Energy poverty is a significant problem in rural parts of the Western Balkans due to the local population's unawareness, low level of education and low incomes. Young people with fewer opportunities living in rural areas are lacking knowledge and information on the energy efficiency measures for several reasons: lack of curricula in schools regarding energy efficiency programs, there is a few numbers of organizations (youth workers) in the rural areas who are lacking capacities to transfer knowledge to rural youth on energy efficiency programs, the level of using digital technologies/ICT is low, language barriers etc.To address the above challenge the project aims to develop tools and new forms of training schemes to empower youth workers to become energy advisors and train rural youth with a purpose to make a smart energy transition of rural areas. The main objectives of the project are i) Empowering youth workers in becoming energy advisors with high quality expertise in the field of energy efficiency/energy audits through competencies related to energy poverty; 2) Engaging rural youth in assessing the level of energy poverty and addressing recommendations for energy transition of rural areas though GETA app; 3) Disseminating the results and the methodology.The project addresses the research component through practical methods and education of rural young people vulnerable to energy poverty in their households, in supporting the energy transition of rural areas in the Western Balkan. The project is foreseen to last for a period of 24 months, and will involve 5 partners, where 3 partners are from Western Balkan and two partners from EU. The expected results of the project: 1 Research report with overall energy poverty challenges in EU and WB is developed and addressed; 20 youth workers have acquired skills and tools to assess and reduce the energy poverty in rural areas; 1 GETA app, online source developed, 50 rural youth engaged in local events

People living in peripheral areas along the Western Balkan generally are exposed to poverty, pollution,and social inequality. Other relevant issues include unplanned settlement, squatter settlement or popularsettlement which explains the occupation by low-income households. The challenges that are present inthe peripheral areas relate to social elements such as discrimination of women and young people,prejudice and inequalities, environmental and urban elements as lack of access to clean water, properwaste collection, housing, access to education and economic elements such lack of employmentopportunities.To address the needs the project aims to gather for a period of 24 months 6 partners from EU andWestern Balkan countries to exchange practices and address the appropriate tools. The overallgoal of the project is engaging -empowering and enabling - youth to lead sustainable actions fortransforming peripheral areas into livable areas through sharing good practices, innovative tools, andmethods. The main objectives of the project are: Empowering young professionals from participatingorganizations with appropriate tools and methods to influence the transformation of peripheral areas intolivable areas, ii) Engaging and enabling rural youth to effectively contribute to scaling up peripheral areasupgrading. iii) Disseminating the results and the methodology of the project with the purpose of making awider impact to the society through online events and virtual communication.The main results of the project are: The capacities of 24 young professionals will be raised through themobility activities, more than 20 rural youth from each organization are engaged in local activities andtheir capacities will be increased, 1 toolkit and gamification game on urban design is developed anddelivered to young professionals, more than 10000 people are reached through dissemination activities,and digital events and communication.

According to EUROSTAT the EU's population is projected to peak around 2050, reaching 526 million persons, an increase of 18.7 million (or 3.7 %) compared with the situation in 2014. This growth in the population brings the challenge to adjust to the demands by changing food requirements of populations which also creates a series of environmental pressures. Western Balkan countries are struggling in reaching the mentioned goal. Despite the potential for agribusiness, Western Balkan are facing agricultural production decline and GHG emission increase due to common reasons throughout the Region: low input use and low quality of seeds; poor technical and technological farm equipment; outmoded cultivation and seeding practices; limited irrigation; low use of modern equipment and techniques; dominance of subsistence agriculture; use of marginal land for crop. Western Balkans countries suffer from this severe regional issues bringing high levels of unemployment, especially among the youth. The lack of effective vocational education and the poor alignment of educational outcomes with the requirements of theeconomy result in skills mismatches on the labor market and a low employability of the labor force.According to the World Bank economic report the rates for the 2016 were: Bosnia 60%, Macedonia 50%, Montenegro 38%, Albania 33%. Young people have limited access to training and resources to establish their own businesses due to the lack of both hard (mastering of new technologies) and soft skills (communication, teamwork and collaborative problem solving), industry knowledge andpractical experience resulting in regular migration flows toward urban cities posing a significant challenge to long-term growth and sustainability.YEAP project aims to empower youth towards innovative green agro-technologies and start up business creation as the main driver to achieve food security and employability in an environmental friendly way through NFE methods. Our target group is the rural youths because we firmly believe that they are the future of the agricultural sector in participating countries. Young farmers can play an important role in ensuring food security for future generations equipped with the proper knowledge and skills in agro-farming and entrepreneurship. Keen on organic farming rural youth are very creative and opened target group in exploring these new opportunities. Objectives of the project are to educate the youths and train them on sustainable agriculture and entrepreneurship, to promote and support Sustainable Agricultural Enterprises, to explore the Erasmus + Programme with a special focus on quality international cooperation, to develop participant’s competences in planning non formal education and intercultural activities; promoting social inclusion of young people, in line with the EU 2020 strategy, by improving the professional skills of the youth workers.