ANNUAL REPORT 2019 International Falcon Movement Socialist Educational International
Who we are Layout Anuschka Ruge
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 youth-led movements all over the world, delivering socialist education on the basis of our values of equality, democracy, solidarity, peace, cooperation and anti-capitalism.
House message
By children and young people, for children and young people International Falcon Movement - Socialist Educational International Rue Joseph II 120 1000 Brussels
May 2020
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.
COVID-19 Despite the pandemic 2020 COVID-19, we decided to send you all a review of our year 2019, as solidarity is core to our values. We are sending you and your loved ones the best wishes of being safe, well and healthy. We want to share this review of 2019 with you today, so we all feel a big wave of international solidarity and togetherness coming to us in a time we need it the most.
In June 2019 we went back to our roots at the XVIII’s Ordinary Congress in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Back to Our Roots!
We focussed on child and youth participation. Other focuses of our work in 2019 were on the thematic area of child and youth participation through the ‘Spotlight on Youth’ project and training for young peer educators who initiated the first official Pool of Socialist Educators (POSE). We ended the implementation of the 2016-2019 Strategy and Work Plan with a seminar in our ‘I Act’ series on gender equality, focusing this time on masculinities. It focused particularly on educating young men* on the active bystander model and a powerbased analysis of sexual violence.
A big thank you to our volunteers! In 2019 we’ve seen the development of regional-led and thematic network, new globally focused projects, and change of governance structure. None of this could have been achieved without the commitment and energy of our volunteers all over the world. Their contribution is invaluable, and the results are visible for all to see. We say thank you to the previous mandate leadership, our volunteers and huge thank you to our member organisations without you none of this would had happen. 2019 was a year of big change for our movement. The Congress decided on important changes to our governance structures. The biggest change was a reduction of the size of our Presidium, in order to encourage individual Presidium members to be more accountable and responsible, and to greatly increase the effectiveness of Presidium’s work. We added a new post of Vice-President (Welcome Ellen-Lindsey) to the leadership team. 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 2019 we connected the world through two big projects. Towards the end of 2018 and at the beginning of 2019, we saw the start of our global project on peace education and dialogue for inclusive societies, ‘Building Bridges’. Young educators from partners across three of our world regions could participate in two capacity-building activities and began the development of a new toolkit on the topic. Through the project ‘Amplifying the voices of young people with fewer opportunities’, we cooperated for the first time with Canadian partners - Oxfam Quebec, Apathy is Boring and Citoyenneté Jeunesse. The project focuses on young people developing research and awareness-raising activities on fighting gender inequalities, violent extremism and climate change, and it is an excellent example of young people’s self-organisation and participation.
We hope you enjoy this review of 2019! In solidarity and friendship,
Christina Schauer IFM-SEI President
Ruba Hilal IFM-SEI Secretary General
Our member organisations In this part you get a glimpse of our members worldwide. At the congress 2019 we upgraded two organisations to full memberships status of AJYAL and Girl Excel. You want to know more about them? Here you go!
Projects and Activities 2019 2019 was the year we ended the implementation of the 2016-2019 Strategy and Work Plan, and saw our back to our roots Strategy and Work Plan 2019-2022 kick off. Through our projects we have reached different places in the world. Here are the projects and activities of this transitional year!
