors for non-participation; digital participation; laws on youth and implementation; participation in decision-making process; civic engagement; perceptions of youth on political participation; urban vs rural, monitoring youth participation at governing bodies at the universities, monitoring of the work of the local youth councils, etc.);
  • Youth action in the dual transition: digital and environment (digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, ethics, challenges, impact, digital competencies, environmental protection, climate change, awareness raising).

Financial Support

• RYLMP 2023/2024 will provide financial support to selected candidates in the form of a mobility grant covering travel, accommodation, and living costs (allowances) during the mobility in each country; travel and accommodation and per diems for opening and final conference and other costs related to the advocacy actions.

Benefits

• The selected participants (RYLMP Fellows) will be offered tailored capacity development activities through e-learning and mentoring programme to improve further their competencies and knowledge on how to develop evidence-informed/data-driven advocacy actions, actively participate in policy development, and relevant methods for participation at the local and regional levels.
• Implementing partners will facilitate effective collaboration among youth in Albania, Serbia, and North Macedonia. They will also have an opportunity to spend two-week research mobility in Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia, experience how their peers live there and gain intercultural experience.
• During this time, participants will work with designated mentors to support the teams through the process and with the selected topic. The programme will organize several joint events, such as opening and closing events and workshop, regional advocacy actions, and cultural activities for RYLMP Fellows during their mobility period.

Eligibility Criteria

• RYLMP 2023/2024 is open to 21 candidates, up to 7 from each country, who meet the eligibility criteria listed below and have their data-driven advocacy action proposal evaluated as satisfactory by a Selection Committee.
• Following candidates are eligible for participation:
  • Appropriate age (21-30 years old);
  • Citizenship (Albanian, North Macedonian or Serbian), with a residence within the territory of the country of citizenship;
  • Willingness to work on strengthening regional cooperation;
  • Background (one of the listed):
    • Youth activists;
    • Young professionals from the civil society sector;
    • Your researchers from the civil society sector;
    • University students of MA or Ph.D. level;
    • Recent graduates of BA studies;
    • English language proficiency.

For more information, visit SCiDEV.