FRUŠKA GORA – The Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) has successfully concluded the Regional Strategy Forum aimed at gathering inputs from the region for its new three-year strategic plan. The three-day event was held in Fruška Gora, Serbia, 8-10 November, and gathered more than 70 representatives of civil society, governments, international and regional organizations, and youth. The final RYCO Strategic Plan 2022-2024 is planned to be adopted by the end of the year.
“With the new strategic plan, we want to continue with the good practices of bringing the young people of the region closer together and fulfilling their dream of a better region. Moreover, we want to build upon our work and become a friend-making organization as the region needs friendship and cooperation more than ever,” RYCO Secretary General Mr Albert Hani pointed out.
During the forum, RYCO has presented the results of the local consultations which gathered over 370 people in the previous months as well as its recently published Shared Futures study which it aims to use as the evidence-based tool for the strategy development. On the other side, the participants discussed RYCO vision and values, youth exchanges and intercultural learning, peacebuilding education, peace outreach, peace supportive environment, support and building capacities of peacebuilding multipliers, and cross-cutting issues such as gender, inclusion, participation, etc. Furthermore, they also discussed partnership building and outreach and visibility of RYCO.
RYCO uses this opportunity to thank all dedicated participants for their invaluable inputs and support. Once again, together, we showed that the Western Balkans has a bright future only if we join our forces and work towards a common goal – a prosperous Western Balkans, a region closer to the European Union where young people want to stay and build their future. The Regional Strategy Forum is an example of such a region.