The project established a small scale youth partnership between the Scheldt and Sava youth parliaments with the goal to improve international environmental youth work in the 7 countries that are crossed by the rivers Scheldt (France, Belgium and the Netherlands) and Sava (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Serbia). Both the Sava and Scheldt youth parliament have the objective to build capacity and to empower youngsters living in the two river basins, to enable them to actively participate in the environmental policymaking process. For this purpose, we wanted that the youngsters had the chance to participate in two one-week exchanges, in Belgium and in Croatia, in order to debate and exchange with scientists and policymakers, to improve their environmental work, to learn from each other, to improve the quality of their extracurricular youth work, to be empowered and to be coached to develop podcasts and art projects. We also aimed that the 2 group exchanges served to develop common values among youth from seven countries in- and outside the EU, and mutual inspiration to promote the active participation of youth in environmental policy processes.
The Scheldt river basin and the Sava river basin (a tributary to the Danube), although located in different climatic regions, were recently both heavily affected by similar environmental problems, such as droughts and floods produced by climate change, and pollution by agriculture, industry and shipping. In the conducted small scale youth partnership, both Scheldt and Sava youth parliaments joined forces in exploring how climate change and pollution impact their rivers, and what possibilities for active participation in environmental decision-making there were for themselves and other young people living in these river basins.