This weekend I’ve participated in the Including Diversity conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. And I’ve learned very much.

Most of the people do believe that diversity makes their organization and the rest of the world better, that’s a good start. Our work now is to see that the necessary steps are being taken to really include diversity.

During the weekend we’ve learned that everyone is winning by promote and include diversity with more motivation, better work environment and better ideas. And to take the nice declarations and make them to practice everywhere we can make a change.

The same day as the conference ended, right wing extremists and police was beating the participants of the pride parade in Moscow who where demanding equal rights in Russia. This shows that the struggle for equality and diversity is important and something we need to work with.

We need to be the change we want to see, in our organizations, all sorts of discrimination only should appear in our common history. It’s a matter of will and focus from all of us. We can’t change somebody else before we changed ourselves. What that means is different from person to person.

I’ve learned very much during the weekend, when I meet people from all over the world, when I participated in both formal and informal discussion. And I’m going to do everything in my power to include diversity.

I also urge everyone of you to change the rest of the world, ask questions to the political and economical leaders, report to the media if you see discrimination, support people working with the issue and much more.

If we succeed to include diversity for real, then everybody is a winner!

Read more about the conference here!

The policy that the OECD-countries should give 0,7 percent of their GNI to development cooperation was formed by the UN 35 years ago. Since then the rich countries again and again have made that promise. To give 0,7 percent of their income to the poorest of the poor. This money would be enough to reach to Millennium Development Goals, give the UN the ability to make action to build sustainable energy, retire developing nations debt, provide health care and much more. In total 16 goals of development.

The MDG have been signed by all the OECD countries and they once again made the promise of 0,7 percent to aid. But what’s the reality today?

• Five countries have made the promise (Sweden, Norway, Luxemburg, Holland and Denmark)
• The average is 0,33 percent, not even half of the promise.
• The three worst counties are Greece (0,17%), Portugal (0,21% and the United States (0,22%)

If we want to build a better world we need to double the support in order to do the plans for infrastructure, health and environmental issues needed. The world needs to help the poorest of the poor to climb out from poverty. It’s possible to do it, we are now watching China and India make big steps and I want to see the same development in the sub-Saharan region as well.

We need to make our leaders keep the promise!

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz resigns. This is a very good day for all of us development activists around the world. Mr. Wolfowitz was one of the masterminds behind the US war on Iraq and have really creepy ideas about Americans world domination.

Rumors have pointed South African minister of finance Trevor Manuel as a possible successor. This would be very very good, the first president ever from the global south and the second president since the World Bank funding in 1946 that are not from USA.

This is a good day for the world!

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, is often in the statistics as the richest and most developed countries. Until now, the members today is:

Australia. Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Republic
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

As you see, almost all the members are from Europe and North America. But now they are going to elect five new members:

Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa. This is good of several reasons:

1) More members from the global south means that they can come with new perspectives and ideas how we can cooperate without boarders and make a better world.
2) We have to rethink our view of the world, now countries in both Africa and South America are developing. How can we make a better name then developing and developed countries?

Do you live in a European Union member contry. Then you can get support for your project and idea.

INFO FROM EUOPEAN COMMISSION
Youth in Action is the new EU Programme in the field of youth, which will be implemented from 1 January 2007 until 31 December 2013 with a total budget of 885 million euros. It is the successor of the YOUTH Programme (2000-2006).

The Youth in Action Programme makes an important contribution to the acquisition of competences and is therefore a key instrument in providing young people with opportunities for non-formal and informal learning with a European dimension.

The Youth in Action Programme is a programme for all. It encourages the involvement of young people with fewer opportunities and addresses young people aged between 13 and 30.

This Programme is the result of a large consultation with the different stakeholders in the youth field and is the response to the evolutions in the youth sector at European level. It aims to inspire a sense of European citizenship among the youth of Europe and to involve them in constructing the future of the Community.

In order to achieve its objectives, the Youth in Action Programme foresees five operational Actions:

Action 1 - Youth for Europe: supporting exchanges and youth initiatives and encouraging young people's participation in democratic life;
Action 2 - European Voluntary Service: encouraging young people to take part in a voluntary activity abroad that benefits the general public;
Action 3 - Youth in the World: encouraging cooperation with Partner Countries by building networks, promoting the exchange of information and assisting with cross-border activities;
Action 4 - Youth Support Systems: promoting the development of exchange, training and information schemes;
Action 5 - European Cooperation in the youth field contributing to the development of policy cooperation in the youth field.

Please read more at www.europa.eu

Women’s rights are violated in every country everyday, this is a true global problem, with no barrier of economy, borders, religion or ideas. And this challenge needs to be battled with global solutions.

Gender quality for me means the same rights and means to develop their potential. Girls and women is the poorest people, and the work to give women access to food, water, education, and possibilities are a very important step towards the end of poverty and to stop the spreading of HIV/AIDS.

I urge everyone to take part in the struggle. Read more what you can do at UNIFEMs website.

Read more
UNIFEM, The United Nations Development Fund for Women.

On the 25th to 27th of May I will be particpating at the conference "Including diversity" in Sweden. It´s a youth conference about peace, security and development in the world.

I will have a live blog here at TIG that I will update constantly during the weekend with interviews, thoughts and ideas. You can find the blog here.

Please read more about the conference here.

Today, Swedish students have made a very good thing for the world.

Coordinated by the Swedish central student association, 80 000 students got from their schools to raise money for a good cause. Most of the students worked for one day in a local company, and the salary of the work went to a development project in Albania.

I just love this idea, the student got a chance to present themselves for companies, the companies got a helping hand for one day and the project in Albania gets around 600 000 dollars. It’s also a very good chance to show the world to the students and maybe get them more active in the fight for the world.

This is education, development and networking at the same time as they do something for the world.

I want this idea to spread, I know that Germany are working with it as well, and now I really want it to be an annually event in every country where it’s possible. I have a lot of ideas how we can make this work.

If you are interested to take this to your country, please contact me so we can start our work.