Green Liberty: Second Six Months of M4D

E-bulletin

 

To enrich awareness of society and policymakers in Latvia about global interconnection, challenges and initiatives to solve them both globally and locally we have started to publish electronic information bulletin Development Cooperation News (DCN).

DCN is published electronically twice a year and features current development cooperation topics from the perspective of practitioners, opinion leaders and policy-makers.

The 2^nd issue is Glocal climate change. It gives a chance to remind us and our readers about 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 21 organized on November 30 – December 12. This global and local news is published in the section EVENTS that jointly with other sections: POSITIONS, EXPERIENCE, OPINIONS, and RESOURCES shapes the structure of DCN.

This 2^nd issue is looking for answers on the following questions: Can we continue to ignore climate change in global context? What is climate change policy in our country? How can we be involved in reduction of climate change in local level? And what does local participation gives to reduction of global climate change?

Read and download the bulletin Development Cooperation News here.

The next – 3^rd issue of Development Cooperation News will be about Sustainable Development Goals. 

Joint Study Trip to Nigeria

For Dāvis Landorfs and Agnese Leiburga – journalists who represented Green Liberty the joint study trip to Nigeria started with visa obtaining trip to Kiev. It could sound strange yet the trip to Kiev was the most time, energy and patience consuming trip as the whole week was spent at the windowless basement at Nigerian Embassy in Kiev. Happy coincidence brought luck only to Dāvis. Agnese could not reschedule her flights and stay longer, thus Dāvis was the only one who represented Green Liberty in the joint study trip to Nigeria in October 25-31. Huge thanks to Maiju from VIKES, The Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria) and all the study trip team who made all the necessary arrangements several times and sincerely supported Dāvis and Agnese.

These two trips have been successful. As a result they also brought several articles already published in the media:

1. Landorfs, Dāvis, (2015).Vides piesārņojums Nigērijā: Kurš atbildīgs par naftu Nigērijas upēs un pārtikā? [Environment pollution in Nigeria: Who is responsible about oil in Nigeria’s rivers and food?]. Bulletin Development Cooperation News: Glocal Climate Changes. 2(1), pp.16-19.

2.  Leiburga, Agnese, (Oct.29., 2015). Eiropas lielpilsēta Kijeva. [European metropolis Kiev]. Zemgales Ziņas [regional newspaper Zemgale News], http://zz.diena.lv/laikraksta-arhivs/eiropas-lielpilseta-kijeva-206281

3. Leiburga, Agnese, (Oct.27., 2015). Pēc vīzas uz vēlēšanu pārņemto Kijevu. [To elections overwhelmed Kiev to get visa]. Zemgales Ziņas [regional newspaper Zemgale News], http://zz.diena.lv/laikraksta-arhivs/pec-vizas-uz-velesanu-parnemto-kijevu-206166

Other articles are in the process.

Making Documentaries for Airing

Green Liberty has a film crew from Woodpecker Pictures in the field to cover development cooperation issues. This crew is represented by Kārlis Lesiņš and Artis Dobrovolskis who have participated in Intensive Course on Development for Journalists on April 22-24 in Helsinki.

Two field trips are going to be organized. The first - to Rwanda is finished. The second - to Thailand is going to be around the end of 2015 - the beginning of 2016. Both documentaries will be about the complex interrelation of two species - animals and humans in the present time of globalization. Each of them will provide a case of the impact of humans on animals’ life: (1) squeezing gorillas out of their territory and infecting them with human illnesses due to shortage of land caused by climate change, and (2) changes in elephants’ life space due to human overpopulation and exploiting wild elephants in earning money in big cities of Thailand.

Photo & Article Competition

Green Liberty also organized a nation-wide photo and article competition Decent Life to All. In Latvia the competition received 12 photos and 1 article. The winner in the photo category is Liene Biezā and in article competition – Lāsma Ozola.

The jury consisted of two experts: Alnis Stakle - nationally and internationally recognized photo artist, a lecturer and a director of undergraduate study program Photography at Riga Stradins University (RSU), and Inese Vaivare – a director of Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS).

The exhibition was opened and the winners officially announced at EYD2015 final event Thought. Action. World’s Development in Riga, Kalciema Kvartals on December 4.  

Public Awareness Campaign and Events

Public campaign on the European Year of Development consisted of 6 interrelated events. Main themes of the campaign were:

• sustainable development goals,
• glocalization,
• sustainable consumerism.

 Several of campaign events were organized in the 2^nd part of this year.

Interactive discussions Global Aims for Global Light

Interactive discussions were organized on September 23-25 in Daugavpils and on October 9 in Dricani Municipality and Dricani Secondary School.

It aimed to interact with public in several ways: 

• Setting priorities for global development,
• Acting out strategies for reaching Sustainable Development Goals,
• Reading the newspaper “World Becomes Better”,
• Discussing: Would we be the first generation to end extreme poverty, the generation most determined to fight injustice and inequalities, and the generation that saves the planet from climate change? And how could Sustainable Development Goals be used for that?

Interactive discussions were organized in intersection with two other events – Worlds Best News Day and Daugavpils 10^th Science Festival.

Story day of DEAR and other global education projects

DEAR projects’ story day was organized on November 12 in Riga. It aimed to create the space where DEAR project implementers interact with policy makers, educators and general public.

The first part of the DEAR projects’ story day was introduction to 10 global education projects that represented mainly DEAR framework. This part was simultaneously illustrated in one integrated visual image by an artist Vivianna Maria Stanislavska that helped participants to see the connection between projects, their target groups and expected results.

The second part was a focus group discussion by 10 representatives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, National Centre for Education of the Republic of Latvia, Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS), municipalities, NGOs that implement DEAR projects, educators, students, grassroots leaders, etc.

DEAR projects’ story day was organized in intersection with Global Education Week 2015.

Local Roundtable for Engagement of Policy Makers

Main activity for engagement of policy makers in development cooperation discussions was local roundtable Equality of local and global community organized by Green Liberty in Jelgava Municipality on November 17, 2015.

This event was rich in several interrelated activities: key-note presentation, focus group discussions, film screening, exhibition opening and discussions. The success of this event was participation of different other stakeholders including grassroots activists among local level policy makers that is still a rare form of public events in Latvia, especially outside of the capital Riga.