CONGRESS XXIX ORDINARY ACTIVITY REPORT
Who we are The International Falcon Movement - Socialist Educational International is an international educational movement working to empower children and young people to take an active role in society and fight for their rights. We are an umbrella organisation for child and youthled movements all over the world, delivering socialist education on the basis of our values of equality, democracy, solidarity, peace, cooperation and anti-capitalism.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022
Our Message
By children and young people, for children and young people It is our firm belief that children’s voices are valuable in decision making processes both on issues directly affecting them and on global issues. IFM-SEI non-formal education principles and methods to empower and equip children and youth to be active participants in civil society, and to have their voice heard, despite their background.
Mission – what our organisation does The mission of IFM-SEI is to contribute to the education of young people, through socialist values and non-formal education, where children and young people are able to become critical thinkers and active decision-makers in their lives and communities. We believe that through empowering our members to bring about small changes we can bring about a bigger change in society – we call this education for social change.
Vision – where we want to go By 2022, IFM-SEI will have developed its theory and practice of socialist education enabling over half a million children and young people to advance their understanding of the unique principle of IFM-SEI’s work in the approach to the IFM-SEI centenary in 2022.
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Seven strategic priorities
1. Socialist education 2. Children’s rights 3. Child and youth participation 4. Inclusion and diversity 5. Climate change and environment 6. Reach out – group work, volunteering and internationalism 7. Centenary celebrations
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IFM-SEI Leadership letter: Dear comrades and friends, As the last three-year mandate ends it is time to reflect on the impact we’ve made on our movement. The last three years have been challenging due to uncertainties of the global pandemic. We have expected that the last mandate will be buzzing with different projects, meetings, regional activities, and preparation for our centenary celebration. We have expected that Common Ground would take place in 2020 and in there we would prepare and achieve a lot of our ambitious in the Strategy and Work Plan 2019-22. Last mandate and despite the pandemic, we have been resilient and working hard to maintain some of our activities and adapted all of our works to be able to adapt our methods of delivery while providing our members with the support that they need to navigate the ‘new normal’ of working in a global pandemic. We believe we managed to do this and have seen a significant increase in engagement from the member organisation and volunteers, as well as in the implementation of activities. Additionally, we have increased the capacity in our secretariat to deliver the new number of activities while pioneering in adapting our non-formal education to online platforms. Last mandate we lived by our values, and tried to lower the barriers to participation, ensure democracy, create strong governance structures and aimed to create safe spaces of exchange for our members, and we continued the work for the full implementation of children’s rights and education for social change. Even amid the challenges restricting movements, affecting international children and youth work, exposing digital inequalities especially for children and young people, it did not limit our actions. We believe that IFM-SEI has continued to make considerable progress within our movement. We want to acknowledge and thank you for the commitment that you put into your organisations and into IFM-SEI despite the different situations we are facing worldwide, locally, and individually. Last mandate was a year of big change for our movement. The Congress in 2019 decided on important changes to our governance structures. The biggest change was the addition of the Vice-President position, a reduction of the size of our Presidium, in order to encourage individual Presidium members to be more accountable and responsible, and to greatly 22-24 April 2022 Austria / Virtual Activity report
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 increase the effectiveness of Presidium’s work. The Congress also formalised IFM-SEI’s Thematic Networks as statutory bodies (Rainbow, Feminist, Migration and Accessibility Network) and put structures in place to support the self-organisation of our regional networks. In the last three years have we implemented two global projects, ‘Building Bridges’ was a two-year project on peace education and dialogue for inclusive societies. Young educators from partners across three of our world regions were able to participate in a capacitybuilding activity, developed a peace education toolkit, a situation report, and a Massive Open Online Course on peace education and intercultural dialogue. Through the project ‘Amplify, we cooperated for the first time with Canadian partners – among them Oxfam Canada. The project focused on young people developing research and awareness-raising activities on gender equality, violent extremism and climate change, and it showed an excellent example of young people’s self-organisation and participation. We have also kicked off the ‘Kids Got Rights’ project, which aims to promote our values and create opportunities for children and young people to learn about their rights and ensure their full implementation. We have strengthened our inclusion and diversity work through ‘Dream Our G->Local Movement.’ We have built communities of activists and developed with them an intersectional perspective educational and activists' materials on climate change in ‘Resist! The Global Climate Divide’ project. Additionally, we have implemented a Training for Trainers, where we promoted IFM-SEI's non-formal education brand among young trainers using intersectional and international perspectives at ‘Socialist Education training for trainers’ project. Finally, we have strengthened the cooperation with IUSY Feminist working group and IFM-SEI Feminist Network through the implementation of a common project ‘Unpacking power & Privilege’ running for four online sessions focusing on power relations and reflections on privilege. Last mandate we have also seen the development of regional-led networks and thematic network, new globally focused projects, and change of governance structure. We have established a Task Force for a More Democratic More Participatory IFM-SEI which proposed different resolutions of some that were adopted as well as a Children and youth participation task Force, working towards our Congress in 2022. The presidium started one-to-one meetings with our members to discuss the difficulties we face, our future plans as well as our cooperation, which was openly welcomed especially in times of online 22-24 April 2022 Austria / Virtual Activity report
