Annual Report 2011: Spire, the Development Funds Youth Organization

Annual Report 2011: Spire, the Development Funds Youth Organization

Core Group 1. January 2. October: 2. October 31. December: Christian Bull Brita Brekke Gro Mostuen Ine Vik Silje Hansen Julia Dahr Kristine Wasrud Odilia H. Melbø Deputies: president political vicepresident organizational vicepresident campaign coordinator international coordinator trade committee climate committee food committee Rafea Arif and Yusur Abdul Mutalib Julia Dahr Frauke Heivand president political vicepresident Harald S.B. Hansen campaign coordinator Silje Hansen Ina Klinkenberg Eivor Skjelbostad Andrea Weme Lise Weltzien Lan Marie N. Berg international coordinator food committee trade committee climate committee member of the core group member of the core group Address: Grensen 9b, 0159 Oslo E-mail: spire@utviklingsfondet.no Tel: (+47)23109693 2

Greetings from Spire s President: 2011 has been an exciting and important year for Spire. We have experienced political success by, among other things, getting our opinions directly cited in White Paper to the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) "Towards greener development". Together we have helped to spread awareness in the Norwegian public of the important issues we are fighting for. We have also become more visible in the media and have been on TV and radio on several occasions. The number of members and local chapters of Spire is also doubled since last year. All of this makes us stronger and more likely to achieve our goal: a fair and sustainable distribution of world resources. I hope we can continue this trend and take Spire to new heights in 2012. I am incredibly proud of everything we've achieved together during the past year, and would like to thank everyone who contributed to it have been possible. Go Spire! Julia Dahr, President of Spire Spire s main objective Spire wishes to change social structures which uphold the unjust distribution and unfortunate management of economic, social, biological and cultural rights and resources. Environment and development cannot be viewed separately and environmentally sustainable development is central to Spire s work. We wish to achieve these goals by supporting and cooperating with local partner organizations which undertake grass-roots work in developing countries, alongside information work, knowledge sharing and political advocacy work in national and international arenas. In 2010 Spire developed a visionary document that we are working to fulfill. The annual report is therefore sectioned in 4 paragraphs, each following one of the 4 main visions. 3

A meeting place for all: Vision for 2010-2013: Spire creates meeting places for social and thematic activity where active and engaged youth can meet about global issues from a common platform Spire shall be an open and inclusive organization with room for everyone. One of the core group s main areas of focus in 2011 was just that: to create a meeting place for everyone. We have achieved a lot in the past year. We started in January by creating an ambitious plan for the organization to get new members in and completed 26. January an informational meeting and movie screening at the University of Oslo. This was very successful, with a lot of people attending and resulted in several new members. Never before have so many people turned up to such an event in Spire. This record was however topped several times throughout the year. Another key focus area for Spire has been to arrange events for Spires members focused on their personal learning. If we can get our point of views spread, and with that gain support for the policies we fronts, it is very important that our active members are kept updated and are knowledgeable in our political themes. Examples of such events are the Thursday forums, which have been held the first Thursday of each month throughout the year. This is an open meeting/seminar that serves as educational for both members and non-members who are interested in issues that covers our political themes and priorities. We have also arranged winter and autumn seminars, where members from all over the country gather for a social weekend of training in Spire's political priorities and themes. We have this year worked hard to become a more inclusive organization, and have regularly discussed this topic. During the winter seminar in February we had our first diversity workshop, and this resulted in a diversity advisory that the Core Group established after the workshop. This reflects what Spires s members think about where we stand, and where we want to be, in terms of diversity and inclusion in our organization. The guide serves as both guideline and resource in our daily work and helps us in the effort to become a better and more conscious organization. We make sure to always use the English language as the spoken language where necessary. Another goal has been to make sure that all of our events take place in locations with universal design accessible for everyone. However, this has not been possible to achieve within Spire s financial framework. It remains a key objective, and we are working continuously to ensure this in the future. In today's society electronic communication is becoming increasingly important. Spires is actively using social media like Facebook and Twitter, and we find that we reach out to more youth through these media. We have this year undergone an extensive review of our visual profile. This has resulted in both a new logo and new website launched at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in October. The feedback on this has been very good. Spire is growing rapidly, and a distinct visual profile makes us better at communicating our message. We have also employed two volunteer graphic designers who have helped to raise the quality of our visual work. Our information work has become both clearer and more targeted as a result of this. A learning organization: Vision for 2010-2013: Spire is administratively well-organised. We have good communication flow between the different groups and relevant experiences are 4

