Friday, 29 December 2017

Green Liberty: Sixth Six Months of M4D (2)

Fairtrade Friendly
Since 2013 Green Liberty is actively involved in awareness raising about Fair Trade movement. The last six months of M4D were dedicated to refreshing our activities connected to Fair Trade Friendly recognition, organizing an outdoor campaign in Riga about Fair Trade and Fair Trade Friendly recognition, organizing an international meeting of representatives of Baltic region CSOs that deal with Fair Trade issues in their countries, organizing the official opening of the Fair Trade Friendly recognition, and planning national level cooperation with the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) to connect individual initiatives for youth – Fair Trade Ambassador – to its Young Reporters for the Environment program that empowers young people to take a stand on environmental issues and gives them a platform to articulate their observations through the media of writing, photography or video. 



Label “WE CHOOSE FAIR TRADE”


The label “We choose Fair Trade” gives recognition and support for Fair Trade friendly organizations, companies, institutions, communities or groups of people. The goal of refreshing Fair Trade Friendly recognition process and criteria is to be rather ambitions – we strive to create common Baltic area of Fair Trade Friendly recognition. To do it we have agreed with our EST colleagues from Mondo to use their logo with Latvian translation. The logo has already been used to award the Estonian Fair Trade friendly organizations, producers, supermarkets, stores and schools since 2014.

According to the current revisions Green Liberty provides the label “We choose Fair Trade” in six categories: (1) cafes, restaurants and hotels, (2) shops, including booths, confectionery and drinks vending machines and online shops, (3) business and shared offices, communities, (4) producers of goods, (5) educational institutions, (6) individual initiatives for youth: Fair Trade Ambassador. For each category, we have set the minimum requirements and additional recommendations for employee and customer awareness raising.

To apply for the label “We choose Fair Trade”, a representative of an organization, a company, an institution, a community or a group of people should fill out an application that will be available in Green Liberty webpage since mid-January 2018.

Info about the label in Latvian is available here: http://www.zalabriviba.lv/jaunumi/kustibas-mes-izvelamies-godigo-tirdzniecibu-kriteriji/

Outdoor Campaign


Our outdoor campaign to raise society’s awareness about Fair Trade is organized in two sections. In the first section banners were displayed in Riga: in outdoor advertising stands from September 11 to September 24, 2017 and in several shopping centres from September 8 to October 1, 2017. The second section is going on from November 22, 2017, and is located not only in Riga but also in several other biggest towns.

Outdoor banners invite everyone to think about the beginning of the supply chain of our favourite global products that we use every day – coffee, chocolate, bananas, to purchase Fair Trade products, and to engage in the movement of Fair Trade friends.

The banners are developed in cooperation with the agency "Armadillo". Campaign posters in bus or tram stops and shopping centers are hosted in partnership with JCDecaux and Clear Channel, see here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r1q1yyxip9zg59g/IMG_2914.MOV?dl=0

Info about outdoor campaign in Latvian is available here: http://www.zalabriviba.lv/par-godigu-tirdzniecibu/zala-briviba-aicina-iesaistities-godigas-tirdzniecibas-kustiba/

Baltic meeting of Fair Trade promoters  


On November 27, 2017 we invited our colleagues who deal with Fair Trade issues and organize Fair Trade Friendly recognitions in other Baltic countries to come to an informal meeting. The aim pf the meeting was strengthen joint Baltic Fair Trade Friendly space: to share national success stories, to learn form colleagues, and to plan further cooperation. Seven participants: Jaanus Välja representing Mondo from Estonia, Tomas Kurapkaitis and Milda Lukoseviciute representing Litdea from Lithuania, Andrzej Żwawa representing Fairtrade Polska from Poland, Valters Kinna, Sanita Rībena and Inga Belousa representing Green Liberty from Latvia took place in this meeting. 

Opening of the Fair Trade Friendly recognition 


After the informal Baltic meeting of Fair Trade promoters, we organized the official opening event Why to choose Fair Trade products? of the campaign “We choose Fair Trade” in Birojnica, Dzirnavu street 84 k-2, Riga. We organized this event to meet Fair Trade friendly organizations, enterprises, institutions, schools and non-formal groups from Latvia who provide and use Fair Trade products in their daily life and to encourage them to apply for the labelling “We choose Fair Trade”. For all 20 participants it was a great success to meet Fair Trade Friendly promoters from other Baltic countries.

