2ND AFRICA-EUROPE
TRAINING COURSE
FOR YOUTH ORGANISATIONS

A Training course on
Youth participation for Poverty Reduction

AT THE 5TH UNIVERSITY ON YOUTH AND DEVELOPMENT

8-15 October 2004, Mollina, Spain

SUMMARY OF THE COURSE

This will be the second edition of this training Course after a very encouraging first experience in April 2002 in Tarrafal, Cabo Verde. The 2nd Euro- African Training Course for Youth Organisations will enable key youth multipliers in Africa and in Europe to share strategies to increase co-operation in youth work and to strengthen youth participation in civil society. The course will focus on capacity building for key multipliers in national youth structures, in particular in the design, implementation and evaluation of youth-led poverty reduction strategies.

In this course participants will acquire knowledge and skills to develop the capacity of their organisations as civil society, non-state actors in the development process. Participants will learn of differing models of capacity-building, initiatives in the field of youth participation in poverty-reduction strategies; they will also learn of new models being developed in different African and European contexts.

The week-long course is designed using a process of mutual learning, the participants' experiences being the starting point of the training process. Active participation and in-depth reflection are key methodologies used in the course – as methodologies that have proven successful in similar courses previously. Participants will compare their approaches to youth work and youth participation, engaging in the implementation and evaluation of the programme with the team of trainers.

The course will also provide an excellent space for networking and finding partners; this dimension will be most strongly encouraged by the team of trainers. As a result of the course, an experimental project in best practice in youth participation in poverty reduction will be identified, implemented and jointly monitored by the participants.

BACKGROUND

There has been growing recognition in the last decade of the need for civil society involvement in development processes. More recently, there is a clearer understanding that civil society is diverse, and that capacity building with particular sectors of civil society is required in order for these sectors to fully shape, participate in, and benefit from the development process. Nowhere is this clearer than with the youth sectors in both European and African countries.

The North-South Centre has been taking and active part in increasing the role and the capacity of civil society and its recognition in Euro-African Co-operation. Moreover it has been following closely the most relevant international processes and fora that are developing strategies in this direction. This has been the case of the Copenhagen Process and more recently of the European Social Development Conference. The Centre has equally paid particular attention to the different Intergovernmental Euro-African co-operation processes such as the Lomé Conventions, the ACP-EU Agreement from Cotonou and the Grand Bay Declaration at African level, and has been involved in putting forward a common vision of promoting Euro-African civil society partnership and strengthening the role of the non State actors.

The North-South Centre, in the frame of the 2000 Euro-African Summit in Cairo, initiated and convened the Africa-Europe Civil Society Forum, which allowed representatives from African and European NGOs communities to express their main concerns and to address recommendations to the Heads of State and Government during the Summit. These recommendations opened long-term perspectives, allowing the main objective of the Forum to be achieved: to formulate an agenda and an action plan for the reinforcement of the Civil Society in Africa and its consolidation in the context of a Euro-African partnership.

Strengthening civil society’s ability to organise and take action, in particular in connection with decentralised co-operation; supporting and promoting civil society action to prevent conflict and ensure respect for the rule of law and good governance; organising effective efforts to combat poverty with a view to promoting social welfare.

THE ROLE OF THE NORTH-SOUTH CENTRE

The North-South Centre has continued his engagement in promoting multilateral cooperation between Europe and African not only at the Intergovernmental level but also by encouraging and supporting the cooperation of Civil Society in Africa and in Europe. It has been strongly involved in the NEPAD process, particularly by encouraging the full participation of Civil Society.

In this comprehensive framework programme a number of initiatives are foreseen which also include a strong youth dimension. The Final Declaration of the Civil Forum stated “We recognise that Youth organisations have a strong role to play in the creation of peaceful and democratic societies where good governance exists. Therefore we are committed to supporting the creation of youth oriented programmes within programmes of the EU, African Union and through bilateral co-operation of their member states. These will allow youth organisations to build up training exchanges and development projects in Africa and Europe. We recommend the creation of a space to promote and foster permanent and stable co-operation and partnership between youth organisations of both regions so as to identify new partners, promote relevant actions and activities and build our capacities. We support the proposal articulated by Youth organisations of African and European youth societies for the creation of an Africa Europe Youth Forum which will mobilise the key youth actors in the two regions and develop their long term strategy and commitment”

The North-South Centre is organising this training course to ensure a platform for capacity building of youth leaders and youth workers in the specific frame of the Africa Europe Co-operation, to enhance youth organisations role as non-state actors in the development process.

The North-South Centre partners, and more particularly the Youth Organisations active in North–South Co-operation, engaged and with interest in the Euro African co-operation, have identified and requested the experience of the North-South Centre as fundamental to ensure the richness and outreach of this type of projects. Due to extensive network of working relations with youth organisations in both regions, but also because of its unique quadrilogue working structure, the Centre is well placed to provide a clear added value to such a project, furthermore the first edition of the Euro-African Training Course in 2002 was a very successful process that strongly encouraged the North-South Centre to organise a second edition of this course.

The North-South Centre has identified youth and its organisations as a priority target for its activities, in doing so the Centre also includes youth organisations in its statutory bodies and engages in a co-management of its youth programme with the regional youth platforms. The North-South Centre aims at raising awareness and increase solidarity among young people by promoting and facilitating their active participation in the field of Global Interdependence and Solidarity. It also works towards the implementation of policy to include youth perspectives in all development policy of the national states, as well as to strengthen youth participation in all programmes and policies relating to Global Interdependence and North-South Dialogue. The Centre strives to support and enhance capacity building for youth organisations in North-South Dialogue and development education at national and regional level.

