The programme draws on different participatory and interactive sessions to stimulate participants' critical reflection on their roles in communities, networks, and organisations.
The Bridge 47 global event forms part of the International Civil Society Week (ICSW), organized by CIVICUS and Gradjanske Inicijative between 8-12 April. It will bring together more than 150 prominent thinkers, activists, academics and civil society organizations working with the different types of value-based education. Together, we will be given a platform to meet new peers, share ideas, tools and experiences, as well as critically reflect on the role and power of the global citizenship education as a tool to mobilize citizens and address pressing global challenges.
We are now proud to announce the official programme, which includes a range of different participatory and highly interactive sessions, aimed to stimulate participant critical reflection on the roles have in their communities, networks, organisations etc., as well as re-assess the ways civil society organisations facilitate a dialogue with citizens and engage them.
Bridge 47 Global Event programme
Global Citizenship Education: Recalibrating Civic Action for Systemic Change
Belgrade, 9 & 10 April 2019
MONDAY, 8 APRIL
17:30 - 20:30 ICSW 2019 Opening Ceremony & Drinks Reception (all ICSW participants)
CIVICUS and Civic Initiatives welcome you to International Civil Society Week 2019 in Belgrade, Serbia. ICSW 2019 will bring together more than 700 activists and organisations to connect, debate and create shared solutions related to this year’s theme, “The Power of Togetherness”. The opening ceremony and welcome reception set the scene for a week-long series of events aimed at sharing ideas, catalysing positive social change, exchanging tools that enhance citizen action, and celebrating people power.
TUESDAY, 9 APRIL
9:00 - 10:30 ICSW Plenary session “Building Solidarity across Divides” (all ICSW participants)
This plenary session will explore how to build meaningful collaborations in complex and divisive times. Bridge 47 will be represented in the panel.
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee and tea break
11:00 – 13:30 “Global Citizenship Education: Reclaiming Power” (closed session for Bridge 47 participants)
Citizens are significantly more likely to take on the task of changing the world if they can imagine a different world in the first place. If we cannot make citizens dream, we will certainly not get them to act. Global citizenship education (GCE) and its imaginative and creative methodology are a crucial tool to consider systematically marginalized groups and support citizens rethinking their world views and power relations in mainstream discourses.
However, which assumptions do we need to let go of for GCE to have a more meaningful impact? What worldviews do we want to “compost” for our work to be impactful in these challenging, divisive times? What polarities and paradoxes do we need to embrace to be more radical?
Objectives:
- Exploring how GCE unfolds a transformative power to benefit civil society efforts in mobilizing citizens and addressing global challenges
- Creating a shared understanding of the essence of GCE
13:30 – 15:00 Lunch and facilitated networking (all ICSW participants)
15:00 – 17:30 “Global Citizenship Education: The Power of Sharing Power” (Bridge 47 session open for all ICSW participants)
As an empowering lifelong education, Global Citizenship Education is a tool for civil society organisations to reach out to their target audiences and engage with citizens. But it is also much more. Adjusting the civil society raison d’être in turbulent times requires challenging ourselves as activists and enthusiasts. It requires us to rethink our own contexts and the roles we play in our organizations, networks, communities, regions and beyond. We need to not only express and confront ourselves, but also to be one with each other. To dissect our assumptions, critically reflect on them and re-assemble the pieces into a puzzle of a more solidary and braver new world.
How do we share power with citizens? How do we make people feel powerful? How can we employ deep listening to better address people’s needs and concerns? Why is it crucial to get out of our comfort zone, and move from preaching to co-creation of solutions? Who do we need in order to make our dreams a reality and why are they not our allies already?
Objectives:
- Co-learning how to collaborate across divides, transforming diversity into strength
- To motivate participants to actively use effective GCE approaches and methodologies for critical self-reflection, as well as supporting civic action
- To inspire participants with new ideas, tools and resources to work together for social change
17:30 – 18:00 Coffee and tea break
18:00 – 19:00 “Global Citizenship Education: The Power of Posing Questions” (closed session for Bridge 47 participants)
When it comes to taking on the complex systems rooted in deepening inequalities, socio-economic injustice and environmental race to the bottom, the capacity of “sage on the stage” style of education is limited. A search for global solutions is not based on providing the right answers. It is to be based on the right questions, with the first one being: What kind of world do we want to live in?
How to phrase a powerful question? How do we facilitate a search for global solutions through question posing? How do we improve each other’s’ questions?
Objectives:
- To focus our individual and collective inquiry about emerging challenges and opportunities for civil society in complex, divisive times
- To prepare for the learning expedition within ICSW, strengthening the impact of GCE for transformative change
19:00 - 21:00 Dinner and cocktail reception
WEDNESDAY, 10 APRIL
9:00 – 10:30 ICSW Plenary session “Collective Action for Transformative Change” (all ICSW participants)
This session will examine key “force multipliers” to identify the most effective ways civil society can scale current efforts.
11:00 – 13:00 Concurrent Event Sessions (all ICSW participants)
OPTION 1: Providing Emergency Assistance to CSOs under Threat or Attack (Lifeline Embattled CSO Assistance Fund)
OPTION 2: Resiliency Framework – Adaption, Evolution, Renewal (PartnersGlobal)
OPTION 3: Transforming Social Change for the Networked Age (MobLab)
OPTION 4: Mechanics of Constituency-based Accountability (Accountable Now, Keystone and Civicus)
OPTION 5: Understanding and Responding to Threats to Civic Space (VUKA Coalition for Civic Action and Civicus)
13:30 – 15:00 Lunch and facilitated networking (all ICSW participants)
15:00 – 17:30 “Global Citizenship Education and Listening to the Future” (closed session for Bridge 47 participants)
In the closing session of the Bridge 47 global event, we will dive deep into our experiences in the last two days. By listening to the future, we will make a distinction between assumptions and practices that do not serve our purpose anymore and those that help us march towards the tomorrow we long for.
What have we learned and how are we different thanks to this experience? What has shaken up our comfort zone? How do we nourish the feeling of inspiration that we are experiencing right here, right now? Finally, how do we stay connected and help each other feel powerful?
Objectives:
- Share learnings of the last two days
- Find personal ways forward
ICSW Organised Dinner (all ICSW participants)