The closing session of the Open Data Fellowship – Youth Empowerment Against Corruption program was held as the final activity of the program cycle, bringing together fellowship participants, journalists, and activists. During this meeting, the results of the work carried out throughout the program were presented, as well as civil society initiatives in local and regional contexts related to transparency, accountability, and fact-checking in the public procurement sector. A dedicated lecture provided a detailed explanation of procurement risk indicators and assessment criteria.
To access the list of participants: Click Here.
Youth engagement in this program was carried out through application and selection via an open call:
The program is an initiative implemented annually with different groups of young people and aims to empower them through capacity building in the use of public data on expenditures and public contracting. Its focus has been on strengthening understanding and skills in public procurement, transparency, public accountability, and risk assessment in tenders.
Participants are mainly students from Economics and Law faculties. During the internship, they attended informational sessions on the use of data and databases for research, analysis, public policy planning, investigations, reporting, and monitoring of public expenditures.
The program is structured into two main components:
- Access and use of public data (economic and statistical data)
- Methods for monitoring and preventing corruption
Fellowship participants were introduced to research methodologies, legal frameworks, access instruments, and analytical tools for various data categories, including public expenditures and payments from budgetary institutions; the state budget and allocations for the executive and local government. Internship topics also included knowledge of public procurement through official and alternative databases; stages of the procurement process, risk assessment, integrity of public contractors, and EU integration issues related to procurement; business registry and beneficial ownership registry; asset declarations of high-ranking officials; political financing and electoral data; as well as public registers for access to information.
These topics were covered through practical exercises aimed at strengthening participants’ skills in using legal and technological tools for data access, analysis, and monitoring.
Participants of this program also took part in the DataThon Albania 2025 – Open Data Marathon, where fellowship members worked in collaboration with journalists and activists. During this two-day event, data collection, verification, and analysis were conducted on public procurement and Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). Participants worked in research groups using open databases such as Open Procurement Albania and Spending Data Albania, aiming to identify integrity-risk cases and analyze possible links with politically exposed entities.
About previous network events:
- Training Cycle Youth Empowetment aganst Corruption – Citizen Education, Improve Fact Checking Models Link https://ais.al/new/en/training-cycle-youth-empowerment-against-corruption-citizen-education-improve-fact-checking-models-2/
- Master Class on Electoral Integrity and Improvement through Data and Evidence-Based Processes https://ais.al/new/en/master-class-on-electoral-integrity-and-improvement-through-data-and-evidence-based-processes-open-data-youth-fellowship/
- DataThon Albania 2024 https://ais.al/new/en/datathon-albania-2024/
- DataMarathon on Party Financing Data, create Charts, Visualizations and Recommendations https://ais.al/new/en/570196/
- Forum Youth and Emigration; Corruption as inducement to live for a beter country Forum “Youth and Emigration: Corruption as inducement to live for a better country” – Albanian Institute of Science
- #YouthEmpowermentAgainstCorruption2025
- #OpenDataAlbania
- #OpenProcurementAlbania
- #Election2025
- #OpenDataFellowship2025