Dialogues about tomorrow: Armenia youth debates

Should the youth in Armenia emigrate to find greater opportunities? Should the government regulate social media to protect citizens online? Are connections more important than education and experience for youth to succeed? These are just a few of the pressing issues that Armenian youth debated as part of NDI Armenia’s Debathon youth debate program.
In recent years, as political polarization deepened and a series of crises tested the resilience of Armenia’s democracy, NDI introduced a youth debate program that participants named “Debathon.” Youth from all ten regions of Armenia without any political affiliation participated, supplementing NDI Armenia’s extensive work with party youth. NDI public opinion research shows that among Armenians 18 to 29 years old, only 25% of Armenian youth are interested in politics, but 67%  believed they could influence decisions that are made in the country and 40% of youth want to be civically active in other ways. In other words, although Armenia’s young people do not view formal politics as a path through which change can be achieved, they do believe they can influence decision-making and that solutions can be achieved informally, locally and through activism.     
Debathon provides the ideal platform to build the necessary skills for non-affiliated youth to better advocate for political needs as activists. An assessment conducted after the program found that 75% of Debathon Alumni reported that they had increased their participation in informal politics since participating in the program and a majority of Debathon alumni, 54%, indicated that their involvement with political parties had also increased.  A Debathon participant from the Ararat region said, “Debathon is by far the best experience I had, and I will use my debate skills when raising youth issues in my community.” 
Debathon also represents a rare opportunity to strengthen the culture of respectful and fact-based political dialogue in Armenia, which is often missing from national political debates. Debathon highlighted the importance and benefit of having policy-driven conversations and showcased that disagreement is possible without using heated political rhetoric. Topics were identified based on the findings of the Armenian youth survey and included immigration, nepotism, social media regulation, education, and youth political inclusion.  
The debates were conducted both online and in person and were live-streamed through social media. To date, the live streams and associated videos have accrued over 6,000 views. The participants worked with online international experts from the US, Taiwan, the Philippines, Lebanon, Sweden, and Albania to learn more about their debate topics. The experts were able to share their extensive professional experiences in their respective fields, reference data and source materials, gave international and national examples and provided a broad introduction to the debate topics.