> Dear Friends,
>
> The North-South Centre is organising the 2nd AFRICA-EUROPE Training
> Course for Youth Organisations: "Youth participation for Poverty
> Reduction". The Course will happen in the CEULAJ, Mollina, SPAIN from the
> 8-15 October 2004 in the larger frame of the University on Youth and
> Development.
>
> Please find enclosed the presentation of the training course and the
> application form to be sent to the North-South Centre before the 23 August
> 2004. Please send preaferably by email to
> nsc.youthandglobalisation@....
> The selected participants will be informed in September of the results
> of the selection.

> We would be very pleased if you could circulate this information among
> your contacts and partners in Africa and Europe.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Best Regards
>
> Marcos Andrade
> Co-ordinator - youth Dimension
> North-South Centre - Council of Europe
> *: +351 21 358 40 39
> Fax: +351 21 358 40 72
> marcos.andrade@...
> www.nscentre.org <http://www.nscentre.org>
> www.coe.int

PRESENTATION:

With the Support of:
The Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
The Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE)


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:
to strengthen individual and organisational capacities for youth participation
in development;
to increase skills and understanding regarding youth participation and
leadership;
to acquire know-how on concepts and challenges of youth work, youth policies and
institutions in the two regions;
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;
to co-operate in a network with other participants and their projects;
to create operational tools and act as multipliers by passing on the training
and knowledge acquired;
to gain an understanding about the needs and possibilities for co-operation and
dialogue between the societies in Europe and Africa;
to live through an intercultural experience with the opportunity to develop
expertise and know-how on intercultural learning in the specific Euro-African
context;
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.


NB: I can forward the forms to you if you're interested. I wouldn't want to
forward attachments to the Yahoogroup since it'd not be attached anyway.

Regards,

--
'Gbenga Sesan
"Why? Why not?" | www.gbengasesan.org.ng | www.gbengasesan.com
Paradigm Initiative Nigeria | www.pin.itgo.com





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