Dear Journalist,
In September, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, international civil society groups, donars and government representatives will unite at 10th CIVICUS World Assembly in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This year four young journalists from developing countries have the chance to attend the largest gathering of civil society activists in the world in all expenses paid prize. Read below to see how you can win and find information about the keynote speakers of the event.
What is the prize?
Through a full bursary (including travel, accommodation and registration), the four journalists will have full access to all keynote plenary sessions and activity sessions that will take place at the Youth Assembly on 8 September and at the World Assembly on 10-12 September.
They will also have unique one on one opportunities to interview all keynote speakers.
How do you qualify?
You qualify if you are an active journalist who:
- Has a background in covering civil society issues (such as development effectiveness, new technologies, democratic space and climate justice)
- Are a citizen of a developing country
- Are between 18 and 30 years of age.
The journalist will also have a thoughtful and feasible dissemination plan to use their reports as a tool to raise awareness of the human rights or social justice issues explored at the event with a goal to bring about change.
While creative freedom will be left to the individual journalist, they will be required to report on a minimum of two sessions per day in the language of choice (Spanish, English, and French).
How to apply?
To apply for this prize, submit your CV, a writing sample and a 250 word article on why it is important for civil society to engage with the media to before 15 June 2011.
The chosen journalists will be informed before 30 June 2011.
The CIVICUS World Assembly is the premier global gathering of civil society organisations, donors and representatives of government, international institutions and business to seek collaborative ways to strengthen the rights of citizens around the globe. This year, the focus is on the essential role of civil society in global decision-making. As governments of varied ideological persuasions crack down ever more harshly against dissent, challenges to their authority or lack of accountability and basic freedoms of expression and association, it is clear that civil society needs to come together in order to strengthen our ability to act for a more just world.
Under its overarching theme of "Acting together for a just world", the 2011 World Assembly will focus on "Civil Society and Global Decision-Making: Doing It Better" through a programme divided in four thematic tracks:
- Development Effectiveness
- Climate Justice
- Connecting People through Technology
- Civil Society and Democratic Space
For more information, visit www.civicusassembly.org.
The 2011 Speakers
Matt Dunne
Head of Community Affairs, Google Inc.
Matt Dunne, is the Manager of Community Affairs for Google, acting as a liaison between the company and communities around the world. He promotes productive partnerships between the private and public sectors, and plays a critical role in maintaining local corporate social responsibility. Matt attended Brown University and majored in Public Policy, graduating in 1992. He served four terms in the Vermont House of Representatives, two terms in the Vermont State Senate, was the Democratic candidate in the 2006 Vermont Lt. Governor's race. As the Director of the AmeriCorps*VISTA program, an organization that oversees over 6,000 full-time volunteers in the fight against poverty, he continued his strong commitment in engaging youth in government and community service. He was also Associate Director for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy where he oversaw programs to prepare young people for careers in non-profit management and public service including the Policy Research Shop.
Kumi Naidoo
Director General, Greenpeace International, South Africa
Kumi Naidoo became Greenpeace International Executive Director in 2009.
Born in South Africa, Kumi became involved in the country's liberation struggle at the age of 15. As a result of his anti-apartheid activities, he was expelled from high school. He was very involved in neighbourhood organisation, youth work in his community, and mass mobilisations against the apartheid regime. In 1986, Kumi was arrested and charged for violating the state of emergency regulations. He went underground for one year before finally deciding to live in exile in England. During this time he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and earned a doctorate in political sociology. Kumi became the founding executive director of the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), an umbrella agency for the South African NGO community. Moved by the fact that South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women, Kumi organised the National Men's March Against Violence on Women and Children in 1997.From 1998 to 2008, Kumi was the Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.
Executive Director of the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA)
Kelly Rigg is the Executive Director of the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA), a global alliance of 250 organizations cooperating under the banner of the tcktcktck campaign. She has been leading international campaigns for nearly 30 years on climate, energy, oceans, Antarctica and other issues. She was a senior campaign director for Greenpeace International during 20 years with the organization. After leaving Greenpeace she went on to found the Varda Group consultancy providing campaign and strategic advice to a wide range of NGOs, and led the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition's campaign to protect the high seas from destructive bottom fishing
Anabel Cruz
Founding director from the Institute for Communication and Development, Uruguay
Anabel Cruz is the Founder Director of ICD (Communication and Development Institute), a research centre and NGO support organisation in Uruguay. Anabel has a long history in working to strengthen citizen participation in Uruguay and all over the world. She has conducted extensive research into the role of civil society, particularly non-governmental organisations (NGO), in building democracy and citizenship and their participation in development processes in the Latin American post-dictatorship era. She has collaborated in research work aimed at generating adequate social indicators and in the impact evaluation of development projects in the Americas and elsewhere. She has advised Consumers International and other international networks on implementing and evaluating development, information and communication projects, as well as United Nation specialised agencies and European cooperation agencies. Annabel Cruz is a member of ISTR (International Society for Third Sector Research), founder of the National Association of NGOs in Uruguay and the International Foundation El Taller. She is currently a board member of PTF, the Partnership Transparency Fund.
