PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

Anna Phommachanthone’s Background and Origin

As someone from an impacted community, Anna made the decision to reconnect with her Lao roots. She decided to reach out to Legacies of War in order to advocate and work towards a better future for her ancestral home. She is only one example of many making a similar journey. This influenced her development of Khao Niew’s Classroom and her involvement with other projects; Thip Khao Talk, Legacies Library and the Lao Heritage Foundation (LHF) Virtual Camp.

Born in Luang Prabang, Laos, Anna Phommachanthone’s early childhood was filled with Lao traditions. Her environment changed when her parents made the difficult decision to uproot their family to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in order to provide her with an American education. Like any other Lao-American in the early 2000s, Anna grew up watching the Disney Channel, playing outside in the neighbourhood, going to family parties and overhearing adult conversations about ‘the war’. Knowing very little about Lao history, she assumed ‘the war’ they were talking about had happened hundreds of years ago. However, the older she got, the more she became aware that all her family members experienced it. Even her own life, to some extent, was the product of war. Her family wouldn’t be in America if the American Secret War in Laos had never happened.

Although Lao culture was alive in her household, the small Laotian population living in her area meant there was a lack of a sense of community. At high school, Anna decided to take the matter into her own hands, seeking out Lao organisations through the internet. She stumbled upon Legacies of War’s (LoW) website through a few Facebook searches and read through every page. She then patiently waited for two years until she was eligible to apply for an internship with Legacies.

Anna is one example of many young Lao-Americans who learned about their family’s past by putting together the pieces of history. On her internship application, she expressed a strong interest in knowing her roots through history and connecting to other Lao-Americans. With her determination to make an impact on other Lao-Americans who are on a similar journey, she influenced the creation of Khao Niew’s Classroom (KNC). This is a virtual classroom producing content to inspire democratic engagement and educate youth – particularly among the diaspora community – in advocacy, culture, and unexploded ordnance and mine-removal work.

She made an initial draft of her first version of Khao Niew, showed it to the team for fun, and the rest is history. With Lao culture rarely seen in media, the creation of Khao Niew’s Classroom became a tool to educate a younger audience about the history of the American Secret War in Laos, our work, and Lao culture. It also gives them representation and shows that symbols of Laos can be fun, playful, and informative.

‘Sticky Rice Model’ of Community Engagement

Anna’s participation at Legacies represents the grassroots efforts that we engage in to activate changemakers in our ‘Sticky Rice Model’ including youth advocates. 

LoW is committed to fostering a healthy partnership between the United States and Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), in order to remove the remnants of violent conflict while fostering peace and reconciliation. It has developed its own model, the ‘Sticky Rice Model for power mapping’, which can be used to visualise the support and influence of groups and individuals, placing them into categories that can be transformed into an action plan. As a food staple of Laos, sticky rice serves as an effective metaphor for the power mapping strategy that LoW uses. Each grain in a sticky rice ball is necessary to create a network of influence, just as each member of a network plays their own role. Furthermore, the flexible and malleable nature of a sticky rice ball helps us to visualise the ways in which we can shape and influence our own networks in order to strengthen partnerships and achieve advocacy goals. Just as sticky rice is a staple food, so the model for community engagement is the foundation for how we activate, engage, and fuel grassroots efforts to change policy and help drive change for humanitarian assistance in Southeast Asia. 

The Sticky Rice Model helped LoW to plan strategic engagement with both Senator Patrick Leahy (ret.) and Former US President Obama for over a decade. This helped to expand the US’s partnerships and humanitarian efforts for Southeast Asia and put in place foreign policy to support the region. Through this model, LoW has rallied support from a series of unlikely allies, including youth advocates, government officials, veterans, anti-war activists, and intergenerational members of the global Southeast Asian community. Anna is a prime example of the success of the sticky rice model because her participation was activated by the formation of the sticky rice ball – our map of influence for advocacy centred on the Southeast Asian youth. 

