The FCV holds the first session of the international training ‘Fridays for Advocacy’, an initiative of the international network Inter Alia.
The objective of the session was to understand the important role that youth organizations and young people can play as leaders of public advocacy actions, useful to draw attention to the changes that are most urgent and necessary in every society, either by directly requesting to the responsible authorities and public representatives to make the pertinent decisions, or to comply with the acquired commitments.
Lluc Martí, program coordinator at the FCV, held the session, in which he explained the nuances of a complex concept and the differences that exist between advocacy and activism, lobbying, awareness raising or campaigning.
He shared some of the lessons learned by the FCV as a result of its trajectory as part of advocacy initiatives, such as the approval of resolution 2250/2015 on Youth, Peace and Security by the United Nations Security Council, as well as his personal experience result of having met leaders of such outstanding initiatives as the United Nations Campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, sharing his reflections about some of the skills that people have who, in small groups and throughout in history, they have achieved great success through advocacy.
Throughout the session, participants were encouraged to carry out actions to naturally harmonize advocacy actions with the rest of the activities of their respective entities. One of the suggestions was to see advocacy as the most effective way to help more people for a longer time, which allows creating better living conditions for vulnerable people and groups and overcoming different kind of injustices, as well as to achieve the entity’s mission effectively (and far beyond a generation). Moreover, advocacy is a valid strategy to empower individuals who are part of the organization.
He shared the FCV’s point of view of understanding public advocacy as actions dedicated to demanding compliance with existing regulations or promoting the creation of new laws, programs, structures and rights, based on evidence and the needs of people, and not partisan interests.
The activity was the first of a series of 4 webinars, each lasting one hour, organized by the international network Inter Alia, based in Athens and made up of 140 youth organizations from 35 countries. empower people who are part of the entity itself.
We invite all those interested in participating, to register at this link: https://interaliaproject.com/event/fridays-for-advocacy/
The language of the online training session is English.