Wednesday 30 December 2015

The documentary about markets and its people in Ethiopia

Estonian Public Broadcasting is doing a documentary about markets and its people in Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Author Kristo Elias, director Mihkel Ulk and cameraman Madis Reimund went to Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and its surrounding areas to find out more about it. The film crew got a lot of help from local tourism company Abeba Tours, mainly from director Tania O’Connor and guide Mulugeta Sisay and also from some local Estonians.


As statistics say Ethiopia is indeed a really poor country.  31%, which is approximately 30 million people from the countries total 96 million people live in poverty (less than $1.25 per day). Today, Ethiopia is the target of number of largest financial donors, aiming to assist the development of the country. Ethiopia has reached the stage of development, where breakthrough is soon expected, with society trying to drift from agricultural society to industrial society. The aim of the government is to become an average development level country (according to UN classification).

The economy of Ethiopia is based on agriculture, which accounts for 46.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), 60% of exports, and 80% of total employment. Ethiopia's agriculture is plagued by periodic drought, soil degradation caused by overgrazing, deforestation, high population density, high levels of taxation and poor infrastructure (making it difficult and expensive to get goods to market). Yet agriculture is the country's most promising resource. A potential exists for self-sufficiency in grains and for export development in livestock, grains, vegetables, and fruits. As many as 4.6 million people need food assistance annually.


The centerpoint of the movie is Africa's largest outdoor market Mercato in Addis Ababa. We are showing this as a microsociety and as a model of the larger economy. This place is like a living organism with lots of interesting people and their colorful stories. From the outside, Mercato may look chaotic but it functions in it's own rhythm. You can find absolutely anything from there. In Mercato, nothing is thrown away or wasted. The goods will gain a new life there and are sold again and again. Every coin matters and money is always in circulation.

In our shootings, we focused on different characters, who are living in this situation and trying to get by with their lives. It is a very intimate view into the lives of 5 unique persons. They all earn money in their own way, offering their goods and services. Many of the activities are unheard of to a 21st century European, and it may seem unimaginable that people need to do this kind of work at all nowadays. Many of our chosen persons have no education, nor prospect on life other than what they are currently doing.

The biggest emotions were sparked by 12 year-old boys who worked in the market and surrounding areas as “shoe shine kids”. Instead of attending school they were sent from South-Ethiopia to work in the metropolitan by their parents. They work every day on the streets to earn a living and to help their parents. You could see that they are among the lowest members of society and they do not have a chance to break out of it. 

There were very many children like these in the streets and it was a tremendously sad sight. However, these kids themselves were very nice and hard working. They had a job, with which they could earn at least a little money and it seemed that there were enough clients- people who are not rich themselves, but do not find it hard to give these children a little money for their services.

Another very interesting group of people were wood carrying ladies, who gather eucalyptus branches in the mountains surrounding the city and from state forest and carry their heavy loads to Addis Ababa wood market. It is physically very hard work, which would be challenging even to men. Besides carrying wood they raise their children and in the meantime breastfeed their infants. The sights we saw were very sad and unjust as many life situations in Ethiopia are today.

There are many other interesting persons in the film. Conflicts in the film arise from differences between the personalities, as well as from the differences in interaction with the rest of the world around them. How to provide development aid so that it reaches even these people, who had never heard of it or experienced the benefits of the support? It is a big problem in this overly corrupt country that the aid does not reach the people and, hopefully, will cause people to think and look for solutions to amend this problem.


Although the filmed material is extremely interesting, the filming itself was not very easy. It was constantly necessary to apply for various permits and explain why we were here and why we were filming the very people we chose to film. There was a lot of defamation, jealousy, working against agreements and breaking them, which, as we understood was due to peculiar mentality of the people and the history of Ethiopia.

