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0 THE EASTERN NEIGHBOURHOOD CIVIL SOCIETY FUND – Major development project, rev. January 2016

1. Cover page

THE EASTERN NEIGHBOURHOOD CIVIL SOCIETY FUND MAJOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (budget between DKK 500,000 and 2 million)

Project title Young Diplomats for Peace & Dialogue in Ukraine and Georgia

Danish applicant organisation Crossing Borders E-mail: [email protected]

Other Danish partner(s), if any None

Contact person for the intervention Name: Garba Diallo

E-mail: [email protected]

Local partner organisation(s) Country(-ies)

All-Ukrainian Association for youth Co-operation “Alternative-V”

Ukraine

Academy for Peace and Development Georgia

Commencement date

01/July/2016

Completion date 30/June/2018

Number of months

24 months

Amount applied for (DKK) 1,761,475 DKK

Is this a re-submission? [x] No [ ] Yes, please note the ref.no.(j.nr.):

Is this [x] a new project? [ ] a project in extension of another project previously supported (by the Civil Society Fund or others)?

Do you want a response letter in (choose one) [ ] Danish or [x] English

Do you want the Assessment Committee’s notes about the application in (choose one)

[ ] Danish or [x] English

Synthesis (maximum 10 lines – must be written in Danish, even if the rest of the application is in English)

Projektet har til formal at facilitere kultiveringen og opretholdelsen af ikke-voldelige konfliktløsningsmekanismer i Balkan-regionen ved at støtte en gruppe kritiske ambassadører for fred i at lede denne udvikling. Projektet har sin baggrund i, at mange af regionens lande i mange år har haft gentagne voldelige konflikter, der har snesevis og langvarige følgevirkninger på disse landes og lokalsamfunds udvikling og trivsel. Unge er særlig store ofre i disse konflikter og derfor også den rigtige målgruppe til at lede den forandring. Projektet vil tage form af forskellige kurser, udveksling, ikke-formel læring samt lobbyvirksomhed og fortalervirksomhed. Projektet vil blive specifikt implementeret i Ukraine og Georgien.


31.03.2016

Date Person responsible (signature)

Humlebæk GARBA DIALLO

Place Person responsible and position (block letters)


2. Application text

Structure: A. THE PARTNERS A.1 The Danish organisation

Crossing Borders (Denmark) Crossing Borders is a globally oriented Danish civil society organization. The vision of Crossing Borders is to have as many young people as possible cross as many personal, cultural, geographic, professional and generational borders as possible, as often as possible, and always on equal terms. Such crossing borders is achieved by bringing people from different backgrounds to gain practical knowledge, understanding, skills and tools that have immediate and long term benefits to the participants and their communities. Crossing Borders (CB) provides impartial dialogue space and empowering skills training for youth, media and educators to participate actively in the present and future development of the society. CB offers non-formal global studies and training courses in communication, conflict management and media skills and publication of a youth magazine and educational materials for dialogue. CB also trains climate ambassadors to develop awareness and capacity to use the climate challenges as a platform for youth participation and active citizenship. Crossing Borders also develops and implements youth exchange projects as well as being a European Volunteer Services (EVS) coordinating, hosting and sending organisation. CB preamble to this project proposal: After over 19 years of working with youth activation and seeing this work to transform young people into formidable agents of dialogue for peace and community transformation especially in EU, CB has recently launched a ‘Youth and Governance’ program aimed at extending its impact further within the youth field. Across many projects we have run within the Erasmus+, EU, Danish and other contexts, we have seen our knowledge, motivation, commitment and tools, work to empower youths to reflect on their contexts and start amazing calls to causes. Within Denmark alone, we have our “Schools Services”, where we facilitate workshops in Danish High Schools, After Schools and Gymnasium, within non-formal education/learning methods with the aim of building their global view and empower young people be active agents of positive and sustainable change within their communities and globally, have seen amazing results. Young people have attested to not only opening up to the world, but to gaining skills within in Public speaking, debating and engagement, advocacy and social mobilization, understanding social policy and ways to influence these at micro levels to mention a few. Schools and Teachers have also continually chosen us to give our services to them, and we have received great recommendations for our new perspectives and methods in engaging young people, as well as providing a diverse team with people across the globe. We have managed to bring the “World into the Class & Vice Versa”. Replicating our Danish “School Services” model, we have successfully designed and implemented many different courses across Europe, MENA and within the Balkan region. We have through these courses moved and gathered young people from schools, Universities, and local communities, facilitating them to reflect on their local contexts and share/exchange knowledge with their peers on how the world can be made a better place. We have seen young people grow into powerful ambassadors of change and diversity. We have seen young people incline themselves more to making people and building their nations as opposed to closing themselves off to the World. We have seen continued collaborations among these young people, small scale initiatives rising, and small waves of global peace projects flourishing into multiplicities of EU funded projects all facilitating


young people to cross personal, political and mental boundaries, a direction we believe is a desired way to go – especially now where we our world in threatened by extremism and building of walls. Internationally, one of our biggest examples in this direction is our - Voices of Youth project in partnership with Youth Empowerment Synergy (YES) in Ghana. What started as a mobilization to get youth to discuss their role and wishes during Ghana’s 2012 elections, supersede all expectations. Youths developed into one single group seeking their place and the youth agenda into the policy domain of the country. They worked tirelessly to develop a youth Manifesto that was widely publicized and signed by almost all parties to ensure that youth issues were part of mainstream politics. At the evening of the election, youths organized a forum where they gathered and together followed the elections, getting youths off the streets and mitigating unnecessary clashes with authorities. All said, this project showed and taught us that we can do more in activating youths other places just as we did in Ghana. Further examples are on the rise. Following our Uganda – Keeping the Promise project, we can only see enthusiasm and a strengthening youth hood in this country. Our Facebook page has become a wall of personal and constructive expression for young people. We have across the years developed deep understanding for youth activation and passion to continue doing exactly that. Moreover, we have developed a huge database of tools, skills, methods and materials that have proved worthy spreading. That is exactly what we want to share and consolidate, as we seek funding for this project within the post-soviet region. We believe that facilitating young people, civil societies and schools to engage on peacebuilding in this region, notably in Ukraine and Georgia, is important, especially at this time where EU continues to close its doors to neighbours, while Russia’s grip on the region becomes even more pronounced with violent aggression. This is a needed project. Organizational capacity and track record CB has since its inception in 1999 been developing and successfully implementing complex projects together with various conflict areas of the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, Central Europe, Caucasus and West Africa together with partners from among others Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia etc. These projects have all targeted youth and young journalists and educators. For many years Crossing Borders has published a youth magazine, newsletters and teachers’ manual. CB projects have received funding from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the EU Youth in Action Programme, and the EU Partnership for Peace in the Middle East, the EU Grundtvig Lifelong Learning Programme, UNESCO Participation Programme, Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF), and notably Civil Society in Development – CISU, to mention a few. As EU funded projects required equal partnership between EU programme and non-countries, CB has thus built an extensive network of partners within both the EU and neighbouring countries, particularly in the MENA and Balkan regions. We intended to tap into these gained experiences on the field, collaborating partnerships and networks for the benefit of this project. Our selected project experience: Crossing Borders has been in existence for 19 years now. However, in the past few years, Crossing Borders has developed and successfully implemented the following closely related projects: 1. We have recently been granted funding by CISU to run a Youth Empowerment project in Zambia

– the “Youth for Peace” project. The project aims at activating youths out of the policy streams to gain confidence and tools to participate in and influence policy processes in their Country. Specifically, the project targets youth in Slum areas to engage with their local and national political leaders so as to find ways of influencing decision-making processes in a bottom-up approach so as to facilitate a stronger youth voice and influence within decisions that matter to their country.


2. We are currently implementing the - Keeping the Promise: peaceful youth participation and youth policy agenda promotion in the Uganda 2016 National General Elections and beyond project recently funded by CISU with 450,206 DKK. The project aimed at facilitating youth non-violence in the coming election and getting the youth agenda into the policy frameworks of the country has already been well received in Uganda. Collaborating with UYONET in Uganda, we know that by combining different non-formal peace, supportive methods and tools can facilitate peaceful nation building, and we are enthusiastic on continuing to support this goal.

3. CB is also currently implementing a project titled Youth, Community Radio and Advocacy through Ghana Community Radio Network with 19 local radio stations across Ghana. The project is funded with 1.882,644 million DKK and it has immensely contributed to getting Ghanaian youths voices into the public, as well as generating a strong debate across the community radio network on what matters for youths on all levels.

4. CB is also currently implementing an inclusion project titled from Expats to Experts (FETE) together with partners from France, Italy and Malta. The Erasmus + (KA2) funds the project with 163,000 euro. This is another place we have constantly learnt about the strength youths bring to policy and joint planning as leaders and everyday decision makers.

