Official report

The objective of this GYG conference was to bring together the next generation- or as many as possible- of young Green activists and explore the possibility of working together globally. Inspired by the Global Young Greens conference of 2001, in 2005 members of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), Campus Greens USA, and many young Green groups and individuals began discussing via email holding another conference. In 2006 Caroline Ayling and Maarten Coertjens began working out of the FYEG office in Brussels and that year many wonderful people became actively involved. Thomas Millen traveled to Nairobi for three months prior to the conference to organise on the ground; Janna Schönfeld made mammoth contributions to the financial and political aspects of the meeting, and Paul Santman stoically took care of registrations and fund raising, communications and design. In addition to these people, literally hundreds of young people around the world contributed in various ways- writing fund raising applications, contributing to the political foundation through wiki and the mailing list, holding preparation meetings and more. We can’t mention everyone’s names here, but those who put time and effort and great belief into GYG, you should be very proud. The steering committee wishes to particularly thank the Babel team of translators who worked so hard towards common understandings before and during the conference.

Thanks also to the volunteers from the MF Hostel and USIU, who treated the invasion of young Greens with good grace and provided fantastic assistance and input. The highest credit and gratitude must go to the supporters who enabled this project to go ahead. GYG would like to loudly and proudly thank: the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Swedish Green forum, the Green Belt Movement of Kenya, the Manzingira Green party, the Green Group in the European Parliament, in particular Marie-Hélène Aubert, Alain Lipietz, Carl Schlyter, Michael Cramer, Frithjof Schmidt and David Hammerstein, the European Green party and all the guest speakers in our opening and closing ceremonies; the national parties who gave generously, in particular the French, Austrian and Italian and Australian Green parties; and finally, to each and every organisation and individual who contributed. This humble thank you card is for you!

The GYG conference, held from January 16-20 2007, was attended by 156 people, with 133 voting participants, all under 35. Despite efforts of the organisers, the gender balance was still 2:1 male to female. The numbers were approximately as follows:

 Africa: 89 (50 Kenyans)
 Americas: 5
 Asia Pacific: 31
 Europe: 26

Accommodation was at the MF Hostel, a leafy property on the outskirts of Nairobi. Tents were rented, and mattresses and blankets were bought. These were later donated to two local facilities in Nairobi, caring for orphans suffering from AIDS and terminal diseases. Video footage of these facilities is online, with the link appearing at the end of this report. Further details of these facilities will appear soon on www.globalyounggreens.org. Thanks goes to Tom Millen for taking this initiative.

The conference was held in the nearby United States International University (USIU), a twenty minute walk away which participants did as a group at the beginning and end of each day.

Most participants arrived on January 15th, and thankfully had time to get to know each other and recover from their travels. So on the morning of day one, after some additional registrations, the group set off for the university where the conference was to be held. People continued to arrive throughout the day, and indeed throughout the conference! The opening ceremony began with introductions by Juliet Mugure and Peter Mungai of the Green Belt Movement, kind hosts of the GYG in Nairobi. Keynote speaker Anna Luhrmann, the youngest Green ever to be elected to parliament that we know of (nineteen when elected- in case anyone knows of someone younger), gave a fantastic address and continued to provide a source of sanity and inspiration throughout the conference. Addresses from Juan Behrend, Secretary General of the European Green Party, Dr. Axel Harneit-Sieversof the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Catherine Greze of the Global Greens then set the conference in motion.

After the opening, participants had the chance to introduce their organisations and themselves to the group. Around thirty people gave short explanations of their various works, and it was a great shame we had to move along quickly, as this activity visibly engaged the participants.

In the afternoon participants were randomly divided into groups for discussions to see what they could make of four questions:

 What are the issues of the Global Greens?
 What are the issues of the GYG movement?
 Do we need a GYG congress?
 If so, how do we achieve it?

Each group had a lively debate, from which a collective vision for GYG began to take shape.

Each group nominated presenters to relay what happened in the various discussions. Results will appear on GYG’s wiki page, which is linked from our main website.

In the afternoon consensus was found on the objectives of GYG, and presentations were made for possible statutes for the organisation. Janna Schönfeld and Markus Drake had both prepared drafts prior to the conference and presented them to the group. The discussions on principles were extremely time consuming, but it was not wasted time- it demonstrated that everybody had deep interest in the content of the GYG.