In addition, we also had a complex relationship with the authorities. On one hand we had armed policeman defending us from potential threats and on the other hand we were questioned by a federal security agent, who wanted information concerning our filming as a result of somebody gossiping. As the most important thing there is a written proof on paper, then he wanted to know the details of it. Since we were about a kilometer outside of the area permitted on the license, filming sheep on another market, then we were taken to the police station and after authorities had reviewed the material they demanded us simply to delete this material. This is just one example of the many problems that we had in regards to the paranoid video recording system in this country.

But as I said, in spite of the corrupt state power, the people are extremely friendly and brave. Due to this the material, which was filmed intimately, is full of injustice and subtext. How can we help them in the future, when most of the current aid does not reach the people, is another matter.

Sunday 27 December 2015

Green Liberty: Second Six Months of M4D














E-bulletin
 
To enrich awareness of society and policymakers in Latvia about global interconnection, challenges and initiatives to solve them both globally and locally we have started to publish electronic information bulletin Development Cooperation News (DCN).

DCN is published electronically twice a year and features current development cooperation topics from the perspective of practitioners, opinion leaders and policy-makers.

The 2nd issue is Glocal climate change. It gives a chance to remind us and our readers about 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 21 organized on November 30 – December 12. This global and local news is published in the section EVENTS that jointly with other sections: POSITIONS, EXPERIENCE, OPINIONS, and RESOURCES shapes the structure of DCN.

This 2nd issue is looking for answers on the following questions: Can we continue to ignore climate change in global context? What is climate change policy in our country? How can we be involved in reduction of climate change in local level? And what does local participation gives to reduction of global climate change?

Read and download the bulletin Development Cooperation News here.

The next – 3rd issue of Development Cooperation News will be about Sustainable Development Goals



Joint Study Trip to Nigeria

For Dāvis Landorfs and Agnese Leiburga – journalists who represented Green Liberty the joint study trip to Nigeria started with visa obtaining trip to Kiev. It could sound strange yet the trip to Kiev was the most time, energy and patience consuming trip as the whole week was spent at the windowless basement at Nigerian Embassy in Kiev. Happy coincidence brought luck only to Dāvis. Agnese could not reschedule her flights and stay longer, thus Dāvis was the only one who represented Green Liberty in the joint study trip to Nigeria in October 25-31. Huge thanks to Maiju from VIKES, The Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria) and all the study trip team who made all the necessary arrangements several times and sincerely supported Dāvis and Agnese.

These two trips have been successful. As a result they also brought several articles already published in the media:
1. Landorfs, Dāvis, (2015).Vides piesārņojums Nigērijā: Kurš atbildīgs par naftu Nigērijas upēs un pārtikā? [Environment pollution in Nigeria: Who is responsible about oil in Nigeria’s rivers and food?]. Bulletin Development Cooperation News: Glocal Climate Changes. 2(1), pp.16-19.
2.  Leiburga, Agnese, (Oct.29., 2015). Eiropas lielpilsēta Kijeva. [European metropolis Kiev]. Zemgales Ziņas [regional newspaper Zemgale News], http://zz.diena.lv/laikraksta-arhivs/eiropas-lielpilseta-kijeva-206281
3. Leiburga, Agnese, (Oct.27., 2015). Pēc vīzas uz vēlēšanu pārņemto Kijevu. [To elections overwhelmed Kiev to get visa]. Zemgales Ziņas [regional newspaper Zemgale News], http://zz.diena.lv/laikraksta-arhivs/pec-vizas-uz-velesanu-parnemto-kijevu-206166
Other articles are in the process.



Making Documentaries for Airing

Green Liberty has a film crew from Woodpecker Pictures in the field to cover development cooperation issues. This crew is represented by Kārlis Lesiņš and Artis Dobrovolskis who have participated in Intensive Course on Development for Journalists on April 22-24 in Helsinki.