This project would be a natural progression of the training programme for youth organisations of the North- South Centre developed over the past 12 years. Such training programme includes an annual training course for Youth Organisations in North-South Co-operation, an Africa Europe Training Course for Youth Organisations, the Partnership on Euro-Mediterranean youth co-operation in the field of training, a Euro-Asian Training Course and the University on Youth and Development. The North-South Centre is also developing a specialised pool of trainers in North-South Youth Work with trainers and experts from the different regions, experienced in different themes, methods and dimensions of North-South training. This pool of trainers will assist in the development of the course.

AIM OF THE COURSE

The training course aims to strength the role of youth organisations as civil society actors and youth ability to organise and take action, in particular in connection with decentralised co-operation on poverty eradication and Social cohesion and to identify educational principles to promote global citizenship of young people in Europe and Africa.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The concrete objectives of the training are to enable participants:
v to strengthen individual and organisational capacities for youth participation in development;
v to increase skills and understanding regarding youth participation and leadership;
v to acquire know-how on concepts and challenges of youth work, youth policies and institutions in the two regions;
v to reflect upon topics of importance to strengthen active citizenship (e.g. culture and identity, human rights, democracy, participation, exclusion and integration), development, education, globalisation;
v to co-operate in a network with other participants and their projects;
v to create operational tools and act as multipliers by passing on the training and knowledge acquired;
v to gain an understanding about the needs and possibilities for co-operation and dialogue between the societies in Europe and Africa;
v to live through an intercultural experience with the opportunity to develop expertise and know-how on intercultural learning in the specific Euro-African context;
v to identify, plan, and, after the course, monitor and evaluate a pilot project.

METHODOLOGY OF THE TRAINING

The course is designed as a process of mutual learning, with the participants' experiences and realities as the starting point of the training process. Active participation and in-depth reflection are the keys to the success of this course. Participants will compare their approaches to youth work and participate in the implementation and evaluation of the programme with the team of trainers.

The training methodology is based on a number of successful experiences of training for youth workers and youth leaders developed by the North-South Centre and the Directorate of youth and Sport of the Council of Europe as for example: 10 years of North-South Training Courses for Youth Organisations, The University on Youth and Development, the Euro-Mediterranean Youth Training Programme and over the 3 decades of Youth Work Training of the Directorate of Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe. The North-South Centre, together with its partners, has developed and tested training methods and tools for this type of activities; it also benefited from the knowledge of some of the best trainers and youth workers in the field of co-operation. The team of experienced trainers from Africa and Europe will be responsible to further design and implement the methodology of the course.

Invited guests and experts will provide proposals for reflection in a process based on non-formal education and participant-centred methodologies. Thus, the course will be also a mutual learning situation, where participants can compare their approaches and concerns in a dialogical intercultural approach and environment. The use of experiential methods and workshops will strengthen the practical side of the course.

The course is a week-long training Programme using a variety of educational methodologies such as: thematic, methodological and political inputs and discussions, new technologies, guides and reference documents, simulation exercises, groups dynamics, interactive role plays, examples of good practices, etc.

Educational team of the course

The educational team for this course is composed by 4 trainers with relevant experience in youth work and Euro African co-operation, two of the trainers are African and the other two European. The trainers have specific and complementary experience and will be recruited specifically to further design and implement this course. It should be expected that the trainers’ team also reflect gender balance and the cultural, political and geographical diversity of the regions.

Working languages

The different sessions of the Course will be in English and French, candidates are requested to indicate all their working languages and language level in the application form and should be fluent at least in one of the two languages.

Expected results

· Build the capacity of multipliers in youth organisations in Europe and Africa with the necessary skills to develop and run Africa Europe co-operation programmes, notably those aiming at poverty reduction;
· An informal network of youth leaders and organisations with interest in developing Africa Europe co-operation and actively committed to the strengthening of Civil Society;
· A series of co-operation and exchange programmes between youth organisations in Europe and in Africa;
· An increase in understanding and dialogue between young people, and their organisations, in European and African countries.
· An increase in the understanding of the cultural, social, economical and political context of the Africa Europe Relations

Profile of Participants

The participants in this course are representatives of youth organisations in Europe, and Africa. For the European participants the course is open for residents of all member-states of the Council of Europe. National and international youth organisations will be invited to propose candidates for this course, using the resources of contact mailing lists of the North-South Centre and partner organisations.

Approximately fifty percent of the participants in this course will come from youth organisations in Europe; the other fifty percent will come from youth organisations in Africa. Gender balance will be ensured in the selection process of the participants, as well as the balance between the type and/or nature of organisations.

Concerning participants and their profile:
· should be a key multiplier playing an active role within a youth organisation, network or service at local, national or regional level, and plan to continue this work in the near future;
· the course should have up to 30 Participants;
· seeking gender balance;
· diverse social and geographical background (including disadvantaged and minority groups);
· aged between 18 and 30;
· have already some qualification or experience in terms of training and project work;
· be committed to attend the full duration of the course and be supported by a youth organisation or service;
· be able to present the context of their work, their way of tackling problems, the challenges they meet and identify;
· be in a position to act as multipliers or trainers within their organisation or service;
· be able to work and communicate in English and/or French.