INTERCONTINENTAL DEMOCRACY PROJECT COLLABORATION IN CYPRUS ''

The photo of presentation of the Founder of the Together As One during the project

The NGO Together AsOne For Community Development is presented by it's Founder Mr.Fofana O Kerfala in Cyprus as the core participant in the project of Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era (UNDEF) was a two-year project coordinated by Future Worlds Center (FWC) and funded by United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). The project represents the global expansion of a series of previous project under the general title Reinventing Democracy.

The key objective of this project is to increase youth participation in democratic governance by empowering young people from across the world to invent and propose new, innovative and concrete actions. More than 1000 young people will contribute with ideas face-to-face and virtually during five Co-Laboratories engaging ICT and structured democratic dialogue methodology. The process is designed to mobilize young people and to increase interaction among youth globally with the aim to advocate for and enable meaningful youth participation in democratic processes.

Overall development goal of the project

Empowerment and active participation of young people at all levels of governance around the world.

TogetherAsOne's Founder Mr.Kerfala during the event

Project objective

Communication and collaboration among youth across the world is strengthened using structured dialogue, new innovative ICT-based solutions and tools to find common ground for increased participation.

Dr. Yannis in action. the project facilitator

The Vision of the Project

Our world is currently facing major challenges, ranging from increasing inequality, which leaves large parts of society without access to basic needs; high-tech-driven wars and security threats; a food system in crisis with the carrying capacity of our planet reaching its tipping point. The Millennium Development Goals have reached their end date, and a new global framework is currently being negotiated among world leaders.

The key question, however, is how democratic and participatory are these processes when youth are practically excluded from most decision making?

Young people between 15 and 28 years old represent a fifth of the world’s population, yet they remain largely absent from or underrepresented in political decision-making processes. Today’s young people are the owners of the future and will be the leaders of tomorrow.

It is therefore imperative that the develop a feeling of ownership through meaningful participation in democratic processes. Achieving meaningful participation of young people in democratic governance and decision-making processes is hence the key challenge addressed by this project.