TRIALOG Seminar for NDGO Platforms of NMS, Brno 19-20 February 2008 SLOVAK NDGO PLATFORM DE/AR PRESENTATION 2006 ACTIVITIES In 2006 the Slovak NGDO rejoined an active participation in the Make Poverty History campaign actively supported by CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen offering assistance in getting the white bands (WB), symbol of the G-CAP, for the needs of the Slovak national campaign and came with the idea to sell them through one of the Slovak big food chains. The Platform participated on the Global Call to Actions against Poverty campaign for the third - time, and from lesson learned we decided to involve into organizing the event all capacities from all Projects as well as the financial needs were shared. The campaign Svet bez chudoby was organized on 17 th of October 2006 in Bratislava at the International day of fights against poverty. Within the contribution of MDGs project the campaign convened by the Slovak and the Austrian NGDO Platforms composed of the various events such as: Press conference Ship from Vienna taped up with large white band brought the representative of the Austrian Platform to Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia). The ship wore white band during the whole White Band Day March against poverty - people march through the city centre presenting the idea of GCAP and MDGs to the wide public Dance performance of Dvorana, the dance theatre showing their famous peace "The Red", the performance of capoeira and 3 live concerts of La3no Cubano, Homo Genialis, and Lux Band strengthen the campaign idea and make the perfect divide between
the inputs of various speakers, having the click film and other GCAP clips in their back. The key speaches of the campaign delivered publicly on behalf of the Slovak NGDO Platform), UNDP regional centre and the British Embassy as well as the Slovak MFA Very important part of this campaign was the media support in order to assure the visibility of the campaign for reaching the MDGs in Slovakia - the Slovak television (STV), Radio FM and the Slovak Radio broadcasted the inputs from that event also the press releases, radios, press conference were an inevitable part of that campaign event. The campaigns in Slovakia and Austria were supported by Austrian president and by Slovak president. The campaign was accompanied by other various activities: Info stand - providing the information about the campaign Fair-trade stand - selling fair-trade coffee, tea and other F-T products Open letter to the Minister of MFA SR with the campaign demands available for signatures of attendees. Painting workshop by Euforion, young artists grouping. Production of leaflets and poster for the GCAP campaign Svet bez chudoby contains the basic information on Millennium Development Goals, GCAP-campaign (Global Call to Action against Poverty) and the campaign SVET BEZ CHUDOBY. Posters were designed as a form of advertisement for the WBD in Bratislava. Both kinds of these materials were distributed to the wider public, interested schools, universities and to the Slovak NGOs and the Platform members all over Slovakia. The materials were added to the Advocacy letter to the Slovak Members of Parliament as of November, 16 th. 2007 ACTIVITIES In the frame of MDGs project a wider civil society education system and media has been launched. Huge self-explaining methodological material has been produced. It contains brochure about
MDGs, several appendices, audio CD with children songs from the world and DVD with 12 short movies about the life in Kenya. It will be send to 3500 schools, youth and children groups in Slovakia. DVD has been producing as the output of Journalist Journey to Kenya. It describes children lives in Kenya with their dreams, plans and real possibilities. MDG and Slovak element is also presented there. Few articles for wide civil society, children and group leader were published or prepared to be published. Member organizations of the Slovak and Austrian National Platforms Manifesto, capacity-building material about unit approach of Slovak and Austrian platforms toward the elimination of extreme poverty by reaching the MDG was finally published. It was distributed for Slovak NGDO Platform member during the General Assembly in September 2007. For the members of Slovak NGDO Platform a training on Campaigning and 3-days seminar on Unique life with disabilities Millennium Development Goals and people with disabilities in Africa was organised. Development Education Summer School Achieving of MDGs: the role of Development Education in Častá Papiernička, June 26 th -July 2 nd 2007 Slovak NDGO Platfrom organised in June 2007 the International Development Education Summer School, an interactive educational course for development practitioners in Častá- Papiernička. The event has been organised since 1997 in one of the European Union countries and this year, for the first time in the history of this event, it has been organised by a new EU member country in Slovakia. 75 participants from Europe, Africa and Asia, teachers and educators.took an active part in the whole Development Education Summer School. In generally it was a great opportunity to meet participants with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds and exchange contacts, ideas and examples of good practices. Seminar Výnimočný život s postihnutím Miléniové rozvojové ciele a ľudia so zdravotným postihnutím v Afrike, Donovaly, 12/14 th October 2007 The second capacity building seminar on Unique life with disabilities MDGs and people with disabilities in Africa took place in October 2007 in Penzion Zornička, Donovaly. Seminar introduced the problematic of PwD within MDG. Key speaker was a Chairman of International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus who introduced the project for PwD in African countries. 40 participants from NGDO in Slovakia participated in this event. Printing out of Manifesto, June 2007 Manifesto the common material of Slovak and Austrian platforms explains unit approach toward the elimination of extreme poverty by reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Manifesto describes also the need of coherent policy on the national and EU level and contains some practical examples from developing countries. It was printed out in June 2007 in 3000 copies. Updates on the website The website www.svetbezchudoby.sk has been updated during the reported period. New information about worldwide GCAP activities around 7 th July 2007 were put there. The website was visited by 1420 visitors during these 3 months (September-December). DVD Dostať šancu (To get the chance), Finalization and distribution, September November 2007