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 meetings. Last but not least our Centenary Celebration Task Force has been planning our 100 years anniversary for 2022, for an inclusive and diverse celebration of our history and future. None of this could have been achieved without the commitment and energy of our volunteers from all over the world. Their contribution is invaluable, and the results are visible for all to see. For IFM-SEI to have been able to emerge stronger in the face of this pandemic is because of the team that worked tirelessly to make this possible. We say thank you to the previous mandate leadership, our volunteers and a huge thank you to our member organisations. Without you, none of this would have happened! As we celebrate this exciting growth in our movement and take pride in the work that we have done in the last mandate, we should remember that it is only in unity and diversity that IFM-SEI has been able to move from strength to strength, maintaining its position as a leading socialist educational international movement for children and young people. Let us continue to span the world with friendship, solidarity, and diversity. Let us continue to educate for social change. Here is to an even stronger mandate 2022-2025 and an remarkable future ahead. In Solidarity and friendship
Christina Schauer IFM-SEI President
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Ellen Lindsey IFM-SEI Vice-President
Ruba Hilal IFM-SEI Secretary General
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Our Member Organisations With this map, you will get a glimpse of our member organisations all over the world:
Latin America Region
Africa Region
Middle East Region
Europe Region
Asia Region
In the last mandate we have upgraded three organisations to full memberships status of AJYAL, Seeds for Development and Culture, and Girl Excel. And we have welcomed Arciragazzi to our umbrella. You want to know more about them? Here you go! AJYAL
Girl Excel
Seeds for Development and Culture
Arciragazzi
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PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES 2019-22 BASED ON OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
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1. SOCIALIST EDUCATION IFM-SEI should foster shared socialist values with our members through non-formal education on local, national and international levels. This is our unique quality as a socialist educational movement. Objectives: ●
Develop structures to support the development of quality socialist education in IFM-SEI on a theoretical and practical level.
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Create materials for members and educators on the theory and practice of socialist education.
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Develop a model for the regular training of members and member organisations on socialist education in practice.
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Increase the quality and quantity of IFM-SEI educational materials underpinned by socialist values.
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Create a common identity as socialist educators.
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Utilise Common Ground 2020, and other international camps, as a platform for celebrating and practicing our socialist values.
Performance indicators: ●
15 MOs will engage with the Pool of Socialist Educators (POSE) with representation from 3 world regions.
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IFM-SEI will create a toolkit on socialist education that be available in 5 languages.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 ●
20 MOs will incorporate socialist education in their own programmes through national initiatives.
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100 peer educators from 15 countries will complete training on socialist education.
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8 open source educational resources will be produced in print, digital or e-learning format.
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Engage at least 3000 children and young people from at least 25 organisations in Common Ground 2020.
Projects and activities implemented under this strategy in the last mandate Socialist Education – Training for Trainers The Socialist Education training took place online in March 2021 and aimed to not only promote socialist education but to equip youth workers with tools and competencies needed to become multipliers of socialist education. The seminar was not funded by any programme and was run on a voluntary basis. It gathered 17 participants from different regions, that had a chance to further develop the competencies needed to design, plan, implement and evaluate non-formal educational activities from the perspective of socialist education. This included understanding the principles of non-formal education and socialist education, exploring tools and methods to deliver activities online and sharing of experience from a broad scope of topics such as internationalism, human rights, solidarity, and anti-capitalism.
Socialist Education Toolkit (SET) Project SET project was implemented in February 2022, and it brought together experiences of our member organisations to develop a toolkit that explains IFM-SEI’s special brand of nonformal education – socialist education, provides tips and guidelines for socialist educators and offers a range of methods based on socialist education methodology.
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Educational Resources In the last mandate We have expended our library of educational resources we have used different format the last mandate of producing educational resources, three new resources available, two Massive Online Open Courses, one Educational Toolkit, one zine, a situation report, three animated videos, a checklist, a guide, and an interactive quiz.