documented and shared. It is easy for Spire members to become actively involved. Spire has a wide range of funding sources and has an organized and robust economy. In a youth organization such as Spire it is inevitable that there will be frequent changes among the active members. This is a big challenge for us. It is therefore particularly important that we have good procedures for exchanging experience and thorough overlap between old and new members. This is especially important in the Core Group and local chapters. In 2011 we created a membership handbook for active members, an upgrade and revision of the earlier edition. This has now become a good and comprehensive reference work. New procedures for overlap and experience sharing have also been placed in our revised statutes, and we have been focusing on creating good experience, type of events we have completed. We will continue with this work in the time to come. It has been focused on developing local chapters and membership recruitment throughout the year. Through a large-scale Norwegian premiere of Spires s movie "Wind of Change" in August we established branches in Trondheim and Tromsø, and started up the local chapter in Bergen again. The local chapters in Oslo and Ås also got more members during the year. We can now justifiably call ourselves a national organization! The local chapters also established a better position in the organization, and at the AGM in October a National Council was established. This is to be held twice a year, and contains representatives from all the local chapters. The Core Group will then report to the National Council on its work. This has been very important to ensure local chapters a better position in the organizational structure of Spire, and ensure that they have a real opportunity to influence the organizations daily work beyond the AGM. Further strengthening of local associations continues to be an important focus area. Member recruitment has also been a high priority. We have conducted numerous information events throughout the year, and have had a steady increase in memberships. In November we put extra focus on this, and both central and local Spire teams worked on recruiting more members. One element in this process was to start up with sms-service for payment of membership fees, which also gives us better follow-up possibilities of this. At the end of the year, the number of paying members rose up to over 400 - a new record and more than double that of the previous year. International cooperation: Vision for 2010-2013: Spire is well-established within international and national networks - by cooperating with other organisations and networks, Spire gains valuable resources/knowledge and creates ripple effects. We have several partner organizations in the South, and have conducted several youth exchange programs with Network for Youth Development (NfYD) in Malawi. We still have close ties with NfYD, and in December we were granted funding for a new cooperation project to take place in the spring of 2012. During the year we also initiated a closer cooperation with the organization Youth Environment Network (YEN), Zambia. The International Committee visited the YEN in June, and YEN visited us in September. These visits were very instructive for both organizations. In October Spire went back to Zambia to evaluate and plan future cooperation. As a result of this, 5

we applied for and received funding to conduct a larger youth exchange with the YEN starting in the autumn of 2012. We are constantly working to expand our international work and find new partner organizations. In September, we had preliminary meetings with youth organizations from Central America, which is affiliated with our parent organization, the Development Fund. This cooperation will continue in 2012. Another important part of our international work is to participate in conferences and negotiations in other countries. Spire participates in several international networks, and is an active civil society organization in international forums and conferences. In 2011 this included, among other things; the Nyeleni Conference on Food Sovereignty in Austria, the climate change negotiating forum in Germany, the civil society preparatory conference about the road towards Rio+20 20 in Germany, not to mention participation in the UN summit, COP17, in Durban, South Africa. A conscious political actor and voice: Vision for 2010-2013: The voice from the South is evident throughout Spire s political work. By giving youth with different perspectives a meeting place, the politics of the future is formed. Spire's annual campaigns tend to get a lot of attention. The campaign addressing land grab in 2010 led to the land grab issue being put on the political agenda in Norway for the first time, and in April 2011 came the result in terms of the White Paper no. 14: "Towards greener development: On a coherent environmental and development policy". Here almost all of Spire s political campaign demands were listed, and proved that our voices were heard - and that our work gives clear political results. Such victories are important to celebrate. In 2011 the campaign was focused on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the Government Pension Fund's investment in the company Monsanto. 14 other organizations stood behind Spire s demand for the Pension Fund to withdraw from Monsanto, organizations with a total membership count of over 100 000 people. In addition, we gathered over 1500 individual signatures which were submitted to State Secretary Hilde Singsaas. Spire is actively working to gain support for policy positions, both among Norwegian politicians and in international conferences and negotiations. In this work, we collaborate with other organizations where we have common goals. We were also among the first organizations that began work on policy development to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio +20. As part of this strategy we launched monthly politics, media and strategy meetings in the fall. This is a meeting where Spires s president, political vice-president and committee coordinators gather to coordinate their policy and media work. Through these meetings Spire developed its own political yearly calendar with an overview of important political processes that we should monitor and influence. 6

