Western Balkans School Exchange Scheme
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH;
Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO)
December 2020 - November 2023
Overall Objective
The overall objective is: “To increase skills and knowledge of young people in the Western Balkans by enhancing education systems and promoting cooperation in the region”.
Summary of the Project
This Multi-Donor Action is jointly co-financed by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
It contributes to the overall objective of “increasing skills and knowledge of young people in the Western Balkans by enhancing education systems and promoting cooperation in the region” through the specific objective of “Strengthening capacities of RYCO and establishing a regional school exchange scheme”.
This is achieved through the following three intervention areas:
1. Improving the institutional and organisational capacities of RYCO to manage regional cooperation projects
2. Improving the capacity of schools and other formal education structures to actively participate and develop quality projects
3. Designing and implementing RYCO’s regional School Exchange Scheme
Activities
Improving the institutional and organisational capacities of RYCO to manage regional cooperation projects
- Providing targeted support to both institutional and organisational capacities as well as the enhancement of programming instruments.
Improving the capacity of schools and other formal education structures to
actively participate and develop quality projects
- Activities within this intervention field will contribute to closer cooperation between RYCO and relevant ministries responsible for education, in order to promote the regional school exchange scheme (SES).
In addition to fostering cooperation between the ministries and RYCO, this intervention field will focus on developing competencies for schools on three different aspects:
(1) developing the “networking competencies”, since one of the main challenges in school exchange projects is the inability of schools to establish contact and find a suitable (cross border) partner,
(2) strengthening capacities in order to develop and implement quality project proposals, since schools lack the basic project management skills and thematic knowledge and finally
(3) focusing on gender sensitive and thematic competences (intercultural learning, remembrance, reconciliation, peacebuilding, youth participation) among teachers and students, since this is crucial in order to effectively be able to tackle issues such as cooperation and reconciliation among youth.
Designing and implementing RYCO’s regional School Exchange Scheme
Within the third output, a grant will be allocated to RYCO for the implementation of a School Exchange Scheme (SES), which will include three open calls within the duration of the Action. Within these calls, both primary and secondary schools in the WB will be invited to apply in cooperation with one or more partner schools from the region. Building on previous experiences, the SES will provide grants, which will be used by schools in order to finance the organisation of student exchange. Special focus will be placed on developing long-term partnerships that go beyond project-based exchanges towards long-term reciprocal student ex-changes.
Expected Results
The Actions outputs are:
- The institutional and organisational capacities of RYCO to manage regional cooperation projects are improved
- Capacity of schools and other formal education structures to actively participate and develop quality projects on youth exchange is improved
- RYCO’s regional School Exchange Scheme is designed and implemented
Xheni Sinakoli
Xheni.SINAKOLI@eeas.europa.eu
