The Centre “Science and Innovation for Development” (SCiDEV) in cooperation with LIBURNETIK Organisation and with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania, hosted a youth debate on integrity at the Destil Creative Hub in the framework of the Week of Integrity 2021 for the second year in a row. Two teams of mixed high school and university students debated the motion: “All digitalization advancement must be human-centered”.
Participants of two teams were: Affirmative Team – Marime Gjoka (Team Leader), Dimitri Çipi, Eni Shtembari, Klejdi Lako and Opposite Team – Brisilda Ormeni (Team Leader), Gloriano Sherifi, Iris Beqiri, Nidia Fino
The two teams showed a well-organized preparation and in-depth arguments in facts and statistics of the latest reports of important institutions in the field of digitalization. Some of the areas where teams focused most of their discourse were democracy, medicine, and economics. The Affirmative team, after evaluating the positive aspects of digitalization at the same time, brought evidence regarding the ethical views of its functioning in sectors where the human approach to decision-making is essential. of pandemics. The topic itself, although part of their daily life as they themselves emphasized, is a topic that also requires a philosophical perspective about its future development. The Affirmative team’s motto was to bring evidence that digitalization should be part of the system and not the system as a whole and that human nature should shape digitalization while the Opposite team focused its motion on the aspect that human nature can have a great benefit from digitalization if they know how to use it properly and that it does not pose a threat. The teams showed high ethics in communication and organization of the debate. Throughout the preparation, the teams were mentored by Erida Curraj and Ergys Gezka who all the time gave their advice for a more concise preparation of the teams.
This event had the honor to have as a jury of the debate His Excellency Mr. HE Reinout Vos, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania, the representative of the OSCE presence, Mrs. Arianna Briganti and Mr. Jean-Baptiste Le Bras, from the Delegation of the European Union to Albania, who praised the preparation by complementing both teams on the ethics shown in the debate and gave very valuable advice for public speaking for the debating youth. They suggested how young people can do their research and also express their attitude around the topic. After the evaluation by the jury, the two team leaders Marime Gjoka and Brisilda Ormeni expressed their impressions of the preparation phase and cooperation with colleagues as well as the organizations, thanking them for the opportunity. Ms. Blerjana Bino congratulated all students and thanked the jury for valuable inputs and suggestions for students. She underlined the importance of having a public debate on the impact of digitalization on various aspects of life including human rights. SCiDEV is committed to empowering youth to become well-informed, active citizens and engaged in decision making and public life.
