Promotion of young leaders in government and public life to be discussed in Astana

At the round table, representatives of government bodies, deputies of the Parliament, members of political parties, youth organizations, and NGOs will discuss issues of involving young people into social and political life of society as well as participation in elections and government. Some examples of educational projects on youth involvement in regions will be presented, the press service of the UNDP in Kazakhstan reports.

The round table will be held within the frames of the UNDP project "Enhancement of Electoral Awareness and Inclusive Democratic development of the Kazakhstani Society", funded by the UN Democracy Fund and implemented in collaboration with the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Pavlodar Regional Governance School. One of the main objectives of the project is to improve the electoral activity of young voters.

This year a number of activities took place as a part of the project, including regional training sessions for young voters, development of the web portal for youth on elections, and conducting pilot internet voting for young deputies of maslikhat of Pavlodar region. A series of training were held in April and May 2011 with more than 550 participants from 10 regions of Kazakhstan, including rural youth, women, and people with disabilities who were trained on the basics of electoral law at seminars in Karaganda, Shymkent, Petropavlovsk, Aktau, Ust-Kamenogorsk, and Pavlodar. It is also planned to hold a series of regional training sessions for young members of election commissions within the frames of the project.