The Western Balkan’s green transition is hindered by coal dependence, outdated energy systems, and low political ambition. Countries like Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, rely heavily on lignite, one of the most polluting fossil fuels. At the same time, aging infrastructure makes the need to shift to renewables even more urgent, as many power plants are past their lifespan and grids are poorly integrated with EU networks. While governments in the region have made formal commitments to decarbonisation, concrete policy action has been slow.

These are central challenges for Green parties across the region. They are often the ones speaking up against corruption, nationalism, and repression, while promoting a more inclusive and democratic green transition.

Recently, Green movements have begun to break through. Notably, the Serbian Zeleno–levi front (ZLF) has contested in elections and won seats in parliament and gained visibility as a Green political platform, despite only being established in 2023. As noted in the Green European Journal article Born in the Streets: Green Politics in the Western Balkans, a wave of environmental protests across the region is evolving into political action and new political parties. As frustration with mainstream political parties grows and environmental issues become more pressing, Green parties have an opportunity to expand their relevance in the region.

Increasing cooperation and Green policies in the Balkans

The European Green Party’s Balkan Network identified the need for stronger regional policy positions, which led to the launch of the Balkan Green Policy Lab in 2023. The project aims to strengthen cooperation, increase dialogue, and develop Green policies that benefit the entire region. This process also aims to reclaim the narrative on the Green agenda and limit the influence of right-wing and conservative parties.

The political parties involved in the project are Hoćemo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), United Reform Action (URA, Montenegro), Democratic Renewal of Macedonia (DOM), Zeleno–levi front (ZLF, Serbia), and Za-Orah (Green Alternative – Sustainable Development of Croatia).  

Together with Green Forum, the involved parties established two main goals:

• Strengthening the Balkan Green Parties’ policy-making capacity, with a focus on energy policy.
• Promoting and improving regional cooperation between Green Parties.

The Policy Lab came out of two workshops in 2023-2024. Participants engaged in discussions to explore potential energy policy initiatives and worked on a regional energy policy roadmap. Moreover, a coordination group was formed to oversee policy development. In 2025, the group decided to dedicate their efforts to developing policy briefs on five topics: nuclear energy, energy efficiency, transition to renewables, CBAM and just transition. Participants also agreed to develop effective communication around their policy proposals.

“This is really the right moment to do something together”

Zinaida Dimitrijević participated in the 2024 Policy Lab with her political party Hoćemo from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The senior energy expert highlighted the importance of the project, especially in the current political environment where the Green movement in the Balkans is growing:

“The Policy Lab is very useful for our region. It gives us a chance to talk about our countries and share our experiences. We discovered that we all face the same problems – and realised that this is really the right moment to act together. As an energy expert, it also gave me a new perspective – to see how energy is viewed by politicians. Exchanging ideas with colleagues from other countries has also been very valuable for me.”

“Regional connectivity can reduce nationalistic tendencies”

Predrag Momčilović also participated in the 2024 Policy Lab. The Belgrade-based researcher and member of the Green-Left Front (ZLF) in Serbia shared the benefits of networking opportunities and discussions. As an academic researcher, he has connected with organisations and researchers:

“I always learn something new. The last event in Sarajevo was really well organised and had a great mix of activism, politics and academia. I work between these layers, trying to translate academic or expert findings into political and everyday life, so I really appreciated that kind of mix at the event.”

He added:

“This kind of regional connectivity can reduce nationalistic tendencies. We decided to work on concrete policy proposals and will start soon. For me, it’s exciting to share this with my party members to increase their knowledge, and also to build my own regional understanding of these topics.” 

The next Balkan Policy Lab seminar will take place in early 2026.

Project story by Rebecca Hellgren, Communications Intern, spring 2025.

The post Coming together: the Balkan Green Policy Lab appeared first on Green Forum Sweden.

The gap is stark: at the last election in 2021, women won just 15% of seats in parliament and 7% of elected local positions, despite making up more than half of Zambia’s population. Young women face an even steeper climb — only one parliamentarian is under the age of 35.