Through this model, Anna’s influence as a youth advocate has helped engaged congressional offices in Pennsylvania towards action on removing mines. As a result of her advocacy work, she has helped activate and further the participation of her member of Congress, Senator Lloyd Smucker, in responding to and joining the Global UXO/Demining Caucus, which now has 47 members. Anna has also supported a grassroots initiative that activated advocates in all 50 states, resulting in a letter-writing campaign to over 9,200 elected officials in 2022 within seven days. Her power map has also included a network of over 180 youth advocates and interns that she has trained under this model. The Sticky Rice Model provides a framework for the pipeline of youth advocates interested in engaging their networks for campaigns, workshops, and educational initiatives meant to garner support from policymakers and the general public. 

Anna as a role model for other Lao-Americans and war-impacted countries

Anna was the first Legacies intern to travel to Laos with LoW. This highlighted the importance of bringing a Lao-American youth on the trip, because they are the next generation of leaders and play an essential role in bringing the US and Laos together. During her trip, Anna was able to meet the leaders of Mines Advisory Group (MAG), the HALO Trust and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and found out about their work. She was also meeting and talking to women her own age who are working to remove mines. We believe it is crucial for Lao-Americans to be able to visit Laos and absorb their heritage, and to see for themselves how they can become involved and invest in the Laos diaspora living in the U.S.

Khao Niew’s Classroom’s lessons started as multiple graphics. While this continues to be a form that we use, we quickly learned that creating video lessons would broaden its reach as they would be easy to share. Anna now works to illustrate and animate each lesson.

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In Siddharthnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India, The YP Foundation has been promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for the past five years. Initially, the community didn’t take SRHR seriously, and there were evident gaps in accessing crucial health services, including safe abortion and contraceptives. There was a clear lack of awareness about SRHR. The youth in the community expressed their discomfort in discussing or asking questions about their bodies and SRHR due to existing societal taboos and the shame tied to these topics. Even discussing pleasure was met with giggles or uneasy looks. However, over the years, we’ve focused on strengthening the community’s understanding of SRHR through a holistic program named ‘Know Your Body, Know Your Rights.

ENABLING FACTORS

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

With a plethora of misinformation, shame and stigma attached to sexual and reproductive health concerns, the community was unable to access basic healthcare and demand their rights. Following the curriculum implementation, on the basis of a longitudinal study, a 50% knowledge shift within the community was observed. Some participants have blossomed into CSE advocates, not only in their own homes but also in their neighbouring communities through the peer education model of the programme.

With the increase in awareness about individual SRHR, access to contraception and safe abortion services was identified as a strong ask and need from the community. ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers are government volunteers mandated to provide reproductive counselling and contraceptive devices at village level. Previously, a lack of resources, training for the ASHA workers and a steady supply of contraceptives were all noted.

At the block level, the community health care centre did not offer a private space for women to meet with a gynaecologist. On many occasions, the general practitioner performed reproductive consultations as there was no gynaecologist assigned to the centre. The supplies of condoms and other forms of contraception were erratic. There were no abortion services available at the community healthcare centre, leading to the people traveling to district hospital to be able to access services for the medical or surgical termination of pregnancy. An hour’s travel in a rural area – where most people do not have their own vehicle – is often prohibitive to an individual’s ability to access the reproductive services that they need. 

The protest march and 10-day campaign centred around two demands from the community: a) the availability of ultrasound devices, Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) services at the Community Healthcare Centre (CHC); and b) regular and easy availability of barrier and medical forms of contraception at the CHC as well as with ASHA workers. The community took part in a signature campaign, which was then attached to the list of demands that we presented to the government officials. 

On 26 September 2022, 375 members of the community marched through the village in protest, demanding accessibility to these services. The community had the opportunity to advocate for their needs directly with the government, via a town hall meeting. 

Finally, the public pressure created by the march, the demands letter and the town hall meeting produced a positive response from the government. Some of the community’s demands were fulfilled within three months, an achievement unheard of in rural India. The village now has a gynaecologist assigned to the CHC, along with an ultrasound technician. These steps have also successfully ensured a constant and steady supply of contraceptive methods, both with the ASHA workers and at the CHC.

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For the Summit for Democracy Year of Action, Save the Children (SC) hosted nine national roundtables, providing platforms for young people and local civil society to speak directly to their governments about their leading issues for democratic reform and renewal. One of the nine participating countries was Zambia, where adolescents from across the country called on their government to improve children’s participation in public decision making in order to strengthen democracy.

