Codesign with youth in Kosovo

“Codesign with youth in Kosovo” is a 4 month long collaboration between three students from the Codesign Master programme in Copenhagen (Maria Søbroe, Rasmus Michaelis and Toke Frello), students from the University of Pristina (UP) and staff from United Nations Kosovo (UN).

The project argues that a codesign apporach that starts with the concrete, what is already there, as opposed to a quantitative or statistical apprach is a valuable supplement to the UN development work. The project demonstrates that the invovlment of young Kosovars in the process produces important and alternative angles to development work and makes it more relevant for the people affected. 

The project is centered around three week-long visits to Kosovo. Codesign students, UN staff and the students from UP have done collaborative design research activities like explorative city walks, workshops and filmmaking aimed at researching challenges and aspirations in the everyday of young Kosovars in the cities of Pristina and Gjilan. From this outset we have worked together towards new ways and venues for young Kosovars to gather and discuss matters of concern. We have prototyped a temporary 'dialogue cinema' in Gjilan as a way of addressing this.

The final delivery for UN is an overview and detailed description of the project's activities and events, that argues and communicates the value for UN in working with local youth through codesign methods.