Scouts and Peace From Baden-Powell to Gifts for Peace to Messengers of Peace
Scouts and Peace From Baden-Powell to Gifts for Peace to Messengers of Peace World Scouting is entering a new triennium, growing steadily and embracing a process to ensure we continue to develop as a Movement. Peace has been one of the core elements of Scouting since the very beginning, originating in Baden-Powell’s words to “leave this world a little better than we found it”. Individual Scouts and National Scout Organizations have answered his call, developing their communities worldwide, with local and international communities recognizing the contribution of Scouting in the creation of peace. Across generations, Scouts have continued their commitment to take action and be part of this effort. We are all contributing authors to a very grand and extraordinary story.
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Scouts and Peace in WOSM History
1907 At the first experimental Scout camp with 4 patrols on Brownsea Island, Baden-Powell introduced the Scout Promise for the first time, with one of the elements being “I’ll do my best to help others”.
1922 During the 1st World Scout Conference organized in France, Baden-Powell shared his vision: “Scouts can gather in a Global Network of service”.
1941 Baden-Powell’s Last Message about doing a “good deed to create Peace in the world”. Today’s tradition of tying a knot at the end of your Scout scarf signifies that you have completed your good deed of the day.
1947 The 6th World Scout Jamboree takes place in France. It was the first World Scout Jamboree to be held after the passing of BadenPowell and the end of World War II. Named “Jamboree of Peace”, it was attended by 24,000 Scouts.
1981 WOSM was awarded the “UNESCO Prize for Peace Education”.
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1984 WOSM received the Rotary Award for World Understanding (RAWU). The same year the International Association of Lions Clubs honoured Scouting.
1988 Scouting was honoured by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in recognition of the Movement’s outstanding environmental achievements.
1994 An agreement on Oral Rehydration Therapy was signed between UNICEF and WOSM. The same year, the International Public Relations Association bestowed its annual “President’s Award” on WOSM for “outstanding contribution to better world understanding
1995 WOSM and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signed an agreement of co-operation.
1999 The Mission of Scouting was adopted at the 35th World Scout Conference in South Africa: “To contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society”.
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2001 The World Scout Committee (WSC) met in the framework of the Arab Region Scout Conference in Saudi Arabia. During the meeting, a generous offer from the Saudi Arabian government was presented to support Scouting efforts in community service. After much reflection and discussions within WOSM, the World Scout Committee embraced the donation of HM King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. WOSM, preparing for the Centenary of Scouting, formally incorporated a “Community Service” element as part of the Centenary activities to promote service actions to be undertaken by Scouts around the world.
2002 Following up on the recent partnership and the planned actions for the Centenary celebrations, the World Scout Committee adopted the concept of “Gifts for Peace”. This concept was developed by WSC, WSB and WSF representatives in collaboration with the UK Scouts Association as members of the Centenary of Scouting 1 celebrations committee . The “Gifts for Peace” concept was adopted by the 36th World Scout Conference in Greece. It was decided that “Gifts for Peace” would be the core programme for the Centenary of Scouting during 2007, and that each National Scout Organization should present a Gifts for Peace project illustrating accomplishments by young people starting in 2005. The same year, the “Gifts for Peace” funding strategy – including Saudi Arabia Government’s donation – was presented to and approved by the 2007 Scouting’s Centenary Committee and the WSC, and promotion within NSOs could be initiated.
2004 First Call of Action related to “Gifts for Peace” was released, requesting NSOs to promote its objectives amongst its members. The “Gifts for Peace” initiative was presented to NSOs at Regional Conferences and events, with the support of the UK Scout Association.
1 The team behind the concept included UK Scouts Chairman Derek Pollard, WOSM’s Secretary General Jacques Moreillon, WSC Chairman Garnet de la Hunt, WOSM’s Programme Director Dominique Benard, WOSM’s Strategy for Scouting Executive Anne Whiteford and WSF Director John Geoghegan.
The Scouts of the World Award was created inviting Scouts and non-Scouts (aged 15-26) to discover challenges our world faces and then take action upon them through a service project at local level. The programme focused on three fields of action: Development, Peace, and the Environment.
