One-third of the food produced globally ends up as waste. This complex issue has a variety of negative social, economic, and environmental impacts. The food we produce requires large amounts of water, land, energy, and labour, creates a significant environmental footprint, and when landfilled contributes to greenhouse gas emission (primarily methane), and this nutrient-rich mixture combined with atmospheric water washes down to underground waters, soiling the water and making this issue even worse.  

The city of Belgrade doesn’t have a specific set of measures dealing with this type of waste which falls into the category of biodegradable waste. Some amounts of biowaste collected through the integral waste management system are being composted, and none of it is used for energy production since there is no waste-to-energy facility. Therefore, the food waste in Belgrade should be reduced in order to lower the amounts being landfilled.  

Social research revealed that two of the youngest segments of the population (18-25 and 26-35) had the lowest score on food waste prevention.  

Food wasting is a huge problem in Serbia, without clear strategy on how to combat it.  

The Belgrade Open School (BOS) with the support of the Kingdom of Sweden is implementing the project "Advancing Media and Youth CSOs for Prosperous Democratic Development of Serbia - MAY4DD" which aims to encourage partnerships between the media and youth organizations to democratize society and respect the rule of law and human rights on a local level. The project was launched in June 2021 and will last until May 31, 2025. 

Unstable democracy in the Republic of Serbia directly affects the lack of transparency, independence and pluralism of the media, investigative journalism, civic activism and the commitment of young people to solving social and political issues.

The project supported 7 youth CSOs and 7 media, which jointly implement their 7 partnership projects and initiatives.  

Through financial and mentoring support, as well as the capacity building program of 14 partners annually, BOS will strive to strengthen the media, youth sector and youth and actively contribute to the democratic values of the rule of law and human rights, especially in their local communities. 

Program activity 2: Capacity Building Hub 

In order to improve the capacities of selected CSOs and media and ensure the sustainability of the project, this activity will be implemented in several methodologically different but complementary sub-activities. The capacity building and networking program will be organized at three levels. The first level includes group trainings in accordance with the needs of all program partners. The second level of training includes workshops tailored to the specific needs of youth CSOs and the media, while the third level will provide space for individual training that will allow partners to focus on the development of the organization, as well as its short-term and long-term goals. 

Program activity 3: Youth Investigative Journalism 3.0 

The Academy of Investigative Journalism will be organized in the form of a three-month educational program with the aim of providing young journalists with various trainings, mentoring support and networking with experienced journalists. The Academy will provide young investigative journalists with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to be able to create media products independently, but with the mentorship of experienced colleagues and financial support.  

This four-year program represents a synergy between the media, youth organizations and young people working on the same mission of further democratization of Serbian society. The partnership between the media and youth CSOs will be based on common values and ideas, as well as project proposals that they will submit in partnership, while maintaining a special corpus of activities.