ABSTRACT
This project aims to achieve the empowerment of civil society organizations to guarantee their full participation and assume responsibilities in the spaces that guide the local development process. and the construction of full citizenship. Based on new skills such as the use of social networks, the identification and training of change agents (natural social leaders), as well as conflict management. The work is aimed at transforming the practices of understanding and application of democratic rules and citizen participation in the communities. Along these lines, it offers tools so that the beneficiaries incorporate the issues and problems of social reality into their activism, with an approach that values diversity and promotes equal rights for all citizens. It is intended primarily for Latin America, with special emphasis on Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
The Academy strives to produce a new generation of public policy leaders unwavering in their commitment to free enterprise, democracy, the defense of human values and the fight against climate change. To accomplish this, the Academy identifies, recruits, trains, and places agents of change in government, politics, and the media. In addition to providing knowledge to certain agents that can lead an economic agenda in their nations, and how they can make their economies more functional and green, as well as being actors of fairer societies with respect for human rights.
BACKGROUND
A new ghost is haunting Latin America: fueled by populism, the economic crisis, corruption, violence and eternal inequalities. The convulsive Latin American reality seems to bring a new conflict every day, but given the regional fragmentation and heterogeneity, it is necessary to clarify the differences of each of the struggles so as not to fall into apocalyptic approaches.
Well, to dictatorial regimes associated with a constant and degrading violation of human rights, Venezuela and Nicaragua, join countries where the problems are centered on the economic,
such as Argentina and Chile, on social struggles, such as Ecuador, on political instability, like Peru, or in insecurity and terrorist and social violence, like Colombia and Mexico.
It has also been hit by drug trafficking, insecurity and corruption. Likewise, today there are serious dangers for the stability of the region, the presence of dictatorships such as the Cuban one, which has financed and organized extremist movements in several countries and has managed to destabilize democratically elected governments
Independent governors and mayors are already legion in practically all the Latin American republics, causing an unintelligible atomization of the representation of political life, which manifests the decline of a facet of representative democracy based (until now) on parties. It is about a “presidentialization of political systems and electoral campaigns”, increasingly focused on the personality of the candidate and not on the machinery of the parties, consequently eroding the institutionalization of politics (the contest is about independent individuals with their own ideas and programs rather than parties with structures, ideologies and teams). Thus, the data from the latest report by the Latinobarómetro Corporation is incontestable: public opinion’s trust in parties is the lowest (15%) of all the political institutions asked about. The risks of this situation are high, because in a very short time the politics of Latin America could be pregnant with outsiders, caudillos, unscrupulous rich men or populists with incendiary speeches. Recovering the institutionality of political representation (returning trust in political parties) will be one of the great tasks to be faced by the Latin American political class.
The irruption of the Protestant churches: Latin America continues to be predominantly Catholic. But the data reveals a growth of both secularism and Protestantism in the last quarter century. A reality that has translated into a greater public presence and more political weight. Thus, for example, Guatemala already has an evangelical president, Jimmy Morales. And in Costa Rica, the evangelist Fabricio Alvarado came out on top in the second electoral round. Similarly, in Brazil Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. And in Colombia there were two electoral lists identified with evangelical Christian groups: the Mira Movement and Justa Libres.
Latin America has 8% of the world’s population but accounts for 33% of the murders in the world. These figures show a terrible reality: Latin America continues to be the most violent and unequal region on the planet, although many countries have reduced poverty in economic terms during the last decade. As recently denounced by the organization InspirAction/Christian Aid, in the entire region the per capita income of the richest 10% is 14 times more than that of the poorest 40% of the population. Inequalities in many areas. 45 million indigenous people and 150 million people of African descent represent more than 30% of the population of Latin America, but they are the population with the least income and the fewest opportunities to access education and public services. For their part, women monopolize a large part of informal work, and suffer from the scourge of gender violence, to such an extent that Latin America is one of the most violent regions in the world. Suffice it to remember that of the five most dangerous countries for women in the world, four are in the region, with El Salvador being the country with the highest rate of homicides of women on the planet.
“Overexploitation and unsustainable use of natural resources; air, land and water pollution; increase in the number of invasive alien species and climate change, are, among others, the causes of the degradation, reduction and loss of biodiversity in Latin America”, according to reports from the Intergovernmental Scientific-Policy Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). About 35% of the world’s mammals, 35% of the reptiles, 41% of the birds, and 51% of the amphibians in the world live in the American continent, but they are receiving increasing threats
That is why, from the Foundation NewGeneration present the Latin American Leadership Academy Proposal. The Academy seeks to reach young people so that they can promote the necessary changes in their countries. For this, it will be directed to several functions. One of them would be training or education in areas such as: human rights, government systems, governance, free markets and international politics. A second line of action would be the creation of Forums organized with other civil society organizations derived from the topics previously discussed in the training. The difference is in the use of new technologies for this purpose.
OBJECTIVES
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
1) Creation of the Information Center for Development which will have the task of compiling information on the State of Human Rights, economic and social development and the incidences of climate change. This center will be established in the first days of the start of the project and will function throughout the duration of the project; It will be based on the search for constant information and will be freely accessible. He also plans to work with volunteers in different fields. By December 2021, the Center will prepare 2 annual reports, one for Human Rights and the other for economic and social development and its impact on climate change.
