The Young Women and Democracy Programme, funded by a grant from the European Union (PHARE/TACIS), seeks to promote the political involvement of young women in Central and Eastern European Countries and Newly Independent States.
The aim of the programme is to increase women's visibility and influence and to encourage them to take the lead in action. We want to build within the youth environment and development movement in Europe, a network of well-informed, confident, competent women activists. To that end, seminars will provide information and skills trainings. Participants in the programme will have an opportunity to share tactics and strategies, strengthening our network.
The programme will be organised around a series of regional seminars, email trainings, local action days, pilot speakers' tours, a newsletter and a book containing articles written by participants in the YWD programme. The main theme is democracy, understood in a broad sense, and subtopics include varied issues from gender in work or in the economy or in media to impact of pollution on health. The programme already formally involves participation from partner organisations in the Baltic States, Central Europe, Balkan Region, Newly Independent States and northern and southern European Union countries.