Project Soar and Civil Connections are beginning working together on BIGGER, a movement that aims to close legal loopholes to child marriage in Morocco by 2025. But why is this such important work? This article lays out why child marriage is such a critical issue in Morocco. 

Child marriage has been a critical issue in Morocco. Unicef defines child marriage as “any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child.” Child marriage is considered a violation of human rights where girls are mostly the biggest victims. In an attempt to prevent child marriage and advance women’s status in Morocco, the Moroccan government reformed the Family Law in 2004.  The reforms set the legal age for marriage to be eighteen for both men and women, whereas the legal age previously was eighteen for men but fifteen for girls. They also changed the obligation of having a Wali (Legal Guardian) for the marriage to be valid; now the bride can validate herself to marry. These reforms were indeed praised by scholars and feminists and were seen as a progressive step towards women’s emancipation. However, these reforms were still a concern since they have legal loopholes that allow the continuation of child marriage. 

Child marriage can be driven by several reasons within Moroccan society. Poverty is considered one of the main reasons why child marriage is happening in Morocco since parents attempt to marry their daughters to relieve the financial burden. Social norms are also considered another crucial factor as to why child marriage persists in a subset of Moroccan society. Since sex outside of wedlock is forbidden, parents tend to encourage or sometimes force their daughters to get married before the legal age only to preserve the family honour and avoid the shame of having a daughter engaging in premarital sex. Furthermore, marriage in Morocco is seen by some to have a beneficial social and financial impact on the girl’s life and the reputation of her family. Culturally, marriage in morocco has a very profound weight, in a way that girls are encouraged to marry as early as possible because otherwise their chances of getting married are reduced the older they get. Some people also see that the purity of those who stay unmarried for so long can be questioned as well.

Until now the government has still not succeeded in eradicating child marriage practices.

When the figures from after the introduction of the new legislation are compared with the figures from before the new legislation, there still do not appear to be any major changes. And the figures have remained almost the same.  This is mainly because the reforms have loopholes. The 2004 reform under the new government was announced as the Moudwana (Family Code). To marry, women no longer require permission from their male guardians. Despite the law’s ban on marriages under the age of 18, child marriages are still taking place.

Due to the loopholes in the law of the Family Code, courts can make exceptions whenever someone wants to marry a minor. Researchers Thierry Desrues and Juana Nieto contend that the Moroccan judiciary system is a conservative system that opposes the essence of the family law; they illustrated that from February to December 2004, 96% of the applications for minor marriage were approved. There was a general recognition that the present legal framework is insufficient or improperly enforced: There are no impenetrable laws protecting girls from being compelled to marry by their parents, even when they are as young as 13 or 14 years old.

Because of the loopholes in the law, and due to the poverty and the financial burden in families, child marriages are still possible. There is still work to be done in Morocco to close all legal loopholes to child marriage. Data from the Moroccan Ministry of Justice and Freedom for the period 2004-2014 reported by UNICEF show that the proportion of all marriages in family courts where minors were involved increased from 7% in 2004  to 11,5% in 2013. However, it should be noted that this data does not take into account unregistered marriages which are abundant in Morocco making it an imperfect estimate of the progress of child marriages in Morocco as a whole. Because of these loopholes in the law, child marriage remains a serious issue in Morocco as the following statistics reveal: 

• In Morocco, 14% of girls are married before they reach the age of 18, and 4% are married before they reach the age of 15. 
• The Moroccan Minister of Justice reported in early 2020 that 32,000 requests for child marriages were received in 2019, with 81 per cent of them being authorized.
• In 2007, there were 33,596 underage marriages.
• According to the Ministry of Justice, there was 41.098 child marriage in 2010.
• 2009 In Morocco, there were 23,59 per cent more child marriages in 2011 than in 2010.
• By the age of 18, one-quarter of Moroccan girls with no education got married, compared to only 7% of those with secondary or higher education. 

In conclusion, the practice of child marriage remains in small portions of society in Morocco due to legal loopholes, and a potentially large amount go unrecorded. Progressive steps such as reforming the law are already made, these legislations and policy measures have the greatest potential to end child and forced marriage in theory. However, the law is hampered by obstacles such as the loopholes in the family law. Poverty and social norms are reasons why child marriage is happening. It leads to financial and social impacts on a girl’s life and reputation. Easing the burden on society as a whole, particularly in terms of health expenditures and psychological repercussions on girls. Because parents and extended families play such a large part in marrying off girls and young women, education and awareness-raising at all ages is deemed necessary. In general, it must be acknowledged that underage marriage is a complicated issue with social, economic, cultural, and legal ramifications. Legislation alone cannot provide immediate remedies; instead, a complete strategy is required.

The BIGGER Movement (Building the Girls Rights Movement in Morocco) will take a multifaceted approach towards ending child marriage in Morocco, including drafting amended legislation, a national girl survey, grassroots Soar Dialogues to garner a network of communities supporting the cause, an online awareness campaign, and advocacy training for Soar Girls (led in partnership with Mobilising Rights Associates. These activities will culminate in lobbying trips to Morocco’s capital for Soar Girls to meet with national stakeholders, bringing girls’ voices to the table, and providing real traction to close these loopholes once and for all.

Want to read more about our project in Morocco, follow this link:

Projects

Sources

2019 saw more than 30,000 requests for marriage to minors in Morocco. (2020, 22 januari). Middle East Monitor. Geraadpleegd op 13 maart 2022, van https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200122-2019-saw-more-than-30000-requests-for-marriage-to-minors-in-morocco/ 

A teacher’s journey to keep girls in school and avoid child marriage in Morocco. (2019). Girls Not Brides. Geraadpleegd op 13 maart 2022, van https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/articles/mohamad-keeping-girls-school-avoid-child-marriage-morocco/ 

Child Marriage, Family Law, and Religion: An Introduction to the Fall 2015 Issue. (2019). Taylor & Francis. Geraadpleegd op 9 maart 2022, van https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15570274.2015.1075761

ENPSF. (2018). Enquête national sur la population et la sante familiale (ENPSF). https://www.sante.gov.ma/Documents/2019/10/ENPSF-2018.pdf

Kohno, A. (2020, 17 juli). Investigation of the key factors that influence the girls to enter into child marriage: A meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence. PLOS ONE. Geraadpleegd op 10 maart 2022, van https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235959

Maaroufi, Y. (2019). Note d’information du Haut-Commissariat au Plan à l’occasion de la journée internationale de la femme du 8 mars 2019. Site institutionnel du Haut-Commissariat au Plan du Royaume du Maroc. Geraadpleegd op 9 maart 2022, van https://www.hcp.ma/Note-d-information-du-Haut-Commissariat-au-Plan-a-l-occasion-de-la-journee-internationale-de-la-femme-du-8-mars-2019_a2297.html

Ministère de la Santé DPRF/DPE/SEIS Rabat, Maroc Projet PAPFAM Ligue des États Arabes Le Caire, Egypte. (2012, december). ENQUÊTE NATIONALE SUR LA POPULATION ET LA SANTÉ FAMILIALE (ENPSF-2011). ROYAUME DU MAROC. https://www.sante.gov.ma/Documents/Enquête%20.pdf

Saadoun, A. (2020, 30 augustus). Underage Marriage in Morocco: Closing the Legal Loopholes. Legal Agenda. Geraadpleegd op 14 maart 2022, van https://english.legal-agenda.com/underage-marriage-in-morocco-closing-the-legal-loopholes/