5. Furthermore, we also successfully ran and learnt from the Voice of Youth 2012 in Ghana, funded by DANIDA with 1.999.336 DKK. The result was building the capacity of about 600 youth leaders to develop a youth directory and youth manifesto and to have the most pressing issues for youth to be put in the political and development agenda in connection with the presidential and parliamentary elections of December 2012. The manifesto was endorsed by all the presidential contenders.

6. We are rounding off the From Overconsumption to Solidarity project together with a range of European partners from ASTM in Luxembourg to Climate Alliance in Germany and partners in Niger and Burkina Faso in Africa, India and Bangladesh in Asia, the Amazon Basin countries in South and Central America. With AST Luxembourg as the lead application, the project was funded with 870,426 Euro to raise awareness of the impact of our overconsumption on the life and livelihood of people in the developing countries. Crossing Borders role is to represent Denmark and Greenland – sharing the knowledge on the impact of climate change in the two countries. We have developed booklets, exhibitions entitled Witness to Climate Victims and we are displaying the expos in libraries, cultural centers and school across Denmark.

7. 2010-2013: DEMENA Youth Climate Ambassadors with grant from the DAI, with partners from Egypt and Jordan in cooperation with CONCITO. The aim of this project is to turn the climate challenges into a platform for youth participation and Danish Arab Dialogue.

8. 2013: Keeping the Momentum for Euromed youth with grant from the EU youth in Action with partners from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan plus Malta, Hungary and Poland. The aim of this project is enable European and Arab youth to share first-hand information, experiences and good practices about youth participation in the Arab Spring.

9. 2013: Toward Better Teaching Methods conference about the Arab World for Danish high school teachers in partnership with the Danish Global High school Partnership. The aim is to increase knowledge and improve teaching methods and representation of the Arab world in the context of the Arab spring. For this purpose, we have invited expert and activists from Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen.

10. 2008-2009: Media Skills Development for Dialogue project with grant from the MS Action Aid DEMENA youth fund, with partners from Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Yemen. The target group was young journalists.

11. 2009-2010: Euromed Youth Climate Ambassadors (in conjunction with the COP15) with grant from the EU Youth in Action, with partners from Jordan, Israel, Palestine and European partners.

12. 2009: Restoring Trust Video Making Marathon in the old city of Jerusalem for Danish and Jerusalem youth, with a grant from ALF.

13. 2007: Youth Coordinators Peace Building for Israeli, Palestinian, German and Danish youth with grants from EU Youth in Action programme.

14. 2007: CB Media Skills for Dialogue for Israeli, Palestinian, German and Danish young journalist.


15. In addition to the above, CB has developed and implemented Peace in Horn of Africa for Somalia, South and North Sudanese and Ethiopian and Eritrean youth, Youth for Good Governance in Ghana with grant from CISU , Youth Against Violence in Georgia in 2011 and many more projects.

16. Finally, since 2008 Crossing Borders have been offering global højskole studies for youth activists from all over the world.

CB leadership structure: Administratively, an executive director who is the head of administration manages CB. There are also three international project coordinators and a chief financial officer, plus 12 full time and part-time volunteers. The daily staff are supported by a pool of international trainers and facilitators. Structurally, CB has an Advisory Board and Executive of seven (7) members each. The advisory board advises on policy & strategic direction, meets once a year, and is composed of recognized reputable people appointed to support the organization in this work. The Executive Board on the other hand makes more concrete strategic planning and organization running. The members at general assembly elect them, and they meet every three months. In terms of human resources, Crossing Borders has

Active and well multicultural board composed of 7 members representing civil society, the media, human rights organisations and schools.

Advisory board of experts from peace building to the public and private sectors

Multicultural secretariat of 10 staff and volunteers from Denmark, Uganda, Algeria, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, and Georgia

Portugal, Spain, Afghanistan and Ukraine

A team of 12 youth facilitators from 8 different cultural backgrounds

A network of municipal and school partners in Denmark Capacity of project leaders: From the Danish side, this project will be under the coordination and management of the following CB personnel. 1. Garba Diallo, Director

With educational background in education, psychology and international development at the universities in Qatar, Lancaster UK, Garba Diallo is the founding Director and Principal Facilitator of Crossing Borders (DK). Besides, Garba has been International Programme Director in two leading People’s Colleges in Denmark since 1993. In both colleges, Garba developed and implemented international educational programs on adult education, using non-formal and participatory methods. Garba has many years of experience from in Africa, the Middle East and Scandinavia. Besides being a writer, public speaker and international lecturer, Garba has over 25 year experience in international project management focusing on youth and educators. Garba is a strategic user of the digital media, which he sees as a perfect platform for sharing best practices and means of transforming the mass information of the digital age into positive action for lifelong learning across borders.

2. Andrew Julius Bende, International Programme Coordinator

Andrew has long experience in developing, implementing and managing development projects, especially within the youth field. Andrew is a robust trainer, especially within non-formal sensitization, participatory and educational fields, in which he has over 12 years of experience. He is well experienced in developing concepts, courses and education/training materials, to which he brings his plethora of international exposure, experience, and multi-cultural awareness. Starting his career in Uganda in East Africa, Andrew has experience from Sub-Saharan Africa, which he combines well with his current engagements in Europe as a major contribution to


contrasting and comparing contexts and cultures, for a fuller picture in self-realization and growth. Andrew has Education in Public Policy and Management, Economics, Socio-anthropology, and Development studies. He currently works at Crossing Borders as Coordinator of International projects.

A.2 Other Danish partners (to be filled in if several Danish organisations are forming an alliance) None A.3 The local organisation(s)

Partner No. 1: All-Ukrainian Association for youth Co-operation (Alternative-V) Ukraine. Alternative-V - is a non-political, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, founded in 1992. Currently it has 5 full-time staff members and around 120 volunteers’ country wide. Alternative-V formulates its aim in the following way: promoting active citizenship among Ukrainian young people through volunteering on the national and international level in the fields of education, sport, culture, ecology, historical heritage protection and helping disadvantaged people. Alternative-V wants to contribute to development of more peaceful society, and to the decrease of social injustice. The Association obtained all-Ukrainian status in 1999. The main activities of the organisation include short-term voluntary projects - international youth voluntary work camps in different regions of Ukraine, long-term voluntary projects, seminars, conferences and trainings on both national and international level, youth exchanges and educational programmes and training programmes for the educators in the sphere of bullying prevention. Alternative-V is active in the field of advocacy and lobbying for the changes in the Ukrainian legislation with regard to volunteering. The organisation is a member of:

CCIVS (Coordinating Committee of International Volunteer Services)

Alliance of the European Voluntary Service Organisations The organisation is official partner of:

SCI (Service Civil International)

ICYE (International Cultural Youth Exchange) Work of Alternative-V is implemented on different levels – local, national and international. Among our main achievements the following facts need to be named:

- Prevention of discrimination, exclusion and violence among youngsters. Alternative-V is a

home to Operation Respect programme in Ukraine. Our trainers provide trainings for

Ukrainian educators (teachers, social workers, youth workers) on the use of the special

curriculum ‘Don’t Laugh at me’ on the use of non-formal education methods in preventing

violence. During 2011-2015 our organization trained more than 3000 educators in all

regions of Ukraine;

- Alternative-V has been enjoying partnership with UNDP and UNV in Ukraine (in the frame

of 3-year Youth Social Inclusion project), with Peace Corps in Ukraine (organizing

international youth work camps and trainings for the local communities);

- in spring 2015 Alternative-V became official partner of the ‘Active Citizens’ programme of

British Council in Ukraine: we work on mobilizing local communities to enable them to work

on their local challenges;

- since 2007 Alternative-V has been a part of joint campaign of World Heritage Centre of

UNESCO and Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS,

Alternative-V is a member of CCIVS) - ‘World Heritage Volunteers’, in the frame of which in

2008-2015 Alternative-V has been hosting international work camps focused on World

Heritage protection;


- Alternative-V is one of the first NGOs in Ukraine which started hosting EVS volunteers in

Ukraine (since 1999) and sending EVS volunteers (since 2001). Currently Alternative-V is

accredited as Sending and Hosting EVS organisation;

- Alternative-V has been hosting international youth volunteer work camps in Ukraine since

1992 and sending Ukrainian youth to the international youth projects worldwide;

- Alternative-V has successful experience in receiving support from European Union through

Eastern Partnership Youth Window of Youth in Action programme in 2012-2013 –

international training courses, youth exchanges and EVS projects have been implemented

in Ukraine by the organisation.

