The Director and Nyon Project Manager hold meeting with Ettakatol, London 8th May

Oliver McTernan and Julian Weinberg met with with representatives from Ettakatol based in London to discuss Forward Thinking's work in Tunisia and to hear their perspective on some of the challenges currently facing the Tunisian transition.The discussion focused on the need to incorporate Tunisian youth into the political process to ensure that their concerns are heard by those in power. Young people in Tunisia represent almost of third of Tunisia's working age population but suffer disproportionately from unemployment  and, despite the revolution,  many still feel alienated from politics.   Forward Thinking recently launched a  youth dialogue to combat this trend by providing a forum where Tunisian youth can express their views, both amongst themselves and with senior politicians. The representatives from Ettakatol expressed a keen interest in  this work and offered several ideas on how to strengthen this initiative.The discussion also covered issues such as media reform, secular/religious tensions in Tunisia and the need to incorporate Tunisians from the interior in dialogue.