Adopting a human rights-based approach in today’s governance requires encouragement of young people motivated to bring positive changes for the future. Since 2017, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) together with Lund University,has been contributing to the Swedish Institute Academy for Young Professionals (SAYP) “Perspectives on Multi-level Governance, Decentralisation & Human Rights” to support this mission. Dedicated to developing a new wave of leaders equipped with the knowledge and skills of human rights-based management, the programme brings together young professionals from different sectors including public administration, and civil society. Zuzana Zalanova, the Director of the RWI Europe Office and the coordinator of the RWI journey of SAYP, shares insights into the programme’s profound impact, methodologies, and future aspirations.
The Transformative Power of SAYP
Over the years, SAYP has become an inspiration for leadership for young professionals. Reflecting on RWI’s engagement with the programme, Zalanova highlights the networks created during the programme and the growth of the SAYP alumni. “Participants often express how SAYP has become an integral part of their identity,” she explains. “They got to know many people with similar challenges, situations, and opportunities in other countries, and now they have these networks as a support in their journey. It is also a bit of an empowerment journey for them. Usually, when we think about young professionals, we do not see them as leaders, but that is something that we would like to see more. Making passive more active to show that young people do not need to be the ones only following what their senior colleagues say, but they can make a change themselves. That is a step to leadership.”
Incorporating a Human Rights-Based Approach
RWI is engaged in the programme sessions that focus on Human Rights, which is important for today’s governance, especially in the programme-targeted regions. Zalanova underscores the capacity of the programme to integrate human rights into various sectors of public administration, often beyond the comfort zones of participants. “We often have participants who are representatives of different ministries or local governments. Sometimes they may not have any understanding of human rights, but after SAYP they produce some ideas of what they can do. I am not saying they all implement them, but it is interesting to see how they are trying to think about that,” she adds.
The RWI sessions include various methods, and it is not like traditional classroom teaching. Zalanova mentions that the methods include teamwork, experimental learning, practice-based learning, peer-to-peer sharing and comparative analysis. Teamwork and co-creation are the key components of the programme, which is, according to Zalanova, interesting to see in practice, because the programme deals with multi-sectoral groups. “You have lots of colleagues you can get inspiration from. That many times inspires them a lot,” she adds.
Advancing the SAYP Connections
At the beginning of March, RWI conducted a follow-up workshop with alumni of last year’s SAYP in Tbilisi, Georgia, from where the programme has many participants. According to Zalanova, this workshop was an experiment helping the alumni to start activating their skills in an environment which is more familiar and tangible for them, instead of just seeing it in Sweden.
Study visits to institutions in Georgia and the subsequent reflection in the alumni group also highlighted some more opportunities that SAYP provides. “We realised that one of the key problems, not only in Georgia, but other countries in the region, is polarisation not only between the sectors which is government and civil society, but also within the sectors, even within civil society as such. In SAYP, there were participants from different sectors, and they had to be team players when contributing to the group works and other activities. What was interesting is that we saw that they could actually create something constructive together, and, I think, that is the important potential of SAYP” Zalanova notices.
Challenges and the Future of the Programme
As with all the important initiatives, SAYP has its challenges as well. Zalanova highlights the importance of investing in participants as individuals rather than representatives of different organisations or sectors in the future. Many participants change their workplaces during the SAYP programme, while they were selected as participants of a specific organisation.
Another challenge is that the contexts of different participant countries are to be considered thoroughly because it is usually difficult for participants to find support to realise some changes in their countries. “Many of them actually manage to mobilize other funding from their other activities or try to think about some smaller changes towards greater implementation of human rights to address issues close to them. So, it is about how each of them can find some way. What stays with all of them is the inspiration. They found this blended mix between practice and theory, public administration, human rights, decentralisation. Plus, they are having lots of fun and get many useful connections during the programme”.
For years, SAYP has been an inspiring programme for empowering young professionals, equipping them with the tools and networks necessary for leadership, governance, and human rights advocacy. Through its practice-based approaches and commitment to experiential learning, the programme not only shapes future leaders but also creates a global community united for a better future.
The SAYP is implemented in partnership with the Lund University Commissioned Education (LUCE) and Lund University School of Economics and Management (LUSEM) with the support of the Swedish Institute.
Learn more about the previous SAYP programmes