Amplifying the voices of young people with fewer opportunities Overview: In 2018, we formed for the first time an exciting new partnership with Oxfam Quebec for our new project, ‘Amplify Youth Voices’, which was launched in January 2019. The project will enact transatlantic dialogues between young people in AM PLI FY Europe and Canada on the themes of fighting Y O U T H VOICES climate change, gender inequalities and violent extremism. Four IFM-SEI organisations are cooperating with young people in Canada and have been given the chance to raise their voices on a transatlantic level. Activities in 2019: Inception Workshop in Berlin, Germany
Girls Excel (Cameroon) Oyoun Masr Association (Egypt) Youth Advocates Ghana Pionniers du Mali Action Enfance (Senegal) Pionniers du Senegal UJSARIO (Western Sahara) Patsimederu Trust (Zimbabwe)
Youth Organization Bhutan Antar Bharati (India) KKSP Foundation (Indonesia)
Armenian Youth Federation Rote Falken Kinderfreunde (Austria) Falcons of Belarus Les Faucons Rouges (Belgium) Rode Valken (Belgium) Esplais Catalans (Catalonia) Pionyr (Czech Republic) DUI LEG og VIRKE (Denmark) Nuoret Kotkat (Finland) Georgian Falcons SJD-Die Falken (Germany) Hungarian Childfriends Arciragazzi (Italy) Lithuanian Young Falcon Union Framfylkingen (Norway) Fénix (Slovakia) Slovenian Falcons Ungar Önar (Sweden) Rote Falken (Switzerland) Woodcraft Folk (UK)
Ajyal (Israel) Hashomer Hatzair (Israel) Noar Oved Vehalomed (Israel) Independence Youth Union (Palestine) Independent Youth Forum (Palestine) Palestine Red Crescent Society Seeds Association ‘Bothoor’ (Palestine) Association for Social Democracy (Turkey)
In April 2019, we brought together 14 of Youth Champions from Canada and Europe in Berlin for the Inception Workshop of Amplify. During four days the young people had the opportunity to deep dive and explore the three themes and develop the methodology for the first round of the Local Labs. Local Labs I in Vienna, Ljubljana, Barcelona and digital in Brussels and Beyond
Nueva Generación (Bolivia) Mirim Brasil Agrupación Integridad Absoluta (Chile) Manque Chile MILAVF (Nicaragua) CHAP (Peru) Los Cachorros (Peru) Mundo Nuevo (Peru)
Out of fourteen European and Canadian locations, the IFM-SEI Youth Champion hosted four Local Labs. The group in Vienna, supported by our member organisation Kinderfreunde, looked at Gender Inequalities. 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
Youth-led Research
Toolkit Development Workshop in Medan, Indonesia
Based on their topic each Local Lab group defined research questions and different approaches for youth-led research. All the outcomes were collected for the Amplify Transatlantic Youth Agenda. You can check it out here. Transatlantic Youth Dialogue in Montreal, Canada This workshop focused on regional perspectives of peace education, starting from an analysis of the situation report, done before the workshop, and using the expertise the participants have in the field to develop the toolkit to be tested in the youth worker trainings. The toolkit was developed collectively with the participants Training for capacity building for local and regional projects in Athens, Greece
In November we brought Amplify to the global level. Around a 100 young activists from all Local Labs gathered in Montreal, Canada. In four days they shared their experiences and learnings from the first round of Lab as well as their research focus and outcomes. The youth also started to develop demands for policy makers to push for progressive system change
This workshop was hosted by our coordinating partner organisation ELIX in cooperation with IFM-SEI. This training brought together a group of 12 people, including participants and educational team. In this training, participants came together to learn about how to plan and implement localised and regional projects received a training on topics such as Project Cycle Management, funding and fundraising, using ICT tools, crisis management and intercultural learning. Training in Peace Education in Asunción, Paraguay
Building Bridges: Youth Work for Peace and Dialogue Overview: The aim of this two-year global project is to promote a crosscontinental 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 end in autumn 2020. This project will build on the work that IFM-SEI undertook in 2015 in Europe and the Middle East on peace education, culminating in the publication of the Peace Education Handbook (check it out!). Activities in 2019: Building Bridges project implemented three international meetings this year.
This is training was hosted by our coordinating partner organisation JPS in cooperation with IFM-SEI. This training brought together a group of 16 people, including participants and educational team. This was the first of two youth workers’ trainings with the same participants following the whole process. Youth workers learnt about peace education and how to put it into practice in localised contexts. The training was a combination of theory, practice and planning, in the Latin American context where peace processes was analysed.
Peacemakers of Tomorrow We decided in 2019 to launch a new virtual concept to link the local and the global. ‘Peacemakers of Tomorrow’ was designed as a a global activity happening on a local level. We had eight local organisations from Europe and Africa joining our activity over one weekend in April 2019. ‘Peacemakers of Tomorrow’ aimed to educate children and young people on the topic of peace and conflict. For this one-day seminar, we provided an online toolkit, that contained everything for members to be able to host the seminar on a local level. We paired up groups from different member organisations to share their outputs, this way we had activity weekend of global cooperation and local action.