 Sabbe, A. (2013, 16 oktober). Determinants of child and forced marriage in Morocco: stakeholder perspectives on health, policies and human rights – BMC International Health and Human Rights. BioMed Central. Geraadpleegd op 13 maart 2022, van https://bmcinthealthhumrights.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-698X-13-43

Sabbe, A. (2013b, oktober 16). Determinants of child and forced marriage in Morocco: stakeholder perspectives on health, policies and human rights – BMC International Health and Human Rights. BioMed Central. Geraadpleegd op 14 maart 2022, van https://bmcinthealthhumrights.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-698X-13-43

UNICEF & International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). (2017). MOROCCO Country Brief UNICEF Regional Study on Child Marriage In the Middle East andNorth Africa. https://www.unicef.org/morocco/media/181/file/Mariage%20des%20enfants%20au%20Maroc.pdf

Womenâs perspectives on marriage and rights in Morocco: risk factors for forced and early marriage in the Marrakech region. (2020). Taylor & Francis. Geraadpleegd op 9 maart 2022, van https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13691058.2014.964773 

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In Zimbabwe, the government want to pass the Private Voluntary Organizations Bill, which could, unfortunately, lead to the shrinking of civil society space and opportunities for youth engagement. This bill would force organizations to register as a POV, and 60% of their leadership would be allocated to the government. This is a part of an effort to stop civil society organizations from engaging in ‘politics’ (a very broad category), but this is seen as being defined as any activity which goes against the government. In Zimbabwe, an economic meltdown has resulted in one of the world’s highest rates of inflation.

Girls Choose is the flagship model of our partners My Age Zimbabwe (MAZ), where every year they train over 200 young women, girls, and young men. The project we are beginning now cements the work they have been doing over the past five years, and importantly, will further solidify MAZ’s work with important stakeholders in the region. Girls Choose helps capacitate young people by making them champions for SRHR and HIV, these will be also key in referring young people for services including HIV testing and counselling, STI treatment and related services! 

During our kick-off meeting, we went through our shared project objectives, how we hope to achieve lasting change and which local actors we want to activate towards building confidence and awareness around sexual health among youth. With strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Health, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council and National Aids Council, My Age Zimbabwe will aim to actively engage young people in and out of school clubs, as well as mobilize participants for assemblies.

After stating that government programming is not enough to save communities in Zimbabwe, where mining towns and famine areas act as hotspots for sexually transmitted infections, Onward from MAZ said:

‘As young people, we best know to engage in our peers. We know how to mobilise the community and engage the community effectively’.

After kick-off Girls Choose, we are looking forward to continuing the great work done by MAZ over our next year of collaboration.

Want to know more about Girls Choose? Then check out the project here: 

https://civilconnections.org/projects/ 

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I found that Coming to the Nordics revealed the diversity of migrants’ stories, even those coming from and going to the same place. This often depends on the resources they have open to them in their home countries and the circumstances of their journeys and where they end up.

Often, we fail to understand the personal nature of migrants’ stories and they become an abstract group we hear about on the news, but we often sympathise with people when their stories are personalised and we hear the details of what they’ve actually been through. Suddenly, they cease to be just a migrant, and become an individual, just like us. For me, the best thing about the podcast is this personalisation—it gives people the chance to empathise and achieve a more humane perspective.

In Denmark, there’s a lot of pressure to integrate. Migrants are subject to integration contracts, depending on the degree to which one is a migrant of privilege. Despite my increasingly unenviable international status, as a migrant from Britain I have not been subject to many demands in terms of integration but for others, there is great pressure to show willing to learn Danish and speedily find a way into the labour market. It’s also a difficult country to integrate into—it is proven that it’s hard to learn Danish and it’s difficult to be casual, funny and interesting in a language that’s such an uphill struggle.

Much emphasis is placed on migrants learning Danish in order to integrate, but the fact remains that almost all (especially young) Danes are fluent in English. It is often the case that a migrant will have knowledge of English prior to their arrival and therefore, it may not be the case that learning Danish straight away is the best path to integration. It might be that in the short term, such demands should be reduced. Newcomers in general do seem to be keen on learning Danish, but to expect them to do this at the expense of becoming comfortable in society via their English skills is debatably unreasonable.

Unfortunately, things are going in the opposite direction. The desire to reduce the amount of international higher education programmes taught in English stems from a fear of Danish language and culture disappearing, but this point of view is fundamentally negative and driven by what I see as an unrealistic fear. This is especially the case for those who want to have a more diverse Denmark open to new ideas and a solution to what is undeniably an ageing society in need of migrant labour.

Sometimes, Danes don’t realise that you can live in Copenhagen and not really engage with Danish, and sometimes not even Danish people! You can live in a mixed migrant community without engaging in Danishness. While Copenhagen markets itself as being international, the Danish state puts a lot of emphasis on becoming culturally Danish. But this itself is an assumption of what’s best.

Again, it is a matter of privilege. If you are working for a massive company like Maersk and you’re a relatively privileged white person from Germany for example, the pressure to learn Danish will be minimal, but if you’re a refugee with no financial backing from home and unrecognised qualifications, you will enter into an integration contract with the requirement of engaging in language learning and the labour market, often through internships at supermarkets and similarly questionable employment schemes.

I’ve been able to navigate my time in Copenhagen while studying and after graduation partly because of different aspects of Danish welfare and, since finishing my master’s, I’ve been able to work for small organisations and learnt a lot of new skills. It takes graduates—even Danish ones—a long time to get a full-time job after graduation; without the Danish welfare system, I would have been forced straight into the service industry upon graduating, but people being shoved into employment immediately is not necessarily the best outcome for society. Instead, finding a way into a more appropriate job will likely end up with me paying more tax and contributing to society in a way that makes sense in my specific case.

Due to Brexit and the upping of tuition fees in the UK, my experiences of higher education, both in Denmark and Britain, would likely not be repeatable if I were to try it now. My Erasmus year abroad in Denmark in 2014 and my master’s at the University of Copenhagen would no longer be possible as, since Brexit, I would have to pay a large amount of money for a master’s as a British citizen and I’d undoubtedly need to be a more financially privileged person to do so.

Sometimes, it’s hard to see the large-scale shifts happening around you. The conservatism and fear of diversity and change present in countries like Denmark and Britain is something usually apparent in politics and voting behaviour, but while the fact that I could not repeat the steps that brought me to Denmark shows the closing of doors behind me, the unequal demands of the Danish integration system demonstrate a lack of trust in migrant populations. For those drawn to diversity, the freedom of experience and learning unjudgementally about others’ cultures, this indicates an increasingly grey world where privilege is the ticket to experience.

I believe that if you treat people well and express trust in them, they will show a willingness to engage in your society. People want to integrate, but there is no evidence that punishment and obligation is the path to successful integration.

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This article was first published on the organization Promentum’s website.

In this article, I take you on a journey through my recent reading, and the points this gave to my search for more purposeful and sustainable leadership, organizations and teams. These are highlighted in four suggestions that any leader or team can take up and reflect on, as follows:

1. Put people first and facilitate them to define their purpose.
2. Be ‘razor sharp’/clear on what your organization want to achieve and how your team fits this.
3. Put into place and systematize clear pathways for ensuring the above two components – build a supportive model.
4. Work with the leadership factor – be clear in your leadership for the above to happen.

These are motivated below, enjoy your reading.

Introduction 

The common saying that organizations are living organisms sets the foundation for this article.

