Graçanica, June 25^th 2016 – National Democratic Institute (NDI) organized a workshop with the aim to increase youth’s awareness about transparency issues and access to public documents. Researchers from Democracy Plus (D+), Valmir Ismaili and Isuf Zejna, were appointed as lecturers about the standards of accessing official documents and methods for monitoring the transparency of local institutions.

Isuf Zejna presented the most known websites about open data, such as https://data.gov and https://data.gov.uk, which offer sets of data that can be accessed online without restriction of use. The youth group that participated in the training also had the chance to learn about local initiatives to offer access to documents as open data sources. It was evaluated that there is a need for change in Kosovo’s legislation pertaining to publishing official documents in open data websites, as well as educating public officials about the importance of this initiative.

Participants in this training included youth from local government institutions, political parties, and civil society from various municipalities of Kosovo. Participants had the chance to learn about advanced standards of transparency and the “Open Data” initiative, as well as methods of accessing official documents in Kosovo, and the public rights to have easier and simpler access to official documents.