ENABLING FACTORS

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

While the promotion of human rights was at the top of the agenda at the first Summit for Democracy in December 2021, there was limited conversation specifically around children and young people’s rights, and little opportunity to hear from them directly. Though young people under the age of18 cannot vote in most contexts, they can be civic actors for strong democracies – children and youth have a right to influence those government decisions that will affect them, and they can be powerful defenders of human rights. 

To bring a greater focus on children and young people during the Summit for Democracy Year of Action, Save the Children US (SCUS) provided a small grant to each participating SC country office – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, the United States and Zambia – interested in facilitating the participation of diverse young people and local civil society to call for government action on issues of importance to them.

SCUS offered technical assistance by way of background on the US-hosted Summit for Democracy, as well as facilitating contacts with the US Embassy / US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in each country. Save the Children’s in-county offices focused the roundtables on issues from their advocacy agendas relating to democratic strengthening and the fulfilment of children and young people’s rights in their country. These topics included transparency and access to [especially child-friendly] information, accountability for previously signed international commitments (e.g. the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Safe Schools declaration), public participation in decision-making, fair financing for public services for children and young people, climate justice, girls’ political leadership and more. 

Case Description – Spotlight on Zambia Children’s Dialogue on Democracy 

Following a day of preparation and interactive conversation with democracy and rights activists from civil society, the young people decided on their key ‘asks’ for the Zambian President: 

1. To improve children’s participation in public decision making.
2. To increase access to information designed for children.
3. To create permanent platforms for children’s engagement with the government.
4. To ensure children’s participation in developing school curricula, including action-oriented civic education.

On the second day, the young people presented these questions and engaged in a dialogue with participating adults from the Zambian government, the US Embassy and other donors as well as civil society. The chair of the Zambian Parliamentary Caucus for Children committed to taking their questions to the President. In addition, in the time leading up to the 2023 Summit for Democracy, the Zambia office of SC continued to advocate on the issues selected through the dialogues and sending a letter detailing the requests to relevant ministries. 

“Children are future leaders, so we need to learn about democracy. But we aren’t just the future, we are also the present. And we need more information, in child-friendly language.” – Adolescent girl participant

Analysis

Policies, institutions and civic environment: As a result of the peaceful transition of power and democratic openings following the election of the former opposition leader, now President, Hakainde Hichilema in 2021, Zambia has now been deemed a democratic ‘bright spot’ by USAID Administrator Samantha Power. During the 2021 Summit for Democracy, the Zambian President highlighted the importance of building a strong and inclusive democracy by working alongside civil society and embracing decentralisation. 

This openness and attention to democracy in Zambia meant that the Summit for Democracy was a useful hook to highlight ongoing efforts. These included the recently enacted Children’s Code Act No. 12 of 2022 and the development of the National Child Participation Framework. However, the Summit also exposed the need to support ministries in understanding how their various departments and jurisdictions can make connections between children’s participation policies and democracy. 

Civil society and international actors were strongly supportive of the Children’s Summit for Democracy roundtable. Zambian human rights activists, along with USAID and other donors, took part in the sessions and were eager to offer support to the adolescents. Their participation also lent additional legitimacy to the event in the domestic context, creating a general display of support that was useful for influencing government officials. 

Outreach & youth engagement practices: 

• Both days’ sessions were co-moderated by a 16-year-old girl, underscoring the aspect of adolescent-led advocacy and encouraging young people’s participation in the conference. 
• Day one of the session offered time in small groups and larger conversation for young people of different comfort levels to engage. On day two, adolescents presented their recommendations to the multistakeholder panel of adults, and the adolescents who had not been key presenters were allowed time to add comments to the presentations and ask questions during open discussion time, in order to allow everyone to participate.
• To determine the key recommendations for the government, the adolescents brainstormed a list of potential topics, then voted on those of leading importance. This allowed all of them to have a say in the decision-making process and to see the impact of voting. 
• The session was covered by Zambian media, placing greater public pressure on the government to be held to account in the lead-up to the 2023 Summit for Democracy.

