CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
T +995 32 75 19 03/04
F +995 32 75 19 05
<mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
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The organizers of SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival are happy
to invite you to cooperation within the framework of festival workshop
program, which will be conducted from October, 6th-10th 2007 in Armenia.
Short Concept: Workshop on Advocacy Coalition Building and Networking
Dilijan, Armenia 7th – 8th October 2007
SunChild Workshop Program: General Objectives
The second part of "SunChild 1st Regional Environmental Festival" will be a
meeting place for environmental key-players, organizations and individuals,
film makers, and artists. With the workshop program the organizers want to
create a platform for cross bordering encounters and the creation of
"environmental thought", through open disputes, training and outreach.
The workshops will be conducted by international and regional environmental
experts. Overall aim of the program is to encourage public participation in
environmental decision-making and cooperation for the solution of the most
acute environmental problems in the region.
The topics of the workshop program will include the presentation of advocacy
campaigns and tools for network building, as well as an ecotourism workshop
and an exhibition of eco-tourism projects.
SunChild Festival’s workshop program will be closed with a panel discussion
which is open for all visitors and participants of the Festival. Experts
from regional and international organizations and NGOs (for example: OSCE,
WWF, CENN, UNDP) as well as representatives of governmental institutions
will belong to the panel. Their discussion will focus on the question how to
improve the joint regional efforts for solving the environmental problems in
South Caucasus.
Workshop on Advocacy Coalition Building and Networking
The organizers of SunChild festival, in their former work, identified a lack
of cooperation among South Caucasus NGOs as well as between them and
international environmental organizations. Due to this fact the gaining and
spreading of information about environmental issues is very much hampered in
the region. Moreover many regional environmental NGOs are lacking the
necessary skills to establish sustainable relations with the corresponding
state structures in their countries.
Result of these shortcomings is that the regional NGOs have still not
succeeded to initiate an effective cross-border environmental movement. Thus
the implementation of SunChild Festival and specially the networking
workshop in the framework of the festival’s program will bring an
opportunity for environmental organizations, professionals and NGOs to
network and cooperate with one another. The networking workshop aims to
offer environmental experts and representatives from various south Caucasian
NGOs an opportunity to exchange their views, gain practical tools, hear
success stories, and become aware of effective advocacy campaigns. Under
supervision of trainers/ activists of well known environmental organizations
in the region and from abroad the participants will be empowered to develop
sustainable concepts for cooperation and future joint projects within the
region.
One of the successful advocacy campaigns which will be introduced to the
participants is the Shikahogh Forest Campaign. In 2005 several Armenian
environmental organizations succeeded in forcing the government to give up
plans to cut Shikahogh forest for a highway project. The campaign was
organized by Armenian forests NGO under its’ President Jeffrey Tufenkian. In
the framework of SunChild Networking workshop Jeffrey Tufenkian will present
the development and launching of the campaign for saving Shikahogh forest.
The workshop will address mainly the following questions:
* Advocacy:
How can individuals/organizations participate in the discussion and
influence decisions about environmental issues in the fields of politics,
legislation and society?
* Coalition Building:
How can individuals/ organizations join and cooperate in order to launch
effective advocacy campaigns for concrete environmental issues and the
protection of social environmental interests?
* Networking:
How can individuals/ organizations build sustainable networks which offer
the possibility, to distribute information quickly with one another and thus
react flexible and cooperative on any arising environmental problem?
Activities:
Presentations, debates, brain storming, group activities.
Expected Results:
* SunChild networking workshop will bring an opportunity for
interested citizens of the whole region to meet and discuss new approaches
and steps to establish a strong environmental network.
* SunChild networking workshop will bring about discussion, design and
later implementation of joint projects.
* SunChild networking workshop will provide the participants and
interested citizens with an opportunity not only to get information, but
also to be involved with some practical experience, such as presenting their
projects and/or working out small projects for their region and getting
direct consultation from experts on the project.
* SunChild networking workshop aims to offer all participants not only
to establish first contact between each other but to make this contacts
sustainable. Thus the Festival organizers will create an electronic database
of all participating parties, such as NGOs, governmental institutions and
individuals. This database, which is planned to be updated regularly, will
be accessible for all interested parties and individuals within the region
as well as abroad. Thus it could be used as a basic tool for regional
environmental networking as launching joint campaigns or finding potential
project partners. As SunChild Festival and the networking workshop in the
festival’s program is being an annual event, this database will increase
through the years as the participation within the festival grows