Danish Egyptian YOUTH NETWORK SEMINAR

This international seminar was an integral part of the Danish-Egyptian Political Party Youth Network, which is constituted by DEDI, DUF and DIPD. The seminar builds on the previous international seminars held in Egypt and Denmark and incorporated the ideas put forward by the Egyptian and Danish participants.
Through this seminar, we continued our support of a strong, mutual exchange of culture, praxis and ideas, which can strengthen the youth engagement and cross-political dialogue in both Egypt and Denmark. We continue to prioritize a balance between the creation of strong interpersonal relations among the network participants and technical training on selected areas defined by the participants themselves, as well as offering valuable exposure opportunities such as municipal visits and participation in party congresses.

In this seminar, we began a 1.5-year process, which was outlined by the participants during the international seminar in Aswan in April 2016. The process will see the network focus on different aspects of local political participation, including governance, communication, campaigning and member mobilization. During the process, the participants will have the planned local elections in both Egypt and Denmark in 2017 in mind, and these political events will, if possible, be included directly in the network activities.
During this seminar, we looked into the local governance system in Denmark, including the role of the municipalities and the local party branches, and continued the strong cross-political dialogue that has become a trademark for the network. Also, the network participants had the opportunity to visit the yearly Congress of the Social Democratic Party.

Part of the seminar took place in Copenhagen, while the rest was held in northern Jutland. The focus of this specific seminar falls well in line with the overall objective of the Political Party Youth Network (DEPPYN) project, as it seeks to support a multiparty dialogue among young political party members and develop the capacity of young party members in order to strengthen their involvement in formal decision-making processes in their parties. In this case, the objective was not only to facilitate multiparty dialogue within the national networks of political party members but also to strengthen the international multiparty dialogue, as well as providing the participants with useful insights into local government and democracy that can be applied both in Egypt and in Denmark.