Primary Activities

The Anna Lindh Foundation is the leader and coordinator of the programme. The Foundation coordinates the intercultural and policy dimension in the Mediterranean North, facilitating processes of capacity building and intercultural dialogue, including high-profile policy encounters and partnerships. The British Council is the implementing partner in the 8 programme countries of the Mediterranean South, including: Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan. Their mandate entails the configuration national Hubs and overlooking the delivery of diverse capacity building modules, competitions and forums.

The spectrum of primary activities is described below:

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• National Debate Trainings: acts as a primary component to Young Mediterranean Voices annual cycle by providing the necessary theory, skill and practice of debate and its formats. Trainings are organised in the 8 founding Southern Mediterranean programme countries. Each of the established “Debate Hubs” nominates one to two representatives based on strict criteria to become ‘Hub Leads’. Nominees demonstrate skills of leadership, public speaking, as well as a clear ability to progress cascade programme’s activity in their local neighbourhood. The trainers delivering ‘National Debate Training’ are selected from an established regional resource pool for Young Mediterranean Voices.
• Competitions and National Debate Forums: Following the ‘National Debate Training’, cascade trainings are held by the “Debate Hubs” to train young people on debating skills, followed by inter-and intra-hub competitions. The culmination of the YMV training cycle are the National Debate Forums, which take place at a country level gathering young debaters and policy makers. Teams from the different “Debate Hubs” take part in this 3-day event during which they debate motions that are directly linked to national and regional policy agendas.
• Consolidating Youth Debate Hubs in MENA Region: establish a network across 8 South Mediterranean countries through: (a) mapping of organisations (Hubs) of proven track record with the precursor Young Arab Voices programme and their participation in YMV since 2018; and (b) via cascaded training, national debate forums/competitions, and peer facilitator training. An organisational capacity building scheme is offered to youth-led debate Hubs, to strengthen their capacity in areas such as budget management, reporting and child protection.
• Production of Debate Tools: Master Facilitators manual is developed, complementing earlier developed debate manuals. This is the context of designing a pedagogical programme introducing a central policy leadership training component, strengthening dimensions of youth agency and policy impact. Moreover, refining the intercultural competencies and skills framework for youth leadership, advocacy, media literacy, and cultural intelligence. Dialogue with Formal Education Agencies: concluding Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with National Ministries and educational institutions in Southern Mediterranean countries to expand the delivery of debate skills development and capacity building at universities and youth scouts centres.
• Regional Leadership Seminars: takes place on a yearly basis and represents the anchor event in an annual pedagogical programme with alumni. The Leadership Seminar builds on the positively evaluated model established in February 2016 in partnership with the World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid and Common Purpose. The aim of this Seminar is to demonstrate skills of leadership, public speaking, as well as a clear ability to progress the cascade programme’s activity in their local neighbourhood. The trainers delivering ‘National Debate Training’ are selected from an established regional resource pool for Young Mediterranean Voices.
• Euro-Med Exchange Modalities: the Programme offers the opportunity for YMV delegates and alumni, for offline and online dialogue and social circle programmes, in order to enhance cross-cultural understanding and build meaningful relationships. This modality aims to offer sustained, technology-enabled and/or people-to-people dialogue to young debaters and debate facilitators. The technology enabled communication has taken place through the collaboration with Soliya and EU-funded Erasmus + Virtual Exchange project.
• Public Policy: this line of activity identifies policy platforms and public policy debates/forums to engage YMV alumni, emerging through their leadership skills, in new openings for youth voices in policy-making. It is the operational basis to consolidate a sustained presence in Europe, in order to leverage policy voice, strategic collaborations and institutional visibility. The Euro-Med Debate and Policy Forum offers this opportunity to the YMV community.
• Strategic Comms Labs: focused on the development of youth-led creative communication initiatives to challenge extremist narratives in the digital world. Participants learn enhanced digital literacy and media skills, hear from social media leading companies about how to enhance online reach, and work in groups to create new, compelling campaigns to reach at-risk audiences in their own communities and beyond.