Alternative-V is very proud about its work in the frame of Operation Respect programme – its ‘Don’t Laugh at me’ curriculum – a unique programme for Ukraine aimed at creating safe, caring, and compassionate environments for children and youth – respectful and ridicule free. The curriculum was created in the US by the organisation Operation Respect, USA. Curriculum was translated to Ukrainian language with the support of the US Embassy in Ukraine in 2010. In 2012-2013 'Don't Laugh at me' curriculum was adapted in accordance to the requirements of the Ministry of Ukraine for Education and Science. Thanks for the efforts of Alternative-V and its partners, in 2013 ‘Don’t Laugh at me’ curriculum was officially approved by the Ministry of Ukraine for Education and Science for the use in schools and other secondary education institutions. In the frame of Operation Respect Programme Alternative-V provides trainings to the educators, school psychologists, social educators, social workers on the use of 'Don't Laugh at me' curriculum. Educators which had attended the training are then using the materials of the programme in their work with their school students, in their youth clubs in children and youth camps. After attending the training, educators use materials of 'Don't Laugh at me' curriculum independently. 'Don't Laugh at me' curriculum can be used with youngsters of school age, predominantly 8-14 years of age. In reality the material is being successfully used for wider age range - 7-16 y.o. Since December 2010 trainings for educators in the frame of Operation Respect Programme on the use of 'Don't Laugh at me' curriculum have been held in all regions of Ukraine, including Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk Regions which are currently temporarily occupied by Russian Federation. Since 2010 All-Ukrainian Association for Youth Co-operation Alternative-V has trained 40 trainers which are certified to train educators on the use of 'Don't Laugh at me' curriculum. During school year 2014-2015 19 trainers remained active holding trainings for educators on request in their respective regions. Active trainers are located in the following regions:

Kyiv and Kyiv Region (North)

Ivano-Frankivsk Region (West)

Mykolayiv Region (South)

Poltava Region (Central Ukraine)

Cherkasy Region (Central Ukraine)

Khmelnytskyy Region (West)

Volynska Region (West)

Rivne Region (West)

Ternopil Region (West)

Chernihiv Region (North)

Kirovohrad Region (Central Ukraine)


In case trainings are ordered to be held in other regions, our trainers travel there on request. During 2014-2015 academic year 60 trainings for educators will have been held. Since December 2010 until March 31, 2015 more than 150 trainings in different regions of Ukraine have been held in which more than 3000 educators from 1200 educational and social institutions took part. During academic year 2014-2015 the work of the programme in Ukraine was focusing not only on bringing the programme to new schools and educational institutions, but also on providing assistance with follow-up activities: 5 pilot schools have been selected in different regions of Ukraine which are being visited by the trainers systematically to provide assistance to educators after the initial training in adapting the materials to their needs and to use it in their systematic work in the classroom. Operation Respect programme is not only providing educators with invaluable tool which helps to create safe, caring and compassionate bullying free environment in schools, but also contributes to professional development of Ukrainian educators: 'Don't Laugh at me' curriculum utilizes highly interactive methods of teaching, incorporates non-formal methods. At our trainings for educators teachers teachers learn how to use exercises instead of lecturing for bringing the message across to their students. Operation Respect programme in Ukraine has been implemented in Ukraine by Alternative-V in close cooperation with Peace Corps in Ukraine and with support of the US Embassy in Ukraine. From August 2014 until April 30, 2015 Operation Respect programme in Ukraine is being implemented with support of the Swiss Embassy in Ukraine. ‘Active Citizens’ – is the programme which is implemented in Ukraine by British Council, aimed at communities’ mobilization and promotion of active citizenship. Alternative-V is an official partner of British Council in Ukraine in the frame of ‘Active Citizens’ programme. On a practical level it means that Alternative-V has accredited facilitators which deliver trainings for the local communities around Ukraine and help them to formulate, improve and implement project proposals within their communities with the financial support of British Council. The Impact We Want To Make in Ukraine: The aim of this project is to create suitable conditions and backgrounds for involving the young people in Peace- Building and Conflict Transformation activities and to educate Young Diplomats and peace ambassadors that will promote and empower youth to create new, non-violent and peaceful society in Ukraine. This project will have strong local impact as it will include non-violent activities addressing conflicts in the Ukrainian society that are very actual due to conflict situation in the country nowadays. Capacity of project leaders: From the Ukrainian side, this project will be under the coordination and management of the following personnel. 1. Iryna Bodnar, Project Manager:

Iryna is the current Vice-president of All-Ukrainian association for youth cooperation “Alternative-V”. Her duties include strategic planning, preparation, monitoring, coordination and reporting of projects (local, national and international). She is responsible for relations with UNV in Ukraine, Peace Corp in Ukraine, World Heritage Centre of UNESCO. She was SALTO EECA Youth in Action Multiplier. She is the member of the Training Needs Working Group in The Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organizations. Also she was the Course Director for the Alliance Study Session at European Youth Centre in Budapest in 2013, member of the Working Group of


Volunteering and Charity, board member in UNDP Project “Youth Social Inclusion for Civic Engagement in Ukraine” and she was a member of the Executive Committee in CCIVS. Iryna is also an accredited trainer in the ‘Youth Worker’ programme, created in Ukraine with the support of United Nations Development Programme, aiming at improving youth work quality. Iryna is and accredited trainer in the frame of the programme ‘Schools for Democracy’ implemented in Ukraine with the support of European Wergeland Centre, Norway, Council of Europe, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Iryna is accredited facilitator of ‘Active Citizens’ programme of the British Council in Ukraine. During last 4 years – trainer at In-service trainings for Peace Corps volunteers and counterparts in Ukraine.

2. Oksana Yuryk, International Secretary at All-Ukrainian Association for Youth Cooperation Alternative-V. Experienced project manager, senior trainer and trainer of trainers in the frame of Operation Respect programme (’Don’t Laugh at me’ curriculum), EVS trainer at SALTO EECA, trainer of trainers and one of four authors of the ’Youth Worker’ training modules, aiming at improving youth work quality in Ukraine. ’Youth Worker’ programme is being implemented in Ukraine with the support of the United Nations Development Programme. Accredited facilitator of ’Active Citizens’ programme of the British Council in Ukraine. During last 4 years – trainer at In-service trainings for Peace Corps volunteers and their counterparts in Ukraine.

Partner No. 2: Academy for Peace and Development – Georgia Academy for Peace and Development (APD) was established in 2002 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Currently it has 7 full time employees and 3 volunteers. APD is an international non-profit, non-political youth organization, which aims at empowering youth, promoting peace and tolerance among youth through assisting young people in acquiring knowledge and developing their peace building kills and competences. Main areas of competence are: Peace building and conflict transformation, youth empowerment and youth inclusion, and capacity development of youth NGOs. Objectives of the organization are following:

- To provide community-based educational opportunities to young people, particularly to internally displaced (IDP’s from Abkhazia and Sounth Ossetia regions) youth;

- To train future youth leaders committed to peace, democracy and inclusion; - To contribute to nonviolent processes of conflict transformation in the Caucasus by providing

competences to youth, youth leaders, youth workers and youth organizations. APD is active on both - national and international levels. Main topics of the projects are:

Peace building and conflict transformation;

Intercultural learning and dialogue;

Youth empowerment and active participation;

Volunteering as a tool for youth inclusion;

European citizenship;

Culture;

People with disabilities;

Project management in the frame of international youth projects; - Human rights and human rights protection;

Social media;

Anti-discrimination;


Youth policy On international level APD is actively involved in Erasmus + programme (Since 2004) organizing training courses, youth exchanges, seminars, partnership building activities, European Voluntary Service etc. Impact We Want To Make In Georgia: The project aims to empower young people to become peace ambassadors and to contribute to a peaceful and pro-active Georgian society that is dedicated to active participation, social responsibility, nonviolence and respect for human rights.

Capacity of project leaders: From the Georgian side, this project will be under the coordination and management of the following personnel.

1. Sebastian Schweitzer, Project Manager: Sebastian is an International Trainer and consultant who has been working in the educational sector since 2003. He finished Political Science and started working in political and civic education in Germany. In 2006, he focused his work on the South Caucasus and the Western Balkans. Sebastian facilitates seminars and training courses on topics such as peace-building, conflict transformation, active participation and civic education for civil society activists and project managers. From 2011 to 2013, Sebastian co-managed a peace education programme for schoolteachers in Macedonia.

2. Giorgi Kakulia, expert Giorgi is a president of the Academy for Peace and Development. He is a consultant and trainer in non-formal education, youth work and peace education. He is involved in the field of youth work, youth policy, and non-formal education since 2001. Giorgi in 2002 with his colleagues founded Academy for Peace and Development (APD). He started to train internationally in 2006 and got rich experience in training different target groups on local, regional and international level. Giorgi is also an experienced project manager and activist in the social field, mainly focusing on youth issues, peace-building and social change. Giorgi is engaged as expert on youth policy with the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia as well as with different international organizations.

A.4 The cooperative relationship and its prospects

Crossing Borders and its partners in this project have been working together for a long time in many different ways. As mentioned earlier, we have been partnering on different projects within the EU – Erasmus+ framework, where many young volunteers and interns have come through our partner organizations and vice versa. We have held several courses and trainings within Eastern European countries where the leaders of the partnering organizations have worked together with Crossing Borders to meet these successes. This experience gave us an opportunity to build a solid partnership with leading organizations from this part of Europe. Georgian partner has been collaborating with CB since 2010.

Due to this cooperation we are well versed with the Caucasus region and its history. Needless to

say, the key reason why these partners setup house was due to civil strife and youth policy neglect that the region has seen over years. The partners have deep experience within analyzing social conditions within the region and facilitating sustainable solutions to social problems therein. They have huge bases of volunteers and contacts to expert professions, in addition to understanding the political – policy systems of their countries and region al large. Most recently CB has developed and implemented projects in Georgia (2010), Azerbaijan (2013) and Ukraine in 2015, with grants from the Erasmus+ of the European Union. We have sent dozens


of participants to take part in other projects in the this region. We are strongly committed to support youth activities there as there is still a lack of opportunities for acquiring international projects. By this particular project we are strengthening our support to develop civil society in Georgia and Ukraine by enhancing peacebuilding process, raising awareness on importance of conflict resolution. Our partnership and cooperation is not limited to particular projects with our Georgian and Ukrainian partners. We are receiving updates and inputs for our magazine to share information about developments in the region here in Denmark. We have had few guest speakers coming from our partner organizations for our open lectures here in Humlebaek dedicated to conflict regions and the current state of the conflict during last two years. Lastly, it is important to mentioned that through the years of working together, we developed very strong interpersonal ties, this friendship among our colleagues are highly valued in our organizations and it plays a very strong role in strengthening our partnership in the organizational and professional level. At the current for example, Crossing Borders is hosting the following European Volunteers that act as a strengthened knowledge base for this project:

1. A European Volunteer Services (EVS) candidate from Ukraine, 2. An EVS from Georgia, 3. An EVS from Croatia, 4. An EVS from Romania

As a consortium, Crossing Borders and its partners present a strong team of trainers that are dedicated to positively contributing to youth empowerment within this region. This is the case because, we believe that after years of political – communistic clump-down on civil freedoms and youth activism, it is due time to facilitate young people in this region to form and own their own rhetoric about the region. This we believe will contribute to addressing the growing need for young people to be at the center of political processes, but also be in this position with the right tools to act responsibly – in the name of peace and nation building. Moreover, as the European Union presents both opportunities and challenges to its neighbours and new members, it is imperative that youth within this region gain the same advantages as their counterparts on the EU side of the neighborhood, in order to be able to engage within each other at equal footing. Facilitating young people in Georgia and Ukraine into taking up roles as Young Diplomats for Peace & Dialogue is in itself the surest way of finding peaceful solutions to the political instabilities of this region. And Crossing Borders and its partners see this as a long term mission worth embarking on.

B. PROJECT ANALYSIS B.1 How has the project been prepared?

This project has been in development since April 2015 when the idea was first conceived by the partnership. It follows as earlier mentioned, continued cooperation among the partners within the civil society spheres, and the need/motivation to facilitate an engaged, peace-oriented, nation building a critical mass of youth ambassadors across Europe and its adjacent neighborhood. With the latter in mind, Crossing Borders and its partners have for the past one year written and met on Skype back and forth in the need to find a definitive model for this project that is both practically feasible, and institutionally supported within the partnering countries. On one hand Crossing Borders’ “School Services” model of non-formal youth trainings was adopted as a framework to build this project along, given its many achievements over the years. On the other hand, the selected local


partners for the project have carried out in-depth analysis, and have provided their local needs assessments of the local contexts within their societies. Moreover, beyond agreeing on the models as adopted in this project, partners have also had to carryout self-evaluations on their readiness and capacity to embark on this project, this was based on the three main criteria:

Firstly, that the local partner has at least five-years of work experience in their relevant countries and across regions (among other NGOs), as well as, successful partnership experience with international organisations;

Secondly, that local partners have experience with working with the youth, local schools and IDPs (where relevant), an,

Finally, they have organizational capacity to act as dedicated and resourceful local partners to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency in implementation of this project. (For further details on the expected impact that each project partner aims to make locally.

These have culminated in all partners signing project partnership agreements as an indication of their readiness and dedication to implementing this project. The targeted schools and a sample of youth leaders have also been involved in developing this models in two ways. There has been rapid appraisals on the need for sustainable approaches to escalating conflicts in the participating countries. One clear response has been the need for the return of civility, built on people-to-people collaborations on peace. Schools have given their impression that the current school curriculum is insufficient in this direction as it is more concentrated on other formal methods that do not necessarily answer to the social questions at hand, like peaceful conflict resolution. As such schools are attracted to the idea of trying out this model of facilitating youth to be ambassadors for peace, and they are willing test grounds for the model. In a nutshell, there has been due preparation for this project and all parties involved are ready for its implementation. B.2 In what context is the project placed?

Social and Country Analysis of the Project The nation building process after the collapse of the Soviet Union was and is determined by many conflicts at national and international levels. Multiple factors feed these conflicts ranging from economic and political transition processes, authoritarian heritage of the Soviet Union, issues of identity and belonging in the newly created nation states, to minority questions. While the intensity of these conflicts also differ at moments, they found their most violent expression in Georgia in the ethnic conflicts in Abkhazia and Ossetia in the early 1990s and in 2008 and in Ukraine on-going starting in the winter of 2014. In both cases the role of Russian politics is of eminent importance and creates an impact on the perceptions of these conflicts in Georgia, Ukraine and other surrounding countries, influencing the relationships of these countries not only at political but also on societal and individual levels. As a result, negative mutual images of the neighbouring countries, their politicians as well as societies are emerging characterized by mistrust, prejudices and violent attitudes. Local narratives create powerful misconceptions of ‘others’ and a powerful role in feeding the isolation and non-communication among the parties. Such tendencies are particularly prevalent in case of Georgia, and Ukraine – countries that have difficult political relations and where often-traditional diplomacy has thus far shown little progress in conflict resolution and improvement of the livelihoods of the conflict affected people. Indeed, one of the very much deprived section of this society are the young people. Recalling the

fact that the young are tomorrow’s diplomats, young people have commonly not been given the


chance to engage on issues of diplomacy of their countries. Socially, civil societies are actively

trying to change this, but mainstream systems are far from changing. A good example of rigidities in is the school systems. Schools and educational institutions still maintain the structures of the old regimes. Not many young people are sufficiently accessible to free thinking and the need to change the status quo. As such, combining civil society, schools systems and young people in this project, the partners believe this will create a bigger chance for widespread reflections on how best this region can transcend underpinning historical limitation to peaceful dialogue and youth activism. Country Specific contexts: Ukraine Ukraine became an independent state in 1991 upon the collapse of the Soviet Union. With a population of 44 million the country has a large minority of ethnic Russians (approximately 17% of the whole population) living in Ukraine. Political and economic transition of Ukraine has been marked with significant pitfalls along with some progress. In 2004 Ukraine experienced a political change with reformative forces taking the political steering wheel pinned as the ‘Orange Revolution’. However, soon an economic crisis hit the country in 2008-2009 and the processes of the political reforms have been halted. Since the year 2014 the situation of Ukrainian political scene has dramatically altered. It all started at the Maidan Square in Crimea, where the population of the peninsular is largely Russian speaking. It follows that, there had been early attempts of the Ukrainian nationalist government to banish Russian language, which were disapproved by many Russian-speaking individuals. This cause the start of struggles between the opposing factions, that led to the resignation and fleeing of the then Prime Minister - Viktor Yanukovych to Moscow. Soon after a new government in Ukraine took power, but these were further portrayed by Moscow as a pro-Western Ukrainian government that was out to an open discrimination of the national minorities with Russian backgrounds in Crimea, causing Russia to start openly intervening in Ukraine. Soon Russian flags were raised in the region, and within a month there was a flawed referendum organized in Crimea on joining the Russia that led to the final annexation of the peninsular. Pro-Russian separatists and their supporters decided not to stop with Crimea, but to repeat the scenario in the industrial eastern region of Ukraine characterized with terror operations. Later on, when the newly elected President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenkon ordered an Anti-Terror Operation (ATP), this sparked off full-fledge armed conflict in the country that has until now left both its infrastructure and peoples devastated. Across many years now, the war has had a deteriorating effect on countries social and economic indicators. There were 5,665 people killed and 13,961 wounded during the armed clashes. It is estimated that around 5.2 million people still live in the conflict areas. Currently, the number of the Internally Displaced People within Ukraine has reached 1,100,000. And while women represent the largest share of IDPs, there are at least 137,900 children and youths. Furthermore, over 600,000 people escaped to the neighbouring countries. The war in Ukraine has affected all aspects of people’s lives and particularly of those who became IDPs and had to flee from their homes. It has also hindered the education process of thousands of children, who were dislocated and currently struggle to settle down in new places in Ukraine and to integrate into new social settings. Areas where the current truce among the conflicting parties ensured the ceasefire, schools and public buildings were hugely demolished and in need for repair. Through the communication with the local project partners and consulting with the experts, we believe, that in the Ukrainian context this project will have a great value to the youth with IDP


background and those who live in the conflict affected areas, like Lviv, Kyiv, and Kharkov (regions that host the majority of the IDPs registered currently in Ukraine). Georgia Georgia is located in the South Caucasus region and neighbours Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey. The country is inhabited by majority ethnic Georgians, however, ethnic minorities all together make up around 30% of the population of 4.5 million. Since 1991 it has announced its independence from the Soviet Union and started its state and national building on the ruins of the former regime and the legacy of the first independence of the Georgian state in 1918-1921 before the Red Army intrusion into the country. Similar to other post-Soviet states, Georgia as well has undergone tremendous political and economic reforms. The transition period from planned economy to the free market economy and formation of the state institutions did not go all that smooth. Just like Ukraine, Georgia too has experienced a radical political change in 2003 pinned as a ‘Rose Revolution’ that was characterized by massive political and economic reforms. However, transition processes in Georgia have been interrupted due to violent conflicts on several occasions. Georgia experienced both secessionist armed conflicts and internal turbulences. In early 1990s there were two armed conflicts in Georgian regions (in 1991 in South Ossetia and in 1992 in Abkhazia). Those conflicts let to the conflict regions to de facto separate from Georgia and till now remain as unacknowledged territories that are in legal and political limbo. The last armed conflict that Georgia experienced was the five-day war with Russian Federation in August 2008 over a secessionist entity of South Ossetia. With the aim to provide safe boundaries between Georgia and its breakaway territories EU has sent an EU Monitoring Mission that was put in place in 2008 and aims to help restraining the local tension not to allow anew break out of a conflict and to reduce the adverse impacts of the territorial separation on the locals. Georgia similar to Ukraine does not have any diplomatic relations with Russia. Till now just like in case of Ukraine, negotiations with Russia involve EU member representatives and international actors and monitors such as EUMM (in case of Georgia). Conflicts in Georgia have resulted in around 250,000 IDPs among which around 50,000 are the children. IDP children have several characteristic factors that hinder their school education to be of a high enough level to pursue further education at the high education institutes. Often times the reasons of their ‘under schooling’ is a mere lack of a school in the IDP settlements, their limited economic situation in the household that would hinder them to buy books and school materials, poor equipment of their schools, and lack of further tutorial help to achieve the level needed to successfully pass the national entry exams for entering the universities in Georgia. IDPs in Georgia are settled in compact settlements in large cities adjusting to the conflict areas, such as Tbilisi, Zugdidi and Gori. The recent study by Norwegian Refugee Council on IDP schools in Georgia has shown that the education level of the IDP students is significantly lower than of their peers who study at the regular public schools. That often becomes a reason for IDP students to pursue further education at the University level. Moreover, during their schooling process, they lack access to the extra-curriculum activities and possibilities to develop beyond the school programmes. The case of IDP students is also worsened due to the fact that the Georgian government’s expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP has not increased for the past decade and remains rather low.14 For example, it has ranged from 2.9% of GDP (2004) to 3.2% (2009), falling to 2% in 2012 (UNESCO 2015). Those numbers are very low compared to other former soviet states (ibid). This is in this respect that our local project partners and we find this project relevant and timely to help IDP and conflict affected children to build new skills, obtain knowledge of nonviolent conflict resolution, and strengthen their cross-cultural communication skills along with forming a long-lasting friendship and peer networks across countries and regions.


Other aspects: Geographical context: The geographic choice of this project is timely and relevant to develop the skills of non-violent conflict resolution and dialogue among the young generation of conflict affected territories. There are three main grounds that, we believe, justify the geographic choice of the project countries: a. Minimizing Current or Future Threats The selected countries represent an array of parties that have experienced armed conflicts on their territories, or that were involved parties in those conflicts. By involving all parties, the project aims to provide a common ground for the youth to build capacity in peaceful conflict resolution processes. Skills that youth can apply in terms of dealing with their future conflict mediation processes, and could minimize risks of new conflict eruption or aggravation of the existing situations. On the other hand, by minimizing revival of the conflicts or avoiding new conflicts in the post-Soviet space that borders the European Union and the Artic, is in a great interest of the overall peaceful co-existence in the globalized and widely interdependent existence of the national states. The belief that participants of this project from all countries will help to train young peace ambassadors, who in the future either choose to be active citizens or leaders in policy making, will ensure that threats of the future conflicts will be minimized. Moreover, by adding the opportunity to the youth from Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine to interact with their peers in Denmark via summer camp will not only benefit the youth from those three countries, but for sure, will have educational and positive impact on the youth in Denmark. Experiencing the interaction and challenging the conflict narratives via learning non-violent conflict resolution skills for Danish youth will be equally beneficial and relevant for them to prepare for them to thrive in the globalized world. b. US & EU Sanctions on Russian Federation & EU Association Agreements Economic sanctions on Russia that aimed to curb its involvement and further aggravation of the conflict in the Eastern Ukraine has had negative economic impact not only the ‘punished country’ but by the EU states that were trading with Russia. Moreover, the armed conflicts in Ukraine and Georgia have had those countries devastated both economically and socially. However, in the global world where economic diplomacy is the desirable way to form international relations, economically sound countries are the desired partners. That said, it is an ideal situation to have countries free from economic sanctions that will allow a mutually beneficial movement of good and capital across the borders, while the universal rights and core principals of the international relations are respected. At the same time, in order to engage in economic activities and fully benefit from the EU Association agreement and the great economic potential that it has in store for both Georgia and Ukraine on one hand, as well as, for the European Union, on the other hand, it is absolutely vital that soft norms and a peaceful conflict resolution tools, skills, and culture of debate and negations to be built among the youth in the countries chosen within the scope of the current project. c. Young Diplomats – Investing In the Future by Building Social Capital Knowledge-sharing and capacity building in the selected countries can be seen as the investment in the future. This is because youth diplomats in Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia belong to the age group that in a close future will take up important position in their relevant countries, they will become future decision makers either as active participants in the political processes, or as electorate. Thus, having them equipped with the skills to mediate and solve conflicts rather than to resort to arms at any given time, will help forming a great basis for peaceful conflict resolution processes for the future. Moreover, in the interdependent work where post-Soviet space is intertwined with the Europe, investing in the future generation and helping them to acquire skills and knowledge is also beneficial in a long-terms perspective. By training young diplomats the project will aim to help building a social


capital in the selected countries that share the values and principles of the modern international relation practice. B.3 Problem analysis

The recurrent violent conflicts in post-Soviet era have posed tremendous challenges to peaceful transition toward democracy, regional stability and cooperative neighborhood among many of the former members of the Soviet Union. As a result, violent conflicts have marred the attempts to stable democracy and sustainable development in a number of countries, such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and recently Ukraine. These violent conflicts have displaced millions of people from their homes as refugees across either the borders or IDPS. The international response to the flaring up of conflicts has been significant, but mainly in the form of top down at the political levels. Experiences from around the world testify to the fact that any attempt to conflict resolution and transformation needs a combination of bottom up with the top down approach. In the final analysis, for durable peace to be achieved, people-to-people peace is necessary. It is in this context that public diplomacy and the role of the youth peace ambassadors emerge as vital factor for overall peace building and future conflict mediation processes. Traditional approach to conflict resolution and mediation involves traditional diplomacy and state level or interstate relations. That said, very often the power of the people and public diplomacy is being overlooked. In fact, when traditional diplomacy halts and struggles to yield results, public diplomacy represents a powerful tool that focuses on people rather than on political status. It creates a venue for people can interact, bridge their narratives, challenge misperceptions, and initiate a dialogue. Public diplomacy is a relevant ingredient where frozen or ongoing conflicts are not properly dealt with on regional or international level and where politics constrain the mediation processes, which is the case with the conflicts in the participating countries. Through education, communication, exchange of views and dialogue, public diplomacy creates a vital social capital that can initiate and enable processes for reconciliation. Conflicts create distance and distrust among people who experienced it from different sides of the events, thus they end up being caught up in their own perception of the events that feeds isolation, distance and lack of interaction. Through public diplomacy, renewed interaction and slowly built trust and predictability of the conflicting parties, gradual change of attitudes and transformation may ensue. The importance of public diplomacy in conflict resolution processes has been argued to be a great alternative also by academics, as well as, by politicians. The current project on youth diplomacy aims to provide an informal platform for interaction that can provide a high degree of flexibility and informal engagement among the youth in Georgia and Ukraine, and also Denmark – countries that have been affected by conflicts directly or indirectly as they are a part of the globalized world. The partners in this project want to break the ice block on hidden, unhealed social relations within the local societies of the participating countries. We want to deliberately open up this space and instigate further engagement on the possibility for peace. We want to start with facilitating a strengthened civil society to sustain this engagement, facilitate strategic partnerships between/among civil societies and schools to reinforce each other’s work with youths through developing joint strategies and borrowing on each other’s best practices. And we want to train at least 100 youths as ambassadors of peace, who in turn will reach and multiply these skills to over 1000 youths, in the bid to encourage and popularize peaceful conflict resolution mechanisms. Moreover, the project has inbuilt strategies to reach policy/political circles through deliberate advocacy activities, and the wider public through policy statements in public press, newsletters, other project publications, as well as on our project website.


