Highlighting IRI’s New Western Balkans Regional Program and its Regional Youth Partnership

  • Isabelle Craner

The problems faced across the Western Balkans are wide ranging and touch many sectors: rule of law and socio-economic conditions; the future of work, brain drain, and migration; energy and environment; stability and peace; health and wellness. Therefore, solutions can only be found through a similarly broad approach.

This initiative will build a network of leaders across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia through a series of activities, including formal training, hands-on local activism, and cultural immersion. It will bring together leaders in entrepreneurship, media, arts and culture, sports, politics, academics and policy research to grapple with challenges and build relationships with peers building trust, learning, and working together over the next 15 months.

Those young leaders – well-versed in politics, business, and culture – are already active in their communities and want to make them better places to live. This program seeks to bring those dynamic individuals together from around the region to help improve not only their communities but also their countries and the wider region for all people.

Ultimately, participants will discover a new perspective on the future of the region, build a wide network of friends to lean on during their careers, and develop the practical skills needed to make positive change in their communities and countries.

Individuals located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia who are interested in this opportunity can apply below by November 6, 2022.

The project has been supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with International Republican Institute (IRI), Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS), Faculty of Political Sciences University of Sarajevo (FPN UNSA), PRONI Center for Youth Development and Peer Education Network (PEN).

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