MOVES – Mountain Voices for Engaged and Sustainable Democracy

forthcoming

MOVES – Mountain Voices for Engaged and Sustainable Democracy addresses the growing democratic disengagement and institutional fragility in remote and peri-urban areas of Italy (Lazio mountainous regions), Albania (peri-urban and mountainous areas around Tirana), and Portugal (northern rural mountainous regions of Cinfães and Aldeia, Viseu District). These territories face common challenges such as depopulation, limited access to services, and the exclusion of youth, women, elderly people, and minorities from civic life. MOVES aims to bridge these gaps by fostering active citizenship, inclusive participation, and stronger cooperation between citizens and local institutions.The project adopts a transnational and modular structure ensuring adaptability and cross-border learning. Through participatory forums, civic education modules, co-design workshops, and local action labs, MOVES promotes democratic values and bottom-up governance models tailored to the social and geographic specificities of each area.Activities include transnational exchanges, online and in-person trainings, public consultations, and local action initiatives. Each phase contributes to the creation of inclusive, replicable tools such as digital toolkits and local action proposals. Gender equality, non-discrimination, and intersectional inclusion are mainstreamed throughout the project to ensure balanced access, representation, and benefit.Expected results include increased civic awareness, improved participatory skills, and greater institutional uptake of innovative participatory practices. By anchoring change in both grassroots initiatives and governance structures, MOVES is designed not just as a time-bound intervention, but as a catalyst for long-term democratic renewal in Europe’s underserved rural and mountainous regions.