Donor: EU-EIDHR (European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights)
On December 12, 2012 ACED signed a contract with the EIDHR (European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights), a department of the European Union, on co-funding the project “Promotion of the Students’ Participation in Democratic Reforms”. Planned project activities, ACED will implement with the project partner OKC – Youth Communication Centre.
The overall project objective is to increase the level of cooperation among secondary school students, Student Councils (SC) and their networks, based on a common platform for advocating student interests that will contribute to their recognition by school, municipal and governmental authorities and enable the introduction of the BIH Student Council Network (mreSVUBIH) into regional and European associations of secondary school students.
The specific objective of this project is to develop a functional Student Council Network, able to represent and advocate for the interests of school youth by fostering students’ participation in building sustainable Student Councils’ in secondary schools in BIH.
This project will build on the achievements of the EIDHR funded project “Student Council Network”, implemented by ACED and OKC. Using the same methodology that has increased the networking and policy advocacy capacities of SCs in BIH, while developing advocacy campaigns, ACED plans to expand the best practices of capacity building, policy advocacy and networking of SCs, fomenting their growth and structural ties.
Paying a special attention to significance of the school semestral calendar (September – June), ACED and OKC have developed a comprehensive timeline of activities and actions to be executed throughout the period of three years. In general terms, the project is consisted of four crosscutting themes, each overlapping and building on previous one’s achievements, starting in January 2013 with completion in December 2015.
Estimated results of the project are as follows:
•Institutional, organizational and technical capacity of School Councils improved in 290 schools in BIH;
•SCs’ and their networks empowered to participate in policy analysis and research, public debate, lobbying, and advocacy on regional and national level to improve the status of youth population in BIH;
•Awareness about student rights across BIH increased through comprehensive national advocacy campaigns;
•Links and cooperative relationships between school students throughout the country and region strengthened.
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