According to complex adaptive system theory, organizations are always in constant change, where their different parts – including the smallest of them – continuously trigger vibrations across the entire organization, forcing adjustments, and readjustments to make space for such new realities.

These changes can range from new ideas being adopted, joining new markets, adding new clients to your portfolio, reviewing, and updating your strategy, hiring new staff or one of your staff leaving, and so on and so forth.

Yet, while all sorts of change are worthy of full attention, the most critical of all is probably founded in the ‘real’ living bricks of your organization, your team – the people. And it is simply because it is the people that have the rarest of the skills your organization needs – innovation and breathing life into whatever your organization tries to achieve.

It is not by coincidence that the biggest body of emerging literature on organizational development is about the people, or that the recent years have purposefully skewed towards terms like self-leadership, liberated leadership, job meaning, self-realization, purpose at work, and the like.

It is also well established that satisfied or happy employees (teams) are worth a ton more than unhappy ones, even when the two carry the exact same skill set. Nurturing your staff – ensuring their happiness, having meaning, and realizing themselves in what they do, then becomes the decisive winner in both their and your organization’s performance.

But how do you ensure a satisfied, purposeful team and the full potential of your organization?

In delving into this question, I have stumbled upon rare, yet very interesting perspectives that could be vital in facilitating a full circle toolbox for our answer. This resides in the writings of the philosopher Daniel Haybron’s on the ‘pursuit of happiness’, as narrated by Tod May in his book ‘A significant life’, which I have had the pleasure of reading over my summer vacation. Here, I was mainly caught by his definition of happiness and how this interplays in an individual’s life as well as how the individual engages with the world around them.

Haybron’s typology of attunement, engagement, and endorsement

You see, happiness whether individual or at work or in whatever we do in our lives, sets the foundation for how we engage – how much enthusiasm and energy we expend on what we do.

Profoundly, I like and therefore borrow on Haybron’s definition of happiness – that ‘rather than being an experience, or a passing feeling, happiness is an emotional relation to how one’s life is going’. That being happy is an individual’s responding emotionally to their lives, and how things are generally going for them, which is a particular alliance between oneself and one’s life. An alliance that Haybron calls ‘psychic affirmation’.

According to Haybron, this alliance has three layers: “Attunement, Engagement and Endorsement”, all set as kind of transitional building blocks that are interdependent.

Haybron states that ‘Attunement’ is the foundational layer. It happens when the world appears as a secure, rather than hostile place. To be attuned, is to be at home in one’s life.

It is difficult to be attuned, when the world seems to be bearing down on one – here giving examples including ‘a stressful job, vexed relationships, depressed lives, and not being able to meet one’s basic needs among others. While in turning the coin, a rewarding or meaningful job, flourishing relationships, stress free lives, and fluidity to meet one’s immediate needs, allow one to navigate the world more serenely and confidently.

Haybron denotes that ‘although you cannot say that ‘attunement’ is happiness in itself, it is hard to imagine being happy without the sense that one can steer confidently through one’s day’.

Engagement – Haybron’s second layer is built upon attunement

Haybron, uses the term “flow” to describe it – “as in being in flow”. To be engaged is to be consumed by the task at hand to be absorbed by it. When one is in flow, self consciousness melts away, energy levels rise, and one becomes lost in activity’. This in my opinion – as I hope the reader here would agree is synonymous with being enthusiastic and uptaken by one’s work and enjoying it for its fulfilment on oneself.

But Tod May, as well as Haybron, is quick to point out that ‘it is often difficult to be engaged without being attuned’ – as defined in the foundational layer. When we are not attuned, we are neither present in our tasks at hand. We are not fully focused, we are easily distracted, and therefore cannot commit our full potentials – and therefore can neither achieve our full potentials.

Imagine demanding of a team member to pitch at a client recruitment event when they did not have a proper night’s sleep because several of their tasks are lagging due to lack of time, or pressure from a bank loan, or simply struggling with loneliness in their lives, or their wife or child is not well. It would indeed take extra energies for them to be ‘knife sharp’ – and will probably not appear natural enough to your coming clients, which is commonly a bad business sign.

Haybron’s final layer – endorsement – he suggests is the one most often associated with happiness. ‘To endorse one’s engagement is to afirm it, it is, to say, or at least feel – that one is leading a good life. To Haybron, endorsement is the felt contentment with things as they are. It often involves a sense of success, if not, in the outcome, at least in the process. It is not just being fully engaged as defined in the second layer, but that engagement must feel good, and to assign success.

So, imagining again that you have a start client pitcher at events, they are fully attuned to doing their work stocked with the right resources and backing needed. They are fully engaged – they love this, they would happily live on this. Endorsement for them I would imagine would be both their reflection on their pitch as being the perfect – proud of it, as well as themselves, clients and or people around them attesting to this achievement. The final layer – endorsement, is difficult to be fully achieved without the first two layers, attunement and engagement, being achieved.

Team happiness and organizational potential – what we can borrow from Haybron

Well, does the above sound familiar with our everyday organizational programming?

Yes, it does, because we on everyday basis pour amounts of energies in strategizing and detailed organizational plans. And, every single month, quarter, half-year, and year – one after the other, our organizations return to our strategies to reevaluate and set new ones. Is’s a process that involves both reflection on performance and related bonuses or punishments (say rebuttals), all in the aspirations of ensuring that the next period will be better than the past. Our organization must achieve its full potential we insist.

Too often however, we get lost in being strategic at “what the firm wants to achieve”, setting all our energies and team engagement on this – which is not wrong. But it is not optimal if we forget to incorporate in this process an honest focus on what each member of our teams wants to achieve – their purpose, and how this connects to the organization’s purpose. And how this translates into a beneficial synergy for all parts of our organizations – both the individuals and the collective.

For us not to fall into the same ‘strategic entrapment’ and instead facilitate a proper ‘psychic affirmation’ or happiness based on realization of our or purpose, both for the individual and the collective, I delineate four things that Haybron’s perspectives could teach today’s leaders, teams, and organizations.

These include:

1 Put people first and facilitate them to define their purpose.

I started out by declaring that organizations are living organisms, and that while all their parts are important, probably the most important of all of them are the people that work in these organizations. It would also be strange if it was not the people! And with this common knowledge it is only self-defining to put people first.

But digging into Haybron’s typology, we must put people first the correct way. We need to be sure and able to facilitate each individual team member to define for themselves what their personally defined purpose at the organization is, and how we can best support them to achieve that. Remember, here I am not talking about the job description but how the people relate with the job description – the what, and how they see themselves being fulfilled by the job description on individual basis – the why. Of course, there is work to be done, but this drill will boost your organization’s performance by far if you are able to facilitate each of your staff to gain real attunement to their work, because then you can expect full engagement, and when they achieve their results and potentials you have a higher chance of them gaining endorsement.

The amalgamation of the different individuals achieving their potential in relation to their job for the organization I can only imagine will boost the organization’s full potential.

2 Be ‘razor sharp’/clear on what your organization want to achieve and how your team fits this.

Bear with me for using the term ‘razor sharp’, it is a direct translation from the Danish term “knivskarp”, which I find very interesting knowing how annoying a blunt knife or razor can be.

Again, of course it is common knowledge that any organization that aspires to achieve their goals also commits relevant time, thought and resources to this mission. So, no I am not presupposing the lack of this. I am instead raising it because it must be supportive to my earlier suggestion of ‘putting people first’ and being committed to facilitating their purpose. A clear strategy is the foundation for clear roles or job descriptions, and equally the foundation for what the organization wants to achieve – aspirations, how, when etc.

