Stories about Afghanistan trip: Fairtrade coffee with journalists

How reasonable are our worries before going to Afghanistan? Are the perceptions about this country – war, violence, Islam and poverty, significant after the trip? How in the situation of growing droughts, poverty and migration, people in Afghanistan are helped by development organizations from around the world? What kind of contribution to development of Afghanistan can we – the inhabitants of Latvia provide? And how is the experience of Afghanistan trip linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals?

On August 9, a journalist from media house DELFI – Ansis Īvāns who represented Green Liberty in the joint development journalism trip to Afghanistan, that took place on the July 18-26, 2017, was invited to a Fairtrade coffee with Green Liberty’s staff and friends to share the story of the trip to Afghanistan and to help us to find answers on these questions.

Stories about Afghanistan trip covered exciting reflections about Kabul (Kabul province) and Nili (Daikundi province). Also, this informal discussion helped us find out what should be taken into consideration by a journalist when traveling to developing countries, and why stories about developing countries, including Afghanistan are important for us in Latvia.

Info about the event here: http://www.zalabriviba.lv/m4d-projekts/godigas-tirdzniecibas-kafija-ar-zurnalistiem-afganistanas-brauciena-pieredzes-stasti/

Tallinn Roundtable and International Conference

Tallinn Roundtable “Development Cooperation in Afghanistan: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward” was organised by the NGO Mondo and took place in Tallinn on September 5th 2017. Among participants, including policy makers, media representatives, civil society representatives, private sector representatives and academics from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdome and other countries, nine participants represented Green Liberty: Armands Pupols, Political Affairs Officer, UNRCCA; Otto Tabuns, Senior Expert, Crisis Management Department of the Ministry of Defence; Iveta Reinholde, Associated Professor, Latvia University; Jānis Kapustāns, Lecturer, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences; Sigita Struberga, Researcher, Latvia University; Ansis Īvāns, International news editor, journalist, DELFI LV; Līva Stade, Inga Belousa, Sanita Rībena from Green Liberty.

In the session ‘Lessons learned’ different viewpoints by NGO and military personnel were discussed. And in the session ‘The way forward’ the implications and possible effects in Afghanistan of broadening the definition of ODA were shared. This was the third international conference as one of the activities of the project Media for Development. The first conference – Riga Roundtable “Financing for Development: Role of EU Member States” was organized by Green Liberty, Latvian Green Movement and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia in Riga on June 11-12, 2015.

On the 6th of September the Tallinn Roundtable was followed by the international conference “Development or Security: Which Comes First?”

Green Liberty representatives shared that both events were meaningful as they introduced several meaningful dilemmas and broad viewpoints of the experts. As many of Latvian participants are from higher education field, their benefits will result in enriching study courses and professional activities with the relevant content from both events.

Information about Tallinn Roundtable and International Conference events was published in:

Latvia University website: http://www.lu.lv/zinas/t/48167/
University of Latvia, Faculty of Social Sciences website LV: http://www.szf.lu.lv/dzive-lu-szf/aktualitates/ak/t/48138/
University of Latvia, Faculty of Social Sciences website EN: http://ulfss.lu.lv/news/department-of-political-science-represented-at-the-international-conference-development-or-security-27

Journalist participation in international trainings

How to find the real stories and sources? How to separate propaganda from reality? How to get behind the headlines? How do we see the world through today’s media? Is the world really getting better or worse?

Journalists from M4D partner organizations together with Finnish journalists participated in three-day intensive course “From Stereotypes to Covering Global Interdependencies – Training by Journalists for Journalists” on September 21-23, 2017. The training was organized by the Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (VIKES) and Kansanvalistusseura (KVS) and aimed to answer these questions and increase knowledge about development affairs among media.

Green Liberty was represented by two radio journalists Sanita Rībena from the radio broadcast “Nezāle” (“The Weed”) at radio Naba (LR6, public radio), and Ieva Upīte from LR1.

