Networking Opportunities for Youth in the Balkans

On March 28, 2017, an intergovernmental youth initiative called the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) opened several new offices throughout the Balkans. The Secretariat of RYCO will be promoting “the spirit of reconciliation and cooperation” by providing youth throughout the Balkans with opportunities to participate in workshops, seminars, and exchange programs designed to foster regional cooperation. For the next two months, the Secretariat of RYCO will focus on the capacity-building of staff with intercultural training, and start accepting applications for RYCO-projects from April 17-May 15, 2017.

Last year, the governments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia officially established RYCO to foster youth intercultural dialogue through exchange programs. The civil society organization Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) is a partner organization of RYCO, and supported the program’s launch. Learn more about RYCO by watching this video about the youth activists who support the program.

The president of YIHR Serbia, Anita Mitic, is a former World Movement for Democracy Hurford Youth Fellow.