Quick Overview

Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era is a project funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and implemented by Future Worlds Center with the support of five Regional Coordinators, one in each of the five Regions, and many [[Partners and Liaisons, who are supporting local, national, regional and/or global activities.

The project team invites everyone on the globe, individual, initiative or organization
who is interested in the vision, to approach the team and explore way to collaborate.

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Key objective

The key objective 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 aiming at reinventing democracy taking advantage of what the digital era has to offer to include and engage especially the youth in decision making and governance.

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.

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Problem Analysis

Young people between 15 and 25 years old represent a fifth of the world’s population, yet they remain largely absent from or under-represented in political decision-making processes. Today’s young people are the owners of the future and will eventually become the leaders of tomorrow. It is therefore imperative they develop a sense of ownership through meaningful participation in democratic processes.
Despite low youth participation in political processes and elected institutions, young people participate in democratic life through other means, such as political movements, youth organizations, and ad-hoc community initiatives mostly on informal arenas. Their meaningful participation in these processes depends on the political, socio-economic and cultural context and requires both young people and youth organizations to have the opportunities and capacities for youth participation, as well as operate within an enabling environment for civil society and especially young people.
While youths across the world are facing similar problems to access the political decision-making arena there are limited opportunities for them to share those experiences and to explore and propose solutions in a structured way and through personal meetings. To become a stronger voice there is a need for youth around the world to unite.

Global Scope

The initiative has a global scope

The UNDEF contract foresees the involvement of more than 1000 young change makers from across the world in a global exercise to re-invent and re-design systems of governance for the digital era.
In addition to the five Structured Democratic Dialogues, the project team invites other global, regional, or national initiatives to join with their own funding and/or with funding secured jointly in order to expand the scope to more regions and more people.

The Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era project Eco-system

	Funding Organization The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) is funding the initiative. Parallel and spin off initiatives are and /or maybe funded through other programs.
	Implementing Organization Future Worlds Center is a Cyprus NGO operating globally. Its vision. Future Worlds Center is a world pioneer in the implementation of Structured Democratic Dialogues as well as the development of the Science of Dialogic Design and relevant Wisdom Tools.
	Regions The core project is being implemented in five regions. The initiative in each region is called: European Initiative Australasia Initiative African Initiative Middle Eastern Initiative American Initiative An initiative, which intends to engage indigenous people from across the world is being developed under the name Indigenous Peoples Initiative
	Core Participants and Shadow Participants There are 20-25 Core Participants per Region and >1000 Shadow Participants globally
	Three different types of Mentors Peer Empowerment and Support Mentors Mentors in Digital Communication Strategy and Policy Mentors in the Science of Dialogic Design More about the Mentorship Program.
	Regional Coordinators
	Country Liaisons
	Project Supporters Many individuals, authorities and orgnaizations are supporting the project in many ways: Placing the project logo in their website Disseminating the call for participants Disseminating the newsletters Disseminating the Project Deliverables Organizing local events associated with the vision of the project Organizing local Structured Democratic Dialogues
	Endorsements Many individuals, authorities and orgnaizations are endorsing the project by placing it under their auspices