Journalist joint study trip to Ghana

Two journalists, Andra Briekmane, an editor of internet journal Tourism Guide from DELFI and Iveta Auniņa from Re:TV represented Green Liberty in the joint study trip to Ghana from October 30 to November 10, 2017. This study trip was organized by project’s Estonian partner organization MONDO and assisted by Green Liberty representative Ingrīda Strazdiņa.

Reflections on situations and experience have been published in several proceeding articles, documentaries, broadcasts, and are available online.

Documentaries by Re:TV

Gana: stāsts, kas sākās Latvijā [Ghana: a story that begins in Latvia] – a documentary about solidarity economy practices in Ghana that invites you to visit cocoa bean plantations, a salt production site, cooperatives of shea butter production and straw basket viewing. How are these stories related to Latvia? The documentary is produced by Latvian Regional Television Re:TV that is a national television channel airing the content produced by associations of Latvian regional and local television and independent alliances.

Short video introduction to the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3pYQ2yf8ng

Full length free online documentary just waiting to be seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUa-sKiulE

Short video story about straw basket viewing cooperatives – available after January 12, 2018.

Video story about link between environmental protection and local community development in the Songor Lagoon designated as Ramsar wetland site and Songor Biosphere Reserve of international importance, approved by UNESCO as part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and acts as habitat and breeding ground for several notable species – available after January 16, 2018.

Articles by Andra Briekmane in Delfi:

Andra Briekmane. 'Delfi' Ganā: Viena diena ciema klīnikā – govis pagalmā, HIV uzskaite un malārija [Delfi in Ghana: One day in the clinic of the village – cows in the yard, AIDS accountancy and malaria], December, 2017. http://www.delfi.lv/news/aiz-horizonta/delfi-gana-viena-diena-ciema-klinika-govis-pagalma-hiv-uzskaite-un-malarija.d?id=49519075

Andra Briekmane. 'Delfi' Ganā: Kā grozi, kas pierobežas ciema sievietēm palīdz izskolot bērnus, nonāk līdz Latvijai [Delfi in Ghana: How baskets, that help women from borderland villages to educate children, come to Latvia], December 15, 2017. http://www.delfi.lv/news/aiz-horizonta/delfi-gana-ka-grozi-kas-pierobezas-ciema-sievietem-palidz-izskolot-bernus-nonak-lidz-latvijai.d?id=49550329

delfi-gana-beru-tradicijas-ar-zarku-pudeles-forma-vai-jautru-gajienu-par-godu-nelaikim.d?id=49590081

Radio Broadcasts:

Grozi no Ganas [Baskets from Ghana: interview with Ingrīda Strazdiņa from Green Liberty], Latvijas Radio 1, Zaļais Vilnis, November 25, 2017, 9:47-17:00. http://lr1.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/zaljais-vilnis/mezacuku-un-briezu-veseliba.-grozi-no-ganas.-jauna-mode--mantu-l.a95658/

Riga Local Roundtable

Main activity for engagement of policy makers in development cooperation discussions was a local roundtable Partnerships for Evaluation of Sustainable Development organized in Riga on November 28, 2017. The local roundtable as organized by Green Liberty in cooperation with Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS) and Centre for Educational Initiatives, and gathered 26 representatives of CSOs, Latvia University, The Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments, UNESCO Latvian National Committee, Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre, Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, Student Union of Latvia, National Youth Council of Latvia, Swedish Embassy, Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Latvian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and several members parliament.

The roundtable was opened by Laimdota Straujuma, Head of Parliamentary Committee for Sustainable Development and Daiga Zake, Head of Board, Latvian National Development Cooperation Platform LAPAS.

Three key-note presentations followed:

National Voluntary Reviews: Sweden’s implementation of the 2030 Agenda – by Cecilia Chroona, Coordinator 2030 Agenda, Department Global Agenda, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden

Sustainable development in Latvia un the context of SDGs and multi-stakeholder cooperation – by Māra Sīmane from Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre

Voluntary National Report process: Global and local practices and lessons learned – by Inese Vaivare from Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation.

The second part of the roundtable was a discussion on the Road Map for Voluntary National Report and multi-stakeholder cooperation initiatives.