In the opening event of the campaign “We choose Fair Trade” we heard and shared four stories of different Fair Trade stakeholders:
  1. To buy or not to buy cheap products produced in developing countries? – shared by a Teacher Naw Kham from Myanmar
  2. What is the production of fair and unfair products in developing countries? – shared by Lāsma Ozola, a Latvian journalist who has traveled to banana plantations in Costa Rica
  3. How to recognize a Fair Trade friendly company? – shared by representatives of Fair Trade passionate CSOs: Jaanus Välja, ex-MONDO, EST; Andrzej Żwawa, ​Fairtrade Polska, PT; Tomas Kurapkaitis, Milda Lukoseviciute, LITDEA, LT; Valters Kinna, Zaļā brīvība, LV
  4. What are benefits for the company from the use of Fair Trade products? – a joint discussion about Fair Trade and Fair Trade Friendly recognition. 


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Thursday, 28 December 2017

Mondo activities July–December 2017


Work with Journalists
During summer months, work with journalists was quieter. The main activity was joint trip to Afghanistan, for which we had chosen A. Lobjakas to take part. In June he went through a short security training conducted by Mondo's humanitarian and and security expert G. Teder. Additionally, he also took the UN online security course. The joint trip itself was a success and our participant was very pleased with the overall experience.

In autumn, we continued planning the joint study trip to Ghana, of which Latvian and Estonian journalists would take part. From Estonia, we chose H. Tammemäe, the head editor of Müürileht, to participate. She also took part of the autumn training in Helsinki arranged by VIKES. Müürileht is an alternative monthly newspaper, that can be subscribed to but is also distributed for free in some locations. Although it's print numbers are not very big, it has a very specific niche and it's readers are accustomed to reading longer and more thorough articles. There is also a tendency that the topics written about in Müürileht will become popular in other media channels after a few months.

Ghana study trip participants.


The grant competition winner and his colleague visited Mekong river delta in Vietnam in November to research sustainability issues there. A freelance journalist writing mostly for women's magazines, took a trip to Palestine to highlight issues of inequality and development. In the final days of December, a journalist and photographer will visit Bangladesh to research and write about the situation of Rohingyas in refugee camps.


Work with Policy-Makers
In July, we posted bulletins for members of the parliament and MFA officials. Along with the bulletin, invitations to the international roundtable and conference was also sent out to policy makers. The bulletin can be seen here: http://mondo.org.ee/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/mondo-arengupoliitika-teataja-el-eesistumine.pdf

We met and consulted with MFA officials and diplomats to be able to arrange the roundtable as best as possible. To facilitate information exchange between policy makers, we decided to make the roundtable into a two-day event: the first day being a closed, invitation-only roundtable and the second day being an open-to-public conference. The conference was attended by 105 people, the roundtable by 40 people. Both days took place in the conference centre of Swissotel Tallinn. Photos of both days can be seen here, background information and panelists of the conference can been seen here. A very helpful team of international and Estonian volunteers helped us to arrange the events, helping with everything from taking photos to welcoming people at the registering table. All event guests received thematic bulletins, agendas of the event, notebooks, and handicraft conference bags from either Afghanistan or Uganda. Both days were a success thanks to the wonderful participants, panelists, moderators, and their expertise. It was a great honor of receiving the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs who gave the key note address, and also of our high-level panelists.

In autumn, Mondo also arranged a study trip for policy makers to Ghana. An MFA official and a member of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs committee took part.

Work with general audience
In the summer, Mondo arranged an active social media campaign on the myths of development cooperation. The theme was "Real people. Real stories. Real aid.", video clips filmed in Estonia and photos taken in Mondo's partner communities were used to bring development cooperation closer and explain it through clear and concrete examples. The posts were seen 134,756 times.

We also actively advertised the conference "Development and Security: Which Comes First?" on social media, e-mail lists and our website.