With a clear definition of what the organization wants/aspires to achieve, you organizationally can strategically position yourselves in a stronger way, but you also create the optimal preconditions for your teams to genuinely define themselves within those aspirations. They will not be left guessing on how they fit in, or how to engage and when, or whether the organization recognizes them or not, which can be a recipe for self-doubt and insecurity etc. They will instead have a clear framework for seeing themselves as relevant and needed building blocks to the collective aspirations, which increases the chances for their attunement, engagement, and endorsement.

In fact, a clear organizational purpose, strategy and processes, and the team’s easy fit/navigation in this and a sense of contribution to these are in themselves the perfect endorsement.

3 Put into place and systematize clear pathways for ensuring the above two components – Build a supportive model

It is not enough to have clear strategies and purposed staff in one year and this disappears the following year. And, while it is easy to write all these suggestions, they are in practice not equally easy, yet we must aim at achieving the optimal. It is going to be a daunting task to always be able to match individual aspirations to organizational roles and expect to achieve the attunement, engagement, endorsement typology.  There will be many trials on the way, many pumps, setbacks, and necessary adjustments, but that is what it takes.

To be able to work towards this optimal, I suggest the organization systematizes a learning journal and a documentation of what has worked well and what needs to be puffed out on this journey to always be aware on these when they are visible. Here I am calling for an organization developing and systematizing their unique model – a template that makes the journey easier over time. This once systematized will save the organization time, and probably resources, but will also form a useful catalogue for quick adjustment and learning.

Remember to make this known to all your team members so you can benefit from a wide range of reflections and inputs. It also contributes to their endorsement.

4 Work with the leadership factor – be clear in your leadership for the above to happen.

This final point is only for precaution and therefore needs not a long paragraph. You as a leader must own and facilitate this process in your organization. This said, be clear in what you, your organization wants to achieve, and actively facilitate a conducive environment – frameworks etc., for this to happen.

Start with these four and be sure to track your results.

We hope this serves as supportive for your journey.

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True, the world has struggled and continues to struggle with COVID19, variant after variant, two years down the road of the pandemic’s outbreak. And as I write this short message, students across primary and secondary schools in Uganda (save for candidate classes), will only be concentratedly rejoining schools on the 10^th of January 2022 after a complete 2-year stay at home – a real-life impact we have seen if you need one. I am sure you also know that school dropout rates have more than tripled, teenage pregnancies have followed the same trend, low-resource communities have been hit hard, and development as a sector has seen many of its gains over the years rolled back – especially in relation to gender, poverty, and inequality aspects (UN, 2021).

But as I reflect over 2021 on this morning of 19^th December 2021, from rural Mayuge district in Eastern Uganda where I am on a mission to monitor some of the projects and activities, we laid foundation for in this year, I am filled with optimism. I explain why in the following paragraphs.

Let’s go back 15 years:

To paint a clearer picture, yesterday I had an unexpected meeting and consequently a 30-minute conversation with two young men that never thought I would remember who they were – Sulayi and Abed. To be honest, I felt a little offended with their thought that I could not remember them given the period I have been away – 16 years. but how could I when they are among the people that laid foundation to the philosophy of Civil Connections?

You see, when I first came to Mayuge in 2004, Sulayi was only about 12 years old and starting secondary school; Abed was slightly older. Both the sons of peasants, Sulayi was offered a place for education at a local school – Delta High School, that we (RISE Uganda, the NGO I was working with) cooperated with. Sulayi was orderly, captivated by anything called to do with knowledge, and aspiring to be a respected professional. Hearing about my arrival to Mayuge from Kampala, Sulayi automatically started working closely with me. He went on to set up a club at his school (replicating the model we were using in other communities) through which RISE carried out different activities – from simple information events to actions in the local town, and before long Sulayi earned his place as one of the 9 volunteers RISE worked with across the 6 years I worked in Mayuge. As we spoke yesterday – me and Sulayi, I could not hold back my tears of joy as he told me he was a headteacher of a local school and would like me to visit his school and local village to see how many initiatives they were running – based on the RISE model we built years ago.

Abed is the lesser resourced of the two, coming from a peasant family of 17 children, never gained the chance for school, but he was probably one of the most hardworking boys I had ever met. As we set up office and needed a handy helper Abed stopped at nothing to do his job. Cleaning, shopping, receiving, and settling in guests, connecting us to the local community, and eventually supporting in information activities in the local communities were all a piece of cake for this young man. We at some point decided that his capacity would not be fully reached without education. So, in working with a local junior school – Montessori Primary School, Abed started in the 5^th grade at about 16 years (others were about 9 – 10 years), and after 3 years went on to join Sulayi at Delta High School.

And although motivation to stay in school quickly dwindled, this was because of a mix of his struggling family and the consequent need for income — as I talked with Abed yesterday, like with Sulayi, I was warmed in my heart. Abed now works with a local Solar Energy supply company as a field agent, has built a little three-room house just outside of Mayuge Town, he has a wife and three children. Like Sulayi, Abed could neither hold back his wish for me to visit his house so he could show me what my association with him years ago, and the work of RISE had given him. He is still a proud hard-working young man.

Over 30 minutes, we reminisced about the different groups we facilitated to start name after name popping up – Gili Gili, Budhebera, Delta, Wakalama, Wairama, St. Mulumba, Kyabando, Nsango, Mpungwe, etc. It was like music from an golden oldie, but the most impactful aspect from this trip down memory lane was that these groups are still active and call themselves RISE groups to date. In Sulayi’s words “RISE was not just an organization, it was a way of doing things, and that methodology continues to guide all of us”. Abed added “I was little known, but I get surprised when I go deep in Mayuge, and people start asking ‘are you not Abed from RISE’ and wondering when we are coming back to continue building on what we started”. Moses, another young man standing by joined in with a saying “when you plant you have to come back and harvest your fruit and Mr. Andrew (as I was called then), if you just dare take a trip into these groups you will be surprised by what you and RISE achieved”. This is what I really call hope – this to me is real hope.

Civil Connections in 2021:

We at Civil Connections have gained so much hope in 2021 – see our achievements below:

The story of Sulayi and Abed is not foreign to Civil Connections. When we started our work in September 2018, the idea was and remains to bring a fresh reflection on the way we work with rural, low-resourced, marginalized contexts/communities. Having grown up in a similar context, I was troubled by doing development without the rural grassroots at the centre. In Uganda where I come from, over 70% of the country is rural, and rural areas contain over 80% of the country’s population. It is also here that we often find inadequate infrastructure – roads, unequipped medical facilities, schools, etc. as well as contradictory cultural traits e.g., high levels of gender inequality and heavy women and girls’ domestic burdens etc.

And when development initiatives concentrate or program without these contexts at the centre, it simply means that we are not adequately reaching 70% or more of precisely the people we want to get into the betterment loop. So, we at Civil Connections set out to give a more concentrated look and programming for the rural and marginalized contexts, and we have a positive story to tell. Here below is a quick snapshot of the achievements we have made in 2021 – our hope.