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Womxn in Reflection- Zine
WOMXN in Reflection Zine is from womxn of colour for womxn of colour. We wanted to bring visibility to womxn of colour, their experiences interacting with different institutions in society and their work. In this zine, you will find contributions from 21 different womxn, who share their creative reflections on their experiences. Womxn from across Europe who all have different cultural, educational and career backgrounds have come together in this zine. This zine was produced during Amplify Project check it out in this link. ●
Amplify youth voices MOOC
This is a pilot module of our MOOC on non-formal and popular education, facilitation and training for social change. To learn about tips, tools, and methods for facilitating anti-oppressive, safer, ‘non-formal’ and ‘popular’ education spaces! Want to see more, check here. ●
Building Bridges - Youth Work and Peace MOOC
This MOOC was one of the outputs of building Bridges project, to learn tools for Peace and Human Rights Education, and see what impact they can have on young people worldwide! Check the MOOC in this link. ●
Situation report and Best Practices
This study was conducted as part of the project ‘Building Bridges: Youth work for peace and dialogue’, a two-year global project implemented by IFM-SEI and funded by the European Commission (EC). You can find it here. ●
Peace Education toolkit
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This toolkit was developed during the Building Bridges project, a two year long project supported by Erasmus+, thanks to the hard work of youth workers from eight different organisations from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. ●
Animated Video on the dimensions of volunteerism
This video was produced as part of our European Falcon Meeting -Society is Ours! project, supported by the European Commission's Erasmus+ KA1 programme. It talks about the different dimensions of volunteerism. ●
Animated Guide to non-formal education video
This video is a crash course introduction to the theories and methods behind nonformal education! This content in this video was developed by young people during the Amplify Project, by IFM-SEI. ●
Diversity and Inclusion Checklist
This checklist was directly developed by young people from marginalised communities involved in the “Dream our G->Local Movement” project. It has been created with the clear aim to identify best practices for promoting diversity and inclusion in the movement. The checklist is a simple self-assessment guide that will guide the reader step by step through issues linked with diversity and inclusion in youth projects and local youth work. It will provide understanding of compliance, cultural awareness, respect for differences, and coaching for positive change towards inclusive practices for all young people. ●
Dream our G->Local Movement Handbook
This Handbook was created to support the movement with concrete ideas, resources and methods for inclusive non-formal education. Active inclusion work means quality and meaningful educational work – to understand why specific marginalized groups are underrepresented in our movements. The activities presented in the Handbook are a good and inspirational start for anyone embarking on the adventure to make their organisation more inclusive and diverse. The activities were either developed by participants of the “Dream our G->our Local Movement” workplan or inspired by the discussions and spirit of the project and its goal to educate on inclusion and diversity. Activities were designed in a 22-24 April 2022 Austria / Virtual Activity report
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 way that they provide the reader with concrete tools on accessibility and inclusiveness of the methodology without sacrificing space for any adaptation to the needs of the target group. Check the handbook here. ●
Inclusion and Diversity Quiz
Last mandate we wanted to provide our members with tools that are more creative, accessible and adapted to different learning style. With the aim to better promote the educational resources created in the framework of “Dream our G->Local Movement” project, we developed an interactive method for our members to assess their skills and knowledge on inclusion and diversity. The tool guides the user through different scenarios and based on the answer directs the individual towards different sections of “Dream our G->Local Movement Handbook” that will most benefit their development. Connect through this link to assess your inclusion practices. ●
Animated Video about Tokenism
In our “Dream our G->Local Movement Handbook” which presents ideas, resources and methods for inclusive non-formal education, we mention some practices to either avoid or implement to encourage inclusion and diversity. Tokenism was especially being pointed out as a practice to be avoided. We have recognised that young people absorb knowledge in different ways and developed an animated video on the topic of tokenism that will spark an interest of young people to dive deeper into the themes of social inclusion and diversity and enhance their learning and engage their attention. ●
Resist! Toolkit
The following toolkit contains non-formal educational activities for youth and children on Climate Change with an intersectional perspective on capitalism, race, gender and children’s rights. It was inspired by activities and local projects with groups and organisations across four continents in the framework of the project “Resist! The Global Climate Divide”. ●
IFM-SEI community fundraising guide
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 fundraising. We don’t always need to write long application for national and international funders. Local communities can be a great place to showcase and fundraise for your work. In the publication you can read more about the types of fundraising opportunities but also some concrete tips and tricks on how to approach the fundraising activities.
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2. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IFM-SEI should be a key stakeholder in the fight for children’s right across the world. In order to work towards a world where children’s rights are respected, our members must be made aware of their rights through education and empowered to be ambassadors for children’s rights. Objectives: ●
Promote a children’s rights educational framework and Convention of the Rights of a Child within IFM-SEI.
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Offer spaces to share programmes and good practices on children’s rights education and advocacy within IFM-SEI.
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Promote IFM-SEI as an ambassador for children’s rights in external organisations and networks.
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Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted on 20 November 1989.
Performance indicators: ●
Deliver 2 educational programmes on children’s rights and Convention of the Rights of a Child.
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15 MOs will engage in a platform to share good practices on children’s rights programme or advocacy.
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Create a toolkit on children’s rights advocacy translated into 3 languages.
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Engage in 3 networks working on children’s rights on a regional and/or global level.
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Projects and activities implemented under this strategy in the last mandate Children’s Rights Action Group (CRAG) This is an ongoing activity. IFM-SEI is part of the ‘Children’s Rights Action Group (CRAG), an informal network of Brussels-based EU and international networks working on children’s rights. CRAG is mainly lobbying the EU institutions for children’s rights policies and mainstreaming of child rights across policy areas. IFMSEI brings a strong child participation perspective into the work of CRAG, being one of only two members who do not only work for children, but with children. Other members include Eurochild, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages etc.
Kids Got Rights! Overview: In 2021 we kicked off our long-term project, Kids Got Rights, that will last until December of 2022. This project aims to empower children (focusing on 8-13 years old target) to fight for their rights and to be heard. Activities implemented in the last three years: ●
Kick-off meeting
In 2021 we had the Kick-off meeting of Kid’s Got Rights project with children from 8-13 years old online. In this meeting the children got to know about the project and participated in shaping the direction of the project. ●
Children Self Analysis
In this part children’s groups, from Austria, Catalonia/Spain, Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Italy, and the U.K., conducted self-analysis about the children right situation in their surroundings, the data from the self analysis will be used on a Research on the current
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 state of children’s participation, children rights mainstreaming and self-organisation at local level. ●
Sharing Meeting
The Sharing Meeting was carried out in a hybrid format, with meetings happening in Denmark, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, and the UK. Four organisations (IFM-SEI, Arciragazzi, ESPLAC and Kinderfreunde) went to Italy and had an international meeting as planned. The rest (DUI-Leg og Virke, Nuoret Kotkat, Slovenian Falcons and Woodcraft Folk) had national meetings in their own communities, connecting with the rest of the children in specific sessions of the project. The University of Barcelona also took part online to the meeting. In this meeting the children shared the results of the national Children’s Rights Superheroes’ Self- Analysis, Identified training needs and topics to be conducted on a national level for each of the Children’s Rights Superhero’s in the seven partner countries, and shared and developed educational materials, tools, better practices and methods to educate children on their rights. ●
Residential training
The Residential Training was a national event in all partner countries aimed to train the Children's Rights Superheroes on human rights education, to develop their capacity to manage and conduct educational/training activities for other children or groups of adults on the theme of rights (forming of the Kids Hubs).
