About Young NIMD
Youth empowerment in young democracies
Young NIMD is a blog of seven political youth organizations in The Netherlands: CdjA, JOVD, JS, Dwars, Jonge Democraten, Perspectief and SGPJ. Young NIMD is interested in exchanges with peers in other countries that help enhance the voice of youth in politics and advance democracy.
Profiting from first-hand experiences held within the Dutch political youth organisations, NIMD and Young NIMD aim to incorporate the component of political youth participation in NIMD programmes.
Mission and organisation
The mission of Young NIMD is to add value to NIMD programmes by supplying knowledge and participation on the component of political youth participation.
Enthusiasm to participate!
The lack of enthusiasm among young people for the political trade, often accompanied by a degraded image of politics and politicians in transition countries and young democracies stands in sharp contrast to demographics. With a share of young people near half of a country's total population, it should be clear that participation in politics is vital for young people to safeguard their interests, now and in the future. Therefore, it is necessary that young people want to participate and are shown an incentive to do so by actually being heard and listened to. Young NIMD, a cooperation of Dutch enthusiastic political youth, aims to contribute to youth's engagement in young and developing democracies.
By young people for young people
Themselves being youngsters, Young NIMD believes to be in a privileged position to contribute the youth factor to the work of the NIMD. Hailing from personal experiences and peer-to-peer communication lowers barriers to exchange experiences. Young NIMD consists of Dutch political youth in order to effectively share experiences of political youth participation and emphasize the importance of youth participation. Many Dutch political youth will become the political leaders of tomorrow, as Dutch political youth organisations have proven to be effective instruments for political development.
Exchange of experience and expertise
In comparison with young democracies, Dutch political youth organizations are rather well developed in aspects of organisation and influence. Many Dutch political youth organisations tend to supply their members with trainings and workshops on how to participate in politics, how to perform in a debate, how to present oneself. On the other hand, Dutch political youth organisations are rather small compared to some youth wings in developing democracies. Many youth wings, however, are - although sometimes large in number - not able to influence politics constructively and considerably. Exchange of experience can contribute to the development of political youth in young democracies.
Organisation
Young NIMD is organised by means of a steering committee and project groups.
The steering committee is formed by one representative from each participating political youth organisations and manages organisational and coordinating activities, such as long-term prospects and plans and regular communication with NIMD. However, each steering committee member is also a participant in one of Young NIMD's project groups, facilitating communication and implementation rather than organisation and management.
The project groups are the most important parts of Young NIMD. They are organised on a geographical basis and staffed by one or two members of each political youth organization, creating project groups of around 8 people. These project groups are responsible for Young NIMD's cooperation with NIMD's programmes in the project country. Tasks include communication (national, with other Dutch youth as well as international with e.g. counterparts in the partner country), organisation of visits, participation in seminars, organisation of discussions on topics specific for this country, training activities, etcetera. There is also plenty of liberty for members to implement new ideas and thoughts in order to continuously improve Young NIMD's work and increase Young NIMD's outreach.