2) The creation of multimedia content to be able to reach the public more easily (Podcast, Online Television, Videos, etc.) For this we will use the new technology tools. The idea is to make an informative program every week (Youtube, Facebook and Podcast) with various guests, academics, activists, journalists, etc. Also upload on the networks with which we have frequent content of educational analyzes regarding democracy, free market, experiences of other nations, effects of public policies for climate change, governance and modern activism (use of social networks)
3) Identify possible agents of change in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
why NewGenerationisfocuses on identifying those -agents- that can generate states of opinion and/or necessary changes at the local level. This would help create a pool of useful assets to move the masses in different contexts. (See experiences of the former Communist Republics in Eastern Europe)
After identifying them, work with them on the concept of -non-violent struggle- adapted to the particularities of the country.
For this we would initially work with allied organizations in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, these would be: Corriente Martiana (Cuba), Cuba Decide, Movimiento 19 Abril (Nicaragua) and Vente Venezuela (Venezuela)
. Later they would be extended to other allied groups and organizations.
Identification process: these people will be identified according to the following characteristics
Training Plan:
After identifying the -change agent- they would be subjected to training in 6 parts or workshops of 2 hours each in small groups (no more than 10 people). Activists such as Rosa Maria Paya and Mariana Corina Machado will participate in them, as well as political actors who apply non-violent struggle.
III. Second step. Expand the information. Practice how you would speak to other people, a larger audience. Thinking of ways to start a conversation or broach the topic of human rights and democracy can help them feel more comfortable and confident. There is no wrong way to reach other people. Carefully consider how you might speak to different audiences such as friends, parents, teachers, and fellow students.
SAW. Give them the tools. At the end of the training, the promoters will present short-term ideas according to their area of action. And follow up. To this end, working groups would be created where the impact of the promoters’ actions in the different areas would be evaluated. The serious measurement, number of people reached, number of activities carried out, number of new promoters.
4) Launch small-scope calls that focus on project priorities, these actions will be small-scale to be developed in the communities (there will be 3 projects in total, 1 for Central America, another for the Caribbean and another for South America) and for the which will be allocated $1,000 each. This call will be made in the form of a contest; Only 3 projects will be approved to be developed in 3 months in small communities, these projects will be approved under the criteria of:
These projects aim to involve communities in the process of awareness, analysis and problem solving and thus identify the advantages for its large-scale application.
5) Carry out training workshops “Latin American Classrooms”. There will be 4 workshops that will be given throughout the year. They will last 20 hours each.
III. Third Workshop: Green I love you Green. This workshop is intended for environmental activists in the region. It seeks to provide educational tools for community social education in order to raise awareness of the effects of the behavior of citizens against the environment to generate public policies that advance towards protection against climate change. format will be in the form of a conference and exchange of ideas. It will last 20 hours, divided into 10 sessions of 2 hours each. 10 students will participate in it and the speakers or professors will be specialists and academics related to the subject.
6) Publish journalistic articles in the magazine NewGenerationNews. These articles are related to the topics on which the project focuses. They are born from the experiences (by way of evaluation) of the workshops described above. The philosophy of the Magazine is liberal and non-partisan with a high humanistic level. The mission is to inform, educate and analyze the Latin American reality, it is intended for Latin America from the European experience. It is also a benchmark for the stories of Latin American refugees in the Netherlands. The target audience is very diverse, due to the diversity of topics. Readers can review and comment through the web platform itself or the application for mobile devices. Until now, the
articles that are published have a reach of more than 1K views per post. The form of writing will be free, they will be admitted from stories, opinion articles, investigations and interviews. Currently, the news website has a reach of almost 20k, in this case, the information is shared (in the case of Facebook) on two more platforms, El Gusanito Mambí (facebook) 8778 followers and NewGenerationNews (facebook) 6802 followers. The platform also has a presence TwitterInstagram, on and _Youtub.
7) Create public campaigns to educate society about the human rights violations that occur in the region, with greater emphasis on the Cuba-Venezuela-Nicaragua trinomial.
This is of vital importance, managing to develop social impact campaigns, whether in the media, with paid advertising, or in strategic locations, both in the region and in other parts of the world where necessary. This would be related to our Communications Plan. These campaigns will also use our communication platforms on social networks.
The campaigns would focus on denouncing human rights violations (at least 3 per year), political prisoners (at least 3 per year) and support for civil society (at least 3 per year) The campaigns will be evaluated according to the level of impact, this is given in the number of people reached:
– High Impact (2000 people)
– Medium Impact (1000 People)
– Low Impact (500 people)
These campaigns are also linked to the report to the European institutions and European governments on human rights violations in Cuba.
Evaluation Plan
The main purpose of this plan is to ensure that the necessary evaluation tasks are carried out in the program, as well as to have the data available to carry out such activities. On the other hand, its integration into the program, from the beginning of its application, makes it possible to understand it as an integral part of it, facilitating an interaction, pertinent and at the right time, between those responsible for the evaluation and the managers of the measures. ; it also ensures that:
Evaluation Questions
○ How many people participate? How many hours are the participants involved? ○ Possible methods to answer these questions: monitoring system, survey among team members about satisfaction with results, goal achievement scale.
Impact on participants: What differences and of what kind has the program or initiative made in its objectives of change?
How has behavior changed as a result of participating in the program? Are the participants satisfied with the experience? Were there any negative outcomes as a result of participating in the program
○ . What was the result of the program? Were there any negative results from the program? Are the benefits greater than the costs of the program?
○ Possible methods to answer these questions: Behavioral surveys, key informant interviews, community level indicators.
Monitoring and Feedback System
This evaluation method has three main elements: