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ASA supports young development activists
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10/2004 |
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[ EU enlargement ]
ASA supports young development activists
Bringing the old and new EU member states together offers great opportunities for a European development cooperation which is firmly anchored in civil society. GLEN, the “Global Education Network of Young Europeans”, a project of InWent’s ASA programme, has a practical contribution to offer. The project, a joint venture of partners from Central and Eastern Europe, encourages young people from Germany and the new member states to acquire a common experience of development policy.
[ By Albrecht Ansohn ]
Kostelecke Horky, May 2004. There’s plenty of hustle and bustle in the old school building of this small village near Brno. For five days 50 young Europeans from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are busy in the quarters of Inex – SDA, a Czech voluntary service organisation, preparing for their stay in Africa and Asia. They will spend three months there in binational teams of two, taking part in development projects.
The young people are part of the first year of a pilot project entitled “Global Education Network of Young Europeans” (GLEN), which enables committed students as well as young working people from Germany and EU-acceding countries to gain experience together in the South. Initiator of the project is InWEnt’s ASA programme (“Work and study stays in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Southeast Europe”). ASA has been sponsoring practical development policy experience for over 40 years. Traditionally students and non-academic working people prepare together for their training – in pairs – in developing countries and emerging economies.
Current development policy controversy about field personnel and a lack of congruity have induced ASA to shift its focus. While securing recruits for development cooperation was the emphasis for many years, ASA now views itself as a learning programme which stimulates trainees from a wide range of social and professional fields to think globally and act sustainably.
The EU – the world’s largest donor
And that is often what is needed. The EU plays a significant role in promoting development. It is the largest donor in the world, providing more than half of all public funding. On the other hand development policy interests are today often being linked to peace and security policy. Therefore, it is heartening when non-government organisations increasingly champion the subject of development policy.
The new EU member states have their own experiences to contribute to the larger community. Historically these were concentrated on a few states in the South. During the socialist era technical and military cooperation were considered much more important than fighting poverty or supporting sustainable development. Current development policy in the European Union, however, demands a different kind of expertise.
When ASA, supported by Trialog (Vienna), the Hans Böckler Foundation of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) and the state of Hamburg, first made contact with the Czech Republic, Estonia and Lithuania in 2002, this was very controversial among the young volunteers who participate in formulating the ASA programme. They were concerned that opening up to the East could be damaging to the partners in the South, and they were uncertain about a region and its people, who until then were largely alien to most of the otherwise well-travelled German ASA participants.
An opinion poll added to the uncertainty. Few Germans know much about their immediate neighbour, Poland. And worse, their perception of Poland is lower than of any of their other neighbouring countries. These factors show what a symbolic experiment it was bringing together young recruits from both sides of the old east-west divide and involving them in global development matters.
A shared experience is a bonding experience
People like Anda Vaice and Draginja Nadazdin have both helped transforming initial reservations into widespread approval since the first communal workshops were held in 2002. Both are part of the young generation of civil society activists in the Eastern acceding countries. With few resources at their disposal, but heaps of professional commitment, they tackle new topics in their countries – often swimming against the tide when they do.
Anda Vaice, a student of communication studies and project manager of NGO Strategy at Valmiera in Latvia says: “Many people here are still suffering from the rapid transition from communism to democracy, from the planned economy to the market economy. The term ‘development cooperation’ is not yet on the public agenda. After independence the first priorities here were our individual and national problems.”
Her Polish colleague, Draginja Nadazdin, adds: “Our general lack of interest in questions of global importance can be explained by the low number of refugees and migrants in Poland. Also, young Poles cannot usually afford to travel to developing countries. For these reasons people in Poland have hardly any contact with people from the South.” The young social scientist works for GLEN’s partner organisation PAH (“Polska Akcija Humanitarna”) in the field of education. PAH started up in 1995 by organising humanitarian aid convoys to Sarajewo. Today it is Poland’s largest and most dynamic non-governmental organisation for development policy.
Each of the new EU countries is structuring its framework for development policy at its own speed. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia NGOs are well organised. On the other hand, in the Baltic States interest in global matters is only just beginning to develop out of the environmental movement and migrant rights’ initiatives. Many of the new NGOs have their roots in civic movements or the churches. They are deliberately impartial. The old socialist DC organisations which are still in existence are positioned on the edge of this process of setting up a civil society DC. But many continue to have good contacts into the old partner countries such as Angola, Cuba or Vietnam.
Raising awareness of global problems
All partner organisations exist on project money, most of which they acquire from international organisations. That means that they have to generate with their projects the resources they need for capacity building and development policy lobbying. For “Strategy” in Latvia, previously involved mainly with social and minority matters, GLEN was a kind of catalyst: “It is thanks to GLEN that we were among the first people in Latvia to gain practical experience in the field of development cooperation. This enabled us to be a driving force in the foundation of a development policy NGO platform.” They are backed by the Soros Foundation in Latvia.
GLEN’s attraction for the participating partners lies in two core elements of the programme. By staying in the South in pairs, recruits gain their first practical experience without delay. Through sharing the preparation and assessment work, they also learn about development policy within the framework of European diversity.
Draginja Nadazdin was in the first team of members from five different countries, who arranged the 2004 GLEN preparation seminars. “Our German ASA colleagues did not tell us to ‘do it like this or like that’. From the beginning they insisted on a true exchange of experiences. I am very thankful for that. I very quickly realised that we were not only learning about the South, but about each other too. GLEN is a very complex process of learning about the South, about development cooperation, about Germany, about other European countries and about ourselves. We discuss topics which are important to us, such as the different history and tradition of our countries and our various learning cultures.”
In early discussions many participants considered the Germans controlling to the point of being intimidating, but not very good at listening. On the other hand most German participants were unprepared for the resolute anti-communist sentiment, the sense of religion and the patriotism many participants from Central and Eastern Europe felt towards their own countries. However, after ten days the unfamiliarity had given way to mutual esteem, and their opinions of each other had changed substantially.
It is impossible to predict whether GLEN will achieve its ambitious goal of creating a constant network of European development policy trainees. Ongoing funding has not yet been clarified. Financiers are still being solicited for 2005 for the participants from Central and Eastern Europe, who were largely supported in 2004 by Trialog and the federal state of Hamburg.
But the interim analysis at the end of the start-up phase is already promising great advantages for all concerned. The experience of diversity not only proved to be a great challenge to all participants, but also mobilised enormous amounts of energy and enthusiasm.
Albrecht Ansohn
heads the ASA programme (Work and study stays in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Southeast Europe) at InWEnt.
albrecht.ansohn@inwent.org |
