Serbia, Kragujevac (6 April)

CSOs FAIR: THE POWER OF THE CIVIC TOGETHERNESS OF KRAGUJEVAC

The association “Interactive” organizes a CSO fair at Kragujevac’s city center. CSOs will present their programs, projects and activities to the citizens and enable the interconnection of CSOs in order to ensure synergy and their greater influence in the community. The aim of the event is to increase the participation of citizens in the ranks of CSOs through 30 minute-panel discussions with the population in order to attract them to get involved in the work of CSOs. Also, the participants will sign a petition demanding from the local authorities to ensure better conditions for the work of CSOs in Kragujevac.

Serbia, Valjevo (5 April)

A civic association called “Dialog” from Valjevo will initiate a local dialog via round table in order answer the question: Is the city of Valjevo becoming a city with active citizens and efficient local management?

The dialog between different social actors in Valjevo should reaffirm and put the subjects referring to civic activism and changes on the local level back in focus of the (local) public. The association “Dialog” will also do an online research of the public opinion on civic activism on local level and on the efficacy of the local management. The results of the research will be presented at the central event and will be used for creating media material that can be used for a promotion of the civic activism and contribution of the civil society to the reform of the public management on local level. Based on both the conclusions of the discussions at the central event and the results of the online research, the association will create a document containing recommendation for amelioration of the civic activism and the participation of citizens in the changes on local level.

Serbia, Leskovac (4 April)

ROUND TABLE “ASSOCIATIONS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AS PARTNERS IN COMMUNITY’S DEVELOPMENT

http://www.parlament.org.rs/okrugli-sto-u-leskovcu-icsw-2019/

A round table will be organized for representatives of associations, media, local authorities and institutions and it will involve different goals such as: presenting a program for action, defining common priorities for the development of the communities, making partnerships, mapping challenges in their everyday work and finding a way to overcome them. Gathered participants will define key priorities on the local level, the biggest challenges they are currently facing and will try to find in a creative way the “bridges” – innovative solutions for achieving the well-being of the local community through partnerships and common actions..

Serbia, Niš (3 April)

Association PROTECTA will organise the first civil society forum in Niš called “Networked- empowered” as an ICSW local event in Niš created to gather all active CSOs in Niš at one place for a mutual platform based on the topics such as:

- Relationship between CSOs, local authorities and institutions;

- Relationship between CSOs and local media;

- Initiating formal or informal networking of the CSOs from Niš in order to have higher visibility, self-empowerment, and find better ways for achieving the goals;

- Relationship between CSOs towards the citizens and specific targeted groups.

Serbia, Pančevo (2 April)

The organization called CETRA is organizing a forum and a debate called "Open society and civic space – the new challenges" that aims to bring together groups of different stakeholders (coming from the areas of civil society, media and active citizens) in order to involve them in an important and intellectually engaged debate on the current condition of shrinking space for civic engagement in Pančevo and Republic of Serbia.

Serbia, Požega (1 - 5 April)

Conference and on-line campaign TOGETHER STRONGER

The event consists of a conference that will be held at the premises of the organization Civil Alliance for Social Inclusion. The main subject of the conference will be promotion of the idea for the formation of an association of the Civic Alliance for Social Inclusion called “CASI Požega – from an idea to the accomplishment”. We will also answer the questions such as how we got the idea, what steps we took, how we lobbied for it, how and where we applied for the funds etc. There will be a video presentation with an interactive discussion among participants followed by a discussion on further steps in the process of the development of the Alliance and there will be a possibility for admitting new members to the Alliance. Also, there will be an online campaign on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) called 5 days for 5 best actions where we will promote the activities done by the CASI organization.

Serbia, Bečej (1 April)

CITIZENS FOR CITIZENS: OPENLY TO CHALLENGES AND POTENTIALS IN THE CIVIL SECTOR

Bečej youth association will organize a round table entitled “Citizens for citizens: Openly to challenges and potentials in civil sector”. This round table aims to seek solutions to key issues, challenges and current problems, as well as to find opportunities for progress and cooperation in the civil sector. The main focus of the event will be a debate about the goals and values of associations, changes and potential cooperation - especially in areas of common interest. Also, we will focus - through various methods - on key issues (primarily in the CSO environment), models and ways of financing CSOs, legal frameworks and dilemmas, freedom of speech, false news, human rights and corruption.