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3. CHILD AND YOUTH PARTICIPATION IFM-SEI should promote the active and meaningful participation of our beneficiaries in our structures, activities and programmes, ensuring our movement and member organisations are led by children and young people, not simply for or with them. Objectives: ●
Promote greater engagement of children and young people on regional and international levels within IFM-SEI and its MOs.
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Create and test ways through which innovative child and youth participation structures can be practiced in IFM-SEI.
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Develop a feedback system for child and youth participation within MOs.
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Offer spaces to share good practices on child and youth participation.
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Engage with external key stakeholders in child and youth participation on a global level.
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Offer spaces on Common Ground 2020 for children and young people to selforganise.
Performance indicators: ●
50% of members of statutory bodies and 70% of members on IFM-SEI non-statutory structures and working groups consist of children and young people aged 30 and under.
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IFM-SEI will create a strategy on establishing a child participation structure in IFMSEI.
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All MOs will have at least two young people aged 30 or under in their leadership structures by June 2022.
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15 MOs will engage in good practice sharing initiatives of IFM-SEI on child and youth participation.
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Engage actively in 5 external networks on child and youth participation.
Projects and activities implemented under this strategy in the last mandate Spotlight on YOUth: European Falcon Network youth exchange ‘Spotlight on YOUth’ was developed in the first couple of months of 2019 as a youth exchange project to explore child and youth participation from the previous mandate. This project did not only focused on making our organisations more accessible and participative, but also for IFM-SEI to receive input from the expertise of its member organisations and other likeminded organisations to make its structures more accessible for children and young people. The youth exchange took place alongside the international camp for the celebration of 70 years of Döbriach. Over ten days the project experienced different non-formal education methods, and reflected on our structures as well as accessibility in general. The project aimed to empower young people from our organisations to get active in our own decisionmaking bodies and give them tools to think global and act local.
Society is ours! This activity was held online due to the pandemic, we had 26 participants from our European member organisations. Society is Ours! is a project that aimed to explore the importance of civil society and how democratic participation is vital to the good functioning of the European Union in protecting and safeguarding fundamental rights, as well as sharing and identifying methods to combat shrinking civil space and promote civic engagement through volunteering in non-formal children’s and youth organisations.
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Participation in regional and global youth participation structures IFM-SEI is an active member of the European Youth Forum (YFJ), was an establishing member of the Latin American Youth Forum (FLAJ), and now working on renewing the relation. A member in the task force of the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO). a member in the Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY). And recently a member of CIVICUS. This is an ongoing activity. Through engaging in these leading youth networks, we contribute to promoting youth participation in the UN system and at regional level, and input IFM-SEI’s values and strategic priorities into the common advocacy work.
Child and youth Participation Task Force The Task Force analysed the current structure of IFM-SEI and proposed ideas and guidelines on how to make our organisation more child and youth friendly and how XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022_16 22-24 April 2022 Austria/ Virtual Activity report can IFM-SEI be even more open and participatory in decision making. Those proposals would be discussed at IFM-SEI Congress in 2022, stay tuned to know the results.
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4. INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY IFM-SEI should be inclusive of all children and young people regardless of their background, beliefs or social class. Inclusion and diversity should be promoted through our educational work with a focus on peace education to promote inclusive societies. We strive towards a non-violent society where all forms of structural discrimination are confronted. Objectives: ●
Ensure that IFM-SEI’s membership reflects the diversity of local communities where IFM-SEI exists including young migrants and refugees.
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Support the creation and development of IFM-SEI thematic networks to organise and steer the inclusion work of IFM-SEI, including (but not exclusive to) the Rainbow, Feminist, Migration and Accessibility Networks.
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Deliver educational programmes on topics relating to inclusion both within IFM-SEI and with external partners such as fraternal sister organisations and associated educational centres.
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Collaborate with other external actors promoting inclusion and diversity in the wider sector civil society sector.
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Promote and develop activities and materials on peace education, tackling violence and oppression from a systemic and individual approach.
Performance indicators: ●
10 MOs will develop national inclusion and diversity strategies with the support of IFM-SEI.
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Facilitate 2 thematic network meetings per year for each statutory thematic network.
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Engage actively with 5 external organisations or structures on inclusion topics.
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Deliver 1 seminar or educational activity per year on inclusion themes.
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Promote already available resource books on the topic of diversity-conscious education, peace education and inclusion an updated version.
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Create 1 resource on dialogue for inclusive societies in open source format.
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15 MOs in 4 world regions will enact national projects on peace education using IFM-SEI resources and materials.