Resources: Access to resources was certainly a barrier to entry. This roundtable was deliberately diversified to include young people from across urban and rural areas, socioeconomic classes, disability and gender. However, the number of adolescents that could be supported to attend was still limited. Significant financial resources were required for the child participants and their chaperones to travel from across the country and stay in Lusaka for multiple days. SCUS provided some funding for this initiative for the strategic impact of adolescents’ voices in the Summit for Democracy processes. Yet even with this, in Zambia and nearly all other participating countries, SC offices needed to mobilise additional resources to make the events a reality. 

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The #YouthMarchForth for Electoral Reforms 2.0 (#YMF-FER), which ran from March 2021 to February 2022, was a nationwide RTLA day of action project. It was designed in 2020 to engage the RTLA State Chapters as key drivers in advocacy for electoral reforms in Nigeria. It worked through the state constituency offices of the House of Representatives and Senate members to push for electoral reforms by the 9th National Assembly.

#YMF-FER was a resounding success, ultimately accelerating the passage of the Electoral Act 2022 along with efforts by other key stakeholders. The Campaign endorsed by several key stakeholders including lawmakers, youth groups, traditional rulers, CSO groups and the MKO Abiola family (a recognised symbol of Nigerian democracy). In addition, it also further birthed several other sub-projects – including The Electoral Reforms Summit, held in 2021 as an #HonorJune12 Pass Electoral Reforms Initiative, which hastened action on the Electoral Reforms Bill.

ENABLING FACTORS

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

National policies almost hindered engagement on the #YMFFER. This was because Nigeria – from early 2020 to early 2022 – like the rest of the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in stringent restrictions on physical gatherings (in our case, leadership meetings, stakeholder engagement fora, rallies and protests) with the potential to hinder collaboration and youth mobilisation efforts in terms of reach and impact. 

However, by leveraging technology – in particular, remote meeting and collaboration tools – we were able to continue our advocacy and expand our reach, since more people spent time on tech-driven platforms. In addition, we coordinated efforts through RTLA State Chapters, which allowed us work around existing restrictions. 

Our #YouthMarchForth for Electoral Reforms campaign encountered a divided reception. On the one hand, there was significant support from opposition party members within the Federal legislature. They believed that the passage of the Electoral Reforms Bill into law would be beneficial to their cause in the coming elections. On the other hand, members of the ruling party were unwelcoming of the technological changes that our campaign proposed, such as electronic transmission of results from polling units to the election management body via a server. This would replace the existing antiquated manual methods, which were more prone to alteration and manipulation. They therefore resisted our efforts, believing that our success would weaken their incumbent position during the upcoming polls. 

However, the youth engagement was organised and executed within a purely non-profit structure; and – although we engaged all stakeholders including political parties – the campaign was not within the purview, or under the sponsorship of, any political party. 

The #YMF-FER Campaign enjoyed far more support from international than local organisations. This strongly indicates that of how the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) space is currently run in Nigeria. US-based institutions such as the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA, now the Open Society Foundations – OSF), the IRI and the Nigerian Physicians Advocacy Group (NPAG) – made up of Nigerians in the USA – were quite supportive, with the NPAG more so than any other. Thankfully, the international support we enjoyed did not attract any backlash; indeed, it appeared to deepen respect and acceptance for us within the local system.

The monetary support was mainly made up of financial donations from international partners, and programme support in the shape of technical know-how, idea co-creation and advisory. 

There was huge support and collaboration for the #YMF-FER among local CSOs – a testament to the progress in the Nigerian civil society space, whereby groups are now able to collaborate more deeply with others to achieve success.

Thus, with #YMF-FER we were able to collaborate with other CSOs such as YIAGA CODE and a number of others, on key elements of the campaign such as marches, reviews of the Electoral Reforms Bill and press conferences, in order to communicate progress.

For #YMF-FER, we relied on a hybrid of mainstream and social media outlets and channels, along with community organising strategies. These were designed to reach out to both the teeming youth population and the key decision makers within the legislative and executive arms of government.

One major strategy deployed was to create narratives around the capacity of citizens to change the prevalent beliefs surrounding elections, and the power of Electoral Reforms as a driver of development and poverty eradication.

Elections in Nigeria have been fraught with myriad incidences of violence, manipulation and other kinds of malpractice. Therefore, we sought to muster support for the reforms agenda by helping citizens realise that if the Electoral Act did not change, neither would their lives. This is because the negative systems restricting their freedoms would remain the same. 

