Dear friends, please find below my report and feel free to contact me for any further explanation or comment. ciao, Isabella -------------------------- ORIENTATION SEMINAR ON SEE European Youth Centre, Strasbourg, 9-14 May 2000. About 30 people representing youth NGOs and NYCs coming from SEE or active in the region have been invited by Mr.Lasse Siurala, Youth Director of the CoE (Directorate of Youth and Sports), to attend this Orientation Seminar. This seminar has contributed to confidence building between different actors in the region, particularly representatives of youth organisations and other NGOs from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The main aim of the seminar was to exchange experiences among all participants in order to define an "action plan for SEE" for developing youth policies and projects in the region. The Orientation Seminar will have a second phase in early 2001 (preparatory meeting to be held in Autumn 2000). 1. STABILITY PACT & ACTION PLAN Mr. Peter Lauritzen (CoE), co-ordinator of the working group on Young People, explained us the Stability Pact and the Action Plan. Stability Pact in SEE: it constitutes an international instrument for fostering democratic and economical stability in the region. More information available at: www.stabilitypact.org The Stability Pact operates through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs. After a global overview on this Pact we focused on the Youth Field, taking into account that in the end of 1999 a "Working Group on Young People" was established and the European Youth Forum (YFJ) is a member. This working group is co-ordinated by Mr. Peter LAURITZEN. The Working Group on Young People is part of the Task Force "Education and Youth of the enhanced Graz process". More information available at www.see-educoop.net SEE Action Plan of the CoE: the CoE Secretariat started to work on that in April '99. Later on a WG of the Joint Council called "Monitoring Group for SEE of the Advisory Council and CDEJ" has been established. The main aim of this working group is to monitor the CoE Youth Sector contribution to the Stability Pact. The CoE refused for a long time to have a regional policy approach, but two years ago everything changed and nowadays regional policies are more than welcomed. The instruments used by the CoE for developing this Action Plan are: - the Orientation Seminar on SEE (our seminar!); - the creation of a South East Youth Centre in Ohrid, Macedonia (mainly for training activities); - the ADACS program (50% of the program is going to SEE and training courses and workshops will be run in SEE); - the national reports on youth situations: at present the Romanian one is under preparation; - pilot projects on SEE funded by the EYF/CoE; these projects can be financed faster and regionally; - a Long Term Training Course for youth leaders in SEE. 2. MAIN TRENDS OF THE ACTIVITIES: DIFFICULTIES & OPPORTUNITIES The activities currently organised by NOGs are dealing with: youth exchanges, trainings, festivals, small local projects, internet clubs and media oriented projects (magazines etc.) and so on. Main DIFFICULTIES: - indifference, disbelief in the own capacity or the impact of NGOs; - hard visa regulation; - propaganda and lack of free and independent information; - lack of funding and also funding oriented organisations and projects; - international organisations "killing" local NGOs initiative by taking over the initiative or pushing local NGOs into following the agenda of the international organisations; - feeling of isolation (especially in Yugoslavia); - lack of knowledge about Europe; - rural areas differencies (most NGOs and projects centered in cities, nothing in rural areas); - scepticism among young people to new things or NGOs initiatives. Main OPPORTUNITIES: - to organise as many youth exchanges as possible in order to overcome isolation; - to foster mobility; - young people can be given a chance to meet their own needs; - there is a scope for impact and change since so little already exist; - young people can set their own agenda and be actors in promoting i.e. a youth policy at local level; - to ease visa regulations; - intercultural learning. 3. TOLERANCE, HUMAN RIGHTS & INTERCULTURAL LEARNING TOLERANCE: More focused on national minorities but also different religions, disabled people etc. have to be taken into consideration. Romania: there's a department for Minorities at the State level. Money from the state budget goes to different national minorities. 