Projects and activities implemented under this strategy in the last mandate Building Bridges Overview: The aim of the two-year global project, ‘Building Bridges: Youth Work for Peace and Dialogue’, is to promote a cross-continental approach to peace education and dialogue through youth work in different world regions. ‘Building Bridges’ is a global project to expand IFM-SEI’s peace education work, generously supported by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme. The project started in 2019 and will ended in 2020. Activities implemented in the last mandate for this project: ●
Training in Inclusion and Dialogue
Training in Inclusion and Dialogue This training was hosted by our coordinating partner oraganisation and one of our newest IFM-SEI member organisations Girls Excel in Yaoundé, Cameroon. This training reunited the youth workers who had worked together at our training in Inclusion and Dialogue in Paraguay. Together, the participants explored the role of youth work in fostering inclusion and combating polarisation in society. The youth
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 workers also shared their experiences on planning and delivering their local projects and got together to design the regional projects that they implemented. ●
Building Bridges Closing Conference
This was the official closure of the project, which included partners from the Consortium, sister organisations or institutions, and other guests, we brought together around 60 people. The purpose of it was to share the outcomes of the project, including the local and regional projects, to officially launch the Massive Open Online Course and to present the final version of the toolkit and situation report. The conference was supposed to be held in Brussels and to bring 30 stakeholders and organisations so that the participants can showcase their achievements in Building bridges Project and promote the outputs. Due to the Pandemic we had to carry the conference online.
Amplify Overview: The project enacted transatlantic dialogues between young people in Europe and Canada on the themes of climate change, gender equality and the prevention of violent extremism. Four IFM-SEI organisations cooperated with young people in Canada and have been given the chance to raise their voices on a transatlantic level. Activities implemented in the last mandate for this project: ●
Local Labs II in Vienna, Ljubljana, Barcelona and digital in Brussels and Beyond
Out of fourteen European and Canadian locations, the IFM-SEI Youth Champion hosted four Local Labs between May and December 2020. The group in Vienna, supported by our member organisation Kinderfreunde, looked at Gender Inequalities, and produced a fairytale podcast for children that reflect on gender roles. The youth in Barcelona, supported by ESPLAC, and in Ljubljana, supported by the Slovenian Falcon, both decided to work on Climate Change. Our digital Lab Brussels and Beyond took a deep dive on all three themes and have produced a zine in collaboration of different young artists.
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Meta University 2020 organised by the North-South Centre: COVID-19 and Violent Extremism- Youth as stakeholders for conflict transformation and shaping peaceful societies
In November 2020, the activity ‘COVID-19 and Violent Extremism – Youth as stakeholders for conflict transformation and shaping peaceful societies’ aimed to bring together the findings and learning of the youth in amplify project when counteracting violent extremism and the harmful escalation caused by the COVID19 virus. The session brought together 30 participants from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Latin America. ●
Happy Youth Year Celebration
As the final step to close Amplify project, a youth celebration for the project was held online to celebrate 60 youth and youth workers who participated through the whole project as well as to showcase of the project activities and outputs. The celebration took place in December 2020.
Feminists of the World Unite (FOTWU) This study session on feminism and intersectionality brought together 25 feminists working on the topic of intersectional feminism to create strategies and tools to promote inclusive, intersectional feminism and equip the participants with skills for their activism. The study session worked on a second edition of the Gender Equality Handbook and the further development of the IFM-SEI Feminist Network. This group worked on toolkit development gender equality handbook 2nd edition. The study session was supported by the Council of Europe Youth Department.
Pride And Visibility Month In 2021, we celebrated the LGBTQIA+ community with an online parade and a queer game event. Every Tuesday in June we celebrated #QueerTuesday by posting a rainbow collage with colorful pictures of IFM-SEI members and volunteers. Members were encouraged to participate and send their own pictures in their favorite rainbow color. Throughout the month, we remembered queer history by posting a series of information about the Stonewall Riots, a milestone in the fights for LGBTQIA+ rights and a symbol of
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 pride and empowerment. On 29 June, we celebrated the Pride and Visibility Month by also organising a Queer Game Event.
Unpacking Power and Privilege Through the Feminist Network we have established a cooperation with IUSY Feminist Working Group by implementing a common project “Unpacking Power & Privilege”. Through the activity we aimed to unpack our personal and community privilege which is a crucial step to using this power to lead individually and collectively for social justice. The activity was designed and conducted in four sessions over a period from mid-January to mid-February 2021. The focus of each session was as follows: Session 1: Learning and understanding privilege and power. Session 2: Gaining skills and practices in seeing systematic privileges. Session 3: Unpacking privilege for actions of awareness and solidarity. Session 4: How to share knowledge and resources with member organisations. All workshops were implemented using non-formal education and experiential learning. The participants had a chance to learn and understand privilege and power, gain skills and practice in recognizing systematic privileges and able to identify intersections of identities leading either to privilege or oppression.
Democratic and Participatory IFM-SEI Task Force This group was set up for a fixed term from September 2020 till the 2021 International Committee. It consisted of 7 people with a maximum of 2 persons per region. Together with the Presidium, they developed proposals to improve IFM-SEI’s structures and operations to become more democratic and inclusive. One of the main changes was changing the official language of IFM-SEI from Only English, to also French and Spanish.
