Pathway to Civic Participation (PCP)
- a long-term ERASMUS+ capacity building strategic partnership in the field of youth -
- 01 January 2024 to 31 December 2025 -
GENESIS OF THE PROJECT:
In North Africa, youth face substantial barriers to civic participation, largely due to economic, social and educational challenges. Approximately 70% of the region's population lives on less than US$2 per day, with about 55% in absolute poverty, lacking basic survival necessities. Youth unemployment rates further exacerbate this issue, with an average rate of 13% in 2022, which doubles among young people in certain areas, significantly worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, our needs analysis involving 135 young individuals from Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya reveals a lack of civic and transversal skills and motivation necessary for democratic engagement. Fewer than 20% of respondents prioritize democracy and civic society, citing time constraints, insufficient skills, and complex understanding of the issues as major barriers, with over half perceiving little benefit from their participation in civic life. Hence, this project aims to address these challenges by enhancing social opportunities, providing civic education, and fostering a deeper understanding of democratic processes to empower youth for active engagement in policymaking. In this regard, this project is in response to the needs for:
1. more civic and social participation from youth in daily life in all matters.
2. more innovative civic education approaches to build the competences for civic participation of educators, organisations, and youth and young people, especially those who even lack the basic skills for participation in social life.
3. increased individual intrinsic motivation of young people to commit to political and civic participation and be part of the change to increase their personal and professional progress.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:
The CivicPathway project, an ERASMUS+ capacity building project in the field of youth funded by the European Union, aims to bridge the gap between the European Union's development policies and the actual needs of young people in the Arab Mediterranean region. The goal is to create a comprehensive civic and political empowerment program that is truly responsive to the needs of the local youth and drives positive change in areas such as democracy, climate change, justice, human rights, and more. The CivicPathway is a result of a long study that started in 2020 to research the impact of the rapid change in international issues and globalisation and the pandemic on youth in North Africa. It aims to accelerate civic participation and citizenship education and apply innovative approaches and tools to close the participation gaps and help communities to cope with rapid global changes that affect the local community.
FIRST SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Promoting and mainstreaming self-analysis processes in local communities through the learners-centred participatory RECIPROCAL MAIEUTIC APPROACH to improve young people’s commitment to civic participation, raise their awareness about their role and potential in influencing policymaking, and increase their transversal political civic skills.
SECOND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Capacitating youth educators, trainers and youth organisations with transversal competences, while exploring and adopting the LifeComp in order to map gaps in transversal skills, promote and design educational activities, and organise learning programs.
THIRD SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Piloting and internalising the project SDDP training toolkit with young people during training activities and implementation of SDDP empowerment programs, while simultaneously fostering the civic and transversal skills development of young people.
FOURTH SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: Building a sustainable youth empowerment pathway and mainstreaming the project approach and results through systematic activities involving youth actors and institutions to showcase a good practice to be followed by others on multiple levels.
CORE ACTIVITIES:
1. Training of Trainers:
- A. Reciprocal Maieutic Approach (RMA): Training youth workers to use RMA, a participatory and learner-centered method, which equips them to conduct self-analysis workshops effectively.
- B. Structured Democratic Dialogue Process (SDDP): Training additional youth workers to become experts in SDDP, enabling them to facilitate structured dialogues and seminars aimed at building civic and democratic capacities among youth.
2. Self-analysis Workshops for Young People:
- Conducted by the trained youth workers using the RMA guide, these workshops involve over 160 youngsters, helping them to analyze their own civic skills and understanding, thereby fostering a self-driven approach to personal and civic development.
3. Online SDDP Forum:
- An interactive platform established to support structured civic dialogues, engaging more than 300 users. This digital forum allows for ongoing discussion and engagement in civic issues, expanding the reach and impact of the SDDP training.
4. Local Civic Empowerment Program:
- Over a series of eight weeks, youth multipliers use the RMA guide and SDDP toolkit to run local programs aimed at empowering 150 youngsters. These programs focus on practical civic engagement and the application of democratic principles learned through the earlier trainings.
5. Youth Policymaking Conference:
- A model simulation conference where trained youth engage in policymaking exercises, applying their skills in real-world scenarios to foster understanding and involvement in governmental and civic processes.
6. Final Summit, the “Youth Civic Pathway”:
- This summit serves as the culmination of the project’s activities, where outcomes are showcased and strategies for future civic engagement are discussed. It represents a pivotal moment for participants to reflect on their journey and plan for sustained civic participation.
THE TARGET GROUPs:
The proejct supports:
A. young people in the age of 16 to 28 who lack civic and transversal competences for meaningful participation and need to improve their skills to enhance their social role as agents of change.
B. youth educators who work with and can reach young people with fewer opportunities to educate them.
Consequently, after considering the identified needs, we formulated four specific objectives and designed respective actions and activities, in line with the objectives of the call to raise the capacity of organisations working with young people in non-formal settings and to promote non-formal learning activities, especially targeting young people with fewer opportunities to improve the level of transversal civic & social competences. We apply a participatory inclusive bottom-up approach and empowerment pathway to develop versatile transversal competences in a systematic and sustainable way to benefit 900+ learners and 50+ youth educators and actors.