In November and December, the second public campaign of this year was conducted. Together with the design and advertising company Velvet we decided to continue with the same "Hoolin" topic as we did for the spring SDG campaign. To make it more concrete, education was chosen as a main theme and the campaign main slogan was chosen as "Hoolin haridusest" or "I care about education". To bring the topic closer to the general audience, we decided to focus on the universal nature of education and the wish to be educated. To do so, a campaign ambassador – the actress Elina Reinold – and her son agreed to visit Ghana. A filmmaker went with them as they visited Richard, a young Ghanian boy who is receiving school support from Elina through Mondo. Photos of Elina and her son in together with Richard and his grandmother became the main visual of the campaign. The campaign was featured on outdoor bus-stop advertising systems, in several magazines, and in social media.





To finish the campaign, an education and development cooperation themed public event was held in the Estonian National Museum in Tartu, under the name of "Hoolin haridusest" or "I care about education". After inspiring talks from Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Tõnis, Lukas Ilmar Raag, Marju Lauristin, Loone Ots, and Mondo's board members and partners, different artists performed and Syrian food and fair trade chocolate cake was eaten. 172 people registered their participation to the event.



Together with Müürileht a newspaper insert on global issues and development cooperation was published in December.
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Green Liberty: Sixth Six Months of M4D (1)

Global stories hunt completed


Planning and organizing of journalist individual trips that we have named Global stories hunt has been completed successfully. We have designed the whole process as five events: (1) journalist training, (2) competition of applications for individual trips, (3) networking and individual trip planning, (4) individual trips, (5) global storytelling festival that also served as a closing even of the project. During the first part of the year journalist training, competition of applications for individual trips, and networking and individual trip planning seminar were organized. This final part of the year and of the project implied journalist individual trips and storytelling festival. Also, publication of hunted global stories that can be considered as the concluding part of the Global stories hunt. 

Individual trips


Individual trips were completed by six journalists: Guna Gleizde, a Delfi journalist and editor who went to Haiti; Ieva Jurevica, a LTV journalist who went to Tanzania and Zanzibar; Anta Blumberga, a journalist from mediahouse “Dienas žurnāli” magazine “Veselība” who went to Swaziland; Ģirts Strazdiņš, a journalist from “Vides Vēstis” and Sandijs Semjonovs, LTV journalist who went to Indonesia; Andris Kārkluvalks, a Delfi journalist who went to Kurdistan region of Iraq.  

Individual trips inspired production of several articles, documentaries, TV and radio broadcasts, and other publications. All stories have not been told yet, so this list will be updated until February 2018. 

Storytelling festival
To conclude and celebrate Global stories hunt we organized a storytelling festival World Stories by Green Liberty on December 12 at Kaņepes Kultūras centrs, Riga. It was great to be together with nearly fifty friends, supporters, project partners, volunteers and colleagues.

Global stories produced by journalists supported three main areas that have been highlighted by majority of activities of Green Liberty – Fair trade stories, solidarity stories, and sustainable development stories. 

We invited journalists to share their stories in connection to these three areas. The aim to tell these stories was to emphasize how diverse the world is, that Latvia not a poor country, and we can do a lot to make the world better with our daily decisions. 

Participation of journalists in telling stories emphasized the special role of development journalism and media in enriching public awareness of how everything in the world is related. 

Each of the main areas was introduced by a member of Green Liberty – Inga Belousa, Ingrīda Strazdiņa and Jānis Brizga. Each of us explained the concept of the area by connecting it to variety of initiatives done by Green Liberty. After these highlights of the context, two journalists shared the stories from their Global stories hunt trips.


Inga Belousa shared that sustainable development stories suggest that development is not just economic growth, it is not charity, not the provision of help, not saving people, other living beings or environment only in critical situations. Development is a balanced interaction between the public, the public and the private sector. Development is characterized by values of society's consumer activities and the role of civic participation in decision-making. Andris Kārkluvalks, an international news journalist from Delfi stepped in and shared his stories about civic participation and security issues developed in his trip to Kurdistan, Iraq. Anta Blumberga, a journalist from mediahouse “Dienas žurnāli” and magazine “Veselība” shared her stories about Bulembu that is a city with future for Swazi orphans.