This was crucial to our success. Having understood that Nigerians are most able to commit themselves to causes where they can find some emotional connection, we were able to use storytelling to create the much-needed link to the electoral reforms. 

We did enjoy fair access to TV and radio, which we used to drive home the need for electoral reforms. Alongside these, the most effective tools for us were social media (particularly Twitter), marches and press conferences. We experienced initial difficulties in procuring sufficient support for the #YMF-FER Campaign. However, our persistence in applying to potential sponsors and partners paid off, attracting donations, in-kind support – including venues for press conferences – and media publicity, which helped amplify and drive awareness for the reforms narrative.

Democratic, value-driven organisations and youth-led organisations were the most approachable and supportive, largely providing in-kind support for the campaign. The understanding that we were protecting democracy and the integrity of electoral process was what resonated the most with these supporting organisations.

We had to dedicate more than 70% of our time to procuring funding, because in an environment such as that in Nigeria it is next to impossible to get much work done without it. 

Access to resources is a real ‘barrier to entry’ to democratic processes for young people, particularly in Nigeria. Here, the electoral process from primary elections to campaigns is expensive, with politicians required to provide funding. As a result, by the time elections come around, young people – many of whom are typically still seeking to find their feet in the labour market or business space – are automatically excluded from democratic processes.

This has been made all the more evident by the fact that even with electoral reforms, the number of older candidates in the 2023 general elections remains nearly as high as before. Younger people functioning primarily as campaign strategists, publicists or at best candidates at much lower levels.

The #YMF-FER was not influenced by ethnicity, because it employed a 36-State-Chapter strategy, with representatives from all 36 States of the Federal Republic of Nigeria forming a coalition to advocate for electoral reforms bill to be passed.

We able to achieve this unbiased, inclusive approach because we were not simply working from the national headquarters of the RTLA, but also with all 36 State Chapters, as well as State Constituency offices of Federal legislators. Our emphasis on inclusion throughout the campaign meant that we enabled people from all across Nigeria – including persons with disabilities, women groups and female state leaders among others – to join the demand for change.

The campaign exposed the inclusion gap, and drove the message that the older generation would be better served if the younger generation were better equipped to lead the nation. As such, whilst the campaign highlighted this inclusion gap, at the same time it served to demonstrate the benefits to both older and younger generations of bridging the gap.

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In the face of COVID-19, vaccine inequity, widespread job losses and economic aftershocks, improving the Africa-Europe partnership is more important than ever, if the inequalities growing across both continents are to be addressed. Many African and European youth share a vision for the future, but too often, their voices are excluded or isolated to the geographical context they operate in, whether that’s local, national, or regional. This project connects African and European youth to build common priorities, and then seeks to engage meaningfully – with concrete proposals – with policy makers on both continents. 

In May 2021, youth ambassadors from the ONE Campaign – the anti-poverty organisation – formed a taskforce of 160 African and European activists. Its objective was to cocreate solutions to shared challenges and then take them to leaders. Over a period of nine months, they held over 20 meetings with Ministers, Ambassadors and Commissioners on both continents, seeking to strengthen health systems, create jobs and involve youth in decision-making processes. Through this project, we fostered cross-continental cooperation designed to put youth in the driving seat in identifying solutions and determining their own futures.

ENABLING FACTORS

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

While COVID-19 may have laid bare the existing stark inequalities between Africa and Europe, it also offered a roadmap for how to fix them. From vaccine access to economic recovery, the pandemic showed how political choices, regulatory frameworks and special interests systematically push African citizens to the back of the queue, forcing them to rely on ‘donor-recipient’ relationships. Moreover, when African and European leaders meet to discuss these problems, youth never has a seat at the table.

The ONE campaign’s Africa-Europe project aims to empower youth on both continents in building and promoting a citizen-led vision for stronger and smarter intercontinental cooperation that tackles these inequalities. The overarching goal is to ensure that the Africa-Europe partnership succeeds and lays the groundwork for the challenges of future generations, by ensuring the it is informed and driven by youth from Africa and Europe.