Building a coalition for change 

Fifteen organisations — including women-led, youth-led, and community-based groups — came together to form the Coalition for Women in Politics. With the technical partners UNDP and NDI, the Coalition developed an advocacy strategy running through 2026, outlining reforms to strengthen women’s political participation and influence in Zambian politics.

Through this process, the Coalition found its collective voice. Along the way, members also reached a shared insight: rather than pushing for entirely new legislation, the priority is advocating for the implementation and amendment of policy frameworks that already exist, including provisions in the Constitution, the Gender Equality and Equity Act, and the Political Party Bill.

A representative from a CSO in the Coalition highlights the significance of building the Coalition: “The outreach activities of the project were really impactful because it was the first time that a group of organisations came together as a coalition to challenge the government to include more women as ministers and to strengthen gender equality in political representation and leadership.”

Equipping young women for leadership 

Through COWIP, 30 young women took part in a six-week mentorship programme, capacity-building sessions, and three Intergenerational Women’s Forums. These platforms enabled participants to learn from experienced leaders, strengthen their advocacy skills and commitment to women’s political rights, and connect with thousands of citizens online.

A YOWOP alumna describes the impact of the COWIP training: “The training helped transform theoretical knowledge into actionable skills, enabling me to advocate effectively for youth and women’s inclusion in political decision-making.” 

Extending the message 

COWIP also reached beyond Lusaka, with community outreach activities in Livingstone, Kitwe, and Chipata. Young women engaged with schools, universities, markets, traditional leaders and local radio, amplifying their voices in both urban and rural areas — and listening to what women and young people in communities far from the capital actually needed.  

“Yes, my organisation was following everything and especially the radio broadcasts did amplify the voices of young women”, a Coalition member from a CSO confirms. “The radio is a good channel for reaching out also in rural areas.”

Looking ahead 

Although the project has concluded, the Coalition it helped to build continues its work, led by its member organisations driving the advocacy efforts forward. The Coalition’s advocacy plan runs until 2026, and many of the young women trained through COWIP were preparing to contest in the upcoming Zambian elections, with a number of them having confirmed their intention to stand.

The 2026 elections will be a key test of how far these gains can go — and whether the voices of women, amplified through COWIP, will translate into greater representation in Zambia’s political leadership.

Key achievements 

• 15 CSOs joined the Coalition for Women in Politics, developing a shared advocacy agenda 

• 3 Intergenerational Women’s Forums held, connecting young women with experienced leaders  

• 30 young women mentored and trained in communication and leadership  

• 3 provinces reached through outreach and radio programmes  

• Advocacy strategy (2024–2026) developed and launched

• Coalition recognised at national level as a collective voice for women’s political participation

The post Strengthening Women’s Political Leadership in Zambia appeared first on Green Forum Sweden.

The Intervention

The Gender Reverse Bootcamp is a one-week experiment in which the participants step into reversed gender roles. For example, men take on domestic work and caregiving, while women assume power, control, and resource management roles. This process provokes experiential learning as well as empathy, reflection, and transformation. In addition to the lived reality, the participants explore inequality and inclusion in the “gender and politics” part.

In 2022, Green Forum supported young adults in developing a youth wing for a Malagasy political party. Following the bootcamp template, Green Forum set up a Gender Reverse Bootcamp, together with “Women break the silence” and “Women Brigades”. Twenty young adults – 10 women and 10 men – went through this intense training.

Lasting Changes

Often, measuring the real-life impact of such interventions can be difficult. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after the bootcamp, the participants faced a real-life gender-based violence incident. However, their learnings from the bootcamp empowered them to push for structural reforms. Consequently, they created a whistleblower protection policy, an observatory, and anti-gender-based violence measures in the party regulations. Likewise, during the bootcamp itself the participants developed a proposal for legal reforms including LGBTQA+ inclusion. Sadly, the latter is heavily tabooed in most sub-Saharan countries.

Altogether, the Gender Reverse Bootcamp is more than just a workshop. It challenges norms, builds empathy, and teaches political actors (how) to fight for gender equality. The camp demonstrates how scientific research, political will, and creative pedagogy create lasting change.

