Ever since its inception by UNICEF Global, U-Report has been an irreplaceable tool for promoting, encouraging and facilitating youth engagement for the purpose of gathering feedback, opinions and gauging satisfaction on matters that are important to U-Reporters’ communities around the world. U-Report is currently integrated in 41 different countries, where each country has their own tailored U-Report platform. What makes U-Report Western Balkans special is that it is the first sub-regional U-Report, as it includes the UNICEF Country Offices of Albania, Kosovo*, Montenegro. Western Balkans U-Report poll results can be viewed per each country separately or for the entire Western Balkans sub-region.
U-Report Western Balkans was launched on May 16th, 2018 at 11:00am simultaneously in Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro, and was attended by government and institutional representatives, diplomatic representatives, various NGOs and youth from the entire sub-region. The opening remarks of the ceremony were held by Ms. Afshan Khan, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia (ECA), and Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in Europe, who attended the launch of U-Report Western Balkans in Kosovo, while visiting the UNICEF Kosovo Programme.
The Western Balkans U-Report will enable quick and easy comparative analysis between Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro to determine the challenges and issues faced by their respective residents, and to examine opportunities for institutional as well as inter-agency cooperation at both the national and sub-regional levels, in addressing the challenges, issues and situations uncovered by U-Reporters.
The goal of the Western Balkans U-Report is to serve as a platform that facilitates the flow of information and analysis at national and sub-regional levels, providing many quantifiable and reliable metrics for evaluating and steering national and regional policy development and integration, and for gauging progress on SDGs and on other global indicators such as gender equality, human rights, inclusion of youth in decision-making processes and others.
The Western Balkans U-Report will be led by national steering committees of each respective Country Office, where each will design and conduct national polls in their respective countries, while a sub-regional steering committee will structure question flows for conducting sub-regional polls, in topics and areas that are relevant and important to the sub-region, as defined by the sub-regional steering committee.
*All references to Kosovo shall be understood in the context of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999)