Two field trips are going to be organized. The first - to Rwanda is finished. The second - to Thailand is going to be around the end of 2015 - the beginning of 2016. Both documentaries will be about the complex interrelation of two species - animals and humans in the present time of globalization. Each of them will provide a case of the impact of humans on animals’ life: (1) squeezing gorillas out of their territory and infecting them with human illnesses due to shortage of land caused by climate change, and (2) changes in elephants’ life space due to human overpopulation and exploiting wild elephants in earning money in big cities of Thailand.



Photo & Article Competition

Green Liberty also organized a nation-wide photo and article competition Decent Life to All. In Latvia the competition received 12 photos and 1 article. The winner in the photo category is Liene Biezā and in article competition – Lāsma Ozola.
The jury consisted of two experts: Alnis Stakle - nationally and internationally recognized photo artist, a lecturer and a director of undergraduate study program Photography at Riga Stradins University (RSU), and Inese Vaivare – a director of Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS).

The exhibition was opened and the winners officially announced at EYD2015 final event Thought. Action. World’s Development in Riga, Kalciema Kvartals on December 4.  



Public Awareness Campaign and Events

Public campaign on the European Year of Development consisted of 6 interrelated events. Main themes of the campaign were:
    • sustainable development goals,
    • glocalization,
    • sustainable consumerism.

 Several of campaign events were organized in the 2nd part of this year.



Interactive discussions Global Aims for Global Light










Interactive discussions were organized on September 23-25 in Daugavpils and on October 9 in Dricani Municipality and Dricani Secondary School.


It aimed to interact with public in several ways: 
  • Setting priorities for global development,
  • Acting out strategies for reaching Sustainable Development Goals,
  • Reading the newspaper “World Becomes Better”,
  • Discussing: Would we be the first generation to end extreme poverty, the generation most determined to fight injustice and inequalities, and the generation that saves the planet from climate change? And how could Sustainable Development Goals be used for that?

Interactive discussions were organized in intersection with two other events – Worlds Best News Day and Daugavpils 10th Science Festival.



Story day of DEAR and other global education projects
















DEAR projects’ story day was organized on November 12 in Riga. It aimed to create the space where DEAR project implementers interact with policy makers, educators and general public.


The first part of the DEAR projects’ story day was introduction to 10 global education projects that represented mainly DEAR framework. This part was simultaneously illustrated in one integrated visual image by an artist Vivianna Maria Stanislavska that helped participants to see the connection between projects, their target groups and expected results.

The second part was a focus group discussion by 10 representatives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, National Centre for Education of the Republic of Latvia, Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS), municipalities, NGOs that implement DEAR projects, educators, students, grassroots leaders, etc.

DEAR projects’ story day was organized in intersection with Global Education Week 2015.



Local Roundtable for Engagement of Policy Makers

Main activity for engagement of policy makers in development cooperation discussions was local roundtable Equality of local and global community organized by Green Liberty in Jelgava Municipality on November 17, 2015.


This event was rich in several interrelated activities: key-note presentation, focus group discussions, film screening, exhibition opening and discussions. The success of this event was participation of different other stakeholders including grassroots activists among local level policy makers that is still a rare form of public events in Latvia, especially outside of the capital Riga.

Monday 21 December 2015

Mondo activity update December 2015


Public Campaign & Events


Summer 2015 was busy for Mondo as we had a big public campaign on the European Year of Development. We worked together with Vatson advertising company. Selecting them was a tough process, but their creative ideas were positive and empowering – which was the feeling we wanted the campaign to focus on.

"Maailma muuta on võimalik!" – "It is possible to change the world!" was the heading of the campaign. It had four main themes and visuals:

Women's empowerment and living income:
Screen Shot 2015-09-14 at 08.13.48.png

The importance of education:
Screen Shot 2015-09-14 at 08.13.18.png

Hygien and access to toilets:
Screen Shot 2015-09-14 at 08.13.56.png

Sustainable consumerism and fair trade:
Screen Shot 2015-09-14 at 08.26.19.png


Two of the visuals and topics were represented on streets (bus stops) in chosen locations:
muudamaailma-outdoor-06855-small.png

We also displayed ads in:
  • Womens magazines
  • Cinema toilets
  • Cafeteria tabletops
  • Online (targeted ads in Google Ads, Facebook and one local ad network)

Additionally we managed to have some articles written and published on the topic in some of the magazines; and we also had a newspaper insert in one of the biggest newspapers in Estonia (Eesti Päevaleht). All in all we were happy with the campaign and received some positive feedback from the public.