Later that evening still more group discussions were held at the hostel on the subject of the statutes. There was wariness about forming an overly-centralised or structured organisation, but equal concern that too loose a network would simply disintegrate. In addition, many finer points, such as composition of the steering committee needed serious consideration. Talks went late into the night but were ultimately extremely constructive.

Early in the morning the group left to visit a tree planting project of the Green Belt Movement. In an attempt to offset some of the carbon emissions generated by the conference, organisers arranged for a "GYG forest" of a thousand trees to be planted. However, as January is the wrong season for planting in Nairobi, we could only plant a few and have the others planted later.

So it was a ceremonial occasion, but also a wonderful opportunity to see first hand the work of the Green Belt Movement. After a walk in the forest, each region planted a different species of tree to establish the GYG forest. Thanks goes to Green Belt for arranging this activity and for their continuing work towards a greener Kenya.

Participants returned two hours later in the afternoon than anticipated, which unfortunately meant the afternoon’s program had to be cut down. We had a series of workshops scheduled, and while they still went ahead, it was with severe time restrictions. Even so, the energy during these sessions was amazing. After spending so long focusing on the organisation of GYG, it was great to focus on the issues that motivate us to be young Greens in the first place. Not only this, but there are not too many opportunities to discuss these things with twenty or so other young people from across the globe.

Participants responded really well to having the opportunity to speak about subjects they are passionate about.

The workshop themes were:

 Health and ethics in the supermarket age
 Climate change, Green energy and transport
 Focus on Africa
 Electoral campaigning and media skills
 Water problems and solutions
 Gender and GYG
 Critical health: HIV/AIDS and the GYG response
 How GYG will communicate and disseminate
 Youth advocacy: formulating a GYG method
 Starting/running a political group or NGO

At the close of the day, a brief plenary session was held and voting methods agreed on.

While other participants were attending the tree planting excursion, a new statutes proposal was being worked on at the university. Having listened carefully to the debates, suggestions and concerns of the group, Markus and Janna sat down together and came up with a new draft. So on day four, with Anna Luhrmann facilitating, the group turned its attention to finding consensus on GYG statutes.

Fighting time restrictions, amendments were made as we went along. The aim was for consensus but voting was necessary several times. By lunch, the statutes were finished and the relief and sense of achievement were wonderful.

During lunch the regions held meetings. With the statutes now finished, it was definite that a steering committee would need to be appointed. Each region appointed representatives in different ways- Europe in a secret ballot, Asia Pacific in a vote with hands, and Africa with a lively group debate. With only five representatives in attendance, the Americas process was slightly simpler. Overseen by an election committee, the congress then voted on the candidates put forward by the regions. After the incoming steering committee was announced and a quick photo opportunity taken, the statement of principles was debated and decided upon.

The closing ceremony featured really wonderful speakers. George Paz Martin, a veteran of the USA Green party and the American Peace movement, gave a rousing address which was a great antidote to the tension of the day. Dr. Axel Harneit-Sievers of the Heinrich Böll Foundation again graced us with his presence and gave an encouraging address. Ulrike Lunacek and Phillippe Lamberts, spokespersons of the European Greens, gave us a great double act and some sound advice. Lastly, in a very memorable and moving address, Mr. Ryuhei Kawada of the Japanese Greens shared his struggle living with HIV and his passion for the Green movement.

The congress closed with all the participants rushing onto the stage and later, an evening of celebrations. By this stage there was a strong sense of community amongst the participants.

With the congress over, many participants attended the opening ceremony of the World Social Forum. Meanwhile, the new steering committee held its first meeting. Good progress was made: in terms of our communication, we agreed to have weekly web-chats at fixed times which people can join when they are able to. We use a google group, which provides group mailing, a forum and the possibility to store and edit shared documents online. We also worked on the action plan, still in progress.

In the afternoon, we held a conference with members of the European Parliament. The three Green deputies Alain Lipietz, Marie-Hélène Aubert and Carl Schlyter discussed with us the outcomes of the GYG congress, the situation in the different regions and our future cooperation. The group was then broken up into smaller groups, each led by one deputy, to discuss certain topics more in-depth. This exchange was really worthwhile and interesting for all those involved; and the steering committee believes that similar initiatives and exchanges with members of parliament is something positive to explore for future activities.

