Serious concerns about the growing politicization and the increasing political culture of division have been expressed by the European Commission in its official report on Macedonia's progress in 2014 (EC Progress Report, 2014: 2). Strong evidence of that is the awareness of the deep politicization and poor civic activism observed in several public opinion surveys among the citizens. In fact, according to data from the research of political culture conducted by the Institute for Democracy "Societas Civilis" in 2011, 59.4% of the respondents have never signed a petition, and 60.4% have never volunteered in any type of organization (IDSCS, 2011: 23 and 25). Additional data indicative of the deep politicization, poor civic activism and initiative is the fact that 79.2% have never filed an objection against a state institution (IDSCS, 2011: 25). Undoubtedly, this situation most seriously affects young people, especially in smaller rural communities whose interests, initiatives and ideas rarely or almost never are realized, or articulated. Living in such conditions, with virtually non-existent youth participation in decision making at the local level, the startling results of a survey conducted by the Youth Education Forum (MOF) in 2010 that 45% of young people do not see their future and want to leave Macedonia, are completely understandable (Youth Education Forum, 2010). Taking into account all these, and the additional fact that of all the respondents who have volunteered in any organization, 55.6% have done it at the local level, and 17.5% at the regional (ICDS, 2011: 25) highlights the need and necessity of active efforts to increase youth participation in decision making at the local level. The National Youth Strategy of the Republic of Macedonia emphasizes youth participation in decision making at the local level as a major priority. In addition, there is almost complete absence of communication between key stakeholders at the local level and youth. All these indicators of the actual situation of the young people in Macedonia prompted the need and importance of launching a project for a deeper research and insight of the significance and role of the youth in the overall life in the society. Thus, it is of crucial importance to establish channels of structural dialogue between key stakeholders and youth at the local level, in order to more appropriately identify the most immediate concerns and constrains of young people and ultimately to effectively address them.Therefore, the overall project goal was to establish mechanisms to strengthen the participation of young people in rural areas.The specific objectives were: 1. To establish dialogue between young people and key stakeholders at the local level in rural areas 2. To identify gaps, challenges and needs related to youth participation at local level in rural areas 3. To raise awareness about the importance of youth participation in decision making at the local level in rural areas. The identified objectives have been achieved through the following activities: A1: Four round-tables for at least 25-30 young people and key stakeholders (per round-table) at the local level in four rural municipalities (Ilinden, Vrapciste, Karbinci and Mogila) A1.1: Summary of findings and production of policy brief A1. 2: Establishment and maintenance of project website A2: Conference for at least 40-50 key stakeholders in the field of youth policy and youth work in Skopje is expected that the project will produce immediate (that is, during the lifetime of the project) impact on the target groups, in that it will directly involve them in dialogue and discussion with local relevant key stakeholders, whereas they will be able to openly discuss the challenges and constraints that they are facing. In addition, over the mid-to-long term the expected impact of the project was increased awareness among young people from rural areas about their position in society and their role in the strengthening and development of the local democracy. They will also be encouraged to more actively engage in dialogue with key stakeholders at the local level, discuss the challenges and constraints they are facing, and directly be involved in issues related to them.