Spire has this year been involved in producing the film "Wind of Change", in collaboration with the film group Sør i Fokus. This is a 45 minute documentary about how climate change affects a farmer and his family in Kenya, and their struggle to adapt to a climate in constant change. The national premiere of the film in Bergen, Oslo, Tromsø and Trondheim drew a large number of participants and proved to be a good marketing channel for the Spire. The film has been very well received outside the Spire, including Jan Egeland, who believes it should be a wakeup call for us all. At the end of the year, over a thousand people have seen it - the film was shown in a number of Spire events, the Festival Blue October at the House of Literature in Oslo and the International Black Film Festival in Ghana and the United States. This is one of the most successful information measures Spire has ever undertaken and has proved to be a great way to create commitment. In December it was decided that we will work with another film group to make another documentary. The Trade Committee: The Trade Committee has had a somewhat divided year in 2011. Their work has been focused on promoting Spires s goal of questioning, as well as to put political pressure and focus on the international trade system that currently helps to increase the difference between rich and poor. We have done this by focusing on personal education in the committee meetings and by being an active participant in the network Handelskampanjen. In May, the Trade Committee led a full-day seminar on the power of the food chain in the House of Literature, in collaboration with Attac, LAG, Fagforeningen and the Norwegian Council for Africa. This was very successful and had a lot of attendees. In this connection it was also arranged a pub debate and concert in the evening. The spring was used to continue the work including the Network against Free Trade Agreement between Colombia Norway, and Handelskampanjen. The autumn was used to work for getting more members, which will allow for more outreach activity in 2012. The Coordinator of the Trade Committee is Rafea Arif. The Food Committee: The Food Committee has also had an active year with many activities. They hosted a large seminar about agriculture in February, in collaboration with Young Friends of the Earth and the Norwegian Smallholders Association. In May it was time for the traditional seed-action "Sowing the Future", held on the biodynamic farm Ommang Søndre. More than 50 people took the trip to Hedmark County to focus on biodiversity and climate robust agricultural practices by planting the seeds for a GMO-free future. World Food Day was duly celebrated with a major campaign outside the Parliament. This time the Food Committee made soup of organic and locally produces and served it, along with information material, to passers-by and politicians. The Food Committee also participated in several international conferences during the year, both aimed at the Rio+20, food security and food sovereignty. In cooperation with Young Friends of the Earth and the Norwegian Smallholders Association, they worked to create indepth information brochure about food sovereignty for The Nyeleni Forum for Food Sovereignty in Austria, which was completed in early 2012. The Coordinator of the Food Committee is Mari Gjengedal. 7

The Climate Committee: The Climate Committee in 2011 helped to highlight Spire in the public debate on climate issues, both in Norway and internationally. They have made frequent appearances in the media, especially related to the climate summit in December. The Climate Committee has long been involved in the international youth network YOUNGO. One of the things they've worked with in this network have been raising funds for youth participation from the global South - and in autumn the Climate Committee secured 1.6 million NOK through the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to strengthen youth participation from the South at this year's climate summit in Durban, South Africa. We are proud of this. The voice from the South is evident in throughout Spires work. Lan N. Marie Berg of climate committee spent the spring of 2011 on Tuvalu, where she blogged about climate change. This was an exciting project for the Spire to participate in, and in September, Lan in collaboration with Spire hosted a successful full-day seminar at Utviklingshuset. In addition to this, the Climate Committee in cooperation with Changemaker, arranged a debate about climate change and movie screening as part of the preparations before the climate summit in Durban. Both of these events had many visitors, and beat the previous record for attendees on Spire events. The Climate Committee also wrote a brochure on climate negotiations, "Climate Negotiations in 1-2-3," which was distributed in more than 1,000 copies by the end of the year. The Coordinator of the Climate Committee is Kari-Anne Isaksen. Read more about Spire on our website: www.spireorg.no. 8