This project brought together 160 youth activists from 10 African and European countries and hosted regular virtual workshops and consultations to exchange ideas and priorities, and refine them into specific, actionable policy proposals to address shared challenges. During initial consultations, youth activists agreed to focus on four key issues to move Africa and Europe away from a ‘donor-recipient’ partnership model. These were to: 

• strengthen health systems and vaccine access
• foster economic recovery, digitalisation and create jobs for youth
• ensure a two-way flow of education and culture between both continents
• include youth meaningfully in decision-making processes, from start to finish.

After agreeing their priorities, the taskforce used numerous methods to communicate their asks to leaders. First, they wrote an open letter, calling on leaders to act on youth priorities. The letter was signed by more than 20,000 people, including 80 African and European parliamentarians along with 26 former Presidents, Prime Ministers and experts. We also made a mash-up video of some taskforce members reading excerpts.

The taskforce also took their messages directly to leaders. It held over 20 [virtual] meetings with Ministers, Ambassadors and Commissioners from both continents, from Senegal to Sweden and from Greece to Tanzania. This proved an effective way of engaging leaders. For example, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Uriplainen committed to supporting some of the group’s proposals, such as having youth delegates in each country’s delegation at the AU-EU Summit.

The group also took part in joint debates and events, such as the France-Africa Summit in October 2021 and the Africa-Europe Foundation Summit event on vaccine equity in February 2022. These appearances attracted widespread media attention in African and European countries, including from Politico and CNBC Africa. The group also hosted events as part of the official Africa-Europe week, during the AU-EU Summit.

OUTCOMES

This work helped build a cross-continental group of activists who embodied the spirit of cooperation in trying to solve some of the world’s most-pressing problems. This approach put activists in the driving seat and secured the first commitments from leaders to give youth a real place at the table. 

In policy terms, the AU-EU summit provided some much-welcomed changes to the relationship between Africa and Europe. These included the following:

• It put health and Africa’s health sovereignty at the centre of the partnership, with the EU committing €500 million to African health systems, €425 million to delivering vaccines and €40 million to the WHO’s Tech Transfer Hub.
• Half of the EU’s €300 billion Global Gateway initiative was dedicated to Africa in the form of the Africa-Europe Investment Package. This aims to support Africa for a strong, inclusive, green and digital recovery and transformation. These priority areas are aligned with the strategic priorities of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
• It successfully built political support in both continents for more-meaningful engagement of youth at the next AU-EU Summit. Although youth (and civil society organisations) were ultimately not given access to the leaders’ discussions on this occasion, many leaders agreed that this needs to be revisited in future.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The ONE Campaign’s Africa-Europe taskforce showed that encouraging cooperation between youth on different continents leads to better ideas, campaigns and activism for tackling shared challenges. Youth everywhere want to be agents of real change, and – in an increasingly interconnected world – building bridges that allow people to fight together for common goals helps activists better understand the global contexts of their issues. It also increases the pressure on politicians to take action.

The taskforce showed how valuable it is to bring under-represented voices and perspectives into policy discussions, which are traditionally dominated by those of high-income countries. In future, we recommend that youth organisations aim to build cross-continental partnerships and coalitions to brainstorm, advocate and campaign together. Here, we look forward to the implementation of the Youth Action Plan, and specifically the Africa-Europe Youth Academy, which will create new opportunities for youth to work together, engage with leaders and help hold their governments accountable. 

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Freedom Studio is a youth-led initiative that strategically and creatively supports civic mobilization. It researches, documents, artvocates, campaigns and collaborates to amplify new social movements around the globe. It invests in building leadership and capacities of people at the grassroots especially young, marginalized, and oppressed ones, in expanding their full potentiality of the activism they are leading. It mainly empowers them through alternative leadership approaches, strategic and systems thinking, non-violent communication and resistance, and art and digital media engagement. Such skills and resources aim to lift their power status on their society and challenge unjust socio-political norms and practices. 

In few years of existence, Freedom Studio has inspired several grassroots, national and international movements to integrate art, media and technology for effective activism. Through initiatives such as ‘Artivism Fellowship’, ‘Artivism Workshops’ and ‘Artivism Outreach’ it has brough together new generations of artists and activists in different forms to ideate approaches for expanding civic space. 