B.4 Stakeholder analysis

Our project presents itself as one with multiple stakeholders in both countries, increasing its chance of impacting on a wider scope of the society and hopefully effectively meetings its objectives. Below is a list of these stakeholders – where majority double as both Duty Bearers as well as Rights Holders. These are as follows: Ministry of Education and Science in both Ukraine and Georgia: The first and probably most important Duty Bearers in both countries are the Ministries concerned with Education systems. The Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is a main actor of educational system in the country with high level of influence on the results of the project in regards to mainstreaming and institutionalization of non-formal education methods of peace building through incorporating them into school education. MES holds legal authority and right for major decisions in educational system as well as resources for empowerment of school administrations and teachers for implementation of innovative methodologies in schools. In frames of the project MES can highly influence the quality of the action in schools. Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs of Georgia: Specific to Georgia, the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs of Georgia in cooperation with CSOs, Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia and other stakeholders of youth field elaborated The Georgian National Youth Policy Document which is the main document regulating a wide range of issues related to the development of young people. These are key Duty bears creating opportunities for the youth to be involved in social, economic, cultural and political life as well as creating opportunities for appropriate and high quality education are the priorities of national youth policy. Ministry of Sports and Youth affairs of Georgia have political will and hold institutional and financial resources for youth empowerment through non-formal education, even though the influence of abovementioned stakeholder on implementation of the project is medium level. Council of Rectors of Ukrainian Institutions of Higher Education

This is another key duty bearer as well as rights holder within our project. Specific to Ukraine, there is a council of all Rectors of Ukrainian Institutions of Higher Learning, who directly feed into the ministry policy systems as well as how higher institutions work around the education system. These are key stakeholders in this project and will form some of the participants in especially the policy dialogues with both the youth participants and CSOs. Association of Non-State-owned Educational Institutions of Ukraine

Furthermore, Ukraine also presents our project with the Association of Non-State-Owned education institutions, which both acts as a guiding body to these institutions, but also a lobbying platform for their overall existence within the education system of the country. These are in the perspective of our stakeholdership both duty bearers and rights holders. These will be central in connection our project to the group’s stakeholders and will also be some of the participants in the policy dialogues with youths as well as CSOs. School Systems/Administration (Both public & private): Even though school administration is not a main decision maker in educational system, it still has a high level of influence on the results of the action as both a duty bearer and rights holding system. It is through the school administrations that communication from higher levels reaches the schools, teachers and youths therein, but the reverse is also true that messages upwards go through the schools administrations. As such schools administrations are vital for our project as both duty bearers and rights holders who are central to our objectives success. Effective communication between CSOs and Schools in terms of creation of right attitudes and efficient strategy will be the main pillar of successful implementation of the actions inside the schools.


Teachers Teachers, as direct actors of the action can have a significant effect on the quality of the action as both duty bearers and rights holders. Teachers as duty bearers are the first hand trainers of the nations on the need for peace, while they also need responsiveness and facilitation from their education systems and governments to effectively do their job – thus rights holders. School administration has an influence on teachers through encouraging or discouraging them to be efficient, active and motivated in order to contribute to fulfillment of project objectives. On the other hand teachers can have an important influence on students and their families, their attitude towards the action and their motivation.

Students and Student associations As a key rights holders to a violet free future, youths of both Georgia and Ukraine are an extremely central stakeholder group, alongside with their youth associations. Youths will both be trained in different aspects across the project, but they will also directly engage with policy processes through lobby and advocacy oriented policy dialogue meetings policy people. Furthermore, the youths directly trained within the project will move on to be mobilizers of other youths in their schools and student associations, and thus form a multiplier effect of the project objectives. Civil Society and Community Based Organisations: Civil Society Organisations as a target group of the project and main actors of civil society have a high level of influence on project results as both duty bearers, but most importantly as rights holders. They are duty bearers because they have signed up to defend and deliver the rights of local societies in which they operate. And they are rights holders because they strive to regain their local communities’ rights to a peaceful region. Luckily, CSOs hold expertise and initiative for lobbying and advocacy for peaceful conflict resolution, and capacity to efficiently work with schools and create a synergy of coordinated efforts of CSOs on national level. Families of young people/parents: Families of school children as rights holders, can significantly influence the level and quality of involvement of youths in capacity building activities, carried out during the project as well as their system of values related to non-violence and conflict resolution in general. Youth IDPs in both countries: Lastly, in both countries there exists a large group of young Internally Displaced People from within the two countries as well as from neighbouring countries and enclaves of the ex-soviet region. These are also major stakeholders in the project as rights holders, whose rights to peace and peaceful conflict resolution in the region will directly lead to regaining their homes, or at least gain the pride of peace in the region. Our local partners have already established cooperation with major stakeholders mentioned above. This relation had been built up through the years of their local work on different projects. This is obviously a big asset for our project as well. Our vision is to use the opportunities provided within this project in the best way so each stakeholder can see and benefit from the opportunities of this project. This project is targeted not only at its direct beneficiaries but pursues the overall improvement of current situation in terms of building civil society and support the peacebuilding process in Georgia and Ukraine. Right from the approval of the project, we will establish direct contacts and will conduct meetings with all stakeholders who might have an influence on our project and vice-versa. We do have an ambition to become a very good example of cooperation among all those stakeholders. We will ensure full involvement of each stakeholder starting from the participants of the project ending with Ministry of Education in each country, as well as promote our project through mainstream media to ensure visibility of our project in whole society.


This kind of strategy is both relevant and timely in this region as many of the systems struggle to break away from the ex-soviet bureaucratic tendencies to more democratic, dynamic and peaceful systems exemplified in their neighbouring EU countries.

C. PROJECT DESCRIPTION C.1 Target group and participants

This project targets many different participants at different levels, dependent on the objective and activity in focus. Nevertheless, the people who will be directly involved in the project and affected by the immediate outputs form the primary target group. These include the following:

✓ The 100 youths that will be trained as Ambassadors of peace from the participating countries

✓ At least 50 day-to-day CSO staff across the CSO networks in the different countries

✓ At least 50 teachers from the network of involved schools

✓ At least 1000 students from participating schools that will be reachable through schools facilitations

✓ Up to 50 politicians/policy related personnel that will be part of our quarterly policy lobby meetings

✓ The readership of our project press statements and other publications estimated to reach more than 1 million people across the project

The secondary target group of the project will involve the general population all participating countries. These will benefit from the project objectives indirectly – through either having increased peaceful resolutions mechanisms to local conflicts, or through more peaceful thinking youths that will contribute to a peaceful society. C.2 The project’s objectives and success criteria (indicators)

The Project’s overall objective is: to make a contribution to a bottom-up, people-to-people approach to peace-building by strengthening the role of young people as peace ambassadors capable of acting as a bridge to peaceful conflict resolution among the post-soviet societies, particularly in Ukraine and Georgia civil societies. This will be specifically achieved through three main direct objectives, including: 1. To empower young people to become peace ambassadors capable of fostering peace at local

and transnational level;

Indicators for Objective 1: 1a. One hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries are trained in Conflict

resolution and mediation methods and are starting to use these skills in youth work in their local communities

1b. One hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries are trained in Non-violent communication and Dialogue for peace methods and are starting to use these skills in youth work in their local communities

1c. One hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries are trained in approaches to influence policy processes & advocacy methods and are starting to use these skills in youth work in their local communities

2. To create a sustainable partnership among civil society organizations (CSOs) in Denmark,

Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia Indicators for Objective 2:


2a. Project Kickoff meeting held in Tbilisi – Georgia and a work plan for the project is developed produced

2b. Eight (8) Quarterly meetings among CSOs in each participating country held, and coordination, engagement and joint activity is strengthening

2c. Eight (8) Quarterly CSO joint statement on the need for peaceful resolution of conflicts in each country and across the region are published in popular print media in all participating countries, and they are reaching targeted audience as well stimulating public engagement on the need for peaceful conflict resolution

2d. Eight (8) Quarterly joint meetings with related policy bodies/politicians to lobby & advocate for more emphasis on peaceful conflict resolution held in each country and there some level of political support/commitment to policy in this direction

2e. One (1) inter-partner exchange of best practices meeting held in Kiev – Ukraine, and good practices are exchanged to motivate further work for the period to follow.

3. Facilitate a strong CSO – Local Schools partnership/network as a way of ensuring that there is

sustained connectivity between non-formal education methods to peacebuilding and mainstream education systems Indicators for Objective 3: 3a. Eight (8) Quarterly strategic meetings between CSOs and Participating schools to

develop ideas & lay strategies for a strengthened cooperation & project success 3b. Eight (8) Quarterly schools – CSOs joint online newsletter where articles from

Students, teachers, CSO actors about the project are published & multiplied to the wider public

3c. Eight (8) Quarterly non-formal education workshops facilitated by CSOs in participating schools

3d. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Conflict resolution and mediation methods

3e. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Non-violent communication and Dialogue for peace building

3f. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Approaches to influence policy processes & advocacy methods

3g. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Youth leadership methods & skills for sustained youth mobilization

3h. An online learning platform (Website) that will allow students to retrieve the study materials during & long after the project is complete

3i. An archive of Student projects (audio, video, and/or written projects) that will reflect newly learned skills and will deal with their understanding of the conflict resolution via non-violent methods and mediation.

