The participants had travelled to the lively economic hub that is Casablanca to discuss the impacts of international youth work, build networks and get new projects up and running. Among the questions they debated were the following: How can international youth exchanges empower their young participants? How can exchanges promote the development of an active civil society? And what needs to be put in place to enable international activities to have the desired impact? Experts from all four countries split into workshops and breakout sessions to find answers to these and other questions relating to youth work and youth exchanges. They used Open Space and Storytelling methods, which created a lively educational atmosphere as well as an opportunity to see things from different angles.
The meeting focused on four thematic aspects in particular:
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Extremism and peaceful coexistence
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Environmental protection
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Opportunities for youth participation in politics and society
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Empowerment, social justice and labour market integration
Visits to local projects and organisations provided an illustrative insight into the work being done in Morocco. The participants were able to contrast what they saw with their own work, recognising several similarities in terms of the work being done with young people in all four countries despite their structural, political and economic differences.
Act to change! was the third meeting in a series of networking conferences for German, Moroccan, Egyptian and Tunisian representatives of organisations providing youth exchanges between these countries. As with the first two meetings, this one, too, was made possible thanks to funding from Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. It was organised by IJAB in cooperation with its partner organisations Young United Al-Hoceima and Chabab Time (Morocco), icealex (Egypt) and Club Culturel Ali Belhouane (Tunisia). The conference was designed, planned and implemented jointly by all partners.
A detailed report and a conference documentation pack will be made available in due course.
