Youth And The City – Direct Democracy on spot, Azerbaijan

Deadline: 1 March, 2013
Open to: applicants coming from any Council of Europe member state, Belarus or Kazakhstan, interested in the topics of this event, aged between 18 and 30
Venue: 28th – 5thMay, April 2013, Azerbaijan

Description

The Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe  is announcing a call for participants for the seminar Youth and the City – Direct Democracy on spot. This project will take place from the 28th April to 5th May 2013 Azerbaijan. It is so far financially supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and the Green Forum Sweden.

The seminar will explore the theory of direct democracy as a tool for ensuring the fair and sustainable development of our communities and society. The emphasis will be put on the local community as the arena in which everyday decision-making and citizenship activity takes place.

As well as studying theory, we will compare direct democracy practices around Europe, identifying commonalities, good practice and the stakeholders involved. Specifically, we will look at different urban communities based on direct democracy such as squats, recent social movements, communities who have reclaimed space for public use and collective activity outside traditional political institutions.

Subjects

• Promote direct democracy as tool for ensuring fair and sustainable development of societies, focusing on endorsing local community as arena for living out participation in decision making processes
• Stress importance of active engagement of youth and civil society in creation and shaping today and tomorrow environment and society
• Support participation and strengthen involvement of youth in improvement of urban environment in order to fight discrimination, inequality and ensure equal access to rights

Eligibility

• This call is open for applicants coming from any Council of Europe member state, Belarus or Kazakhstan.
• Applicants should be interested in the topics of this event, willing to take active part in the seminar and its follow-up, and able to be in Azerbaijan during the time period mentioned above.
• It is to the applicant’s advantage (but not a condition) to have a green organisational background and some experience with the topics of the event.
• Considering that this is a youth event, the participants must be aged between 18 and 30. The seminar preparation team will select the participants during their meeting in mid-March 2013.

Conditions

• The organizers will partly reimburse your travel expenses, likely to be 70 % of your travel costs, upon presentation of all original receipts (remember to scan/photocopy them before posting). There will likely be an overall limit for travel costs beyond which the estimated 70 % reimbursement will not  apply.
• Participation fee for the event will be around €30 per participant, depending on how much the organizers are able to fund-raise. The succesful applicants will be informed about this once the selection  procedure has been completed around mid March 2013.
• Accommodation, meals, educational materials and refreshments will be provided by organizers for the entire duration of the activity, free-of-charge.
• The working language of this event is English

How to apply

Application form is available here

DEADLINE for completing and submitting this application to office@cdnee.org is: Friday 1^st of March 2013, midnight CET.

For further details read the Official Call