The documentary movie on MDGs and the role of Slovakia in reaching the MDGs was finalized by the end of September. The movie presents the stories of kids and young people from Kenya. It documents their effort and self-determination to achieve the improvement in their life. The movie is a strong testimony showing that even with little resources and in challenging conditions it is possible to reach seemingly impossible. It underlines the importance of MDGs and shows the chance that there is still hope that Millennium goals will be reached. Until the end of November the movie Dostať šancu was send to 230 teachers in formal educational sector and to more than 300 volunteers working with children and youth in informal education sector. The movie was also presented during the Film festival Jeden svet (One world) organized by the NGDO People in Peril. Official presentation of the movie for Slovak journalists is planned for beginning of 2008. 17 th of October - the World day of the Fight for Eradication of poverty Slovak NDGO Platform joined the global campaign also via this website. New information were added there together with some ideas how to join the campaign. Pictures from two GCAP activities from Slovakia could be found there, but also on the global GCAP website: http://www.whiteband.org/photos/october-17-2007-around-the-world/slovakia-1 Nearly 4000 readers have visited our website during three reporting months. The campaign was accompanied by other various activities: Slovak Television - Main News, 17 th October 2007 - Chairman of Slovak NDGO Platform gave the interview for Slovak television. Press conference, Christian institutions forum, 17 th October 2007- This press conference took place during the Social activities fair exhibition and Chairman of Slovak NDGO Platform participated on the press conference as one of the main speakers with the topic of efforts to eradicate extreme poverty in the world and the GCAP campaigns included Slovak campaign Svet bez chudoby. Slovak Radio 1, 18 th October 2007, 20 min. life interview on a topic: the MDGs Interview for media, 19 th October 2007, Bratislava. During the conference: Millennium Development Goals - a way how to eradicate poverty and social exclusion hold in National Council of Slovak Republic on 19 th October 2007 the press conference took place. Radio Lumen, 20 th October 2007, 1 hour - Chairman of Slovak NDGO Platform introduced to the listeners of Slovak Christian radio - Radio Lumen the aim and chosen activities of the global campaign GCAP. He mentioned also the meaning of the International Day of the Fight against Poverty. They discussed also the Millennium Development Goals and the main assets of the development cooperation. Slovak Radio 1, 07 th November 2007, 2 hours discussion on a topic: the MDGs - During the 2 hours discussion within the relation Night Dialogues Chairman of Slovak NDGO Platform introduced again the problematic of MDGs and the commitments to eradicate extreme poverty. Listeners had possibilities to ask questions and get better information about development cooperation, ODA, MDGs and the role of Slovakia. Slovak Radio 1, 11 th November 2007, topic: eradication of poverty - Several information about the eradication of poverty, MDGs and the European Development Days had been transmitted during the evening Radio Žurnál of Slovak Radio 1. It was based also on the interview with Executive Secretary of the Slovak NDGO Platform during the European Development Days in Lisbon, Portugal.
Participation on European Development Days, 7/ 9 th November 2007, Lisboa European Commission launched 2nd European Development Days with focus on climate change as well as on the impact of climate change in developing countries. Slovak representatives from governmental and non-governmental sector were among around 1000 decision-makers and stakeholders on this 3-day event in the Portuguese capital. Executive Secretary of the Slovak NDGO participated in this event and used it for informal meetings with many parliamentarian s representatives, politicians and non-governmental colleagues. It was also a possibility to attract the attention of the press on the issues related to the MDGs. Slovak radio 1 transmitted it during the evening Radio Žurnál on 11 November 2007 2008 FUTURE ACTIVITIES Lobbying and alliance building with national and EU parliamentarians, and relevant ministries in Austria and Slovakia and lobby on State budget with appeal to support increasing the funds for bilateral ODA. The lobby on representatives of Parliament, on policymakers and politicians underliyng the commitments of Slovak Republic towards increasing overall ODA will be continuing. National Programme of the Official Development Assistance for 2008 will be among our main issues to cooperate on. Slovak NDGO will collaborate on a preparation of the Medium-Term Strategy on Official Development Assistance for 2009-2013 Development Education programme will be continuing through the working group