Insisting on democracy and opposing a culture of authoritarianism and fear

The evening of 28 January was a huge milestone in the evolution of the IYTT. We summoned in the City of Gothenburg’s grand old ceremonial building Börsen. The purpose of the meeting was to evolve the IYTT into a fundraising foundation, to realize the full potential of our amazing Youth Fellows and pave the way for endurance and long-termism.

Another overwhelming experience was to run our seventh annual youth conference in Washington DC, on April 14-18. Like Youth Fellows in our previous six conferences, the 24 participants shined in dynamic discussions and innovated twelve brilliant democracy promoting decision proposals. In our wildest imagination we could not have foreseen that good-willing young people who want to share constructive and future-oriented policy proposals would not dare to have their names in the report. It is deeply upsetting and offensive that the new US administration, in less than five months, has created a culture of fear that scares young people into silence. This is a blatant illustration of how fundamentally important the task is for the IYTT to stand up and promote democracy in opposition to the authoritarian forces.

During the period of January through May, Youth Fellows initiated and engaged in vibrating democracy promoting events in Gaborone, Botswana, Gauteng, South Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe, and Kampala, Uganda. The events have included fruitful cooperation with local organizations and Swedish embassies.

During an intense week in mid-July, we premiered The Gothenburg World Youth Openness and Democracy Summit. 20 Youth Fellows from Africa, Europe, and North America voiced hundreds of people through Open Chaired Democracy Talks, explored the requirements for a lively democracy in five Gothenburg neighborhoods, and hung around with players, coaches, and parents in Gothia Cup soccer teams from ten countries and five continents. It was an inspiring experience to carry out IYTT activities in parallel to and partly integrated with Gothia Cup as the world’s biggest soccer event, and we look forward to learning from the inaugural summit’s experiences to developing this fruitful collaboration in the years to come.

When exploring the requirements for democracy in Gothenburg this summer we invented a new method which we call neighbourhooding democracy. We happily share the method openly, and hope that we will see more instances to deploy it again ourselves. In February to May, Youth Fellows in South Africa developed another new IYTT method that we call democracy festivals. We are hoping to have the chance to premiere IYTT democracy festivals in Harare, Nairobi, and Pretoria, in collaboration with local sister organizations and Swedish embassies. Thanks to our participation in the Interreg North See/EU project called Speak Up, this summer we developed the Summer Camp method by running camps in collaboration with our Speak Up partners in Malmö (Sweden), Skive (Denmark), and Saint Martin Boulogne (France).

It is an unprecedented privilege to evolve the IYTT together with you, all blazingly brilliant and good-hearted Youth Fellows, and it certainly gives hope for a brighter future. Big thanks to all of you.

Since July 1, I have been in the fortunate position of having a hard-working colleague in Elena Vocale, who is working 50% of a full-time position as a project coordinator. Huge thanks to you Elena for invaluable contributions and inspiring comradeship.

Speaking of giving thanks, our progression is unthinkable if it hadn’t been for the support from our generous grant providers the Sten A Olsson Foundation, Interreg North Sea funding the Speak Up project co-financed by Region Västra Götaland, our host Lindholmen Science Park, our Board and our Nomination Committee, and our supportive national and international friends, such as Athens Democracy Forum; Bertelsmann Foundation; Bonnier Family Foundation; City of Gothenburg; Democracy and Culture Foundation; Fourth Way Foundation; FVZS Institute at Stellenbosch University; Global Democracy Coalition; Global Liberal Arts Alliance; GoDown Arts Centre; Gothia Cup; IDEoPOP-The International Dimensions and Effects of Populism; Innovation in Politics Institute; International IDEA; Lead Impact Hub; McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University; Mentor; Mitt Liv AB; Mitt Livs Val; Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft; Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies; TAM-Transatlantic Master’s Program; The Embassies of Sweden in Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Uganda; The School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg; WELEAD Trust; and The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg.

With the summer edition of our newsletter The Loop, comes an overview of the IYTT’s recent events, activities, and publications. I trust you will enjoy it.