Applications invited for participation in West African Youth for Sustainable Development Regional Meeting 2011 (WAY-SD)

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"Applications invited for participation in West African Youth for Sustainable Development Regional Meeting 2011 (WAY-SD)

By fundsforngos, on May 30th, 2011

Applications are invited for The West African Youth for Sustainable Development Regional Meeting 2011 (WAY-SD) aimed at mobilizing the youth representatives from West Africa for a unique but experiential three-centre event in Accra, Kumasi & Tamale-Ghana from 10th -16th August 2011

The meeting is organized by Young People We Care together with Peace Child International – the lead partner for the Road to Rio +20 youth mobilization plus several other partners from different regions of the world.

The role of West African youth in efforts towards sustainable development and the post 2015 development agenda will be key on our agenda for this meeting

The Meeting is co-funded by the European Commission under its Youth in Action programme to: – Promote youth participation, democratic citizenship and the development of youth organizations; – Increase the role of youth in environment and sustainable development issues.

Objectives of the youth Meeting

The key objective is to West African Youth Meeting is to promote dialogue and understand among youth on what is meant by the Green Economy – its advantages over the Brown economy etc. We seek to empower West African youth to claim OWNERSHIP of their place in the preparatory process of the Rio + 20.

To create an all inclusive and practical meeting through a 3-centre location meeting that will include town hall consultations and visits to rural locations to listen to the voices of rural folks and also visit youth model project for sustainable development.

A further key objective is to encourage young people to prepare Personal ACTION Plans (PAPs) for sustainable development and the Green Economy – and complete them when they get home. In this way, African Youth will come to Rio+20 saying to governments: “Look what we did! Help us do more!” – rather than just waving a piece of paper with demands.

To create a youth statement that is representative of the needs of youth in the region for the Rio + 20 preparatory process.

To achieve cooperation beyond borders of the West African network and make an impact on young people around the world through our International Partners.

To get governments and others in authority to “See Youth as a resource, not a problem….”

Eligibility

All participants should:

be aged between 15 and 35

be ready to share their knowledge and experience in their institutional or organisational context be experienced in youth policy processes and sustainability issues in their organisations and countries.

have multiplying effect (able to spread the outcome of the West Africa Youth Meeting to other youth growth or stakeholders such as government or private sector )

be able to travel to Ghana on the 10th of August and depart on 16th August

be willing to actively contribute to the debates

and committed to take part in the whole duration of the event

be able to work in English or French

The deadline for submitting the application is June 19, 2011. For further information and details, please visit the link.

Events    agenda, development, economy, peace child international, Regional, road to rio, sustainable development issues, tamale ghana, WAY-SD, youth mobilization"  

ABOUT FUNDSFORNGOS:

"fundsforngos.org is an online initiative, working for the sustainability of NGOs by increasing their access to donors, resources and skills. It uses online technologies to spread knowledge about organizational sustainability, promote creative ideas for long-term generation of institutional funds for development interventions, improve professional efforts in resource mobilization and advocate for increased allocation of donor resources for building the skills and capacities of NGOs.

Due to a number of international factors, NGOs in developing countries are currently facing unique and unexpected challenges not only in terms of limited resources and but also in their inability to creatively respond to the changing needs. This adverse climate is the result of the decades of aid policy practiced and imposed by donors that has inadvertently led to a handicapped situation where NGOs are unable to access full-fledged resources anymore and they also have poor skills to respond to the new marketing trends in the development sector.

fundsforngos.org believes in effectuating strategies that are directly relevant to NGOs and contribute to the development of their skills and capacities for ensuring their own sustainability at first place and then upgrade their roles and responsibilities to become professionally-oriented service delivery organizations. Services cannot just be limited to microfinance or microenterprise activities, but can also include tasks like educating communities on human rights, gender and international policies. fundsforngos.org also believes that no developmental intervention can be sustainable (or “successful”) unless the implementing organization has sustainable resources to work over a longer period of time. Often donors ignore this fact and provide tied and untied resources to NGOs without heeding to their long-term resource challenges. We believe it is very important to address this issue before any donor commits to fund an organization. Additionally, the donors should allocate substantial budget in any developmental intervention for building skills and resources for the implementing NGO so that it can sustain over longer period of time.

fundsforngos.org intends to create awareness about opportunities to sustain NGOs in the long-run and address the issue of short-term donor support which lacks any plan for organizational sustainability. Such kinds of support not only implicate NGOs in embarrassing situations but also disturb the established community practices. Long-term support is essential, where NGOs get opportunities to build their own skills, creatively respond to the market needs and have clear business plans in place for the sustainability of their own institutions. In the present times, many experiments have been made by innovative organizations around the world that have not only sustained other institutions but have also opened new business opportunities leading to profitable activities. NGOs can earn profits to a certain extent, but then if their profits become excessive, they always have the option of transforming into companies and use part of the profits to fund developmental interventions. Innovative and need-based activities such as microfinance, microenterprise and microinsurance have proved to be sustainable both for the NGOs as well as for the client communities.

However, sustainability also means many sacrifices. NGOs may find it difficult to adopt sustainable solutions immediately because of the prevailing environment of donor presence. We are aware about the fact that donor-driven funding is still a critical source of support for many organizations, but we also point out that it should not be the only source of support expected by the organizations. We should explore other opportunities for funding and ensuring how our NGO stands in the next ten or fifteen years.

In this website, we present donor resources available for NGOs around the world and also hint upon other ways for sustaining organizations over the long-term. We also hope there will be gradual increase in the interest of the NGOs for adopting practices that ensure their institutional sustainability and long-term development.

To contact us, visit this page.

fundsforngos.org is wholly owned by FUNDSFORNGOS, LLC located at 866, United Nations Plaza, Suite 437, New York, NY 10017, USA.

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