1. Three approaches/models ready to guide our work:

We have across 2021 piloted, tested, and systematized three models on which our programming and work will be based for a clearer navigation towards the results we want to achieve. The three models, have both been a result of specific piloted projects to give as a fair ground of assurance, as well as long-term engagements with our partners from local contexts for their guidance on how we can best build robust communities. The three are listed below:

1. Our Community Impact Project Model – CIPM

This introduces our Community Impact Projects Model (CIPM) and Community Impact Projects (CIPs) as a concept. It provides a step-by-step process to understanding why CIPs and the CIPM are important, as well as giving practical suggestions on how to design CIPs. The model is suitable for anyone who works with projects, or initiatives where aspects of quick impact are considered as the focus. We developed the guide to purposely support development of CIPs in communities with low resources or low funding, to give us a backbone for building impact fast and at low cost. Get your copy here: https://civilconnections.org/subscribe-to-our-newsletter/

1. ICT4Education – Mobile Telephony & Community clustering learning for low resourced communities

Through a small-scale intervention over the fall of 2020, we have been able to document a process/framework through which one can organize students and communities to learn remotely through the use of a combination of: telephones, bluetooth speakers, and community radios. We have called the project “Information Tech for Education – ICT4Education”, and we piloted in the Yumbe district in the West Nile region of Uganda, for the critical reason that millions of learners were out of school due to COVID19, and the most affected being rural low-resourced populations due to a lack of access. The model offers an interesting, easy to work with, community and learner mobilization and support model. We will release the complete guide in March 2022.

1. Podcast storying for engaging

Over the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021, we intervened in the migration discussion in Denmark and the Nordics at large by starting a podcast — “Coming to the Nordics”— where we have given the floor to migrants and professionals within the integration system to define words like inclusion, integration, and belonging to the Nordics through their personal stories. The results have been amazing. But this journey led us to understanding the power of podcasting, as well as the technical intricacies of how ‘everyday people’ can utilize podcasts to tell their stories into major policy discussions, for the potential of giving more varied and wide-based input into these. To this end, we have called the model “PODCAST STORYING” and created a backup course to guide one to start their own podcast. The documented model will be out in March 2022, but find the online course here: https://courses.civilconnections.org/courses/an-introduction-to-the-basics-of-podcasting

2. We have set a record number of projects in process, and each comes with new partnerships

Although starting in 2022, as I write two different funders – the European Union (EU) and Civil Society in Development (CISU) have just approved four of our projects here in Mid-December. These join the list of other several we have gotten funded in 2021, and through which we aspire to create real impact at the grassroots level for the most marginalized communities across the world. Below is the list of projects developed and funded in 2021, starting with the newest:

1. Strengthening structures for a deepened grassroots-based entrepreneurial movement for young females in the Bono region of Ghana, funded by CISU Denmark with 66,500 Euros.
2. “THE JOURNEY – In the shoes of refugees” – Creating opportu-nities for young Europeans to learn about forced migration through online simulation of refugee journeys and routes, funded by the EU with 189,300 Euros.
3. Decrypting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for everyday European youths – facilitating knowledge, network, tools, actions, & familiarization funded by the EU with 60,000 Euros.
4. Girls Choose – Building a grassroots and gender sensitive Sexual and Reproductive health Rights and HIV and services strategy for periphery and marginalized communities in Masvingo, Zimbabwe, funded by CISU Denmark with 67,300 Euros.
5. Facilitating inclusive and responsive youth policy development in Samegrelo Region of Georgia funded by CISU Denmark with 64,200 Euros.
6. Protecting Our Planet funded by the EU with 39,430
7. Climate Ambassadors funded by the EU with 41,350
8. Hvordan lykkes man med små impact indsatser i marginaliseret samfund / kontekster? En model, funded by CISU with 3,750 Euros.
9. Creating structures for rural youth leader’s mobilization, capacitating, and mentoring for more effective execution of their policy making and development roles within the Uganda Local Government system – a pilot in Yumbe and Mayuge districts funded by CISU with 67,500 Euros.

These projects will run across several partnerships and countries including – Denmark, Uganda, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Zimbabwe, Georgia, Ghana, Sweden, Greece, Turkey, Hungary.

Read more about the different projects on our website here: https://civilconnections.org/projects/

3. We have been humbled by member support and followers:

The year 2021 has also given us hope in a more personal, concrete way — many people have become Civil Connections members and follow our work across our different platforms. Our content visibility and click rates tell us that an average, 800 people are following what we post on Facebook every 48 hours, while we have this at about 500 on LinkedIn. Well, this is not much compared to bigger organizations, but for us this engagement is much more that moral support, it says to us that what we are doing is relevant. If you have not come into our network, take the chance to join the conversations and engagements below:

On Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/civilconnections

On LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/cccf-civil-connections-community-foundation/?viewAsMember=true

On Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/civilconnectionscf/

What we will concentrate on in 2022:

On top of the projects that will run into 2022 and of course new ones we will fundraise, we have several programs/activities we will start in 2022 and on. These are below:

1. A Community House in Mayuge – Uganda:

Andrew (Daily Leader) and his wife Stine own a house in Mayuge in Uganda and they want to turn this into a community house for civil society groups and actors to have a place to call their workspace. It will both be a shared workspace as well as an incubator where ideas are supported to grow. This will also have services that are commonly not accessed by young people – especially schools. These first ideas are:

• A community library with the national school’s syllabus & other context aware materials in it.
• A computer center where youngsters can access computers, internet, and ICT training.

2. Grassroots Community Grant program (GCGP):

To support our ambition to create robust communities at the grassroots and to remain true to this, we in Civil Connections are starting a Small Grants program where we will award small grants of between 1.000 DKK and 10.000 DKK (150 and 1,500 USD) to causes, projects, actors, organizations, ideas that our grants committee will deem impactful at the grassroots. To build this grant program we are saving up 30% of all our administration portions across the different projects and incomes we gain, to distribute these further down the value chain. Our ambition is to increase this gradually up to 50% of all our administration budgets over the years. The first wave of grants will start in the spring of 2022 and will be mainly identified side by side with our current projects. The pioneer grants committee will be our current Executive Board until the need arises to establish a new one.

3. Podcasts as a way of telling the grassroots story & engaging our followers in what we do:

Over the most of 2021 we have gained great experience from running the Coming to the Nordics Podcast, which has brought good listenership from varied audiences in our network. We have now decided to continue recording stories of willing migrants and building a stronger – more grounded narrative around integration – with the people we debate about having a voice in this debate.

We will also soon start another podcast – “Development from the Grassroots” – where we will take talks with different grassroots civil society actors globally on how to make development more responsive to the needs of the people, we go out to develop.

4. Borrow our staff/experts, program:

It is as straight forward as it sounds, get expert support from our staff for free.

Part of our community/sector give back and social sustainability is that our staff must by contract volunteer 20% of their salaried time to support another entity we have found needing such support. For this to count, such an entity needs to apply to Civil Connections or recommended by one of our staff, and then a decision taken by our Board on how and who of our team supports them. The entity can also suggest who they see fitting such a role by matching themselves with the profiles of our experts.

5. Civil Connections Apparels – new income sources towards building robust communities:

We have between October and November 2021 designed and tested a line of apparels – mainly T-shirts, sweaters, and hoodies, and we have gotten really good feedback from several members about both the quality and values behind these. They are high-quality organic garments, that come with free membership to Civil Connections, and the membership fees will be directly linked to the Grassroots Community Grant program (GCGP) above as a commitment to building robust communities.

Conclusion

Our future aspiration – to stabilize Civil Connections as a model, not just an NGO:

What we want to achieve in not just results but a way of building others and local grassroots communities to be in charge of their own development, on their own terms, in a robust way. And yes, we have been asked what ‘Robust’ means several times, for us it simply means that someone no matter the resource they have is in charge of their decisions and aspirations at all times. That they know that even when they do not have resources and have to depend on support from other people, then it is a sacrifice/compromise they do with clear awareness. And that they do not lose their agency to aspire – their aspirations need to be kept alive.