We also arranged a development cooperation-oriented discussion in Arvamusfestival (Opinion Festival) and took part of the Sõbralik Eesti (Friendly Estonia) public concert with a guerilla campaign.

In the beginning of November (6.11) we held a youth event at the Parliament of Estonia in cooperation with Estonian National Commission for UNESCO and Estonian Fund for Nature about climate change. 63 people took part. We had workshops (social media use for activism, activism on the streets, writing an opinion article, building solar panels and envisioning new energy sources) and short lectures for the youth, followed by the opening of the "Decent Life for All" photo and article exhibition and a visit to the Ministry of Environment where the minister gave a short speech to the youth. One active youth (Mihkel Kaalep) was chosen to take part of the activists event "Climate Bus" that travelled through different European spots of interest and finally arrived to the Paris Climate Conference location where he took part of events and seminars for climate activists. As he is a student of the 9th grade, an "older" youth (Sanna Kartau) was chosen to accompany him :)


Journalist's Grant

From 03.09.-13.09.2015 Peeter Raudsik, an independent journalist who works both with Postimees and ERR, travelled to Afghanistan to cover development cooperation issues there. It was a good experience for him and also for us. He has already published three articles, one in the paper newspaper and two also available online:
http://pluss.postimees.ee/3323625/afganistani-murenenud-riik
http://pluss.postimees.ee/3395293/internet-ajab-afganistanis-juuri

Photo & Article Competition

As well as most other partners, we held a nation-wide photo and article competition. We received 72 photos and 14 articles to the competition. The winner in the photo category is Laura Toomlaid and in the article competition Karolin Kruuse. You can view the winning photos as a gallery here: http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/fotod-vaata-maailmarandurite-mondo-fotokonkursile-saadetud-pilte?id=72717361 and read the winning article here: http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/liimilapsed-eestlanna-reisikiri-keenia-slummist?id=72722063

We are very grateful to our jury who (despite great differences in geographical locations!) managed to make a great choice out of all the very good works presented to the competition. The jury consisted of: well-known Estonian photographer and traveller Kaupo Kikkas; publisher, traveller and entrepreneur Tiit Pruuli; desk officer for development cooperation at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Helen Ennok; foreign news editor and journalist Evelyn Kaldoja and the head of European Commission Representation in Estonia Hannes Rumm.

The exhibition was opened at the Parliament of Estonia on the 6th of November where we also held the youth event on climate change.

Joint Study Trip to Nigeria

After a long process with different Nigerian visa officials, our joint study trip was brought to life in October. Big thanks to Maiju from VIKES who made all the necessary arrangements. The two journalists from Estonia (Riin Aljas, Tiit Blaat) were very happy with the trip.

Bulletins

Mondo has also put together and distributed two new bulletins. The second bulletin of the year was about the Sustainable Development Goals and was distributed in September, the third bulletin of the year was about COP21 in Paris and was distributed in the beginning of December, during the Paris climate talks.

Wednesday 16 December 2015

The TV-documentary about the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis – 2.

Estonian Public Broadcasting team, author Stas Kuznetsov and cinematographer Peep Plakso continued recording the documentary of Ukraine in November. The TV-documentary about the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis will be screened on Estonian National Television next fall.

It has been less than 6 months since the first trip. This time we will analyze together with government officials and representatives of the OSCE, the political and social developments in Kiev and visit our Ukrainian friends from Vostok SOS (local non-profit organization).

