Promoting Development in Europe: Towards a Critical Mass and Beyond - CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Deadline for application: 12pm GMT, 9 November 2009. Applications should be submitted to bernadett.sebaly@mrgmail.org 

Conference objective

The objective of this conference is to build the capacity of NGDOs, NGOs and other stakeholders such as teacher training institutes, teacher associations, social science, history or geography teachers, communication departments, coordinators of youth groups or grassroots organisations who have an interest in or link with development issues and the Millennium Development Goals in the new EU member states in order to:

• Raise public awareness in their countries about development issues in developing countries
• Incorporate and/or campaign for the implementation of human rights-based approaches in development work.
  

Methodology

The conference will consist of a combination of plenary sessions and participatory workshops. Plenaries' will include presentations of a series of national campaigns aimed at promoting International Development, implemented by partner organisations in Minority Rights Group's (MRG) 2-year Promoting Development in Europe programme. Partner NGOs will present and evaluate their activities and results from a critical approach and share best practices with the participants. Workshops will aim to improve the knowledge and skills of participants in relation to media, strategic planning and campaigning, monitoring and evaluation and development education. Each workshop is tailored to address a specific MDG. Four workshops will be held simultaneously each day. Participants will be invited to select, one workshop each day according to their interest. The working language of the conference is English.

Participation

Only candidates from the new EU member states or working on issues related to International Development in new EU member states are invited to apply. 40 applications will be selected. Participants will in most cases be expected to fund their own travel, accommodation and evening meals. Lunch and morning and afternoon refreshments will be provided during the event and MRG can also provide recommendations on a range of affordable accommodation and travel options in Budapest.

MRG is however able to fund travel and accommodation for a limited number of participants. Please indicate on the application form, if you require some financial support for your participation.

Application

Candidates are asked to fill in the application form and set up their list of preference of the workshops. MRG will consider candidates’ preferences and organise them into workshops accordingly. Participants will be selected according to their organisational profile and professional experience. Please return the completed form until 29 October 2009 to bernadett.sebaly@mrgmail.org.

>>> Download Application Form

Workshops

Candidates will attend two workshops during the event and are invited to apply for 2 workshops out of 4.

Workshop 1
How to Use the Media

Goals: (1) Increase participants’ knowledge and skills in understanding the dynamics of the media regarding development issues and the MDGs; (2) Use the media effectively to reach out for rights-holders, decision makers and the greater public.

Specific objectives
Participants will

Day 1: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 1 (End Poverty and Hunger) in the context of the media.
Day 2: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 2 (Universal Education) in the context of the media.

• Gain knowledge of trends in media reporting on MDGs in developing countries.
• Deepen understanding on how the media can be used as a tool for advocacy on development issues.
• Assess different ways in which the media can be used to increase public awareness on MDGs.
• Learn how to plan and execute a media campaign.
• Learn how to effectively communicate to the media through press releases/press conferences and articles etc.
  

Workshop 2
Strategic Planning and Campaigning

Goals: (1) Improve knowledge and skills in planning and campaigning in the context of the MDGs; (2) Implement and benefit from the human rights-based approach to campaigning.

Specific objectives:
Participants will

Day 1: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 5 (Maternal Health) in the context of strategic planning and campaigning.
Day 2: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 8 (Global Partnership) in the context of strategic planning and campaigning.

• Deepen understanding of effective planning and development throughout the life cycle of a campaign.
• Understanding your audience and how to target them effectively.
• Learn how to develop your messaging.
• Share knowledge, experience and good practice.
• Develop your own campaign plan.
  

Workshop 3
Monitoring and Evaluation

Goals: (1) Improve knowledge and skills in the assessment and evaluation of small scale projects which aim to contribute to the MDGs; (2) Elaborate an indicator system which incorporates HRBA and can be applied to campaigning and media work.

Specific objectives:
Participants will

Day 1: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 3 (Gender Equality) in the context of monitoring and evaluation.
Day 2: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS) in the context of monitoring and evaluation.