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5. CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENT IFM-SEI should promote environmental sustainability from a socialist educational perspective. We recognise the impact climate change will have on our young people and generations to come, and that education is a key tool to address climate change to empower, inform and motivate young people to fight for systemic change. Objectives: ●
Promote greater awareness of climate change and environmental issues from a systemic approach with a capitalist critique outlining alternative perspectives for the future.
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Increase knowledge and understanding of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and foster ownership over the development agenda and its processes.
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Support and implement global programmes challenging climate change and promote environmental awareness.
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Fight on political level for climate change and demanding systemic change.
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Recognise the crucial role of young people in the protests, support them and integrate the protests on climate change into our structures, where it is useful.
Performance indicators: ●
Establish a working group or thematic network on climate change and environmental sustainability involving members from 4 regions.
●
Deliver 1 global educational project and 1 global campaign on climate change and environmental issues.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 ●
20 MOs will deliver national or local projects on climate change and environmental issues.
●
Attend 3 advocacy or educational activities coordinated by the United Nations or other global organisations or networks on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Projects and activities implemented under this strategy in the last mandate Resist! The Global Climate Divide Steering and Focus Group Overview: The aim of Resist! is to mobilise a young generation of climate change activists to be ambassadors and multipliers for a systemic and intersectional approach to the global climate emergency. Spanning from January of 2020 to June of 2021, this project mobilized young people to be ambassadors and multipliers for a systemic and intersectional approach to the global climate emergency. The workplan was funded by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. The workplan was one of the first projects impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we managed to implement several activities in its framework. We have implemented the first phase of the project in 2020 and in 2021 we continued the implementation in hybrid format. Activities implemented in the last mandate for this project: ●
Consultation meeting
The meeting brought together a group of climate change experts who volunteered their time to exchange ideas and knowledge about the climate crisis, answering questions that our steering group team designed and delivered to gather different knowledge and perspectives. Then, the steering group spent a day designing a dynamic programme for Resist!’s next activity, which meant to be a training for young climate change activists and educators.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 For 4 days in February 2021, we brought together the Resist! Steering group, the educational team that was responsible for designing and delivering the Focus Group meeting, and who will co-create, deliver and evaluate Resist!’s next activity (the training), and a Focus Group to gather input from experts on content and programme for the project through focus groups. In order to include an intersectional approach, we brought together 18 climate crisis experts, from natural scientists, public health experts and farmers to activists, educators and social scientists. ●
Training for Climate Activists
The second phase of the project had to be adapted due to the global pandemic and was therefore delivered in the form of four online courses from January to April 2021. It was implemented in the shape of online courses modules, those courses consisted of learning about climate change and an interesting issue which the participants then designed and ran their own sessions/ local project on in their local areas. They explored different methods of creative activism such as non-formal education, performance art and campaigning. The modules were designed by the team with non-formal methodologies and had the same internal structure: Week 1 — Content: The facilitators planned and prepared sessions to explore the themes of that course, including online sessions, pre-recorded videos and pretasks/assignments. Week 2-3 — The local projects: Week 2 and 3: Participants planned and implemented activities on these themes in their local communities with the support and feedback of their peers. Week 4 — Feedback: Participants shared feedback to the group on their activities and gave evaluations with the support of facilitators. During each module, participants were able to develop their own local projects to raise awareness on the fight for Climate Justice. In total, 26 local projects took place in different places in the world, including educational workshops, social media actions, webinars, etc.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 The topics that was explored in this training modules were:
Climate Change and Anticapitalism
Climate Change and Racial Justice
Climate Change and Gender (In)equality
Climate Change and Children’s Rights
We saw some fantastic projects come from this including the publication of a degrowth Zine in the UK, a Swap and Save on sustainable fashion in Sweden, a project on the recovery of public spaces in Chile, non-formal education sessions on climate conflict in pastoral and farming communities in Mali and many more. Please visit our website to see more of these projects. ●
Toolkit Development and Podcast Production
As a result of the online “Training for Climate Activists” the educational team selected four activities developed by the participants and drafted a training session outline that could be easily adapted to different contexts. Each activity linked to the four topics of the previous training and their intersection to climate change: anticapitalism, racial justice, gender equality and children’s rights. With our member organisations, we organised a series of local actions to raise awareness and make World Environment Day more visible. People from all over the world implemented a series of workshops and the outcomes of these workshops were used to form the final toolkit of Resist! - from an intersectional and non-formal perspective. This toolkit was then edited, translated, and printed with the input of the focus groups and activists that took part in this project in three languages. In addition to the production of the toolkit, Resist also produced a number of podcast episodes in English and Spanish. You can find these interviews with young people and experts on our website.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022
6. REACH OUT - GROUP WORK, VOLUNTEERING AND INTERNATINALISM IFM-SEI should support our member organisations to enact group work and develop grassroots structures, and share good practices on group work and volunteering between member organisations. Volunteerism is at the heart of IFM-SEI and is a key tool for social impact. As part of this, IFM-SEI should offer capacity building opportunities for our member organisations and grassroots members. Objectives: ●
Support the development of IFM-SEI regional networks and structures with an autonomous, self-led approach.
●
Offer capacity building trainings for MOs based on their organisational needs.
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Facilitate the creation of bilateral or multilateral partnerships between MOs.
●
Provide spaces and platforms for MOs to share their good practices and create spaces for collaborative problem solving.
●
Enact a programme to bringing internationalism and IFM-SEI to a grassroots local level.