The post Flipping Roles: The Gender Reversed Bootcamp appeared first on Green Forum Sweden.

Strategic environmental assessments and green politics have not been given their rightful place to inform development and infrastructure in Kenya. Currently, there are few political alternatives with an environmental agenda.

Amplifying Green Influence in Kenya

A green agenda in tune with scientific research is key to progress politics in Kenya. Green Forum and United Green Movement (UGM) are working together to advance the green agenda, to forward the active engagement of national and regional forces in the fight against injustice and environmental degradation, including climate change.

United Green Movement Party has a vision “to establish a united, peaceful & prosperous nation in which all citizens enjoy social, economic and democratic rights, living in dignity and harmony with their environment”

UGM is currently the only party with a comprehensive political program based on green ideology. The party was registered in 2019 and has quickly grown to be a political force in the Kenyan political landscape.

Green Forum’s collaboration with UGM aims at supporting UGMs’ ambitions to:

• become more visible
• strengthen and institutionalise their growing organisation
• build a strong ideology-based party on all levels

During the year of collaboration with Green Forum Sweden, UGM has:

• increased their media reach
• developed a party manifesto for the elections 2022
• produced a party handbook for their candidates
• and trained over 1000 members in green ideology and external communication.

Science Meets Politics

Science Meets Politics Conferences (SMP) is a concept developed by Green Forum intended to strengthen political ecology as a central and trans-party issue, considering the last scientific data on climate change (cf. IPCC reports, last publication of all reports and data in April 2022).

The first conference took place in Nairobi and was crafted to find ways to participate in the global effort aiming at responding to climate change in a constructive manner. All actors (CSOs, researchers, political activists, NGOs) commonly agree that both data, science, technologies, and solutions are already available for transitioning modern societies to sustainable ones. At the same time, they agreed that it is the political will that is lagging and holds a critical responsibility in crafting, voting, implementing, and enforcing the solutions and the legislations required. This deadlock is identified as one of the most important to overcome if humanity wants to  address the unavoidable socioeconomic, humanitarian and ecologic catastrophes lying ahead of us.

Since climate change is a problem faced by humanity, without distinctions of political orientations, the idea is to bring all political actors around a consensus on assessment and mitigation measures.

The SMP format is designed to contribute to bridging the gap between knowledge producers, political parties, and the public, working in a multiparty setting with Greens leading the way forward in this trans-party necessity.

SMP, at a first glance, managed to:

• Bring scientists, politicians and the public together to discuss green issues.
• Position green issues on the political agenda as a common core issue for all parties.
• Bring 11,350 online viewers to the event.

The post Together to Strengthen Green Politics in Kenya appeared first on Green Forum Sweden.

To prioritise profit over sustainability remains the dominating political agenda in most of the Eastern European countries. Phenomena such as political distrust and apathy have gained ground in the past years. As a consequence, a decrease in political engagement is seen across the populations. Alarmingly, less than one third of the younger population express satisfaction with or trust in any political party to represent their needs. The already restrictive political environments and splitting narratives accompanied by the consequences of the pandemic and the ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine have widened the gap between the rights holders and duty bearers and deprived the youth of their rights to decision-making. In particular, youth organisations have been further restrained from having a social and political impact on all levels of society.

It is only when democratic principles and human rights are respected and practised that resilient and just societies can be built, in which the youth have equal opportunities to engage in and influence politics. Therefore, our long-term partnership with an umbrella organisation of Eastern European Green Youth organisations aims to raise the level of participation of youth in political processes in Eastern Europe.

Amplifying youth voices in Eastern Europe

Green Forum, by partnering with Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe (CDN), contributes to consolidating the green youth movement in the region of Eastern Europe and Western Balkans.

CDN is a capacity-building network of youth-led organisations committed to the development and implementation of green ideas in Eastern Europe. CDN unites 15 member and 6 partner organisations from all over Eastern Europe. The organisation argues that youth have a crucial, active and direct role to play in the development of a sustainable and democratic society. This role puts great demand on co-learning, sharing of knowledge and experiences, and active collaboration for young people, especially on international and inter-cultural levels.

