The Caucasus Institute in partnership with the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law implemented a project on ‘Promoting Future-Oriented Youth Dialogues’ in Armenia, in the framework of the GFFO-funded programme ‘Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia.’
The aim of the project was to promote mutual understanding of the realities, problems, and visions of young people from different regions of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh in a non-politicized space. Between June and November 2024, the Caucasus Institute, in collaboration with the Max Planck Foundation, organized a total of four workshops in Armenia. One workshop each took place in the border regions of Syunik and Shirak, as well as two workshops in the capital, Yerevan, one of which was intended for young people from Nagorno Karabakh. The workshop engaged youth from various communities including students, young professionals as well as civil society activists.
At the workshops, the participants explored visions and future prospects for their provinces and Armenia, focusing on key areas such as security, foreign policy, migration, economic development, and education. They mapped out obstacles and challenges that, in their opinion, impede progress in each area, and then identified the stakeholders who could be involved in promoting the desired outcomes in the future. The participants suggested points of action that the identified stakeholders should take in order to address the current challenges and create opportunities for progress and change. During the final sessions of the workshops, after filling their ideas into matrices, each group shared their visions and actionable recommendations with experts, receiving valuable feedback to refine their approaches further.
A final conference in Yerevan brought together selected participants from the capital and the regions, providing them with a platform to discuss their visions of Armenia. The conference allowed for a cross-regional exchange to foster mutual understanding among young people who faced different challenges and had different visions of the future. The final conference also featured representatives of the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Finance, as well as academia and expert community. The event enabled a debate among the youth, policy-makers and experts over the burning issues in domestic and foreign policies of Armenia.
Final conference in Yerevan
Workshop in Yerevan (for youth of Nagorno Karabakh)
Workshop in Yerevan
Workshop in Shirak