So, as we say, we are striving to reveal to all other actors that when you meet people where they are – for us especially rural marginalized contexts and look them in the eyes and ask them for what works for them, and honest believe in them, you have a higher chance of not only paving way for their aspirations and agency, but also for co-creating change together with them than bringing the change to them. The earlier (co-creating with them) is for us the more sustainable one – and it is the foundation of creating not just developing communities but equal communities both locally, but also across boundaries, especially in closing the power gaps between funders and local marginalized communities.

We hope that you join us on our journey in 2022 – as we aspire to build robust communities.

Thank you,

Andrew Julius Bende

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In our work helping activists like Onward to protest, educate young people and create strong civil society links on a local level, we prioritise grassroots activism and find ways to facilitate such action through Danish and European development funding. 

In the project Girls Choose, which we run with Onward and My Age Zimbabwe, we aim to increase young people’s awareness of sexual and reproductive health and their access to services in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Like all of our projects at Civil Connections, the project Girls Choose aims to capacitate grassroots communities. This project’s overall objective is to create a conducive environment for adolescents and young people in their diversity—with specific emphasis on girls and young women in Zimbabwe—to access Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights/services (SRHRs) and HIV related information freely and safely.

Through this project, we hope to build a model for Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and services, focusing specifically on HIV. With My Age Zimbabwe (MAZ), we want to provide access to local grassroots communities, starting with Masvingo province. We aim to improve the futures of young people, especially girls and young women, in a challenging context.

We refuse to accept that young people’s destinies should be jeopardized by a lack of something as basic as access to reproductive and sexual rights and services—we want to do something about this. We support Onward in all of the brilliant work he is doing in Zimbabwe—keep going!

The post Onward’s 16 Days of Activism appeared first on .

1. To increase the competences (mobilize & capacitate) of youths, civil society organisations and civil servants to address youth issues in a participatory and inclusive manner at local municipal level
2. To foster the establishment of sustainable forms of cooperation among youths, local youth organisations and local authorities for enabling youth participatory policy dialogue and inputs
3. Based on the National Youth Policy Document and the lessons learned, to design a regional-based/contextualized youth policy guide and an action plan for bringing this to use, and advocate for its approval and uptake

Youth participation in Georgia is difficult in general—there is still the soviet heritage where people were forced to not participate, and youth is not considered as an equal part of society (they are somewhat belittled). The civil society sector is trying to change the way this situation is perceived, while the state does not provide such initiative. This issue of youth participation is huge, and the difficulty of dealing with public bodies is great, as opposed to persuading NGOs that young people must be involved in decision making.

The Georgian democratic environment lacks an understanding of youth work and the correct tools and tactics to use. Some young people are lucky to have active NGOs in their local communities, but apart from some small attempts from youth workers, there lacks a larger, more systematic effort; there is a serious need for creativity and activity for youth to be engaged in development.

In Georgia, the two partisan sides of the political spectrum are extremely divided, and they rely heavily on mayors for political decisions to be made. At the time of writing, they were waiting on the decision of their mayoral elections and there is a need to train public bodies more in relation to youth participation, mayors who themselves are reliant on their parties.

Young people in rural Georgia have never been told about their right to participate, their ability to go to the local government and discuss and engage. Among public bodies, if you talk to officials, they say they don’t close the door to youth, but this isn’t enough. There is a need for true participation, and a discussion of what participation (rather than attendance) actually means.

The project takes place in Georgia, where it is the local partners who know the context and are experts on the political environment and the conditions of youth engagement; the grassroots level sets the tone for what we should do in our civil society projects. In our project kick-off meeting, Daily Leader of Civil Connections Andrew Bende reflected on the experts of local context.

“Growing up in Uganda, I never knew we were poor until I was told on an international level, until I studied. We had mangoes and jackfruits and we grew what we needed. When I see how stressed people are in Western countries, I think that perhaps we need to start rethinking the notion of what poor means. Maybe we can divide our understandings of poverty onto a social level, an economic level”.

Maka from APD reflected on a visit to a school in Denmark some years ago, where young people expressed their dissatisfaction at pension funds holding shares in oil companies. Instead, they wanted them to fund green projects, so next week the young Danes had organised a meeting and invited the heads of pension funds, partners and ministers. Maka marvelled at how they were genuinely hopeful that they would actually succeed. “We want young people with that level of engagement”, she said.

APD have implemented this kind of civil society project in four municipalities, each time reflecting on challenges and good practice. They have strived to learn what works and what does not. Facilitating Youth Policy Development will be another crucial step in APD and Civil Connections’ journey, their quest to improve youth participation in the democratic process.

The post Our new project with the Academy of Peace and Development promotes youth participation in Georgia! appeared first on .

The age of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) calls for concerted efforts among global development stakeholders if we wish to follow through with a more sustainable future for all. SDG 17 calls for partnerships of all forms; they just need to be supportive of the sustainability agenda.

One commonly practised partnership area is the collaboration between and among Non-government Organisations (commonly non-profit) and private companies (mostly for profit). These find attractive value on both sides—NGOs are central in bringing the most marginalised of our communities into the development loop and ensuring that the rights of the weakest are observed, while companies are more than willing to invest parts of their value to count themselves as supportive to their local as well as global communities. This mode of operation is commonly characterised by corporate donations from companies to NGOs, and less often a “joint/common effort” to deliver an agreed objective.

In fact, this model of partnering has had its criticism from NGOs, Companies, and a current wave of sustainability proponents. One of the main threads of this criticism is the cynicism around “companies buying themselves into appearing to do good, and NGOs selling their souls for cheap resources”.

On a brighter note, there exist thousands of robust cross-sectoral partnerships and more of these will be needed to reach our ambitions of a more sustainable globe set out in the SDGs. It is clear none of the sectors can do it alone. But what are the rules for a robust NGO-Company partnership? Where do you start? What does it take? How do you do it?

Our experiences

Following our journey in developing the SDG WORLD cross-sectoral partnership platform over the past 1½ years, we have learned important lessons about brokering partnerships that we wish to share with the wider community. The SDG WORLD platform intends to bring together NGOs, Companies, Public actors and others who are interested in working together to deliver the SDGs. It is a collaboration among two NGOs, three Companies, several experts, and various public entities. Read more about SDG WORLD here:

– https://sdgworld.org/

Here are our lessons

1. Make partnering/partnerships a part of your main strategy and not a standalone.

Take a clear decision on whether you want partnerships to be part of your business model. And here we are not talking about clients, collaborators, customers, suppliers, occasional users, or contributors. Yes, these can be partners, but if any of them can easily be replaced, then they do not count as the kind of partnership we are talking about here.

By partnerships, we are talking about those entities you decide to “jointly deliver components of your mission because you cannot do it alone—and where the outcomes are equally important for both”. Partnerships can for example:

• Come with advantages of scale—both in terms of size and space/geographies
• Have the potential to extend your coverage into sectors you are not familiar with, but where you can create strong impacts like companies being part of development work, and NGOs developing business acumen for income generation.
• Bring new or unfamiliar skills and perspectives to your entity, enriching it more, and many other advantages.