A great deal of web-based work was necessary to organise this conference. Potential participants had a constant stream of questions and answering them was seriously time consuming. One problem we encountered was that people sent their queries to multiple organisers, and some were answered by two people, some none at all. Particularly during the fund raising stage when there were lots of queries about applications, amounts, rejections, acceptances etc, this became problematic.

 Organisers established a common inbox (a ’front desk’) but still had trouble when more than one of us were checking it. The solution we found was to designate one person to check the front desk inbox, and not to answer all the mails, but forward them to relevant people who have designated areas (ie registrations, financial applications, conference program, visas etc).

Registrations for the conference were at times downright chaotic. People who had registered correctly in most cases received all the correct information and had no problems. But those who weren’t properly registered, through their own mistake or that of the organisers, often did not receive the details and information about the conference. The problem was simply that one person was burdened with the enormous task of doing the registrations, and at the time this unfortunate person had a full time job. In retrospect this was far too much work for one person, particularly someone with limited time.

 In future, an intern or staff member will ideally be dedicated to the task of registering participants and making sure they receive the correct information. They will need to spend most of the working week doing it in the month or so preceding the deadline for applications, and the month afterwards. If this isn’t possible, two or more people will be necessary to deal with the workload. It would be best if these people are physically in the same place, but if not it is imperative they coordinate their work closely.

 In general it is a significant advantage for organisers to be able to meet and work face-to-face. There was an accumulation of work relating to registrations in the crucial last weeks before the conference. This took up time of the organisers when we needed to be doing other tasks. The reason for this was that deadlines for registrations were extended twice.

 In future, hopeful participants should be duly warned that a deadline is exactly that, and not just a vague guideline. Organisers should make sure dates are communicated clearly, and then stick to them. There is much work to be completed after the registrations are over, and allowing the process to continue into the end of December was not a good idea. Outside influences demanded our program be changed at the last minute. There were two major changes from the original program, the first being the addition of long plenary sessions. The plenary sessions were not very participatory and people found it hard to sit passively for 2-3 hours without falling asleep. In addition we found that group plenaries are not very effective in terms of reaching consensus- large group discussions are time consuming and can be repetitive as everyone wants to have their say.

 Plenary sessions where participants have limited should be kept to 1.5 hours maximum.

 When aiming to reach consensus between a large amount of people, such as at the GYG founding congress, is it advisable to split into small groups to first discuss and identify the main points of divergence.

The second major change to the program which we feel is regrettable was the loss of time for participant led, issue-based workshops. Originally in the conference program there was an entire day designated for workshops. The purpose was to give participants a chance to present on their area of expertise or interest; to give us the chance to learn from each other. It also gave participants a chance to be leaders and develop their public speaking skills. However, it was reasoned to us that the major purpose of the GYG founding congress was simply to establish the organisation, and therefore the workshop were unnecessary and should be sidelined. While the logic was understandable, we couldn’t simply sit in a room for four days talking about forming an organisation. We had to stimulate ourselves with the reasons we are activists in the first place; and a global conference is an amazing opportunity to exchange with people from other cultures and continents who care deeply about the same thing you do. It is a truly motivating experience to find this in common with others.

 Participant led, issue- based workshops may not be integral to the political outcome of a conference, but they are important, educational and enjoyable.

 Conference programs should be prepared well in advance, with the advice of outside parties, but ultimately young people are probably capable of creating the best program for GYG.

The support and advice of older people involved in the Green movement was incredibly important to the GYG founding conference. Beyond financial help, we received vital assistance from seasoned activists, some that we don’t even know about and probably never will.

The relationship between the Global Greens, Green parties and GYG is still to unfold but we do know a few things. There has obviously been a strong relationship from the beginning, as the GYG founding conference was supposed to be a ’side conference’ to the Global Greens 2008, which was originally slated for 2007. GYG hopes for a strong relationship with Green political bodies but also wishes to remain an autonomous organisation. Many of GYG’s members are from political parties, but roughly half of the conference participants are invovled with NGOs. There is no pressure in GYG to sign up to a Green party, and it must be acknowledged that there are parties existing in some countries that our members would not consider joining: either because they feel the organisations are unacceptable or they feel it is too dangerous.

It was so worthwhile to establish GYG as open to anyone identifying as Green and subscribing to the four principles. The conference was much better for the diversity in backgrounds, and the work we did there developed a strong ideological unity. While our members may only be individuals, we believe that holding this Global Young Greens conference has in some way helped to seed the Green principles and movement around the world. When’s the next one?!