Serbia, Novi Sad (30 March)

The ICSW local event “Work for all“ - organized together by the activists of the CSO Patria and the magazine LICEULICE - will introduce the citizens of Novi Sad to the concept of the street vendor of the magazine called LICEULICE that employs people from marginalized groups who have serious difficulties in finding jobs for themselves. Active vendors and activists will share not only informational and promotional materials, but also their personal experiences and difficulties in finding jobs and will speak about the need to find a way to overcome these barriers. After the street event, which will take place on March 30th at the city center, there will be a gathering at the LICEULICE’s office in Novi Sad for the vendors, activists and friends of the organization.

Serbia, Šabac (26 March)

INCLUDE YOURSELF, ACT, CONTRIBUTE, CONNECT!!!

Association Rainbow in 2017 launched an initiative for the creation the network of CSO Šabac, which was then joined by 23 CSOs of Šabac.

During 2018 Rainbow created all the necessary documents for the efficient functioning of the network, selected the members for its working bodies and formed the CSO Council of Šabac. From the beginning 2019, several CSOs from Šabac expressed their wish to join the network. On march 26th , within the ICSW 2019 local event, a meeting of the CSO Council of Šabac was organized, where the new 5 members will join to network.

Serbia, Pirot (22 March)

On March 22, on the occasion of the World Water Day, the Association New Old Mountain (Nova Stara planina) organized an action called Water for All in Pirot. By movie about struggle for water projection and protesting in the city center, they will try to point out that the right to water is human right and should be recognized by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia as such. New Old Mountain is an activist movement that is struggling to preserve the river in the area of ​​the protected natural area of ​​Stara planina as well as throughout the Serbia. The action for the World Water Day was launched by civic initiative The Right to Water and together with local organizations and citizens will be organized a series of public debates, movies projections and performances in cities across Serbia -in Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad, Zajecar, Šabac and Pirot.

Zimbabwe (7-8 March)

Track 1: Bridges

SDG Gallery Walk: Creating CSOs Spaces for Collaborative Effort

The Poverty Reduction Forum Trust will organize a Gallery Walk in Harare, Zimbabwe for local organisations and communities to share and exhibit their SDGs stories with International NGOs, Government, Private Sector, Academia and the wider community. The focus of the Gallery Walk will be to reflect on different CSOs experiences, build partnerships and strategies for engagement around SDGs work in Zimbabwe.

Indonesia (16 – 17 March)

Track 3: Stairs

Festival of Social Creativity (FeSoVity)

Sociopreneur Indonesia will be hosting the Festival of Social Creativity (FeSoVity) in Jakarta, Indonesia. The festival is part of their ‘Empathy Project’ and aims to promote empathy through social-creativity to wider audience. By applying intensive experiential learning, primary and high school students, teachers, parents, and supporters from the communities and government will work collaboratively to play in a series of creative activities while at the end create educational tools to be donated to designated schools in rural areas.

Ukraine (10 March)

Track 2: Streets

Women Mentoring Walk & Talk

League of Professional Women will organize a Women Mentoring Walk and Talk in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Walk and Talk event will bring together established and emerging women leaders to walk together in a public park in downtown Kyiv. As they walk, the women leaders will share their professional challenges and successes and establish mentoring relationships with their younger peers who will join in the walk. The mentorship relationships established will then be supported by League of Professional Women’s on-going women leadership initiatives.

Argentina (13 March)

Track 1: Bridges

Partnerships in Development/Alianzas para el desarrollo

Following on the G20 talks from the previous year, RACI will host a day of dialogues and open exchanges to discuss the main concerns of civil society in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event will arrange different conversations between civil society, the public sector, and the private one in a space where different activities will take place at the same time.

Mexico (20 and 27 March)

Track 1: Bridges

Reimagining Development: the power of the community

Centro Mexicano Para La Filantropia (CEMEFI) will host local dialogues with rural and remote communities to reimagine democracy from the perspectives of local communities and promote community initiatives. These community dialogues will build trust between urban and rural counterparts and examine the role of the community with respect to human rights, equality, diversity, and conflict resolution.

USA & Slovakia (virtually) (Date TBC)

Track 2: Streets

The Role of Neutral Facilitators to help resolve intra-movement conflicts

In the weeks following the 2019 Women’s March on January 19, PartnersGlobal will convene a group of activist leaders and academics to discuss the internal conflict within the movement and distill lessons for the future. They will include colleagues at Partners Slovakia who have been facilitating the internal dynamics of the Decent Slovakia movement (stemming from the murdered journalist in Bratislava) to provide an additional case study, and as a strategy for discussing sensitive dynamics that can be externalized from the US experience.  The event will be both a virtual convening of speakers, coupled with a live (curated) audience for discussion in Washington D.C.