Once you have settled with having partnerships as a part of your business model, then work this into your strategy, so that there are clear guidelines on processes, behaviours, areas of engagement, contracts, allocation of resources, being part of the organization’s public story/profile etc. This helps everyone in your organisation or company become aware of the ambition of partnerships and know where to start in supporting this agenda.

We have been part of partnerships and talked with many that have experience of partnerships that are only known to one or two staff members in a company or organization, and when you ask all others, they will wonder whether you called the wrong number. But if this is made as part of your organizational strategy, it automatically sets into process ways of making your partners and partnership activities a part of your entire organisation’s life.

And believe me, many employees enjoy being part of a bigger agenda and will proudly talk about and support the success of such partnerships.

2. Start with getting to know each other—well.

This probably sounds obvious, but you will be surprised how often we meet NGOs or Companies that start with the statement “we did not know they worked that way, we would not have gone into that partnership”!

The idea of partnership taken lightly as two entities meeting at a café and deciding to do something together sounds charming, and it is. This is how some of the most viral ideas have started and turned into lucrative enterprises. But digging under the hood of these ideas we also find a rigorous process of the different partners holding countless sessions of clarity on, who they are, how they work, why they do what they do, and what goal they want to reach.

This speaks to both the missions of the partnerships, the processes of the partners, ambitions as well as routines. Seen broadly, your partnership needs to be well acquainted with the organisational culture of everyone involved so they know what they are subscribing to, which minimizes surprises.

Things like—how decisions are made, what tone and language each partner works best with, how structured or unstructured they are, the frequency of communication and how this is done, mean a whole lot for the health of any partnership. And, of course, there will come things unknown with time, however, with the foundation that you know who your partners are and what they care most about, you will be able to navigate any shocks with fair clarity.

3. Make a baseline of your partnership —including expectations, main deliverables, review timelines, management of conflicts, exit strategies, etc.

Having a strategy for partnerships, and knowing your potential partner well is only an entry into a healthy framework for your next partnership. Probably the most critical foundation in starting your partnership is creating a joint strategy.

This is what we call “a partnership baseline”. This is not new, everyone, whether in the business or development sector knows that for any organization or company to succeed, one needs a clear strategy and ways to measure their progress, and so does your partnership.

So, before you rush into starting partnership operations, you will need to set aside time and much-needed resources to bring representatives of the different partnering entities together to have an honest reflection on what their missions and visions for the partnership are.

You also need to clarify the expectations and what other partners should expect from them, how the partnerships shall be structured – leadership and decision processes, communication aspects, what needs to be delivered, by who and when, how to monitor the health of the partnership – including timelines for these and actions to be taken, how conflicts shall be managed whenever they arise, and the life expectancy of the partnership as well as the exit strategy.

While it is common to find many partnerships that have succeeded without a rigorous baseline/partnership strategy as we suggest above, experience and statistics show that the main cause of the collapse of partnerships is unsynchronized expectations and structures.

Conclusion

The list of advice on partnerships, especially unconventional and  cross-sectoral ones is endless, and it can be daunting to find concrete suggestions for the first steps on this journey. Yet, it is extremely critical to lay a strong foundation for such partnerships.

We have in this article tried to set out three critical things you need to consider before you get into your first partnership. We know these have helped many, and we hope they also inspire you. These include:

1. Make partnering/partnerships a part of your main strategy not a standalone.
2. Start with getting to know each other, well.
3. Make a baseline of your partnership – including expectations, main deliverables, review timelines, management of conflicts, exit strategies, etc.

 Get in touch with us:

We have tested and learned many things about starting and the life of non-conventional partnerships – especially cross-sectoral ones, within our 5-member partnership over the past two years. This has given rise to the growth of SDG WORLD as a platform with already developed frameworks for partnerships that any entity willing is welcome to join and utilize. We will also be available to support you along the way.

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We have for the past 1 year been implementing a project – “Coming to the Nordics”, a process through which we are proud to announce three incredibly humbling products to inspire anyone working within the migration, inclusion, and integration space. These products include:

• A 30-episode “Coming to the Nordics” podcast giving listeners many months/years of engaging with inclusion.
• A storybook formed out of the life stories of the different people/“migrants” we have had on the podcast.
• An online course in podcasting for others to start podcasting and creating more life stories for inspiration.

(Find all the resources here: https://civilconnections.org/coming-to-the-nordics/)

The biggest lesson we have gained on this journey is the urge to reflect on the commonly desired state of integration, and what this really means vis-à-vis the structuring and daily negotiations of the lives of migrants especially in their early years of arrival in the Nordics. This exploration has convinced us that while we all desire to achieve integration as fast as possible, it may be more useful to focus and consequently redefine demands to newcomers towards inclusion, as this is really what we all desire to be met with, and which creates space for “a feeling at home and at peace” with our new societies and our roles in them – integration.

Here is the full story:

A couple of years after my arrival in Denmark and actively engaging in the social fabric of the country, I remember the debate on integration coming to new heights. There suddenly started emerging more specified definitions of the term integration – this among others taking connotations of “speaking fail free Danish, being ‘well placed’ on the job market (with minimum income demands), and the question of social mobility to count as a Dane also coming with caveats of carrying original ethnic Danish traits, etc.”. And when one spoke the language with an accent there would be representations of not being well integrated.

I remember being part of uncountable discussions and debates about integration, and what in fairness would be achievable from a personal perspective, and integration’s relations to its other relatives like assimilation and inclusion. At that time, when someone talked about integration, I would tell them, no, it is not integration we need to talk about but rather inclusion. This was because the emerging definitions of integration made it difficult to be achievable by anyone not ethnically Danish. And if you went on with this, then it would be more beneficial for the debate if we outrightly called the theme assimilation.

Integration defined fairly is a lifetime journey that changes and is negotiated according to the context of the society and a specific moment in time, which makes it very fluid and too dynamic to make fair policy around. Examples of this fluidity from contemporary Denmark and Europe at large include changes to laws in the face of shocks like the “the refugee crisis” that triggered new approaches to how we saw people entering our boarders. The economic crisis at the start of the 2010s and its influences on the job market, and or the rise of right-wing nationalism witnessed across the 2000s, probably triggered by the other incidences, but that also defines new and stricter standards for integration.

All these events and ‘integration redefinition’ and policy demands, only attest to the fatigue that comes with maintaining a dedicated focus on an integration model that calls for assimilation, rather than inclusion and active participation in the lives our communities. Taking this approach is very tiring for both those that define and set the standards, and those that need to keep adjusting their lives to fit the changing standards. But if we settle with inclusion, then this frees us and in real sense means that we also create the chance to change the view of things from expecting and forcing others to fit in, and instead work for creating spaces, opportunities, and to facilitating others to fit in.

So based on this line of thinking, we in the fall of 2020 initiated a project “Coming to the Nordics” that set out to delve into stories of migrants and to understand their everyday, their motivation to be part of the Nordic societies, their daily navigation, and commitments that we do not see in the bigger lines, their hidden contributions to these societies etc. And through these stories, then go back to ask our question if these are not striving for inclusion or not included already. And, if there is need at all to continue using the term integration on them where in real sense we are demanding for assimilation. This project is presented below.

Coming to the Nordics Project – setting high ambitions:

Our project set out to contribute to a Nordic region that is tolerant to diversity and has supportive tools in inter-cultural citizenship for easier and quicker migrant inclusion and integration. This would be reached through facilitating more inter-cultural experiences, reflections, learning, awareness and hopefully curiosity, towards better spaces for social-cultural inclusion and harmonious/sustainable communities.

