Slight Return

After a significant hiatus from this blog, during which I have travelled quite a bit (South Africa, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Nigeria, Northern Ireland and Belgium) and kept up posting at httP://ideasnotbeliefs.blogspot.com a recent experience has prompted me to resume sharing some reflections, though by its nature this post is less about travel than it is work. Having had a powerful time in Cairo recently working with 3 fantastic colleagues and 45+ great participants I felt compelled to share some (trimmed) reflections I have been writing. Having had these notes grow and grow over time I’ve decided to put it out there and amend any massive errors, repetition later so apologies if in the mean time it doesn’t read particularly cleanly. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

I was part of a team of four facilitators commissioned to deliver a 5 Day training programme for over 40 young people from 9 different countries; Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Libya, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Kuwait and the UK, as part of the British Council Global Changemakers programme. Convened at short notice by the British Youth Council, who were brought in at short notice after the assigned trainers dropped out, we had a very tight timeframe to pull together a working agenda for 4 days covering Leadership, Community Organising, Participation, Team Work, Dialogue and numerous other subjects. Having a full time job that meant I was participating two in residentials in the week immediately preceding this endeavour made life even more interesting? I’m rarely one to turn to down a challenge though…

I arrived at about 5AM at a generic hotel far from the centre of Cairo and didn’t get to leave it for my first 3 days working on the programme. This probably impacted negatively on my understanding of and feel for the process and the participants. I felt culturally dislocated in the environment as I literally had not seen Egypt and taken moments to acclimatise to the people, buildings, smells etc around me, all of the small things I appreciate in a new place. That said, just turning up and getting involved meant that I really didn’t have time to worry or get nervous beyond that useful well of nervous energy that accompanies all facilitation. Having come direct from another residential activity I felt ‘warmed up’ and could hit the ground running. The group was also very welcoming and throughout the week I was continually impressed by their energy, interest and response to the often challenging work we were inviting them to take on.

Working on the fly, being alert to possibilities and pitfalls as they emerge, and taking on some emotional weight and responsibility for the journey of the participants I am working with is at once energising and draining. Finding space and stillness, away from the noise and people, is a physical necessity at times, as sessions and ‘breaks’ bleed together. One wonders what we gain and lose from doing things this way. It certainly feels exhilarating.

There are words and concepts that the British Council and we as a team of external facilitators had given particular significance too by virtue of their inclusion on the programme: Participation, Power, Change, Campaigning, Advocacy, and Community Organising. These are both complex and charged, that’s what makes them valuable but also demands a great deal of consideration in introducing to participants, Being used to working with young people in a UK context, I entered the situation with an awareness of the need to tailor the work to draw upon the realities of the young Arabs rather than my own imposed assumptions.

These considerations were important on day one when I led a session of Participation in the afternoon, drawing upon Roger Hart’s infamous Ladder of Participation. Not everyone grasped the ideas immediately but proved to be a good way of drawing out both the diversity of projects the participants were involved in and some of their underlying thoughts and feelings about how much influence they had within them and the degree of initiative they were taking. The group was asked to map current or past initiatives by theme and by degree of youth participation (from tokenism to Youth Led, partnered with adults). From drug rehabilitation in Libya to Greening Cities in Jordan to building Libraries in Qatar, these young activists have a lot to be proud of and even bigger aspirations. One of the major challenges in the countries they work in is overcoming the divisions between haves and have nots to engage those less privileged in terms of economic and education opportunity, to be at the core of change, rather than passive recipients of well intentioned but potentially ill informed interventions. The sharing facilitated by this session was a modest step to prompting each individual and group to reflect on how they were involving the community in their work and to learn from one anothers experiences. We returned to this challenge repeatedly throughout the week, introducing new tools.

Later in the week I had to creating a campaigning workshop from scratch, having learnt from the previous sessions and thrown my formative plan out of the window I was able, in a matter of a hour or less, to pull together a session that balanced global examples with local considerations, gave key information and asked key questions, managed to use powerpoint (which I’m not a great fan of but some participants seemed less assured without in other sessions) and got them active. Challenging the group to implement their learning immediately gave the process a real anchor. There was also a thread of work throughout the week on dialogue, which I will address in a separate post.

What was brought home to me about the host country specifically during the week was how the National Myth of Egyptian Militarism and Independence draws heavily on the legacy of the 1967 war with Israel. No less so than the British identity revolves around the manufactured glory of the Second World War. This seems to partially enable the dominance and corruption of an undemocratic and often repressive military regime that is heavily reliant on the US for support and therefore a regional ally of Israel, just as the virulently anti Zionist Wahabi-Saud regime in Saudi Arabia is (and both are also of course in bed with the British government to varying degrees). The irony of this polygamous marriage of convenience was not lost on all participants as some contributions and later conversations showed. As soon as you talk about change, or power, or participation, you are talking politics, and that brings with it a degree of risk and responsibility. Many participants were far from means niave about the shortcomings of their leaders and are not waiting around for solutions to come from the old guard who have entrenched serious social problems.

What all of the ‘Changemakers’ held in common with their colleagues from other states, whether inspired by a Monarch, as in the case of Bahrain and Qatar, Musicians, politicians or activists or simply by the issues they observe in their societies all of these young activists are already acting to transform their worlds using their energy, ideas and passion, time tested methods and newer technologies like social media, and connecting regionally. If any way we supported them to think differently and enrich their work then that’s great. Otherwise the learning and pleasure from this week was all mine.


Other reflections….

On the wisdom of having 4 British facilitators who speak no Arabic lead 4 intensive days of discussion, dialogue and activity with 45+ energetic and opinionated young people from the Middle East and North Africa: Hmmmmm….

On the absolute beauty and utility of having committed, determined and talented colleagues volunteer their time, energy and expertise to help us paper over the cracks and pull together our programme using the adhesive of interpretation and translation: Yay!!

Presenting with the audiences varied linguistic capacities in mind one finds one self, eventually, beginning to articulate in a more concise, clear and simple manner and (hopefully) delivering the same information in a more universally accessible way without resorting to a didactic and inflexible style of delivery. I still want to learn Arabic and with imminent travel in Southern Sudan looming, the imperative to do so grows ever stronger (though I think I’ll need Dinka more!).

I’m excited about the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, having felt the tangible joy from the Qatari delegation about the opportunity to host the first Arab world cup.

GCM MENA

http://globalchangemakers-mena.net/

Egypt Workshop Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieHXYeK7Leg

Power analysis

http://www.powercube.net/analyse-power/

Harts Ladder
http://www.freechild.org/ladder.htm