●
Improve the communications of IFM-SEI with MOs and external stakeholders.
Performance indicators: ●
Establish 4 self-led regional networks with agreed governance structures and strategic priorities that reports annually to the International Committee or Congress.
●
1 face-to-face regional meeting of each regional network involving 65% of MOs in the region.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 ●
Deliver 3 capacity building training courses for MOs with a global dimension.
●
Create 20 bilateral or multilateral partnerships between MOs or their local branches through a partnerships platform and buddying system.
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Create and implement 3 tools for meaningful exchange between MOs.
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Deliver 1 global summer camp, 1 global campaign, 1 educational activity and 1 toolkit on bringing global to local.
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80% of MOs will report an improvement on internal communications by the end of 2021.
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The reach of external communications will increase by 50% by the end of 2021.
●
Establish a communications platform for IFM-SEI member organisations to share and communicate between each other easier.
●
Create 1 hands-on activity/time-slot accessible for IFM-SEI members to give space to try out IFM-SEI resource books (this can also be part of an existing activity).
Projects and activities implemented under this strategy in the last mandate Dream Our G>Local Movement Overview: With the pandemic still raging on we started our “Dream our G->Local Movement” workplan for 2021 supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. “Dream” was the first workplan that had three international activities completely implemented online all in 2021. This was a project that aimed to support a young generation of youth workers to develop accessible and inclusive approaches to engage in youth work locally, nationally, and internationally. We used this project to reflect on our own practices regarding accessibility and inclusion and to find ways to improve our 22-24 April 2022 Austria / Virtual Activity report
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 movement. It was also a project that provided a chance to build or own knowledge and learn from different minority youth organisations, not only involving our own member but also actively including young people from different socio-economic background, in this young refugees and asylum seekers, young Roma, young people with disabilities, young LGBTQIA+. Activities implemented in the last mandate for this project: ●
Consultation with youth workers and young people
The first phase of the project was a two-part consultation process: one with youth workers (16-17 March) and one with youth (22-23 May). It brought together marginalized and underserved young people and organisations that work with these communities. They discussed volunteering and meaningful participation and critically analysed the situations and practices that can make these inaccessible to underserved communities. The main outcome of the consultations process was the development of the “Diversity and Inclusion Checklist”. The checklist is a simple self-assessment guide that leads the readers step by step through issues linked with diversity and inclusion in youth projects and local youth work. It serves as a reflection tool on how to create more equal opportunities for all young people to participate not only in the activities organised by child and youth organisations but also in access to leadership positions in the organization and possibilities to influence the decision-making processes. ●
Training for Mentors
The second phase of the project focused on the relevance and impact of local activism on a global scale. The online training took place 23-25 September and gathered young people that wanted to explore different methods and actions to be taken in order to engage and reach out to diverse group of young people in local, national and international volunteering. It provided opportunity to build the capacities of youth leaders in planning and designing g->local campaigns to be implemented in their local communities and networks. ●
G-> Local Campaigns
In the third phase of the project, the participants had to deliver their campaigns. Each activity highlighted the importance of diverse, accessible and inclusive opportunities on a 22-24 April 2022 Austria / Virtual Activity report
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 local, national and international level. The participants, many who came from marginalised youth communities were able to reach and engage a diverse pool of participants and engage them in volunteering while working to strip away the potential barriers to participation. We prepared a summary of all the g->local campaigns implemented between September and November where you can explore all the topics that were developed and implemented by the participants of the project. We hope they will spark some new ideas and motivation to start discussing and educating on inclusion and diversity also in their organisations and communities. ●
Toolkit Development
The final phase of “Dream” was a capacity building creative toolkit development workshop, led online by experts in non-formal education and inclusion. In the online activity taking place 25-27 November, participants created sessions aimed at creating accessible and inclusive g-local volunteering. The core of the activity was developing an educational resource that can support the movement with concrete ideas, resources and methods for inclusive non-formal education. The activities presented in the Handbook are a good and inspirational start for anyone embarking on the adventure to make their organisation more inclusive and diverse Activities were designed in a way that they provide the reader with concrete tools on accessibility and inclusiveness of the methodology without sacrificing space for any adaptation to the needs of the target group. sacrificing space for any adaptation to the needs of the target group. The Handbook is an interactive tool that will lead you through your first steps with social inclusion and provide different learning methods – from quizzes to videos. Embark on the journey to social inclusion by exploring the Handbook.
Regional Networks The IFM-SEI Secretariat and Presidium implement a new communications strategy that focuses more strongly on communication between IFM-SEI members as well as external communications.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 The regional networks are becoming more sustainable with the structure in each region vary from the other depending on their needs and resources. Each regional network has to elect a regional coordinator that the region decides on the tasks they need to carry. In the last mandate, regional networks of Latin America, Africa, and Europe have met at least once a year. These meetings have been attended by secretariat and presidium members where appropriate. Last mandate meant to offer funds for Africa, Latin America, and Asia regional network to conduct one meeting a mandate, this was not possible due to the pandemic, hence this would take place in 2022 at Common Ground. In our strategic priority for 2022-25, “Stronger IFM-SEI”, recognises these networks as vital structures within IFM-SEI and focuses on continuing to build and support these as an organisation.
