Activities
Advocacy Laboratory
From February 25th till March 2nd 2024, a group of 20 young people met in Brussels to work on the Decolonise Long Term Advocacy Strategy. Based on the learnings from the advocacy training which took place in 2023 in Paris and the first attempts to start the advocacy work by developing the policy papers, the youth advocates now analysed the stakeholders and different institutions which they should focus on in order to bring the policy papers forward and influence policymakers.
The young people did a lot of homework and came to the Advocacy Lab with a lot of information they had researched online. They shared their findings with the other participants and used the Lab to further explore how they could put in practice an effective advocacy strategy around the 2 policy papers that were developed so far. One is addressing the issue of EU funding and the other one is the existing visa procedures.
One afternoon, a network event was organised, bringing together like-minded organisations, relevant institutions and other potential allies. After the keynote speech from Chafik Allal (ITECO), a fishbowl debate took place with the participation of some guest speakers but also with input from the participants who wanted to make their voices heard.
One of the highlights of the week was also the workshop on European decision making by Europahuis vzw and the visit to the European Parliament.
One of the participants interviewed Chafik Allal after his intervention in the networking event. You could watch the interview here:
Dive into the Discussions at the Advocacy Laboratory
Gain valuable insights from the dynamic discussions that took place during the Advocacy Laboratory. Read the full report to see how participants are shaping the future of youth advocacy, particularly in the areas of decolonization and creating a more equitable International Voluntary Service.
Key topics include:
– Reducing Visa Barriers: Promoting freedom of movement for volunteers.
– Rethinking Funding Mechanisms: Making project design, implementation, and evaluation more inclusive.
Read the Full Report:
– Advocacy Laboratory Report, Brussels | 25 February – 2 March 2024
After exploring the report, don’t miss out on the policy papers developed by our advocacy team. These documents provide strategic recommendations and innovative solutions for advancing our advocacy goals.
Check Out the Policy Papers:
Visa policy papers:
– English – Decolonising Visa Mechanisms
– French – Decolonising Visa Mechanisms
– Spanish – Decolonising Visa Mechanisms
Funding policy papers:
– English – Decolonising EU funding
– French – Decolonising EU funding
– Spanish – Decolonising EU funding
Position papers:
– English – Decolonising our Narratives
– French – Decolonising our Narratives
– Spanish – Decolonising our Narratives
The Advocacy Laboratory was developed with financial support from the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. The views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) or the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. Neither the European Union, EACEA nor Council of Europe can be held responsible for them.