Green Liberty: First Six Months of M4D

Photo/story competition

The photo/story competition Decent life for all was been launched in Latvia in July, 2015. Both, professional and amateur photographers or journalists can join it by submitting a photo or an article/a story that has been created during or on the basis of the visit to a country eligible to receive official development assistance (ODA).

This competition gives the competitors an opportunity to enhance public understanding of development issues and to promote achievements made in the field of the development cooperation.

Submissions will be accepted until September 9, 2015. The author of the best story/article will be awarded by grant from the M4D project budget for making a trip to a country with lower income and getting inspired to write new absorbing stories.

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 1^st issue is dedicated to financing for development. It gives a chance to remind us and our readers about Riga Roundtable international conference Financing for Development: Role of EU Member States that was organized on June 11-12, 2015 and about the 3^rd International Conference on Financing for Development that was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on July 13 – 16, 2015. 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 Development Cooperation News.

This 1^st issue is looking for answers on the following questions: How to finance equality among people and sustainable planet? What is an opinion of Latvian policy makers about financing for global development? To what extent micro credits can reduce poverty? What are we ready to sacrifice to get bigger investments?

Download the bulletin Development Cooperation News here.

The next – 2^nd issue of Development Cooperation News will be about climate change. 

International conference Riga Roundtable

Riga Roundtable Financing for Development: Role of EU Member States was welcomed by Green Liberty and organized by Green Liberty, Latvian Green Movement and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia in Riga on June 11-12, 2015.

Can we afford sustainable development and who should pay for it and through which revenue streams? Riga international Roundtable was organized to find answers to those questions at national and international level through bringing together over 50 participants – policy makers, media representatives, civil society and private sector activists, academics and educators from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Finland and UK.

During two days Riga Roundtable conference provided an agenda of several interconnected sections:

• Media breakfast,
• Keynote Speeches: Introduction to global agenda of the financing for development,
• Roundtable Discussion 1. Financing for Development: Alternative solutions,
• Roundtable Discussion 2: Financing for development: Country positions,
• Case Study Session: Successes and challenges of the financing for development.

See the short information about Riga Roundtable contributors – keynote speakers, roundtable discussion and case study participants, and moderators.

Information about the event was published in websites of EYD2015, Green Liberty, Latvian Green Movement, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, Newsletter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, Latvian Rural forum, international magazine for decision makers The Baltic Course, LETA, Latvian Messenger, BAAG, and discussed in Facebook pages of Green Liberty and Latvian Green Movement.

  

Fair Trade event

On May 30 in cooperation with Humana People to People Latvia we organized an event HOW FAIR ARE OUR CLOTHES? The event took place in Cinema-gallery K-Suns, Elizabetes 83/85, Riga within the World Fair Trade Week 2015. 

This event invited everybody who cared about fair everyday decisions connected to our clothes. Clothes as everyday item are universal and necessary to everybody therefore they connect people. However, their connecting reality has a lot of unfairness and inequality where the world’s poorest people make expensive clothes that we can buy in popular brand shops. 

                                                                                                      

Event agenda:

      1.      Screening of the documentary movie THE TRUE COST by the director Andrew Morgan.

As the filmmakers say: “This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?”

We hope that this film has initiated participants’ thinking not only about unfairness in the world, but also about our position of being a clothes consumer. Thus, we wished to raise public awareness and critical thinking about clothes industry, about everyday choices connected to it, and about active position for fair everyday life in personal, local community, national, and global level.

    2.     Sustainable fashion doTalk - upcycling event for creating stylish sustainable clothing.

Sustainable fashion doTalks (modesTalka) are up-cycling events which are aimed to inform and actively engage people in creating stylish sustainable design clothing from reused or second hand garments.

This time fashion doTalk team ensured that there were enough clothes for upcycling process that participants didn’t need to take anything with them. We created simple things – bags from jeans and t-shirts, besides that, participants had an opportunity to work with colors and refresh old t-shirts. Fashion doTalk team helped with ideas and some practical support – work with needles and threads.

Information about the event was published in Green Liberty website, Delfi, Apollo, allevents.in, EYD2015, shared in TV3 News, and discussed in Facebook pages of Green Liberty and Humana People to People Latvia.

Find some photos from previous doTalk events:

• Fashion DoTalk in Livani, event where participants mainly created new bags:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.477357525619479.106292.335982383090328&type=3
• One of the first fashion doTalk from the contemporary art festival “White night”:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.357770287578204.81102.335982383090328&type=3
• The last fashion doTalk: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.919241258097768.1073741834.335982383090328&type=3

 EC Inception Seminar

On April 28-29 a representative of Green Liberty participated in the Inception Seminar, organized by European Commission.

The event aimed to discuss successful management of DEAR projects, involvement multiple partners from different locations, to identify learning points and good practice criteria. Participants were also informed of EC financial and activity/results reporting requirements, as well as improved visibility of the EU standards and communication on the EYD 2015.

Seminar was a successful learning and networking initiative that established partnership among national and international organizations.

Helsinki seminar

On April 22-24 three Latvian writing journalists together with their colleagues from other M4D partner organizations deepened their awareness and understanding about reflecting on global development issues in an Intensive Course on Development for Journalists in Helsinki.

The seminar organized by project’s Finnish partner organization VIKES was a great success because of its interesting content, discussions and workshops, organization and atmosphere.

The seminar encouraged several initiatives in Latvia: reflections by journalists in regional media (article To Look Broader), media lunch with representatives of Green Liberty and Latvian Green Movement where the learnings were shared and future cooperation plans created.

Tallinn seminar

On March 25-27 two Latvian film journalists took part in TV Documentary Format Development Seminar organized by Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR).

Participants from M4D partner organizations discussed various forms and modes of documentary films that could be made after visiting developing countries.

After the seminar it was discussed in media lunch with representatives of Green Liberty and Latvian Green Movement where the learnings were shared and future cooperation plans created.