IFM-SEI Communications Strategy The Presidium published different statements on political issues and on commemoration of special international days. This aim to communicate IFM-SEI’s aims and principles with external stakeholders, and the secretariat is establishing more regular communication with members as well as building up the platform using Basecamp for exchange between members. IFM-SEI website has been renewed and maintained, the secretariat and the presidium worked hard to create a consistency in comms, we have also been using basecamp for some projects management which made implementation and follow up easier.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022
7. CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS IFM-SEI should put a focal point on the 100 years celebration if IFM-SEI in 2022, marking 100 years the conception of the movement in 1922 through the Socialist International. This is an opportunity to look back on the last 100 years and look forward to the future development of our movement. Objectives: ●
Deliver an extensive and accessible programme of activities for the IFM-SEI centenary in 2022.
●
Promote the history and legacy of IFM-SEI through a history project chronicling the last 100 years of IFM-SEI and storytelling.
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Review the external brand and external messaging of IFM-SEI.
●
Evaluate
what
is
means
to
have
good governance in an international
nongovernmental organisation the 21st century and its application in IFM-SEI. ●
Use Common Ground as a platform to prepare for the centenary celebrations.
Performance indicators: ●
Create a task force mid-2020 to consult, plan and deliver a programme of centenary celebration with representatives from 4 regions.
●
Create a documentary, book or exhibition about the history of IFM-SEI (1922-2022) by mid-2022.
●
Engage 100,000 people through a campaign on the core values, aims and history of IFM-SEI using storytelling.
●
25 MOs input into a consultation on the IFM-SEI brand and messaging.
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022
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Conduct a brand review of IFM-SEI by the end of 2021.
●
25 MOs input into a strategy to improve governance structures and MO engagement in IFM-SEI.
●
200 children and young people engage in activities at Common Ground to prepare for the centenary celebrations.
Here is what have the Centenary celebrations Task force done and is doing The Centenary Celebration task force held a training for people to document oral history so that young people can conduct meeting about the history of IFM-SEI. They are currently working on story telling on history – storytelling documental, where we will talk with people that were involved in IFM-SEI. Anna from task force will collect all the videos from this storytelling documental and create a documentary. A group had been made to find the storytellers; more suggestions are always welcome. From this storytelling discussions, a collection of stories will compile into a fairy tale book about the story of IFM-SEI. Additionally, the task force conducted a rebranding workshop based on the performance indicators of this strategic priority and they have concluded that our members are open for change of logo quality but not for name and slogan. The task force was counting heavily on Common Ground to be implemented in 2020 to prepare for the centenary celebration. As Common Ground was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic, the task force thought of alternative ways to engage children and young people in the preparation for the celebration, and this is through an activity pack that has some activities to ask the children and the youth how they would want to celebrate 100 years of IFM-SEI 2022, as well as there is a page dedicated at IFM-SEI website on the celebration and different ways for people to be engaged.
There is a promo video for the celebration that was created as well. check it here ●
Presidium
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022
The role of the presidium is vital to our movements: to lead on the implementation of our Strategy and Work Plan, to ensure that resolutions are implemented, and to discuss political issues concerning IFM-SEI and liaise with member organisations. The presidium managed to have one face-to-face meeting before the pandemic, however the rest of the meetings were held online. ●
Our Current Presidium Members are:
1. Baturay Göksular (Middle East region)
2. Nishaben Vasava (Asia region)
3. Babacar Toure (Africa region)
4. Cesar Rivero Medina (Latin American region)
5. Jasmin Trogen (Europe region)
6. Ruba Hilal – Secretary General
7. Ellen Lindsey Awuku – Vice President
8. Christina Schauer – President
●
Control Commission
The Control Commission’s role is to monitor the finances of IFM-SEI and our compliance with the IFM-SEI Constitution. The Presidium meets approximately every two months and the Control Commission meets at least twice per year. So far in their mandate, the Control Commission has approved IFM-SEI’s budget in the last mandate. ●
Control Commission consists of the following people: Debs McCahon Control Commission Member
●
Etaka Bibiche Control Commission Member
The IFM-SEI Secretariat
Our office team has had some changes in the last mandate, we said goodbyes to Anuschka Ruge, Andrés Santiago, Christine Sudbrock, Basak Van Hofe, Federico Pozzoni, Nadia Asri, and Iris Garcia. We have welcomed Pia Šlogar as Project Manager working full time, Julia Lennon and Aggie Taylor as long-term volunteers with the European Solidarity Corps working 30 hours
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XXIX Ordinary Congress of IFM-SEI 2022 a week, as well as Marta Marzá Florensa and Delpine Konda as project coordinators working 30 hours a week. They all joined Ruba Hilal who continues as Secretary General working full time, and Ingrid de Kock who keeps her position as the backbone of our organisation, after retirement she is still working one day a week in our secretariat. ●
IFM-SEI Finances
Our work wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. 3-year income
€
%
543561,24 €
54%
Membership fees
214.738 €
21%
Admin grants
210.927 €
21%
26.413 €
3%
7.642 €
1%
157 €
0%
Projects
Social security reductions Statutory Meetings Other * Total income
3-year expenditure
1.003.438 €
€
%
Projects
483.403 €
47%
Staffing
415.254 €
41%
Office costs
71.299 €
7%
Governance
32.695 €
3%
Erased debts
12.580 €
1%
7.103 €
1%
Other * Total expenditure
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1.022.333 €
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