In autumn the volunteers of Vostok SOS moved their headquarters from the old apartment to a new location. Now three different organizations are under one roof, all of which are interconnected and operate with a common goal. The social workers, volunteers and psychologists assist Ukraine's internal refugees in a shared house.

The volunteers now also have more opportunities for privacy. During summer, 12 people lived in one apartment, but now they have moved to separate apartments. This will help them to raise and educate their children more conveniently during the difficult time and situation the country is in and gives others the opportunity to engage in their hobbies.

The second anniversary of the Maidan protests in Kiev.

As Kiev celebrated the second anniversary of the Maidan protests during our stay, formal ceasefire lasts in Eastern Ukraine. Local people admitted that they can hear less battle noises, shooting and explosions. This however, does not mean that the heavy armament and weapons have been moved out of the area.

According to the OSCE reports, Ukraine has 1.5 million internal refugees by autumn of 2015. The increase in the refugee number has brought about specific issues, such as human trafficking. When earlier human trafficking was mostly related to sexual context then now the number of problems has enlarged. Scammers try to sell false documents to refugees and evidence of the refugee status, provide job opportunities, but do not pay salaries, and so on.

Local people are worried that due to the refugee crises in Europe the international community pays less attention to the crisis in Ukraine than it did before.


Slovakia in the EU - Current Issues and Challenges


Media coordinator of Media4Development project Peter Ivanič has on 3rd of December 2015 met  in Svätý Jur near Bratislava with 15 journalists from Slovak regional media offices, and presented them basics of journalism from development perspective. To explain that he used example of Sustainable development goals and whole UN agenda as such.

The aim was to show to journalists that development / global perspective can be included in almost all topics they usually cover in their media work, as well as to explain them that new UN development agenda 2030 is, unlike all previous development agendas until now, applicable universally to the whole world, not exclusively to global South countries. Thus, also Slovakia and its internal public policies should be considered as those, which influence development of our common planet, and journalists, as watchdogs of decision-makers, should try to monitor its implementation at both, national and international level. 


Meeting and presentation took place during seminar Slovakia in the EU - Current Issues and Challenges. Event was organised by Academia Istropolitana NOVA - member organisation of Slovak NGDO Platform - and EC representation in Slovakia. There was also present a head of representation Dušan Chrenek, a head of press office of EC representation Andrej Králik and press & communication officer Ingrid Ludvigová.

Tuesday 8 December 2015

VIKES Joint Trip to Nigeria 2015

The Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (VIKES) took a group of journalists from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Slovakia to Nigeria to introduce them to development issues. Prior to the trip the journalists participated in a training on development issues in Helsinki. Cooperation with the local and experienced journalists made the trip unique.


The journalist worked together with Nigerian colleagues and experts.
Photo Tiit Blaat (Eesti Päevaleht)

Eye-Opening Journey


Six journalists from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Slovakia got the chance to take part in the week-long journey to Nigeria in October 2015. During the first joint study trip organized by VIKES, the journalists spent three days getting to know the environmental problems in Ogoniland and the Niger Delta region. 

Fishing boat near the badly contaminated waters of Goi.
Photo: Tiit Blaat (Eesti Päevaleht)

The day trips took them to the areas that have suffered the most from oil spills and waste discharge since the oil production in the area begun in 1950s. The group visited areas like Bodo, Goi and Ken Saro-Wiwa’s home village Bene together with Nigerian environmental journalists and local environment organization Environment Rights Action. 

The trips taught the journalists that global development issues concern us all. Also, the environmental problems concerning the Ogoni people are not just ”development issues”, they are political questions as well, as one of the participants wrote in his feedback:

”Seeing the effects the pollution has on local communities (and hearing about other, less-visible consequences from experts) was very important for me to actually understand the scope of the problem. I would not say that the situation in Niger Delta is strictly a 'development' issue, however, at least not separated from the politics aspect.”

