GAYA

GAYA (Governance and Youth in the Alps):
In many rural or remote parts of Europe, young people tend to leave their regions. This is also the case in the Alpine region, where GaYA – funded by the Interreg Alpine Space Programme – identified a lack of opportunities for personal and professional fulfilment for this group. Furthermore, many decision-makers remain unaware of the benefits a young and active population brings to society.
Against this background, GaYA aims to increase the quality of democratic processes in the Alpine space. Eight partners from five countries cooperate to enhance the involvement of young people in regional governance and develop new approaches for decision-makers. Therefore, new democratic methods are collected throughout the project and made available in order to overcome the challenges of territorial cohesion and participatory involvement of young people in everyday political actions. The implementation of well-governed forms has great potential for increasing sustainable and fair decision making.

OUTPUTS:
One of the main outputs of the project is the comparative report “Democratic Innovation and Participatory Democracy in the Alpine Area”. It provides a portrait of the legal framework of democratic innovation in the Alpine states and regions and maps empirical trends. The report showcases good examples of and statements on participatory democracy implemented in the Alpine region. The underlying, shared belief of the report and the presented practices is that innovative forms of governance have great potential in terms of more sustainable and legitimate decision-making.

FURTHER RESOURCES:
GaYA project website
Comparative report “Democratic Innovation and Participatory Democracy in the Alpine Area”

DURATION:
2016 – 2019

CONTACT:
Funding Programme: Interreg Alpine Space
Lead Partner: Development Agency Gal Genovese, Italy (Email), Annalisa Cevasco (Email)