Digital participation is often reduced to access and technical skills. Yet the real democratic question is different: who shapes the rules of digital space, and are young people meaningfully part of that conversation?
Over the past two years, an international partnership of organizations from the Western Balkans and the EU, coordinated by SCiDEV, implemented the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the Field of Youth project “Youth Participation in Digital Democracy: From Digital Skills to Digital Rights of Youth with Fewer Opportunities” (EYDR). Together with partners from Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Spain, EYDR worked to move youth engagement beyond digital literacy towards structured participation in digital democracy and rights-based governance.
EYDR began from a shared recognition: young people are among the most active digital users, yet their participation rarely translates into influence over digital policy, platform governance, cybersecurity debates, or AI regulation. In many Western Balkan contexts, digital transformation has advanced faster than democratic safeguards and inclusive participation mechanisms.
To address this gap, the project combined research, capacity building, cross-border exchange, youth-led production, and policy dialogue.
Two national Mapping Reports in Albania and Montenegro provided evidence-based assessments of how young people participate in digital democracy, where systemic barriers exist, and which policy opportunities remain underused. These reports informed not only research outputs, but also the design of the Youth Digital Democracy Accelerator Programme and structured discussions with public institutions, civil society, and media actors.
At the centre of the project stood the Youth Digital Democracy Accelerator Programme — a structured, mentored pathway supporting young people to translate lived digital realities into democratic participation and policy-relevant advocacy. The programme strengthened three interconnected capacities:
Within this framework, youth workers and young participants engaged in a structured process of learning, mentoring, and applied policy work. The programme resulted in youth-led awareness campaigns, including podcasts and op-eds co-produced with young participants, and policy briefs addressing safe digital spaces, online participation, artificial intelligence, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Reflecting on the mentoring process, Milica Mutavdžić from the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights highlighted the strong motivation and creativity of the Montenegrin youth team throughout the development of their digital democracy campaign.
Two international mobilities in Belgrade and Oviedo strengthened the European dimension of the project, enabling comparative reflection between Western Balkan accession countries and an EU Member State. This transnational cooperation allowed participants to situate local digital challenges within broader European debates on democracy, rights, and governance.
For the youth involved, the impact was tangible.
Ajla Mansi reflects:
“Through EYDR, I worked on writing a policy paper, which gave me a practical look into research, teamwork, and how ideas turn into real policy discussions. It was a really interesting approach that helped me gain a broader view on things.”
Uestli Guci describes the experience as transformative:
“Being part of the EYDR Oviedo mobility was a turning point for me in terms of professional development. Working together as equals from the Balkans on AI in fact-checking not only taught me advanced research techniques, but also introduced me to young changemakers dedicated to digital rights. Collaborating with Ajla Mansi exemplified the intersection where technical expertise meets policy impact.”
Xhorxhia Behaj highlights the intersection of technology and rights:
“EYDR helped me better understand the challenges of cybersecurity in Albania and the factors behind cyberbullying. Participating in the mobility in Belgrade showed me the importance of digital tools and activism for society. I finalized my EYDR journey with a policy paper on tech-facilitated gender-based violence, connecting technology with human rights.”
These reflections illustrate a core outcome of the project: not only increased knowledge, but strengthened agency and policy confidence among youth participants.
Beyond individual development, EYDR strengthened cooperation among partner organizations across Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Spain. Peer-to-peer mentoring, joint methodology development and coordinated implementation established a durable foundation for continued collaboration.
Structured engagement with institutions such as the State Minister for Youth and Children in Albania, the National Youth Agency, and the National Authority for Cyber Security contributed to more informed and youth-inclusive dialogue on digital rights and democratic participation.
Across these strands, EYDR reinforced youth and organizational capacity and supported a more evidence-informed, rights-based framing in national conversations on digital democracy — linking youth experience, research findings, and policy dialogue in ways that can be carried forward beyond the project cycle.
For consortium partners, EYDR sits at the intersection of ongoing work on digitalization and democracy: democratic oversight of digital transformation, protection of digital rights, accountable technology governance, resilience to digital harms, and inclusive participation in policy processes shaping public life.
EYDR strengthened this agenda by generating research-based insights and youth-informed perspectives, and by broadening the constituency engaged in digital rights dialogue, bringing young people, particularly those with fewer opportunities, into spaces often dominated by institutional or technical actors.
Digital democracy is not built through visibility alone, but through rights, accountability and inclusion, and through the ability of communities to engage institutions with credible arguments, evidence and lived experience. Over two years, EYDR demonstrated what becomes possible when research, participatory capacity-building and cross-border cooperation are combined: youth participation can move from engagement to influence, from content creation to policy contribution, and from isolated initiatives to sustained democratic practice. The project reinforces a guiding principle: digital transformation must be accompanied by democratic safeguards and rights-based governance. Young people already shape the digital public sphere daily; enabling them to shape the rules that govern it is both a democratic necessity and an investment in resilient institutions.
The EYDR Project Summary Report is available here.
Disclaimer
EYDR was funded by the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the Field of Youth programme of the European Union and implemented from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2025, coordinated by SCiDEV in partnership with UZOR, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Asociación Youropia, Centre for Comparative and International Studies, Erasmus Student Network Tirana, National Youth Agency (Albania), and SHARE Foundation.