Maina Kiai
Executive Director of the International Council on Human Rights Policy
Maina Kiai is the Executive Director of the International Council on Human Rights Policy. A lawyer, advocate and film-maker, he has spent the last twenty years campaigning for human rights and constitutional reform in Kenya - notably as founder and Executive Director of the unofficial Kenya Human Rights Commission, and then as Chairman of Kenya's National Human Rights Commission (2003-2008), where he won a national reputation for his courageous and effective advocacy against official corruption, in support of political reform, and against impunity following the orchestrated violence that convulsed Kenya in 2008, causing thousands of deaths. Trained in law at Nairobi University and Harvard, Maina has spent periods in London as Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme (1999-2001) and in the United States as Africa Director of the International Human Rights Law Group (now Global Rights, 2001-2003). Most recently he has collaborated with the Movement for Political Accountability, Voxcom Ltd, and InformAction, using television and film in imaginative ways to inform and educate Kenyans across the country about their rights.
Mozn Hassan
Executive Director of Nazra for Feminist Studies, Egypt
Ms. Mozn Hassan is the founder and Executive Director of Nazra for Feminist Studies ( www.nazra.org) since December 2007. Nazra is a youth initiative to integrate gender and feminism in the Egyptian society Her research interests range from combating violence against women, to history of feminism in Egypt, to early child marriage. She has an MA from the American University in Cairo with a thesis on "Legal Interpretations to the Right to Divorce and Polygamy and the Egyptian Feminist Movement". Ms. Hassan serves as Egypt advisor with the Global Fund for Women and as UNDP project formulation consultant with the project "Combating Female Genital Mutilation". She is also a consultant with African Women's Development and Communication Network- FEMNET in a study of Promoting African Women's Economic Empowerment through Gender Responsive Trade Agreement. Her forthcoming published articles include Islamic interpretations for women's issues and the availability to create Islamic feminism movement, Muslim brotherhood case study" Democracy Review and a research on Early Child Marriage with Women Living Under Muslim Laws- Africa and Middle East Office.
Alancay Morales
Youth Association of Boruca (ASJOB)
Alancay Morales , is the youth coordinator of Kus Kura S.C, an Indigenous NGO in Costa Rica working on the promotion of sustainable development of the indigenous peoples in the region. He belongs to the indigenous people of Boruca-Terraba. He is also the leader of the Youth Association of Boruca (ASJOB), and has participated in a series of events, national and international as an indigenous representative.
Jay Naidoo
Chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), South Africa
Jay Naidoo is Chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) an international organisation head-quartered in Geneva, Switzerland, committed to addressing malnutrition facing two billion people in the world. GAIN is a public-private partnership that brings together UN Agencies, private businesses, philanthropic organizations, Governments and civil society around practical programmes in close to 25 countries in the world. A leading anti-apartheid activist, Jay was also the founding General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the country's largest federation of unions, which played a leading role in the struggle for freedom in South Africa. From 1994 to 1999, he was Minister in the President's Office responsible for the Reconstruction and Development Programme and later Minister of Communications in President Nelson Mandela's cabinet. In 2000, Jay co-founded the J&J Group, a management and investment Company with interests in the financial services, ICT, Energy and infrastructure sectors. In 2007 the company setup the J&J Group Development Trust to work on a range of development projects in the health, education fields. Currently, Jay sits on a range of international advisory boards and is recipient of numerous awards including the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur from the French Government in 2006. He is married to award-winning writer and journalist, Lucie Page, and considers his three children as his greatest achievement.
Miguel Palacín Quispe
Coordinador General de la Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígena (CAOI)
Miguel Palacin Quispe, an indigenous leader Quechua of Peru, is the first General Coordinator of the Andean Group of Indigenous Organizations(IOTC). Orginally from the Community of Vicco, located in the Pasco region in the Peruvian central Andes, he founded the National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining in Peru (CONACAMI) in 1999 with indigenous leaders from communities affected by mining. This organisation has challenged the economic policies of extractive industries. Miguel Palacin Quispe fights for the rights of indigenous peoples in Latin America, for the recognition of their diversity of and their inclusion in political decision-making through the development of intercultural public policies.
Hamouda Soubhi
Executive Director of the Morrocan Network for Euro-Mediterranean NGOs
Hamouda Soubhi is the Executive Director of the Morrocan Network for Euro-Mediterranean NGOs. He is both a co-founder of Alternatives in Montréal and of the Forum des alternatives Sud in Morocco. He sits on the Governance Council of Alternatives International and plays an essential role within the Liaison Commitee of the International Council of the World Social Forum. He is Alternatives International' representative into Alternatives Board.
Everjoice J. Win
Ms. Everjoice J. Win, Head of Women's Rights, Action-Aid International
A feminist - activist from Zimbabwe, Everjoice J. Win has been active in the women's and social justice movements in Zimbabwe and the African continent for the greater part of her life. She has worked with the Women's Action Group and the pan-African Women in Law and Development in Africa, and served as consultant to many local and international NGOs. At ActionAid International Everjoice is the head of one of the organization's six human rights themes - women's rights. Based in AAI's international secretariat in Johannesburg, she provides overall strategic leadership, guidance and support on policy, campaigns, and campaigns. Ms. Win previously served as a Commonwealth Technical Advisor to the Commission on Gender Equality of South Africa. She has served on the boards of several civil society and women's rights organizations, including; as co-founder of the pro-democracy National Constitutional Assembly of Zimbabwe; the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Women and AIDS Support Network, the Association of Women's Rights in Development. Miss Win is a writer and contributor to newspapers, magazines and journals.