THE PROBLEM AND ENABLING FACTORS

The elected – populist – communist government in Nepal has enacted several policies and directives to constrain civic space in Nepal. Online content creators were required to register with the Department of Information of the Government of Nepal (and renew this annually). This placed independent youth vloggers, bloggers and entrepreneurs at risk of losing accreditation and having their digital work obstructed. Similarly, the COVID–19 lockdown was abused by the government to dissolve parliament several times in 2020-2021, attacking the basis and values of the constitution promulgated in 2015, following years of political turmoil. The rise of populism, disinformation and violent extremism has contributed to shrinking of civic space across the region and the world. Activists are harassed and even murdered for speaking out, while non-profits are intimidated by restrictions on how civil society organisations can function. This has highlighted the need to develop new approaches for expanding civic spaces and countering injustices. 

Freedom Studio emerged as an initiative to counter restrictions on freedom and justice in Nepal. Shila and Nishchhal are prominent artists and activists who took the opportunity to expand their skills and expertise by forming this creative initiative. Generation Democracy, IRI’s flagship youth network, supported the initial opening and testing the ideas of Freedom Studio.

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

Freedom Studio was founded in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, reflecting the need for creative tools to counter restrictions to individual and communal freedom. When the Nepalese government took advantage of this crisis to curtail freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, the idea emerged of sensitising the community through integrating art and activism. Until mid-2022, Freedom Studio was an unregistered campaigning group, expanding opportunities for networking and collaboration with diverse organisations both in Nepal and globally. Following two years of creating and running collaborative projects, the team realised the importance of a lawful way of expanding this movement. Freedom Studio International (FNI) was registered as a private company in April 2022, and Freedom Studio Nepal (FSN) was registered as a non-profit company in September 2022. Since its conception, it has inspired several international, national and grassroots organisations to integrate art, media, and technology for effective activism.

Through ‘Artivism Fellowship’, Freedom Studio has provided a platform for young artists and activists to understand and explore the importance of democracy and democratic values in today’s context. By empowering them, FS has reached hundreds of youths at grassroots level with creative tools for accountability. For example, during the Youth Peace Caravan, which travelled across Nepal’s landscape, our team used dramas, songs, puppet shows, and art exhibitions to inform youth at grassroots level of the importance of countering existing authoritarianism in culture and governance structure. This peaceful approach to civic activism has energised young people to initiate conversations on democracy at a time when their faith in it is declining. Through art, our activities have brought people’s critical voices into the light, and have developed open, creative and safe spaces to discuss and develop ideas for strengthening democratic values and civic freedom in Nepal.

Similarly, ‘Artivism Workshops’ have empowered diverse youth activists worldwide to use their art and creative tools to demand justice and create change. The workshop participants have developed hundreds of artworks such as dramas, songs, dances and paintings, and have reached thousands. They have been essential role in stimulating new forms of youth expression and engagement and in countering the challenges of shrinking civic spaces.

FS has also collaborated with indigenous communities of Nepal, namely the Magar, Gurung and Tharu, to understand their diverse forms of art and culture and its significance within their community and beyond. The team is learning ways of preserving and promoting art and culture and is expanding the horizon among young people. Our collaboration with these communities has seen us identify challenges and existing conflicts within and between them, and find new ways to address these through artivism. This has provided innovative approaches for conveying democracy messages to traditional communities through critical thinking and opening dialogue among the people.

A safe space for artivists

Several occurrences of artists and activists being obstructed from using civic space have highlighted the need for associations, networks and groups where artists can come together for creative expression. Freedom Studio aims to pioneer such a group, to support artivists in any legal challenges and threats and to provide skills development and networking opportunities. We plan to develop it as a safe space for artists and activists to defend their rights, promote democracy and counter injustice.

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Indonesia is the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas producer, with 60-85% of its emissions stemming from deforestation. It has pledged to reduce its emissions by 29% on its own and, with international support, by 41% by 2030. Reaching this target depends on public engagement in green growth issues and effective governance of its forests and natural resources, as well as managing vested political and palm oil interests.

BBC Media Action used media to reach and inspire citizens, particularly urban youth, to take action on issues of deforestation and green growth. A 2020 survey undertaken among over 2000 urban youth by BBC Media Action showed that – while they are aware of the issues affecting forests and seek practical solutions – concepts such as ‘deforestation’ and ‘forests’ seem remote to them, and do not generate a sense of urgency.

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