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2005 Documentation process of relevant projects started and several visits to Regions and NSOs were scheduled to gather stories and material for the Gifts for Peace Report and Photographic Exhibition funded by the Saudi Arabian government. A Social Projects Workshop was held to build capacity in selected NSOs to promote life-changing stories and show the impact of Scouting. The workshop was a collaboration between the Saudi Arabian Boy Scouts Association, Gilwell Park and WOSM. Run by WSB staff, the workshop was also facilitated by an independent consultant and attended by a BBC journalist to share the impact of Scouting’s community work with a wider audience.
2007 Since its initiation in 2004, “Gifts for Peace” had now registered more than 120 projects, where 10 million Scouts engaged in a variety of activities in different areas like health, environment, violence prevention, dialogue and interreligious dialogue.
2009 Impressed by the social impact of Scouting’s community service, H.H. Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Mohammed presented an additional $3 million donation to King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Honorary Chairman of the World Scout Foundation, to continue the 2 development of a second phase of the “Gifts for Peace” initiative . In the process of developing a new set of actions to further develop Gifts for Peace, a team consisting of representatives from 3 the WSC, WSB and WSF - inspired by a statement by HM the King of Saudi Arabia that said “Scouts are Messengers of Love, Good and Peace” – developed a new inspirational framework called “Messengers of Peace”.
2 Press release Sweden. Gifts for Peace donation: www.theroyalforums.com/6289-swedish-king-and-saudi-princepresent-donation-for-scout-foundation 3 The team consisted of WOSM’s Strategy Executive Anne Whiteford, WSC Member Lars Kolind, Scouting Ireland’s Programme Director Colm Kavanagh and WSF Director John Geoghegan
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The new “Messengers of Peace” Concept, in attendance of WSC members, was presented to HM the King of Saudi Arabia and Minister of Education Prince Faisal for consideration. NSO representatives invited to the gathering presented the local impact of Gifts for Peace as a confirmation of the value of such effort. Gifts for Peace country experiences were presented with Haiti – Earthquake Relief, Burundi - Amahoro Amani and El Salvador – Seeds of Hope, as examples.
2010 With the offering of continuous financial support, now for a 10year period from the Saudi Arabian Government, the “Messengers of Peace” concept was presented to the World Scout Committee. Formal decision was taken to move forward and expand what was initiated with the “Gifts for Peace” project, with phase 2 being launched under the new name “Messengers of Peace”.
2011 In order to obtain NSO input and together develop the Messengers of Peace concept, an extensive survey was done at the 39th World Scout Conference in Brazil. 90% of the NSOs attending were interviewed and expressed interest in developing activities within the new framework, including the emphasis on dialogue and social entrepreneurship, peace promotion and dialogue programmes. In August, during the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden, the concept was presented to the 40,000 participants through programme activities and an exhibition. More than 15,000 ideas of community service project initiatives were gathered from the participants. With the formal agreement of the World Scout Committee, Messengers of Peace was officially adopted and launched as the 2nd phase of the Gifts for Peace initiative. More than 30 NSOs, represented by youth members, participated in the launch event and a peace camp for cultural exchange. In the last trimester of 2011 the first NSOs, from the Africa and Interamerican Regions, presented formal requests for funds to the Messengers of Peace Support Fund.
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2012 Early in 2012, the first results of projects funded by Messengers of Peace presented results. These were the peace-building project Amahoro Amani and the violence prevention project Youth for Youth. In May, at an event hosted by the Singapore Scout Association, 70 youths and leaders attended the first Messengers of Peace gathering providing input and developing capacity for the use of social media in the promotion of social entrepreneurship. By summer of the same year, WOSM’s Global Messengers of Peace was managing the Support Fund and Grant Applications from the 6 WOSM Regions, and more than 2 million US dollars were granted to NSOs to develop service initiatives and capacity building programmes. The Global Messengers of Peace Network was initiated started with the Regions and NSOs, promoting service as one of many ways to build a peaceful community. With the use of social media networks and online resources, the site scoutmessengers.org started registering non-funded service actions. Within 3 months of activity and by the end of 2012, more than 8 million service hours were reported. The Europe Region Rover event, “ROVERWAY” in Finland and the Arab Regional Jamboree in Egypt hosted the first Messengers of Peace Social Media trainings and Messengers of Peace programme modules to promote service. First trial of a model online platform was completed and fieldtested. An external Danish company was contracted to help integrate the plans for the Messengers of Peace global network and the web platform. Work started in the development of the platform scenarios and training to be rolled out for social media leaders who were invited to lead the global Messengers of Peace network. The first Messengers of Peace Network training was held in September in the Africa Regional Jamboree (Burundi) for Youth Network representatives and in October in the Interamerican Region to recruit the first National Messengers of Peace Coordinators. Saudi Arabia Government awarded Scouts and Scout Leaders as Messengers of Peace Heroes for the first time, recognizing Scouts’ contribution to create a Peace Culture in their country through service actions.