C.3 Outputs and activities

Objective 1: To empower young people to become peace ambassadors capable of fostering peace at local and transnational level through different non-formal trainings and skills acquisition

Expected Outputs Activities

1. One hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries are trained in Conflict resolution and mediation methods

1. Planning & preparation for the event (program, etc.) 2. Selecting & inviting participants to the training 3. Contacting trainers


2. One hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries are trained in Non-violent communication and Dialogue for peace methods


3. One hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries are trained in approaches to influence policy processes & advocacy methods


4. Quarterly youth – politicians/policy processes meetings to enable youths to gain first experience in interfacing with policy engagement

5. Planning & preparation for meet (program, etc.) 6. Putting in place event coordination processes 7. Inviting targeted politicians/ policy bodies 8. Inviting youth to participate in events 9. Holding the meetings

Objective 2: To facilitate sustainable partnerships and capacity among civil society organizations (CSOs) in the project countries, so that they are able to jointly mobilize, coordinate, lobby and advocate for responsive social-political policies supportive of peaceful conflict resolution.

1. Project Kickoff meeting held 1. Planning & preparation for the event (program, logistics, training materials, etc.)

2. Inviting participants and travel/hosting aspects

2. Quarterly meetings among CSOs in each participating country held

1. Planning & preparation for the event (program, logistics, training materials, etc.)

2. Inviting participants and holding the meetings

3. Quarterly CSO joint statement on the need for peaceful resolution of conflicts in each country and across the region published in popular print media in all participating countries

1. Setup of coordinating team for these joint statements

2. Identifying and contracting popular print media through which statement should be publicized

3. Preparation and production of the statement 4. Follow-up on reach and impact of the statement

among intended audiences (Youth, CSOs & policy & circles)

4. Quarterly joint meetings with related policy bodies/politicians to lobby & advocate for more emphasis on peaceful conflict resolution in the region

1. Planning & preparation for meet (program, etc.) 2. Putting in place event coordination processes 3. Inviting targeted members & stakeholders 4. Holding the meetings

5. One inter-partner exchange of best practices meeting held in Kiev – Ukraine

1. Planning & preparation for the event (program, logistics, training materials, etc.)

2. Inviting participants and travel/hosting aspects


Objective 3: Facilitate a strong CSO – Local Schools partnership/network as a way of ensuring that there is sustained connectivity between non-formal education methods to peacebuilding and mainstream education systems

1. Quarterly strategic meetings between CSOs and Participating schools to develop ideas & lay strategies for a strengthened cooperation & project success

1. Planning & preparation for meet (program, etc.) 2. Putting in place event coordination processes 3. Inviting targeted members & stakeholders 4. Holding the meetings

2. Quarterly schools – CSOs joint online newsletter where articles from Students, teachers, CSO actors about the project are published & multiplied to the wider public

1. Sending out calls for articles 2. Receiving and compiling of articles from all

contributing writers 3. Design, lay-out and online publication of the

newsletter 4. Sending out of the newsletter to stakeholders by

email 5. Follow-up on uptake and stakeholders opinions

about the newsletter

3. Quarterly non-formal education workshops facilitated by CSOs in participating schools

1. Planning & preparation for meet (program, etc.) 2. Holding the facilitation

4. Production of various Non-formal based study materials

1. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Conflict resolution and mediation methods

2. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Non-violent communication and Dialogue for peace building

3. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Approaches to influence policy processes & advocacy methods

4. Compilation, Design, lay-out and production of a handbook on Youth leadership methods & skills for sustained youth mobilization

5. An online learning platform (Website) that will allow students to retrieve the study materials during & long after the project is complete

1. Setup of online platform (design & publication) 2. Compilation and population of platform with user

materials 3. Platform publicazation and guiding of students on

how they could use it

6. An archive of Student projects (audio, video, and/or written projects) that will reflect newly learned skills and will deal with their understanding of the conflict resolution via non-violent methods and mediation.

1. Setup of coordinating team among the CSO – Schools partnerships to coordinate production if student projects

2. Call on students to produce and submit projects befitting of the project theme

3. Professional capture and production of the student projects

4. Setup of an online database for these projects


C.4 Strategy: how does the project cohere?

This project’s’ coherence is founded on the need to answer to a pressing social – structural problem, one that has both individual, local, regional and international impact; namely, the limited attempts to conceive and cultivate peaceful conflict resolution processes among young people in local communities. Specifically, there is no doubt that the region we are working with, and the countries in which the project will run have high need for this project. These countries have been and continue to face civil strife, mostly likes due to the fact that peace resolutions processes are top – bottom, and therefore fail to answer to eminent local needs, compromises and capacities to mitigate the same at local levels. This project sets out to contribute possible modalities to these questions, both in the short-run as well as for the future. There are three main ways in which this project wants to contribute to the overall objectives and thoughts above. These are as follows: - Firstly, knowing that youths are central to current and future peace processes of the project

region, we want to train 100 ambassadors of peace in skills and tools that will enable them not only to learn to live peacefully within their local communities, but also be able to facilitate and lead projects, initiatives and processes aimed at peaceful conflict resolution and diplomacy. The project outputs answering to this strategic objective include;

o Trainings of one hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries in Conflict resolution and mediation methods

o Trainings of one hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries in Non-violent communication and Dialogue for peace methods

o Trainings of one hundred youths (100) youths across partner countries in approaches to influence policy processes & advocacy methods

o Training of twenty (20) in youth leadership methods & skills at a youth work camp to be held in Kiev – in Ukraine

o Holding of quarterly youth – politicians/policy processes meetings to enable youths to gain first experience in interfacing with policy engagement

- Secondly, knowing that for a strategy like one presented in this project requires a united civil society to be successfully implemented, we are deliberately targeting to facilitate a sustained civil society network/partnership and engagement, as well as developing this cluster’s capacities to engage with policy process for a better chance on peaceful conflict resolution in the area.

The project outputs answering to this strategic objective include;

o Gathering all project partners to a project kickoff meeting in Tbilisi – Georgia where the project implementation strategy is concretized, clear agreements are charted, and enthusiasm for a successful project is motivated

o Holding of Quarterly meetings among CSOs in each participating country to enable the local CSOs for stronger networks and regular share best practices for intra network motivation and growth

o Publishing of Quarterly CSO joint statement on the need for peaceful resolution of conflicts in each country and across the region in popular print media in all participating countries

o Holding of Quarterly joint meetings with related policy bodies/politicians to lobby & advocate for more emphasis on peaceful conflict resolution in the region, as a way of creating a common front and practice for CSOs to act together on the issues of this project

o Holding of one (1) inter-partner exchange of best practices meeting in Kiev – Ukraine, to facilitate a forum where all project partners interface with each other, learn together and for joint strategies


- Thirdly, given that fact that majority of our immediate target group (youths) are still formally dependent on schools systems where they spend most of their day time, and where they have higher chances of interacting with other youths/peers, we want to facilitate the formation and strengthening of a strong and sustained network between CSOs and Schools networks in each partner country, so that schools are also stakeholders in ensuring that the project objectives are met, and that they can take-up ownership of the whole processes even after the end of the project.

The project outputs answering to this strategic objective include;

o Holding of Quarterly strategic meetings between CSOs and Participating schools to develop ideas & lay strategies for a strengthened cooperation & project success

o Holding of Quarterly non-formal education workshops in schools facilitated by CSOs as a way of showcasing and systematizing non-formal peaceful conflict resolution and other related learning processes in schools. As well as identifying that CSOs can be central facilitating youth learning within the schools system.

o Production of various Non-formal based study materials for further usage in schools and other places. These will include the following:

▪ A handbook on Conflict resolution and mediation methods

▪ A handbook on Non-violent communication and Dialogue for peace building

▪ A handbook on Approaches to influence policy processes & advocacy methods

▪ A handbook on Youth leadership methods & skills for sustained youth mobilization o Publishing of a Quarterly schools – CSOs joint online newsletter where articles from

Students, teachers, CSO actors about the project are published & multiplied to the wider public

o Implementing of an online learning platform (Website) that will allow students to retrieve the study materials during & long after the project is complete

o Setting up an archive of Student projects (audio, video, and/or written projects) that will reflect newly learned skills within their understanding of the conflict resolution via non-violent methods and mediation.

