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1. Initiating ‘ICYE Global Reciprocity’ Action (Stephan)

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1. Initiating ‘ICYE Global Reciprocity’ Action (Stephan)

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The aim is to increase mutual understanding and cooperation between NCs.

NC´s are put together in pairs and each pair must develop before the GA a little project (with partner from the Global North – or not). At the GA there is the project presentation (and partnered NC´s do have time to meet and deepen their project ideas). Projects can be big or small; the only rule is that they must be implemented before the GA 2025, and that a brief report must be sent to all NC´s, once the project is completed.

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how to improve cooperation between NCs could be assessed further - What are your ideas on how to improve the cooperation between NCs within your region and across-regions?

(Cooperation outside ICYE) highlighted effort being put into other work online or involves funding.

The opportunity around Regional Cooperation and exchange has not been fully exploited.

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23/28 responding NCs of the NC Cooperation questionnaire confirmed the influence of power dynamics on NC Cooperation. The representation of power dynamics in the way quotas are negotiated accounts for almost 30% of the answers. Other remarkable representations of power structure are in the way volunteers are treated (~21%), in the way decisions are taken (~17%) and in the way we communicate with each other (~17%). The results of this survey concerning power dynamics are important and cannot be overlooked. The following proposed action plans aim to address these points.

All partner to be aware in the conversations: Power relations might be especially at play between partners from the Global North and the Global South. Since there have been misunderstandings within ICYE what this means: Definition by Wikipedia: Global North and Global South - Wikipedia

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From the questionnaire it is clear that most (responding) NCs have exchanges/cooperation with other NCs outside of ICYE programs. The cooperation could be done through other regional networks including CCIVS, ALLIANCE, NVDA,.. and could take different forms like information exchanges, mentorship program, regional meetings, regional groups…

Only 4/30 responding NCs had 100% annual financial turnover through ICYE program and partnership. One thirds had most of the annual financial turnover through ICYE and the rest (about 50%) had very little financial gain from ICYE program.

This means the dependency of an ICYE member on ICYE Federation (and other ICYE members) is different from one NC to another. And this might result in different levels of commitment from NCs towards the Federation as well as different levels of engagement in ICYE’s activities, programs and initiatives. This issue should be taken seriously because if it is not addressed, NCs that are totally dependent on the partnership with ICYE will be badly affected.

The following proposed actions attempt to further analyze and address this issue.

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2. Organizing joint media campaigns monthly to promote programs in different ICYE countries (Mai)

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2. Organizing joint media campaigns monthly to promote programs in different ICYE countries (Mai)

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For example:

- Jan: Indonesia, Kenya, Austria, and Costa Rica

- Feb: Nepal, Ghana, Finland, Ecuador

and so on…

The promoting materials will be prepared by respective NCs. All NCs will share the materials through their promotion channels at the same time (corresponding to the countries of the month) and share the same hashtag (#) on social media…

Objectives:
- To increase visibility of ICYE

- To increase understanding of each other’s program

- To increase cooperation between ICYE members.

- To increase and foster a stronger relationship between NC.

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3. Creating a sub-committee with representatives from each region (Elissa)

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3. Creating a sub-committee with representatives from each region (Elissa)

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to support/facilitate the cooperation and strengthening the cooperation between NCs/regions

the sub-com can consist of regional coordinators from different regions.

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The questionnaire sought to understand how NCs governance and decision making is structured. (Organizational structure is a system of task, reporting and authority relationships within which the work of the organization is done). The rationale of the question is to find how the internal working structure of an NC impacts that NC’s cooperation with other NCs as well as the IO.

Some NCs have a National Assembly kind of structure with a national office as well as regional offices. Where this works, the decision-making process takes long since some decisions must be discussed and approved at all the levels. Whereas this does not affect the cooperation with other NCs or IO, the decision-making process has a bearing on timeliness.

It is also clear that working from home has also impacted on decision making processes of some NCs. In this set up, most decisions have been taken by staff while consultation with the board is sought where decisions have financial implications.

Regarding communication, email and social media (especially WhatsApp, form the most use form of communication between NCs and IO. However, poor communication has been identified as a general problem in the Federation.

In theory and practice, organizational structure has an impact on organizational communication.

Organizational structure determines the manner and extent to which roles, power and responsibilities are delegated, controlled and coordinated. It also shows how information flow between levels of the organization as well as outside the organization.

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A few strong comments spelled out in the questionnaire on NC Cooperation about Europe, or European NCs, raise the need for discussing this further. Among those are the comments:

“until we agree on a common goal. we can never do away with power play since most of us are dependent on the European partners.”

“N/C especially the European partners shouldn't see their role as doing a favor to partners outside Europe. There has to be a common goal that is, expand our scope of operation, new program development, segmentation and targeted program or better still professional exchange. This is the only way we can strengthen the federations and its finances.”