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To support National Scout Organizations receiving large grants for Messengers of Peace projects, a collaboration is started with SGS – Societé Générale de Surveillance – to assess NSO capacity in terms of international best practices towards good governance. 14 NSOs worldwide undertook the SGS NGO Benchmarking audit, giving a first holistic overview of NSO capacity worldwide with measurable indicators. All National Scout Organizations were introduced to the Messengers of Peace concept and there was a regional and national commitment to promote service efforts as a means to achieve social impact in society.
2013 Scouts reached its first 10 million service hours and Scoutmessengers.org had reached more than 15,000 members by May. More than 34,000 projects were registered with the tremendous support from the Boy Scouts of America and its Eagle Scout programme. With a new approach to empower NSOs in the management of the global network, the second Messengers of Peace Network training was held for Arab Region Messengers of Peace Coordinators with similar replication in April, for the Asia-Pacific regional leaders. WOSM decided as part of its strategic development of the service programme element and use of social media resources to boost Scouts’ impact by merging both sites (scout.org and scoutmessengers.org) into the revamped SCOUT.ORG, redesigned into a user-oriented site. October 2013 was the official launch of the new site, boosting its registration rate within a month. By the end of 2013, more than 4 million US dollars were granted to NSOs to support more than 130 funded projects and 22 million service hours from non-funded projects were registered. NSO ran their own local Messengers of Peace trainings supported by regional executives and volunteers, online trainers and digital material. 400 Scout Messenger of Peace “Ambassadors” assumed responsibility to promote dialogue, peace and service projects. More than 150 Facebook pages, managed by NSO appointed Youth representatives, started promoting and feeding the exchange dynamic of good practices between Scouts around the world. Messengers of Peace – Dialogue Training were held in Sweden, Ireland, and the Asia Pacific Region). Special Project Grants for various regions and countries were granted for Capacity
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Strengthening (notably in South Africa and Haiti); Victims of Conflict (including an exciting project between Israeli and Palestinian Scouts in Israel/Palestine, and in the Great Lakes region of Africa). Messengers of Peace Hero award honored scouts and service actions in its second edition. The assessments carried out through SGS are integrated within the Global Support Priority Area Working Group of the World Scout Committee. Follow-up to the assessed NSOs is delivered through 3 workshops on good governance in Panama, Indonesia and Ethiopia. Impact was being measured and aside from the obvious benefits to the communities involved, final reports for these projects should enhance the models, which exist within scouting for peace activities in different situations. WISE international firm started assessing specific NSOs developing life-changing projects to systematize its methodologies and best practices in order to develop a standardized model for further replication in other countries.
2014 The development of a Global Network strategy was initiated to align Messengers of Peace with the World Youth Programme Policy, proposed Triennial Plan 2014-2017 and WOSM Vision 2023. An average of 3 to 5 million service hours are registered each month. Additionally high impact service actions, like some coming from the Asia-Pacific Region who contributed more than 500 million service hours early on this year, are also registered. The new Global Support Assessment Tool is ready for testing and from January until the World Scout Conference 15 NSOs take part in a 3rd party assessment carried out through SGS under the supervision of the Global Support group. Better World Magazine is released during the 40th World Scout Conference gathering life-changing projects and stories of scouts around the world, creating positive change in society as active citizens. Scouts, on a daily basis, are contributing to creating a Peace Culture, promoting values, empowering young people and taking active part in community life. Scouts, Scout Leaders, families and supporters of Scouting all play an important role. By enabling Scouts to become active citizens, we have a direct impact on what our societies can become. This is a continuing process – we have many more Scouts and non-scouts to inspire, together Creating a Better World.
“The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others” Sir Robert Baden-Powell
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Š World Scout Bureau Kuala Lumpur Office Menara Sentral Vista, No 150 Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA www.scout.org