• Refresh or deepen your knowledge on M&E: gain a thorough insight on why M&E is of crucial importance for organisational development.
• Learn how to introduce effective monitoring during the stage of project implementation.
• Gain knowledge in order to design evaluation of small scale projects.
• Learn possible ways to introduce M&E as a regular practice of your organization with optimal tools and methods.
• Practice using and inventing indicators to assess outputs/outcomes and impacts of your projects.
• Deepen your knowledge on HBRD as an organizational value, and learn possible ways to integrate it into your projects.
  

Workshop 4
Development Education

Goals: (1) Improve knowledge and skills in elaborating development education workshops for students; (2) Elaborate teacher’s books on development education and organise teacher trainings.

Specific objectives:
Participants will

Day 1: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 4 (Child Health) in the context of development education.
Day 2: Deepen understanding and knowledge in MDG 7 (Environmental Sustainability) in the context of development education.

• Share knowledge of effective practices in different countries for promoting awareness and learning about the MDGs.
• Explore inter-active DE methodologies and other tools for interpreting development issues with different age groups and learning contexts.
• Examine availability of education resources for learning about the MDGs, and identifying gaps in provision.
• Drafting some basic ideas and framework for elaborating learning about MDGs with students.

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About the Trainers

Farah Mihlar
How to Use the Media

Farah Mihlar has over ten years experience working with the international media. She started out as a career journalist and has worked for news organizations such as Reuters and the BBC World Service. She previously worked as a media officer for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Since 2006 she has worked as media and campaigns officer for Minority Rights Group International. She also continues to write comment and analysis articles on human rights issues for major publications and websites including the Independent and the Guardian online.

Ruth Tanner
Strategic Planning and Campaigning

Ruth Tanner is Campaigns and Policy Director at War on Want, a UK poverty NGO. War on Want fights poverty in developing countries in partnership and solidarity with people affected by globalisation and campaigns against the root causes of global poverty, inequality and injustice. Before joining War on Want she worked in Ethiopia as a communications consultant working for a number of NGOs and UN agencies and as the Press and Communications officer for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, at the centre of the UK’s peace and anti war movement. She has also worked for a member of the UK’s parliament.

Tibor Meszmann
Monitoring and Evaluation

Tibor T. Meszmann is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Among the focal points of his dissertation and current research is also the evaluation of trade unions as organizations of civil society in post-communist Eastern Europe. He has worked as activist and project coordinator in various NGOs, coordinator of educational programme at a university, translator, journal editor and columnist, research assistant for various projects, evaluator of programmes on minorities, liaison for international cooperation and officer in charge for civil society development.

Pete Davis
Development Education

Pete Davis worked for more than 30 years in development education (DE) with UK NGO Oxfam, following 5 years secondary teaching in England. His work has included management of Oxfam’s education advisory team, and Oxfam’s DE grants programme, writer of classroom materials, International Coordinator for Oxfam’s Education and Youth programmes, chair/co-organiser of various DE projects including DfID funded Developing Citizenship project. Undertook research and project monitoring in Bolivia, Jamaica, India, Tanzania, Israel and Palestine, and was member of international humanitarian/emergency aid team in Cambodia, 1980.

UK representative on CONCORD’s DE Forum until May 2009, President of DE Forum 2000 -2003, Member of DEEEP Management Team 2002-2008, co-organiser of first European DE Summer School 1997, coordinator of UK input into EC_FAO Images of Africa Project, Global Education tutor North-South Centre, Lisbon 1995-96, and member of advisory boards for DEA (UK DE network), NADEC, International Broadcasting Trust (IBT), and others. He is working now as a freelance consultant in development and global education.

About the programme

Minority Rights Group’s development education programme “Promoting Development in Europe: Towards a Critical Mass and Beyond” was a two-year programme started in 2008 to increase public support in the new EU member states for their governments’ international development assistance by raising public awareness of development issues in developing countries and by adopting rights based approaches to development. The project was implemented in Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia with the assistance of MRG’s African partners.

About Minority Rights Group

Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is a non-governmental organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide and to improve cooperation and understanding between communities. Minorities of concern to MRG are disadvantaged ethnic or national, religious, linguistic or cultural groups who are non-dominant

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