Spotlight on Youth ‘Spotlight on YOUth’ was developed in the first couple of months of 2019 as a youth exchange project to explore child and youth participation. This project is 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 decision-making bodies and give them tools to think global and act local.
The training was successful in building a community of peer educators in socialist education, and was the platform used for launching the IFM-SEI Pool of Socialist Educators (POSE). The training was rich in outputs and the participants got motivated to develop a toolkit on socialist education – think a socialist version of Compass. The training has nurtured a new generation of socialist educators to be utilised in IFM-SEI and our member organisations and we hope this is a model that can be repeated periodically. The toolkit will be developed in 2020.
I ACT: EXPLORING MASCULINITIES ‘I Act - Exploring masculinities’ was the second edition of the ‘I Act’ project. The aim was to engage young men in the discourse around sexualised violence and to equip them to be ambassadors on challenging sexual violence in their organisations and societies.
We had participants from different parts of Europe joining our week-long seminar in Milan. During the seminar, we shared knowledge and skills and shared experiences about attitudes encountered. We made stop animation videos, and learned how to be an active bystander. After the seminar participants took their knowledge to the local level by organising small projects in their home city. We did finish the implementation of our Strategy and Work Plan 2016-2019 with this activity. And we are excited to start the implementation of Strategy and Work Plan 2019-2022!
Peers 2.0 Peer Education for Democratic Citizenship was a ten-day training for trainers’ course that took place in partnership with the Youth Department of the Council of Europe. This training brought together educators to explore non-formal education, socialist education and human rights education, and equip them with the competences, tools and confidence to progress and enhance their journeys as educators.
Statutory Meetings
IFM-SEI Presidium
IFM-SEI’s Congress is the highest body of IFM-SEI. It takes place every three years, and it is an opportunity for our membership to send delegates who can participate in our democratic processes, and vote on decisions on all matters relating to IFM-SEI. It is also where members elect our Secretary General, our Presidium representatives and our Control Commission. The role of the Presidium is vital to our movements - to lead on the implementation of our Strategy and Work Plan, to ensure that IFM-SEI, make sure resolutions are implemented, and to discuss political issues concerning IFM-SEI and liaise with member organisations. 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 have approved IFM-SEI’s 2020 budget.
Christina Schauer Ellen Lindsey Awaku President Vice-President
Ruba Hilal Secretary General
Nishaben Vasava Presidium Member (Asia)
Heidi Niemi Presidium member (Europe)
At IFM-SEI’s congress in 2019, which took place in Tbilisi, Georgia, Ruba Hilal was elected as Secretary General. Our membership also voted in a new Presidium, and the following candidates were elected: • Babacar Toure (African region) • Baturay Goksular (Middle Eastern region) • Cesar Rivero Medina (Latin American region) • Heidi Niemi (European region)
Babacar Toure Presidium Member (Africa)
• Nishaben Vasave (Asian Region) • Christina Schauer (President) • Ellen Lindsay Awuku (Vice President) The Control Commission consists of the following three people: • Deborah McCahon • Jure Stajnbaher • Joakim Karstensen Another important thing that our members voted on at Congress was to make IFM-SEI’s thematic networks a key statutory body of IFM-SEI. This decision means that a wide range of our members will be more involved in IFM-SEI’s work, as it provides an opportunity for our membership to bring their expertise on a topic, and compliment Presidium’s work in those areas. It is also an opportunity for IFM-SEI to support our member organisations to develop their work in specific fields, and for member organisations to collaborate and work together on different themes. The following networks are established and working:
Cesar Rivero Medina Presidium member (Latin America)
Baturay Göksular Presidium member (Middle East)
IFM-SEI Control Commission
• Rainbow Network • Feminist Network • Accessibility Network • Migration Network
Jure Stajnbaher Chair
Debs McCahon
Joakim Karstensen
The IFM-SEI Secretariat CAPACITY BUILDING TO SUPPORT LONGTERM VOLUNTEERING
IFM-SEI Secretariat
The European Falcon Network seminar, ‘A Ferry for Europe’, provided the basis for building the capacity of our member organisations to support long-term volunteering placements. With the overhaul of the volunteering programme of the European Commission, member organisations were kept in the loop with progressions and updates. As a result, a number of European IFM-SEI organisations have organised their own long-term volunteering programmes through the European Solidarity Corps and the European Voluntary Service giving opportunities for their young members to spend a few months to a year volunteering overseas.