Methodologically, The project builds on the best practices from peace education traditions, from the Danish folk højskole dialogue based teaching and learning approaches, and Gandhian, Martin Luther King, Paolo Ferrero learning based ideals. The method is furthermore informed by the human based, participatory, and interactive methods from the European Council for non-formal educational, which altogether give this project a multi-dimensional approach that is highly likely to facilitate the success of the project learning objectives. The other strategic method is to approach and inform the school leaders about the project idea, objectives and expected benefit. Securing the support of the school leaders and teachers as well as student leaders is expected to include and give ownership of the project to its key stakeholders. This in turn is expected to draw parents and local authorities to the project. C.5 Phase-out and sustainability Throughout the development process, this project has been designed to be readily up-taken and supported by the local implementing partners beyond the project funding, and that its impact will be of long lasting nature. It was for this reason that all partners chosen have had to possess minimum experience in implementing projects within peaceful conflict resolution. In addition, the partners have had to identify that they have experience working at policy level, as well as working with schools systems and young people therein. Lastly, partners have had to self-evaluate and ensure that they have the motivation for this project, that the project lies within their strategic agenda, and that they


have the human resources at the least to implement such a project. As such based on this criteria we have a fairly guaranteed incidence of project continuation after the funding period, and if not all aspects, at least most of the aspects of the project. By design, the project’s objectives and outputs there in are also supportive of sustainability. Our first project for example of training ambassadors of peace basically aims at producing facilitating young people to gain skills they will use the rest of their lives. Moreover, within the same objective, these young people will be trained and motivated in leading their own initiatives within facilitating peaceful conflict resolution and being ambassadors of the same. This we believe will go on much longer that the project time-span. Our second objective – facilitating a strengthened Civil Society around the need for peaceful conflict resolution and for supporting ambassadors of peace, points to setting up CSO structures that will run beyond the project. This we believe will give the CSOs network a more vibrant voice and strength to better lobby and advocate for the project’s and their other objectives within their local community, aspects we believe they will find beneficial and work maintaining. Furthermore, through this structure, many statements on peace will be made, many politicians will be met and hopefully convinced that there are willing people at the grassroots that are interested in a peaceful society, and many policy processes will hopefully be impacted. These are benefits that will have sustained impact in the local communities where the project is implemented. Lastly, by facilitating the formation and strengthening of a strong and sustained network between CSOs and Schools networks in each partner country – our third objective, we both want to ensure that schools are not only stakeholders in ensuring that the project objectives are met, but that they will take-up ownership of the whole processes even after the end of the project. Moreover, we are under this objective producing several non-formal education materials that are aimed at facilitating inclusion into the schools as well as arenas. These are materials that will be used for a much longer time than the project time span. With all the above strategic choices and design, we believe that this project is sufficiently sustainable and most of its impacts will be felt for a longer time after phase-out. C.6 Assumptions and risks The biggest assumption we hold with this project is that there is need for its contents in the region of implementation, and that all stakeholders so to say – the schools, youths, policy systems and politicians, the states where the project will be implemented, CSOs etc., will find it relevant, and will support and further it. Secondly, that the social-political situation in the implementing countries remain supportive of the project from start to project end. One of the possible risks is an escalation of the current conflict in eastern Ukraine to the extent that it spills over to other parts of the region which hinder the project implementation as planned. However, with the local partners’ help and with the use of communication online platform that will be put in place before the actual trainings are to be implemented, might be done (reshuffling the plans within action plan) so that the final output is achieved by the end of the project period. Another possible risk is that some of the local partners may come under direct or indirect pressure that may be opposed to the project objectives. This relates particularly to sensitivity of working with EU member countries for some of the partners. However, the experience of the local partners in working with schools and across borders are expected to mitigate such eventual problems. Moreover, as the common project activities will take place in across different countries and online, such sensitivities will be minimized.


D. PROJECT ORGANISATION AND FOLLOW-UP D.1 Division of roles in project implementation

All the project activities will be jointly planned among the project partner, but local implementation in the partner countries will be carried out by the local coordination organizations. Furthermore, while all partners will jointly implement the monitoring and evaluation activities, Crossing Borders will lead in implementing both the mid-term and final evaluation, as well as project auditing activities. For reporting, all partner organisations will provide reports of the local activities and CB will put these together in complete project reports. Finally, financial reporting will be lead by CB with inputs from all project partners. D.2 Monitoring and evaluation in project implementation

Management, reporting, monitoring and evaluation: In relation project management aspects, Crossing Borders will stand as the overall project coordinators, supporting and following up on all other project coordinators in the different partner countries. In all partner countries, there will be established a project managers who will manage and monitor the project. In return, these will be supervised by their local organisations. It is the responsibility of the Project Managers therefore to fit this project within the local organizations’ strategic frameworks, so it contributes to the organization’s bigger picture. Reporting wise, the Partner organisations will compile monthly project activity and monitoring reports to evaluate the activities that have taken place in the month. The reports will end in suggestions to adjustments, if necessary. The short monthly reports will be followed by biannual, and then annual reports from all partners. All reports will be shared with Crossing Borders so the organisation can actively follow the events in the partner countries, as well as having the possibility for timely inputs and adjustments in the project. In relation to monitoring, the project will involve two major evaluation phases. One will take place after the first year of project implementation (otherwise called midterm evaluation) and the second at the end of the two years period (here termed the final evaluation). It is planned that while the monthly and biannual evaluations will be carried out internally by local project partners, the midterm and final evaluation will be jointly carried out by all involved partners organisations, as these come at major project phases that could require joint reflection and planning. To aid the monitoring and evaluation phases above, several indicators on top of the ones named in the project description will be developed during the work-planning phase. These will vary from process/progress indicators that will be collected on activity and monthly basis such as event attendance and reach statistics, to midterm indicators that will focus on longer period’s progress, as well as final project achievement indicators to show final impact of the project.

E. INFORMATION WORK E.1 Has project-related information work in Denmark been planned?

Yes: We intend to carry out several information activities in Denmark related to this project including the following:

We plan to hold two (2) public meetings about the project – expressing the status of youth peaceful process engagement in the participating countries

Crossing Borders holds many information activities across the year, this project’s contents will feature at these events.

To aid the above two activity categories and for general public information, Crossing Borders will produce project Fliers, Rollups, Brochures and booklets across the project life time


We will also run a project-dedicated webpage on our Crossing Borders website. This will be a valuable point of reference for our members

We will also run a dedicated Facebook page for this project to avail our partners, members and followers the chance to be constantly informed and updated about the project

Notice: The application text must adhere to the above structure, which also underpins the instructions available on the following pages. The total application text (sections A-E) cannot exceed 25 pages (Arial type 11, line spacing 1.0, margins: top: 3 cm, bottom 3 cm, right 2 cm and left 2 cm).


3. Budget summary Below please fill in a summary of the main budget items as follows: Fill sheet 1-4 in Annex C 'Budget scheme' - the budget summary will then automatically appear on sheet 5. This should be copied from Annex C and pasted below.

Budget summary Currency

Indicate the total cost (i.e. including contributions from the Eastern Neighbourhood Civil Society Fund as well as other sources)

1,761,475

DKK

Of this, the Eastern Neighbourhood Civil Society Fund is to contribute

1,761,475 DKK

Of this, indicate the amount to be contributed by other sources of finance, including self-funding by the Danish organisation or its local partner, if any

DKK

Indicate total cost in local currency (Ukraine) 6,641,777.50 UAH

Indicate exchange rate applied (Ukraine) 1 DKK 3.7 UAH

Indicate total cost in local currency (Georgia) 628,276.25 GEL

Indicate exchange rate applied (Georgia) 1 DKK 0.35 GEL

Main budget items: Financing plan

Full amount Of this, from the Fund

Of this, from other financial sources

1. Activities 988,960 988,960

2. Investments

3. Expatriate staff

4. Local staff 264,000 264,000

5. Local administration 102,000 102,000

6. Project monitoring 85,600 85,600

7. External evaluation 71,800 71,800

8. Information in Denmark (max 3 % of 1-7) 30,000 30,000

9. Budget margin (min 6 % and max 10 % of 1-8) 102,507 102,507

10. Project expenses in total (1-9) 1,644,867 1,644,867

11. Auditing in Denmark 15,000 15,000

12. Subtotal (10 + 11) 1,659,867 1,659,867


13. Administration in Denmark (max 7 % of 12) 101,608 101,608

14. Total 1,761,475 1,761,475

4. ANNEXES OBLIGATORY ANNEXES The following annexes must be submitted both in print by post and electronically by email:

A. Basic information about the Danish applicant organisation (filled in and signed by the Danish organisation)

B. Factsheet about the local organisation (filled in and signed by the local partner. It can be submitted in a copied/scanned version)

C. Budget format The following annexes about the Danish organisation must be submitted electronically by email:

D. The organisation’s statutes E. The latest annual report F. The latest audited annual accounts (signed by the auditor and the management/board of

the organisation) SUPPLEMENTARY ANNEXES (max 30 pages):

Annex no. Annex title

Notice: All annexes should be submitted electronically.

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