Specifically, the project set out and has achieved the following outputs:

1. Developed 30 episodes in a podcast series we have named after the project “Coming to the Nordics”. This will give listeners many months and maybe years of engaging with inclusion. Here, we among others delved into their journey – reasons and the process of coming to the Nordics, life here – challenges, successes, contradictions, navigation of understanding, roles in their inclusion into the new societies, and advice they would give to other newcomers to ease their faster inclusion and settle-in.
2. We have developed the podcast into a storybook for these to be available for all interested to continue to interact with them for many years.
3. We have developed an online course in Podcasting that we know is relevant in getting begginers to start their podcasts. This gives opportunity for more untold stories to come to life.

The process and though behind the project design was also a major product. Particularly, the idea of combining storytelling, which is well known for providing easy access to bridging social-cultural gaps, with podcasting – a widely accessible and acceptable technology of modern learning was a great idea. By this, the project has given us access to stories untold, and hopefully over the next many years facilitating more inter-cultural experiences, reflections, learning, awareness and hopefully curiosity, towards the migrants’ cultural realities and shocks, as well as giving them the chance to reflect on their own role in their inclusion process.

Moreover, we have the belief that this is just a pioneer. We have seen across the project period that more and more migrants that would not come forward to narrate their lives, or call it rarely heard narratives of representatives of 8% of our local Nordic communities, have picked interest and courage to participate in the podcast. They want to contribute to local dialogue, reflections, debates, and policy formulation, purposely and meaningfully for diverse and sustainable local communities in their countries. They are seeking for inclusion.

The project’s Nordic values:

Our project products – the podcast, the course, and the story book have a longer term value to the Nordic region as opposed to other kinds of outputs that can be measured immediately. The intention with these products is to start a debate, and act as an all time present reminder and reference catalogue for that debate, towards making the Nordic region aware and always reminded of the huge opportunities with being diverse.

With the knowldege that, as the Nordic region receives new settlers from outside of its borders, the host countries and especially the local communities are social-culturally challenged, we hope that the projects products will be part of minimizing the negative collisions through setting up platforms for more efficient cultural learning, which is one of the central precursors in inclusion and integration work. By supporting migrants to reflect on their place in the Nordics, and their stories facilitating the native communities to understand how to work around or support their new members, we bring more value to the social coherence of the Nordic communities, and easing of inclusion attempts. Luckily, all the countries this project covers are open about the need for innovation around better inclusion efforts.

Exemplified narratives – and suggested reflections on inclusion:

On a human/personal level, the project is trying to exemplify to both the migrants and the locals in the Nordic countries that it doesn’t matter whether people are speaking perfect Danish, English, Norwegian or Swedish, but that people get up every morning and are part of their local society, its lifestyle, and everyday dynamics.

By this I could take my own (Andrew’s) life example. As of 2021 I have lived in Denmark for 11 years, I have two lovely children – my son is 11, and my daughter is 9. There is little of Uganda about these children apart from for having a big family there and often traveling and being familiar with the country. They are fully Danish,  and not because I say it to them or I try to hypnotize myself to believe this – they are Danes born and raised in Copenhagen. The society also accepts them as Danes – their schools, clubs, friends, the airports/entry points, health system, etc. By is it not tragic or problematic than their father who was by the bed side on their delivery, changed their diaper across their toddler years, has several times made food them everyday, has over the years made sure that they are proper citizens of Denmark – teaching them Danish values. Reading Danish night books, and singing with them in “Alberte Synger med de Små”, is written off as not integrated?

In fact, as I wrote this example, I had to ask my wife if by saying that “my children have a connection to Uganda”, will not politically polarize and get them deported with the argument that they have a bigger family in Uganda than in Denmark and therefore a bigger connection there. This is indeed some of the extremes we have witnessed, where some children in family unified marriages have been sent out of the country after the death of the strongest Danish connection or have lived a part of their lives abroad. We also took a discussion on the implication of gaining dual citizenship vis-à-vis your “proved strong connection” to Denmark. We ended up into a joke that maybe for one to be sure of not being judged lacking in Danish connection should skip dual citizenship.

Another example I commonly give is of a Ghanaian mother that fell in love with a Danish guy while he worked down in Tamale and on his return to Denmark, he decided to have her come with him. They have since been married, and the young woman has now raised two teenage sons on 18 and 15 years. For the past 18 years she is the person that has made food packs “madpakker” to her children on their way to school. She has women them up every single morning, changed their diapers while small, been the shoulder that they have cried on and recollected after challenges, and when the kids and her husband come home after their busy days there is always a hot meal made with love for them. The two teens are proud Danish citizens on their way to contributing the economy and society in a few years from now.

After all these years however, their mother still struggles with the Danish language and has tried several jobs and settled with a cleaning job somewhere in a restaurant where Danish is not a big demand. Given that she had only achieved a high school education in Ghana and when she moved to Denmark, she immediately started with her mother role, she is insecure around anything academic and professionally connotating. She tries to visit the library occasionally but as soon as the talks become academically demanding she retracts to a corner and only watches as another mother in her group takes on discussions and dialogues one after another. Her safe space is her home, her chosen friends, her children, her husband, her restaurant job that gives her the agency to go by Føtex and contribute to the house economy – she loves Denmark. Should we demand more than that of her? Should we demand that she speaks fluent Danish otherwise she is not good enough?

I would say, we will and in fact are in the process of killing her self-worth – her agency in including herself in the Danish society. I would say, we should be more open to who she is and support her to continue doing exactly what she finds interesting as long as its within legal confines, as opposed to identifying all the wrong things about her. By this we will make the public place more secure for her, and instead if retracting from conversations it is almost certain that she will get more involved with time – and this might take a long time, but it is worth it.

A third example also around what we commonly believe as a successful integration, is in the definition of success itself. I remember we had this discussion and agreement within the project Coordinating Group, that success has to be defined by the person we are interviewing, where they reflect on their lives in the Nordics and find a spot they themselves believe was success. And there are many examples. Imagine a 30-year-old that has never gone to school, or at most achieved high school in Uganda, he comes to Denmark and is able to get a kitchen job. He for sure struggles a lot with learning the language, but slowly starts understanding and eventually speaking a little bit of Danish. Through his kitchen job he can fend for his family, and you can generally say that he has a settled life. When asked if he is successful, he nods in approval. He doesn’t need to be a rock star he says.

So, when we were designing the storyline for coming to the Nordics and who we were going to interview, we intentionally decided not to start with the so called “success stories” as defined by and according to the integration criteria. Because what is success? We were in clear agreement that the moment you define success based on the definition of integration that leans more towards assimilation than inclusion, then you would end up in the same trap of success being only achievable for the exceptional few.

Summation:

Those that have listened to the first episodes of the podcast have given the exact feedback we hoped for, ie. “this is powerful”. We have gotten artists like Moussa Diallo and Mpho Ludidi to donate songs to the podcast, as well a featuring the podcast project at the Danish Folkemødet 2021 as a grassroots support platform, and its foreseen significance in contributing to the socal-cultural development of the local Nordics.

Our hope is that as we release more of the podcasts, and people read the compiled storybook, that these will create a basis for a stronger debate with time. The podcast as well as the storybook will then be utilized in training within the local communities the different organizations work in, as well as offered as a free online training material.

Learn more about the project and engage with us:

All the project products are available here: https://civilconnections.org/coming-to-the-nordics/

A specific link for the course is here: https://courses.civilconnections.org/courses/an-introduction-to-the-basics-of-podcasting

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