CDN acknowledges that young people and youth organisations need support in their work to remove barriers  to access their rights. CDN also works proactively on empowering young people to stand up for their rights and raise their political voices. This is done on three levels: (1) raising awareness about human rights through non-formal education methods at educational or statutory events; (2) sharpening young peoples’ advocacy skills for them to increase their agency and; (3) supporting young activists to become agents of change by entering politics in their local realities.

The partnership also supports the political maturity and ideological advancement on green issues of CDN and its member organisations. CDN provides capacity strengthening support to its member organisations in order for them to play a more active role in youth advocacy, take an active role in local political processes and become more known and referred to by wider audiences.

CDN is doing this through, for example,  international seminars, political conferences, solidarity campaigns, as well as coordinating the cooperation between the countries of the Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans.

Over the past decade, a number of CDN alumni have entered local, national or European politics. However, given the turbulent political contexts that many CDN member organisations have to operate in, together we constantly seek new methodologies in order to address and overcome the external challenges and always remain relevant.

The post Amplifying Youth Voices in Eastern Europe appeared first on Green Forum Sweden.

Through the Program for Young Politicians in Africa (PYPA), Green Forum collaborates with other party-affiliated organisations to promote human rights, youth participation and gender equality in politics for a new generation of politicians in Africa. While the PYPA program altogether covers 16 African countries, Green Forum is responsible for its implementation in Zambia and Malawi. The program – a leadership academy for youth active in political parties that are represented in the national parliaments – consists of trainings, mini-projects, alumni activities and support to mother parties. For us, human rights and equal participation is at the core of green principles in politics.

The Youth Study

In 2021, Green Forum commissioned a study which identified a number of obstacles to youth participation in their parties, including the absence of youth policies, lack of independent youth wings, and a general lack of trust in youth by party leadership. These findings were then presented and discussed at national round table discussions with all parties. Importantly, all parties supported the recommendations and vowed to implement relevant policies to address them.

The Youth Study recommends that political parties:

• Adopt the AU age definition of youth (a person between 18-35 years)
• Ensure guaranteed representation of youth
• Strengthen the autonomy of youth wings
• Develop party-specific youth policies
• Enhance multiparty youth platforms

In 2022, Green Forum is continuing to champion this work by providing technical support to the parties as they implement recommendations.

Developing Policies Against Sexual Harassment in Political Parties

Sexual harassment in political parties is one factor that keeps women, especially younger ones, out of active politics and thereby reduces their possibilities to make their voices heard. To sensitise parties to this problem, Green Forum Sweden organised two gender-mainstreaming workshops in which young women shared their experiences of how they have been harassed sexually when trying to advance their political careers. The testimonies served as a wake-up call for the senior party officials attending the events. Green Forum Sweden is now supporting two parties in Zambia to develop and implement internal policies against sexual harassment.

Personal Story

• Proscardness Mwiinga is a young politician who wants to increase the influence of youth in Zambian politics to make her country better. Through the Program for Young Politicians in Africa, she has grown her confidence, networks and insights.
• “This program for young politicians has meant incredibly much. What I learned was so fantastic. It has sharpened my political intelligence,” says Proscardness Mwiinga.
• “Through everything I learned, my colleagues began looking up to me. And others, young people, got in touch and wanted to engage in politics,” she continues.
• When she finished the program, she decided to run for the position as Mayor in the region Lukanga in Kapiri Mposhi. She used social media to reach young voters, and it worked. Today she is the Mayor, responsible for Lukanga.
• “PYPA gave me self-confidence. I learnt that we, the young are the leaders; we actually constitute the majority of Zambia’s population. In the next election in 2026, I will run for a seat in the Parliament,” she says.

Executive summary

Foto: Privat

De vill öka makten för unga i Zambia | Sida

The post Promoting Youth Participation and Influence in Zambia and Malawi appeared first on Green Forum Sweden.