“Across regions we may need to do more marketing of the projects in those regions also highlighting what opportunities are there in those regions i.e Latin America and Asia to also counter the stereotype that Europe is the only favorable region with opportunities for growth.”

This point is an important representation of power relations and power dynamics, and therefore should be addressed.

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Organizing digital decolonize workshops for NC´s in 2024 and in 2025 (two for each NC)

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Organizing digital decolonize workshops for NC´s in 2024 and in 2025 (two for each NC)

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to sensitize ourselves on the topic of decolonizing.

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4. Creating guidelines on quota negotiations (William)

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4. Creating guidelines on quota negotiations (William)

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Creating guidelines on quota negotiations to facilitate more open, clear and sincere quota negotiations, taking into account the followings:

- is the quota determined by the demand of young people, the management skills of NC´s, by something else – or by power?

- In quota talks partners need to explain why they have a certain quota – and why they have certain limits.

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Organizing short-term staff exchanges between ICYE NCs in different regions

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Organizing short-term staff exchanges between ICYE NCs in different regions

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Objectives:
- To increase understanding of each other’s programs and ways of working

- To increase staff capacity

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The IO facilitates NC organizational Capacity Assessment

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The IO facilitates NC organizational Capacity Assessment

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It is clear that NCs have structural challenges which emanate from poor organizational structures. It is also clear that these structural challenges are NC context.

The Federation cannot address this issue unless they understand what kind of structural challenges each NC faces.

This can be done via an assessment tool.

The tool should cover both organizational hardware and software (hard and soft issues)

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Training NCs on governance and communication

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Training NCs on governance and communication

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NCs have these challenges because of capacity gaps. This can only be corrected by empowering the NC governance structures via training/capacity building.

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Refining the Federation communication guidelines

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Refining the Federation communication guidelines

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The Federation has already engaged and developed communication guidelines.

A WG can look at the guidelines and suggest improvement.

This can arise from the engagement at the GA- Sharing best practices

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A session on sharing best practices in organizational structure and communication at every GA

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A session on sharing best practices in organizational structure and communication at every GA

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NCs need to share ideas of how their governance works, their organizational structure, how organizational communication is done, the challenges they face and best practices.

A session during every GA will be a good platform for this.

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Organizing (optional) regular online meet-ups (e.g. quarterly) for all NCs 

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Organizing (optional) regular online meet-ups (e.g. quarterly) for all NCs 

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Organizing (optional) regular online meet-ups (e.g. quarterly) for all NCs (can be done at different timezones to ensure as many NC as possible can participate). This can also be done regionally.
Objectives:
- To offer a space for free sharing, chit-chatting…

- To enhance mutual understanding, build trust

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Organizing a team-building activity at GA

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Organizing a team-building activity at GA

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to build trust and mutual understanding

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Organizing a discussion session on this topic at GA 2023 (if time allows)

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Organizing a discussion session on this topic at GA 2023 (if time allows)

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to come up with practical actions to increase cooperation between ICYE

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Sending a short survey to all NCs:
- To understand reasons for exchanges outside of ICYE

- To evaluate if and how exchanges within ICYE can be increased

- To ascertain the lower level of quota from the N/C’s: is it because of quality service, higher fees, programme variety?

Possible questions can be:

- what are the reasons for your cooperation with partners outside of ICYE Federation?

- would you like to increase the cooperation within ICYE? Please state an explanation for your answer.

- in your opinion, is this important or necessary to increase the cooperation within ICYE? If no, why? If yes, what should be done to increase the cooperation within ICYE?

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Organizing discussion session at GA (or online)

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Organizing discussion session at GA (or online)

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Organizing discussion session at GA (or online) on the interconnection between NCs, especially between NCs in ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’.
The aim is to understand the situation better. Eg: Are European NCs the source of the ‘problem’ or the imbalance power structure within ICYE? What is the role of non-Europeans from the Global South in this?

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Organizing follow-up workshops on those decolonize workshops for smaller groups 4-5 NC´s in order to deepen dialogue and understanding between NC´s and on the topic To create spaces for dialogue on the topic - directly and indirectly.

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Setting up spaces for open and sincere dialogue, wherever possible

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Setting up spaces for open and sincere dialogue, wherever possible

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To create spaces for dialogue on the topic - directly and indirectly.

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Regional Meetings hosted by NCs

Create topics or goals for meetings

Training Meetings across regions

-marketing

-HR

-volunteer mgmt

Could begin development online or at the GA

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5. Organizing a discussion session at GA 2023 to address the topic - on power dynamics (Mobisa)

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5. Organizing a discussion session at GA 2023 to address the topic - on power dynamics (Mobisa)

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- to understand different viewpoints from NCs around the topic of power dynamics, Europe Reciprocity and Dependencies (on ICYE and non-ICYE programs)
- to understand what can/should be done about this
- to come up with some ideas for actions to address the issue (if any)

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NCs to contribute to a list of what they are doing and opportunities in collaboration within their countries
-Taking into account Courtney's Grant Database