Global Education day

Global Education week in Latvia this year was organized in November 18 – 26. It was coordinated by the Latvian Platform of Development Cooperation (LAPAS) in collaboration with Green Liberty, UNESCO Latvian National Commission, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art at Latvia University, Latvian Association for Cooperation in Education (LACE), and other civil society organizations. This year’s GEW motto in Latvia – my world depends on us – highlights that active participation is the way how we all together can shape our community, country and development of the planet.

Global Education Week is a Europe-wide awareness-raising event that takes place annually in formal and non-formal educational settings across the continent. The GEW’s aim is to encourage educators and learners to explore educational activities for global citizenship. The GEW addresses issues related to diversity and inequality at the local and global levels, and tries to foster: awareness of the wider world and of our own role as world citizens, attitudes of respect for diversity and intercultural communication skills, responsibility for our own actions, and the ability to take action to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place.

As one of the activities of the Global education week on November 4 we organized a Global education day with two events: focusgroup discussion and development stories.

Focusgroup discussion about global education

A focusgroup discussion about global education and global citizenship was organized to share the diverse views and experience of gloval education shared by seven different stakeholders:

1. Āris Ādlers, Latvian Rural Forum – represents non-governmental sector that implements development education projects;

2. Daiga Barančane, teacher of English and Geography at Brocēni Secondary school – represents teachers who implement global education at school;

3. Ilze Dalbiņa, coordinator of UNESCO Associated School project and Education department – represents UNESCO LNK;

4. Danute Grīnfelde, project „School 2030” expert – represents project “School 2030” at the National Centre for Education;

5. Ņikita Kozlovs, teacher at Riga 96^th Secondary school – represents teachers who implement global education at school;

6. Indra Odiņa, Director of professional master program “Teacher” and the head of Teacher Education department of Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art at Latvia University – represents higher education and academic sector that provides teacher education;

7. Daiga Zaķe, head of the Education Initiative centre – represents non-governmental sector that implements global education projects and teacher education courses and seminars.

Development Stories

Development stories were told by two M4D journalists – Anta Blumberga and Sandra Kropa. The third story was presented as the documentary “Clay Children” produced by Woodpecker Pictures.

Anta Blumberga, Veselība: From Freddie Mercury to…

We each have our own story as we have learned about HIV. For fifty years old ones, it happened with the help of Freddie Mercury and others who have died from AIDS. Much has changed in terms of HIV prevalence in Latvia and in the world since these times. However, there are many myths about this disease, prejudice, and stigma still does not end. When I went to Swaziland, I also had to hear strange and absurd remarks, because it seemed to many that it was impossible to return back with this infection. People living with HIV in Latvia do not talk openly about their illness. In Swaziland, there are people who specially work on it to rid society and also to be infected with stigma surrounding it. Swaziland is a great example that reveals that HIV-infected people are not a concealed group of basements that they can be alongside – in a neighboring apartment, in a restaurant kitchen, at school, in a store, and elsewhere, and their armpit or embrace is not a threat.

Sandra Kropa, LTV, LR1: Sem Okello from Uganda who helps others to find a new beginning

The life story of Sem Okello, on the one hand, is an illustration of how ruthless African conflicts are, but on the other, demonstrates how to overcome the painful experiences of the past and motivate society for change. He says: "My philosophy is based on the notion that development in Africa is not possible if education is not available to all and does not rely on international dialogue. Education alone is not enough. You must be able to listen and understand others, be able to discuss ideas that affect others. .. If you, as journalists, come to Africa and you want to build stories about poverty and corruption here, then perhaps it is worth asking why there is such a corruption? This is because there is no social security system. Why not? Due to politics, because of the weak social security system, it is a weak nation and, if a weak nation exists, it can be easily exploited. So you do not have to talk about Africa just as a poor, corrupt place. It is necessary to discuss the causes of this poverty and corruption. "

Woodpecker Pictures documentary movie Clay Children

Director: Karlis Lesins, operators: Martins Jurevics and Janis Indriks, producer: Zane Kalnina

This documentary film introduces organization called The Global Fairness Initiative in Nepal that works with the brick industry in Nepal to ensure better working conditions and to refuse forced child labour. At the same time, they are helping brick kilns to improve good business practices. Brick making season occurs to be at the same time as the school year time and children are not able to attend school or they are following their parents to work in kilns. The Global Fairness Initiative has found solution to provide education for children of the kiln workers while in the meantime there are children living in Nepal without any education possibilities. What is the daily life of people who are living in the brick kilns and how is the life of children there? How is the life living in trash city and what do they think about education? How difficult is it to be a child in developing countries, what sort of the challenges these children are facing every day and what are the possibilities to improve these conditions?

Screening of documentaries on public TV

A fruitful cooperation with Woodpecker Pictures has been finalized and screening of three exciting documentaries on public television LTV1 are on Wednesdays at 19.30:

December 6, 2017 – Clay children

December 13, 2017 – Spirits of mountains

December 27, 2017 – Tender giants

Watch, enjoy and plan screening in your community! More info: karlis@woodpeckerpictures.lv

Clay children (Māla bērni): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnBjfvW-3vs&feature=youtu.be
Spirits of mountains (Kalnu gari): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G_cJMUbfWM&feature=youtu.be
Tender giants (Maigie milži): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FTFoRQjQAY

Behind the horizon with Delfi

What is behind the horizon? Places with misguided assumptions, places where it is not advisable to go, places where lives and health of locals, immigrants and visitors are endangered. These places come to the news headlines only after experiencing cataclysms, yet these are the places where people live, work and think. At various times and in different circumstances, Delfi journalists have gone beyond the horizon and are telling how it is to be in these places.

Delfi, a major internet portal providing daily news, has developed a new sub-section – Behind the horizon – where you can find articles written by international news department editor Ansis Īvāns, editor of internet journal Tourism Guide Andra Briekmane, editor Guna Gleizde and journalist of international news department Andris Kārkluvalks who represented Green Liberty in their individual and joint development journalism trips.

Ansis Īvāns. Delfi in Afghanistan: The most powerful are those with a stamp or Kalashnikov and 'I'm ready to die if necessary ': to be a journalist in Afghanistan

Andra Briekmane. Delfi in Ghana: One day in the clinic of the village – cows in the yard, AIDS accountancy and malaria and How baskets, that help women from borderland villages to educate children, come to Latvia and Funeral traditions with a coffin in the form of a bottle or a fun procession in honor of the deceased.

Andris Kārkluvalks. Delfi in Iraq: A walk in the only safe region of the country

Guna Gleizde. Delfi in Haiti: Sole and continuous state of emergency

Opinion Poll

As the concluding activity of M4D project in collaboration with the marketing and public opinion research centre SKDS we did the opinion poll “Sustainable global development: Awareness and action of Latvian society” (Līdzsvarota globālā attīstība: Latvijas sabiedrības informētība un rīcība). Several questions were adjusted with our first opinion poll that we did more one and a half year before.

Data have been obtained from Latvian residents in the survey through direct interviews. Fieldwork was on November 4 to November 16, 2017. With stratified random sampling method in whole country 1,005 respondents aged 18 to 74 years have been surveyed. Respondents’ sample represents a larger population.

The analysis of the results will follow two interconnected issues:

what we think in the society about a better world and Latvia in it (sustainable development, quality of life, material well-being of Latvia on a global background, causes of global poverty), and how we are ready to contribute to a better world (what do we think about linking our lifestyle with global problems and what we are prepared to do to help poor countries);
what is our awareness, attitude and behaviour about responsible consumption (recognition of Fair Trade labels, criteria how we choose tropical fruit, suggestions for dealing with food waste, and reaction to greenwashing).

The results of the opinion poll were introduced to public on January 3, 2018 in Latvian Radio 1 broadcast “The known in the unknown” by Jānis Brizga who discussed about attitude of Latvian society towards problems in developing countries and shared answers about how much we are able to relate our lives to people's lives far from Latvia and how much we are interested in the destinies of the people of the developing countries, living conditions, political and social agenda. http://lr1.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/zinamais-nezinamaja/sabiedribas-attieksme-pret-attistibas-valstu-problemam.a97484/

Publication of detailed description of the results of this survey is in process.