OSCE Mission to Montenegro supports training course for potential applicants to Regional Youth Co-operation Office Open Call

In preparation for the fourth Regional Youth Co-operation Office (RYCO) Call for Proposals, the RYCO Local Branch Office and the OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized a training course for potential applicants from 18 to 20 September 2020 in Podgorica.

The training course gathered 18 NGOs to develop their capacities in project writing that connect young people with one another, within the region, in response to the RYCO Open Call. The training course also provided an opportunity to discuss how to safely design an interactive project during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opening the event, Lia Magnaguagno, OSCE Mission’s Democratization Programme Manager, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of all. “It has altered how we connect and has changed youth activism, co-operation and, in particular, mobility programmes,” said Magnaguagno. However, she said these challenges have provided a new impetus to the role that RYCO must play to support young people to come together in a safe environment. “Young people are not sitting still. They are actively exploring innovative ways to continue to be connected and have their voices heard,” said Magnaguagno.

Edin Koljenović, Head of the RYCO Local Branch Office in Montenegro, said that projects that foster reconciliation and regional youth co-operation during and post COVID-19 crisis are the focus of the fourth RYCO Open Call. “I am glad that there is a great interest of the civil society organizations in the RYCO Capacity Building Training that is happening in the times of Covid-19 pandemic,” said Koljenović.

Andrea Mićanović, representative of the youth of Montenegro in the RYCO Steering Board, said that the current crisis has long been more than just a health crisis. “Negative consequences are also felt in education, economy, mental health, family and other interpersonal relationships. Young people are often seen as the future of a society, but we are the present. What we do today shapes the world we will live in tomorrow. That is why our region relies on us and I hope we will not let it down,” said Mićanović.

RYCO, founded in 2016 at the Western Balkans Sixth Summit in Paris, is an independent institutional mechanism to promote the spirit of reconciliation and co-operation among youth in the region through exchange programmes.