148 Roma organisations are recognised as official partners towards government and international organisations. Minorities want to keep their own languages and traditions, to have school classes in their own languages, to get more places at the universities etc. Hungary: many national minorities as well. Macedonia: multiethnic society. All different ethnic groups know each other very well. But there is still a lack of acceptance. This is due to the fact that in the communist society nobody could be different and the stereotype of the so-called "normal person" continues nowadays. In the communist society disabled people were isolated. A family with disabled children was excluded and considered as a "pariah". This situation is still continuing especially at "psychological" level. Vojvodina (YU): many different nationalities are living together. The CIVIL SOCIETY was not developed 10 years ago and it's still weak and in many cases "under construction". ECONOMICAL SITUATION: 10 years ago the job was provided by the State in all the communist countries. Now it's a real "fight for surviving". The rate of unemployment is very high in the whole SEE region. In Yugoslavia people were used to better living conditions compared to other communist countries, and now... Many international organisations and big firms are willing to help SEE but sometimes it's just for their interest and it could become dangerous... EDUCATION is a very important tool in order to improve tolerance. Peer education, non-formal education and intercultural learning have to be fostered. A new approach towards tolerance, acceptance and human rights is needed in the whole region, and in the countries not directly involved in the was as well. 4. ACTION PLAN DEVELOPMENT -MOBILITY: To support the mobility in South East Europe, by providing availability and access to the youth programs and activities for all countries in the region. To start the dialogue with the purpose of establishing good working relations between the local NGOs and the foreign embassies. -BALANCED APPROACH of LOCAL and REGIONAL INITIATIVES: To recognise the importance of local activities as well as multilateral projects, in order to achieve a balanced development of the region. The multilateral projects should have a direct positive impact on the youth work on local level. Having in mind the importance of the regional connections, the emphasis should be put on the work in the local communities and to improve the local youth involvement. - INTERACTION BETWEEN INGOs and LOCAL NGYOs: To stimulate the co-ordination and collaboration among local NGYOs, regional and international organisations and institutions. - NATIONAL UMBRELLA STRUCTURES: To support national umbrella organisations and national youth networks, to provide them with all necessary administrative support and to answer their capacity needs. To accept the local and national youth councils as partners in the process of the stabilisation of the region. To support the establishment of youth centres as a youth friendly places in the local communities which can serve as training and youth information centres. To expand the scope of the work of the European Youth Centre Network (ERYCA) in the region of SEE in the establishing phase. - HUMAN CAPACITY BUILDING PROCESS: To improve the human capacity building process by organising training for youth leaders and youth workers in the region. To liberate resources of INGOs at the local level for the long term benefit of the young people. - MUNICIPAL YOUTH POLICY: To initiate the creation of local authorities youth policy in the areas where such a policy does not exist and to stimulate the already existing initiatives from the local governing bodies. - EMPLOYMENT: To provide the facilities for the young people to create economic and employment opportunities for themselves through local, national and international support by seed funding and appropriate training and consultancy opportunities. - DISSEMINATION of KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE: To recognise the good functioning youth structures in the region and to provide them with the possibility to spread their knowledge and experience to other youth organisations and young people. - PRESERVE EXISTING STRUCTURES: To rely on, preserve and respect all existing structures, contacts and organisations in the region and to involve them in the regional stabilisation process. To create a directory of already existing organisations, networks and programs with the inclusion of possible donors and sponsors. - OMBUDSMAN ON YOUTH: To establish an ombudsman on youth as a mechanism of protecting young people's rights. - EDUCATION: There is no concept of education for citizenship in the region. To promote the participation in formal education, promote the participation of pupils and students in school/university management. This gives the youth the opportunity to really influence their environment, teach them to be socially active but also teach "adults" that they are not the only ones who should make decisions. But formal education is not enough, people need also to have practice concerning participation and in that way schools must not take the role of NGOs, youth organisations, etc. To promote non formal education. This is still a strange concept in the region, although the non formal education is probably the most effective way of learning, especially in the field of education for citizenship. To educate young people and warn them about mafia, human trafficking, corruption. To promote healthy life styles, good values. Teacher training is essential as well. ---------------- ************************* Isabella Casartelli YFJ/CoE Commission AEGEE Genova tel: +39-010-645 32 82 email: [log in to unmask] ************************* ============================================================================= MISC-REG-L is hosted on aegeeserv courtesy of AEGEE-Karlsruhe. Check out http://www.aegee.uni-karlsruhe.de/archives for the archives of public lists. To unsubscribe send 'unsubscribe MISC-REG-L' to [log in to unmask]