On August 23, 2024, The Center Science and Innovation for Development (SCiDEV), Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), and SHARE Foundation co-hosted the second workshop, “Peer to peer learning and research design” of the project “Youth Participation in Digital Democracy: From Digital Skills to Digital Rights of Youth with Fewer Opportunities in the Western Balkans” (EYDR), with the active participation of project partners Erasmus Student Network Tirana (ESN), Center for Comparative and International Studies (CCIS), and National Youth Agency (NYA). This workshop guided Albanian colleagues in analysing data from survey, focus groups, interviews, and case studies. Participants, including researchers and experts from all involved partners, engaged in discussions about essential aspects of data collection. The first workshop was organized in May and a third workshop is planned for September.
The workshop began with an introduction and overview of the working group’s tasks, detailing the progress achieved over the past few months. Albania has conducted six in-depth interviews in total: three interviews with digital rights experts and three interviews with youth leaders; two focus groups with youth and youth from vulnerable groups aged 18–30. The two focus groups comprised a total of 15 participants, of which 6 were from vulnerable groups, like rural areas, religious communities, the Roma community, and youth with hearing and speaking disabilities. Albania also conducted a survey during the months June-August and managed to collect 213 responses. To encourage the participation, SCiDEV even included a raffle where respondents who completed the survey have the chance to win prizes such as Erasmus programs, headphones, music box, power bank, USB, foldable keyboard, thermos, hoodie or t-shirt etc. Albania has also conducted case studies involving cases from Albania, the Western Balkans, and Europe.
During these months, The Association for Responsible and Sustainable Development (UZOR) has also conducted an online survey for Montenegro youths and has managed to collect 247 responses so far, and during the month of September they will conduct the interviews with experts, focus groups, and case studies.
At the end of the analysis of the data from the survey, interviews, focus groups, and case studies, Albania will publish a report titled “Mapping youth participation in digital democracy: digital skills, literacies, and rights” in English and the brief in Albanian. The report and the gifts from the survey will be presented at a public event that will take place in Tirana. Similarly, and Montenegro will publish a report in English and the brief in Montenegrin.
BCHR and SHARE recommended paying special attention to the demographic details of survey respondents, especially gender distribution. They highlighted that it is crucial to clearly explain the applicability and relevance of the cases for the Albanian or regional context. For the presentation of findings, BCHR and SHARE recommend following the thematic structure of the survey. They suggest including all graphs in an appendix at the end of the report. These findings should be interpreted using data from interviews and focus groups, incorporating both interpretative analysis and direct quotes.
Stay tuned for further updates on the progress and the impact of this project.
For more information, please visit www.scidevcenter.org and EYDR or contact us at [email protected].
