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 ways to collaborate.

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Key objective

The key objective is to increase youth participation and collaboration in decision making processes with regards to democratic governance by empowering young people from across the world to invent and propose new, innovative and concrete actions aiming at reinventing democracy by taking advantage of what the digital era has to offer.

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
	Regional Coordinators The project is being implemeneted with the assistance of the following: Talents Coaching & Consulting Kenya Ltd. in Kenya for the African Initiative Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, Japan for the Australasian Initiative National University of Patagonia in Argentina for the American Initiative
	Core Participants Core Participants are the key actors of the project. There are 20-25 Core Participants per Region, i.e. total >100 Join as Core Participant
	Shadow Participants Each Core Participant must identify 10 individuals who meet similar criteria to participate as Shadow Participants, i.e. >1000
	Mentors The project foresees a Mentorship Program with three different types of Mentors: Peer Empowerment and Support Mentors: Will empower Core Participants to dare do more Mentors in Digital Communication Strategy and Policy: Will help each Core Participant use the media to promote her/his messages Mentors in the Science of Dialogic Design: Will help each Core Participant learn and apply the Science of Dialogic Design
	Structure of the Mentorship Program Three Mentors are assigned to each Core Participant
	The Network between one Mentor and her/his Core Participants
	The extended Mentors' Network Mentors have the benefit that they have access to >100 participants from across the world
	Liaisons This role is for Civil Society or other regional or national organizations interested to liaison and/or organize any related activities such as: Organizing local events associated with the vision of the project Organizing local and/or theme specific Structured Democratic Dialogues
	Activists This role is especially for young or young-in-spirit activists interested to replicate the core activities: Organizing local events associated with the vision of the project Organizing local and/or theme specific Structured Democratic Dialogues
	Project Promoters 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
	Endorsements Many individuals, authorities and organizations are endorsing the project by placing it under their auspices.
	Researchers Researchers and scientists may join in order to collect data and study the process or products.
	Experts Experts will be evaluating the ideas of participants on a number of dimensions such as: Impact, Feasibility, Innovation, Possibility of happening without intervention/external support, and Desirability. Their opinions will be compared and contrasted with the total averages of the evaluations conducted by the particiopants themselves and discussed if there are deviations.
	Policy Advisors Many people involved in policy commit to promote its ideas and products in their respective circles
	Political Endorsement Individual politicians may endorse the project and commit to promote its ideas and products in their respective circles.
	Facilitators Those individuals trained to facilitate Structured Democratic Dialogue.
	Science of Dialogic Design Many individual politicians are endorsing the project and commit to promote its ideas and products in their respective circles
	SDD Certificates All participants will receive certificates that bear the official logo of the Structured Democratic Dialogue methodology
	YouTube The project encourages and expects all participants, and especially Core Participants to produce and publish short movies explaining their suggestions and ideas Videos should be published in YouTube in the project's channel to allow easy access
	IdeaPrism IdeaPrism is a mobile App that runs on Apple and Android devices, which allows participants to enter their ideas, clarifications and short videos online
	Cogniscope The Structured Democratic Dialogues require the use of a special software called Cogniscope for their implementation The software, originally developed by the team of Aleco Christakis, is now produced by Ekkotek Ltd.