OSCE Mission to Montenegro works with Regional Youth Co-operation Office to organize training for high schools and NGOs

Considering the Regional Youth Co-operation Office (RYCO) as a key partner for promoting the spirit of reconciliation among the region’s youth, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, with the RYCO Local Branch Office, organized a three-day capacity-building training for 23 potential RYCO applicants between 25 and 28 September 2018.

Opening the workshop, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro Siv-Katrine Leirtroe said: “We see RYCO as very important because it works on enhancing youth mobility and social inclusion. This is crucial for the future of young people as this is their chance to change the view on their neighbours through the opportunities that the RYCO offers to them.”

RYCO Local Branch Officer in Montenegro, Edin Koljenović, said: “This training course was created as a result of the recognition of the clear need to work on strengthening the capacity of non-governmental organizations and high schools to write project proposals.”

Praising the results achieved by the RYCO in its first year of operation, the General Director for Youth in the Ministry of Sports and member of the RYCO Steering Board Nenad Koprivica said that the Government of Montenegro supports the establishment and functioning of RYCO and its local office in Podgorica. Montenegro was the first country in the Western Balkans to meet all conditions provided by the Agreement on the establishment of an RYCO local office.

RYCO was founded in 2016 at the Western Balkans Sixth Summit in Paris as an independent institutional mechanism to promote the spirit of reconciliation and co-operation among youth in the region through exchange programmes.