Ingrīda Strazdiņa highlighted that solidarity stories emphasize balanced development of a local community and care for local environment. She suggested that solidarity stories focus on individual, collective and ecological wellbeing where people play an active role in shaping all dimensions of life: economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental. Solidarity stories are about responsibility towards society and environment: collective production of goods, collective services, sharing work environment and resources, use and support Fair trade goods. Such stories are based on exchange, sharing, common use and co-creation for development of local community. Iveta Auniņa, a journalist from regional television Re:TV un Andra Briekmane, an editor of internet journal Tourism Guide from DELFI, shared their stories about solidarity enriched initiatives in Ghana: cooperatives of shea butter production, sewing and straw basket viewing.

Jānis Brizga argued that Fair trade stories are about a partnership based on sustainable development, dialogue, transparency of processes, respect and equity that offers better trade conditions and respects the rights of marginalized small domestic producers and workers. His conceptual ideas were illustrated by Ģirts Strazdiņš, a journalist from “Vides Vēstis” and Sandijs Semjonovs, LTV journalist. They shared stories about the beginning of palm oil industry chain in Indonesia, palm oil as a common ingredient in food, and about fair production of palm oil.

After stories and discussions we enjoyed delicious Fair trade chocolate cake, listened to music of Kārlis Kazāks, had fun in informal networking, and brainstormed ideas of global storytelling in the closest future. 

Published articles 

Articles to be published


  • Anta Blumberga. Svazilenda - smilšu grauds Āfrikā [Swaziland: a gain of sand in Africa – a story about social relationship, understanding, drive to survive and a huge power that sustain small countries], women magazine Una. – To be published in February 2018.
  • Anta Blumberga. Citāda bērnība [Another kind of childhood – a story about daily life of children who are growing up without their parents], illustrated magazine for juniors Ilustrētā junioriem. – To be published in February or March 2018.
  • Anta Blumberga. Kā sadzīvot ar čūskām [How to get along with snakes], illustrated magazine for juniors Ilustrētā junioriem. – To be published in March 2018.
  • Anta Blumberga. Kā sadzīvot ar čūskām [How to get along with snakes], magazine about health Veselība. – To be published in March 2018.
  • Ģirts Strazdiņš. On conflicts of locals and elephants. Vides Vēstis, Nr.1 (168), 2018. – To be published in January 2018.
  • Ģirts Strazdiņš. ­­. Vides Vēstis, Nr.2 (169), 2018. – To be published in February or March 2018.

Radio broadcasts



TV broadcasts in process


  • Vides Fakti ar sižetiem par palmu eļļu [Environmental Facts with stories about palm oil industry in Indonesia] – a broadcast about processes in nature and in neighbouring environment.
  • Aizliegtais paņēmiens par palmu eļļu [Forbidden Method about palm oil industry in Indonesia] – a television broadcast of investigative journalism on the first television channel of Latvia.





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Monday, 25 December 2017

The documentary “Sparkling Rivers” in the festivals

ERR film Sparkling Rivers, writer Anna Gavronski, director Märten Vaher and cinematographer Meelis Kadastik, was selected to the official programme of Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival FICMA. It was 24th time the festival took place, which makes it the oldest environmental film festival in the world.  



We arrived in Barcelona on 7th of November. First news we got form the organisers were a bit concerning- they said that there is a chance that our film screening might be cancelled due to general strike. Fortunately, just after they had warned us, they received a phone call, that our film will be still shown on the big screen. We were very happy and thankful for the organisers for managing to preserve the screening. Besides that we went to meet the other filmmakers at the evening in the cinema and watched some short animation films.
pan> was selected to the official programme of Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival FICMA. It was 24th time the festival took place, which makes it the oldest environmental film festival in the world.  


The second day of our trip was a big day for us, because it was a day, when our film was screened. As it was on the same day as the general strike, we went to watch the protests during lunchtime. Later we heard that other filmmakers did the same. I think curiosity is embedded to all documentary filmmakers. In the evening, we watched some other films and then our film Sparkling Rivers was shown. After the screening people asked questions and it was interesting to see that our film moved people even though it was filmed in Georgia by Estonian filmmakers.

On our third day, we had filmmakers’ lunch, where we met a lot of people. It was a good place for changing contacts. To our surprise one of the crewmembers of Swedish film came to speak with us in fluent Estonian. It turned out that both of his parents were from Estonia that they thought him the language. After the lunch we went to watch the Swedish film, which was about soil.


In the evening we went to the festival closing event, which took place at a very nice natural science museum.


To our big surprise Sparkling Rivers won the award for the best short documentary, it was a great honour and made us very happy.
http://www.ficma.com/en/barcelona/film/266/sparkling-rivers

Besides Barcelona our film Sparkling Rivers was shown in October at the SunChild International Environmental Festival in Yerevan, Armenia. The festival is the first and only of its kind in the South Caucasus region. Our film was one of the 83 films chosen for the official section, it was selected from 1214 submitted films.
http://sunchild.fpwc.org/sparkling-rivers/
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Premiere of the documentary “Sparkling Rivers”

ERR together with Mondo and the film-makers writer Anna Gavronski, director Märten Vaher  and cinematographer Meelis Kadastik organised public screening to the documentary.



 On 7nd February 2017 the documentary “Sparkling Rivers” was premiered in Kinomaja cinema in Tallinn with 75 viewers.


 The Estonian Green Movement project coordinator Mihkel Annus speaks.


On the right: Estonian Green Movement project coordinator Mihkel Annus, author of film “Sparkling Rivers” Anna Gavronski, Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation renewable energy specialist Sigrid Solnik, Eesti Energia renewable energy specialist Innar Kaasik and neighbour of the biggest hydro in Estonia Margus Teemant. 

Briefly about the film.

Georgia is not only a country of wine and high mountains, but it has also more than 25.000 rivers. Running water is a richness that has been noticed by a lot of investors and made Georgia their desired destination. Even now 80 per cent of Georgian electricity comes from hydroelectricity power plants and in the near future there are plans to construct more than 100 new stations. For thousands of people it means they have to be resettled. Shady deals, unclear investors registered in tax havens, energy minister’s business interests in the hydro construction company and deaths by landslides during construction of one large hydro. Is that a fair price for Georgian people have to pay? Environmental activist Dato Chipashvili fights against these hundred million investment projects putting the interests of local people and transparency first.


After five-hour drive from Tbilisi we arrived at the Enguri dam, the world’s second highest dam of its kind. We were stunned, the concrete arch was gigantic, its height is 271.5 meters.


Our guide Dato Chipashvili from an NGO called Green Alternative explained, how in his opinion the old dam could be made more effective.


The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to provide US$200 million for Georgia's 280-MW Nenskra hydropower plant. On the other hand, people from Nakra village are afraid that their homes will be flushed away by a mud river.


We had been asking for an interview with the minister of energy Kakha Kaladze.

The film Sparkling Rivers was selected to the official programme of Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival FICMA and won the award for the best short documentary.
 http://www.ficma.com/en/barcelona/film/266/sparkling-rivers

Besides Barcelona our film Sparkling Rivers was shown in October at the SunChild International Environmental Festival in Yerevan, Armenia. The festival is the first and only of its kind in the South Caucasus region. Our film was one of the 83 films chosen for the official section, it was selected from 1214 submitted films.
http://sunchild.fpwc.org/sparkling-rivers/

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Thursday, 7 December 2017

AidWatch 2017

Besides the development of ODA of the Slovak Republic, its territorial focus, the comparison of bilateral and multilateral assistance in 2016, the publication also focuses on global education initiatives, challenges and trends in development cooperation, which has been affected by the migration crisis and terrorist attacks, and has become a tool of national security and (anti)migration policy at the expense of eradicating poverty as its primary objective.

It also deals with the involvement of the private sector in development cooperation and at the same time puts forward proposals to improve
  • the program of sending volunteers and experts in developing countries,
  • the calls for humanitarian projects,
  •  the functioning of schemes to co-finance European projects
and provides a look at the new Medium-term strategy for development cooperation of the Slovak Republic after 2019.


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Bulletin Rozvojová spolupráca no.2/2017




We live best in history. We experience difficult times. We often hear these contradictory statements depending on who pronounces them. Economists saying about the GDP growth, politicians convincing us about the increase of our standard of living, journalists providing information from war zones or refugee camps, NGOs highlighting the growing gap between poor and rich or climate change experts. How is this really? The 2nd issue of the bulletin Rozvojová spolupráca (Development Co-operation) is looking for the answers.
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