The journalists also did some more urban stories in the torrential rain of Port Harcourt and spent the last few days in the capital Abuja where they had meetings with national officials and civil society expert Jaye Gaskiya. In Abuja, the group also did individual interviews about Boko Haram and the effects of its recent attacks to the Nigerian society. According to the report by the Australian Economics and Peace Institute,  6 644 civilians were killed in the Boko Harami attacks just in 2014. In Abuja, the journalists, for example, saw the former office building of the ThisDay daily newspaper destroyed in attack by Boko Haram.


A Lesson from Journalists to Journalists


The feedback given by the participants after the trip was very positive. All of the respondents thought that the study trip either was a great success or exceeded their expectations, giving the trip an overall score of 4.6/5.0.

Journalist colleagues Rosita Garskaite, Blessing Ibunge and Riin Aljas.
Photo: Tiit Blaat (Eesti Päevaleht)

The journalists were especially happy about the cooperation with their Nigerian colleagues. The journalists were not taken from one office to another, but they got to do their daily work together with their colleagues. Also, every journalist that participated in the trip would recommend a similar study trip to their a friend or a colleagues. 

The training that VIKES organized in Finland also had very positive effects, since both the local partners and journalists as well as VIKES Nigeria Coordinator Peik Johansson stated that the group had done their homework well.

VIKES and its partners also left the participants a significant amount of time to develop their own ideas and go after their own stories. The cooperation with the local journalists broadened everyone’s perspectives and world views.

A deeper understanding on development issues requires creative methods and real encounters between people. Through the VIKES contacts in developing countries, the journalists can also have chance to work together, share ideas, and understand better the role of media in development. 

Important themes from poverty eradication to climate change can interest people if they are presented through a real and convincing story and encounter. Even complicated global issues need to have a face. The world’s most vulnerable and poorest need to get their voices heard.

The group had time to visit the local markets and follow the daily life in Nigeria.
Photo: Tiit Blaat (Eesti Päevaleht)

We need alternative and multi-voiced sources of information all over the world. Media has a great impact in what we think about the world, and what we think are our most urgent problems. The gap between our world views and the reality becomes even bigger because of the limited resources reserved for foreign news reporting. Campaigns and aid organizations also tend to paint a grim picture of the developing world because they need to collect funds to solve problems and make situations better.

The Media4Development project aims to tackle some of these issues by giving the journalists practical tools, by demolishing stereotypes, and by offering more information about global interdependencies. 

The participants also learned a lot about journalists’ work in Nigeria. The Nigerian environment journalist often work in difficult situations and need to have great determination and attitude towards their work. Being a journalists writing about environmental problems and political issues in Nigeria is not easy, or well-paid, but because of the support and trainings by VIKES the amount of articles on environmental issues have increased. The journalists reporting on environmental issues have gotten to know each other, developed professionally and started a national organization. As a result of this, the local communities suffering from the effects of environmental problems have gotten their voices heard in the media.


Journalists to Communicate about the Sustainable Development Goals!


During the joint study trip to Nigeria, the journalists from the Baltic countries, Slovakia and Czech Republic understood that global issues from poverty to climate change also concern them. As one of the participants writes in her feedback:

”Before the trip I did not know almost anything about oil production or environmental problems in Niger Delta region or any other problems in the region in relation with the oil production. I will very likely work on similar topics (issues regarding environment, poverty, inequality, democracy and climate change) also in the future.”

All the participants thought that the study trip increased their understanding on development issues. The example of our project shows that cooperation between journalists from different countries increases the debate on global development issues in the media. 

The national implementation of the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals is important, but the communication on the goals should focus on broadening people’s perspectives about development and the world. Communications on the Agenda2030 should give people a worldwide perspective on development issues. Supporting journalists and media in Europe and in developing countries promotes successful communication on the Global Goals.

See more photos from the joint study trip: here.