Lebanon (23 February)

Track 1: Bridges

Music for Healing and Togetherness

Concluding a year-long ambitious goal to bring together children and youth often in conflict through shared folk songs and culture heritage, PartnersJordan, is hosting a concert performed by a choir of disadvantaged youth people in Beirut. The event will celebrate the cohesion and unity created by joining youth from different and opposing communities to sing about their shared heritage and culture.

Varaždin, Croatia (13 March)

Track 1: Bridges

Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity

CROSOL is organizing a public debate to engage Croatian citizens in discussing Croatian priorities during the EU Presidency from January 2020, and to encourage them to contribute their opinions in shaping these priorities together. Although the Presidency of the Council of the European Union must put the needs of all EU members first, it gives Croatia a chance to navigate and lead through the burning European issues in the role of the host. What does it take for this process to be considered successful? What topics do Croatian citizens consider important? How can citizens influence chairing process? These are some of the questions we will attempt to answer during this public discussion.

Tirana, Albania (3 April)

Track 1: Bridges

Partners Albania for Change and Development will organize the World Café Enabling Environment for CSOs in Albania.Around 150 CSO representatives will have the opportunity to present main issues of concern and to engage in concrete working agendas for addressing CSOs priorities. The event will serve as a medium that will enable the connections of local voices and ideas and strengthen the foundation for advocacy on issues related to enabling environment and sustainability of civil society in Albania. This will affect the strengthening of the civil society sector and the efficiency of its work for the society.

Tirana, Albania (13 March)

Track 2: Streets

Civic Resistance (Qëndresa Qytetare) will organize an open forum “The Power of Albanian Citizens to build Civic Resistance against Corruption” with representatives from different organizations, activists, communities, young people etc. Several civic movements around the world will be presented that through their resistance have changed corruption problems in their countries. This will encourage public discussions about the ways of communicating with citizens in order to build bigger constituencies and dive deeper into the skills that CSOs need to engage with citizens for advocacy, community building, and philanthropy.  At the end, all the participants will sign a declaration for a better society without corruption.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (28 March)

Track 1: Bridges

The Center for Civil society Promotion will organize the round table “Insight in BiH civil society” to address lack of formal documents for cooperation between the government and CSOs; lack of regulation for transparent distribution of public funds; lack of legal framework for social entrepreneurship and philanthropy; capacities of unformal civic groups and political abuse on it, etc. The specific goal will be to create precondition for a wider advocacy campaign towards relevant state institution for creation enabling environment for civil society development as well as to reach the common sense of understanding and positioning of the CSOs in current BiH environment.

Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (15 March)

Track 1: Bridges

ProAct - Strengthening civic activism through the Coalition „United We Can Do More“ conference, organized by CDP Globus, will bring together representatives of civil society, social activists and experts in the field of social inclusion, employment, entrepreneurship, in order to actualize the role of civil initiatives in empowering society, especially in addressing issues of social inclusion and employment. Our specific focus will be possibilities for strengthening and expanding common civil society initiatives through the Coalition for the development of social entrepreneurship „United We Can More.“

Bitola, Macedonia (18 March)

Track 1: Bridges

SFERA Macedonia will host the event „Building Bridges“ - full-day program for the citizens in the area. In the city center NGOs will present their activities and motivate young people to be active citizens, while the visitors will have a chance to talk about the research done by SFERA on youth involvement in Bitola. The event will offer an opportunity for NGOs to connect with each other for future projects, learn about what the people in their community think about civic engagement, and to share their ideas about what the future of civil activity looks in their community.

Skopje, Macedonia (20 March)

Track 1: Bridges

Krik Macedonia will organize the networking event „Together, to get there!“. 30 representatives of day-care centers for people with disabilities and 30 representatives of youth organizations from across the country will gather together to learn to respect each other and feel the power of togetherness trough working together for a greater cause. The main goal of the event is to establish connections between the institutions and youth organizations and ideas for future collaboration.

Podgorica, Montenegro (29 March)

Track 1: Bridges

CRNVO will organize the national forum „Building Resilient Civil Society“ as an opportunity for Montenegrin CSOs to identify obstacles for building enabling environment for civil society in the country and jointly agree on issues that will be priorities for joint actions of CSOs and on tools used for combating these problems. The forum will include professional CSOs , unions, media and journalists, local CSOs and individual activists in order to support coalition building among different stakeholders in civil society. It will showcase major issues CSOs today are facing and will produce joint conclusions and priorities for 2019.