Bye bye Jasmin - Welcome Nadia. In March 2019 Anuschka Ruge joined our team to coordinate our global project Amplify and internal and external communications. She has a background as non-formal educator and visual practitioner.
Carly Walker-Dawson Secretary General
Ruba Hilal Secretary General Elect
Christine Sudbrock Interim Secretary General
Until September 2019
From June 2019
From September 2019
Ingrid de Kock Office Secretary
Basak Van Hove Project Coordinator
In September, we had another new addition to the team when Nadia Asri took over from Jasmin Trogen as our European Solidarity Corps long-term volunteer. Our Office Manager, Ingrid de Kock, continued to offer reliability and support to the Secretariat, celebrating more than 40 years working for IFM-SEI.
Anuschka Ruge Communications & Project Coordinator From March 2019
Jasmin Trogen Long-term Volunteer
Nadia Asri Long-term volunteer
September 2018 - August 2019
From September 2019
Representation
IFM-SEI Finances
We sustained our cooperation with other global and Europe-based children and youth organisations. IFM-SEI continued the work in the Council of Europe’s Advisory Council on Youth and the Expert Groups on Funding and Youth Rights of the European Youth Forum. We followed closely the progressions with the Erasmus + successor programme and the development of the next Multiannual Financial Framework, and supported the European Youth Forum’s advocacy activities in this regard through our role in the Funding Expert Group. Additionally, we increased our engagement in global youth processes, Our Vice President (Ellen-Lindsey) participated in coordination meetings of the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO) and was a speaker at the World Nonformal Education Forum in Rio de Janeiro. We are also represented at the UN Women Bejing + 25 Youth Task Force (say Hi to Pip Gardner).
In 2018, IFM-SEI had an ambitious budget to be able to enact an increasing number of projects and larger secretariat to go with it. The finances remained stable with the aim of a breakeven budget, and the balance came in with a small deficit of 1,077€. Thanks to our operating grant from the European Commission, the Structural Grant from the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe, project grants, membership fees and generous donations, we are able to run an effective secretariat in Brussels and organise meetings, projects and activities to put into action our Aims and Principles.
2019 INCOME
TOTAL: 315135,62 €
2019 Expenditure
Our stay at home merchandise Are you looking for the right outfit for your home office? Who doesn’t love to wear a cool t-shirt or hoodie promoting the values of IFM-SEI? Do you want to look cool and be comfortable? Then visit our online shop where you can pick your design, your garment and your colours in a mix and match styling process. and it will be delivered directly to your front door. Our designs aim to stimulate curiosity and initiate conversations about IFM-SEI and its values, as well creating our shared identity through our clothing. Better than that – they look great! As well as the new designs we also have many items with classic IFM-SEI logos. Bright colours and different fits for all ages to ensure we have something for everyone. Get your hands on a new snapback cap, water bottle, teddy bear, drawstring bag or vest online now!
TOTAL: 319.366,33 € We followed closely the progressions with European Solidarity Corps – the programme that will replace the European Voluntary Service - and the development of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (budget) of the European Commission in 2018, joining relevant advocacy groups to collaborate with other youth organisations to ensure that our institutional financial support is maintained or increased in the future.
Educational resources Check out our three new resources available for free download and in hard copy in 2019.
Let’s Talk About Sex zine on inclusive sex education for kids and young people - available in English
This toolkit is one of the follow-up projects of our On the Move project from 2016 to 2018.
This toolbox has been developed for the local to global Peacemakers of Tomorrow event in 2019.
Meet our Funders
IFM-SEI is supported by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. This report reflects the views of the author only, and neither the European Commission nor the Council of Europe can be held responsible for any of its content.