Today more than ever, international youth and peace services face the challenge of sustainably improving their structures, especially with regard to mobility. As much as the global discourse on the climate crisis and the international protest movements for urgent climate action, which are primarily driven by young
people, have not been able to sufficiently initiate more consistent climate protection measures on an general societal level yet, the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 now force all of us to take a more urgent look at alternatives to mobility in general. Despite all the challenges, this also opens up an opportunity
to keep the focus on the benefits of lesser travelling for the climate and to rethink alternatives to travel in the long term.
International peace work and volunteerism root in intercultural face-to-face exchange of people from different regions and backgrounds. Regular trainings, seminars and work camps, where youth workers
and young people can exchange experiences and ideas, form the basis for the peace work of SCI. The need for personal exchange comes along with a greater need for travel and transportation, many of the travel distances being covered by plane.
With its high ecological and climatic impacts, this contributes to ecological destruction and increased social inequality internationally and within the EU, and isin direct contradiction to the urgency of efficient climate protection measures.
The project proposal addresses this paradox, makes travelling a peace issue and takes into account the acute need for improvement. It examines how much and what kind of international mobility is both necessary and possible to successfully carry out European peace and volunteer work.
The guiding questions are:
Drawing lessons from previous practices contrasted by coping with COVID-19, what concrete
possibilities of international interaction can we derive for a more eco-friendly civil peace service?
What role do we play as individuals and as part of European and international civil society in this
context?
To what extent can this debate contribute to a structural change within SCI and its partner
organisations in terms of structural inequalities and unsustainable mobility?
What external impact can be achieved beyond that?
The project concept was developed by members of SCI Germany and SCI Austria and inspired by the
Climate for Peace Campaign on sustainable living of SCI (2014-2016). It consists of two on-site activities
and one decentral implementation period and will be concluded by a decentral finalisation phase.
- Ready to Take off – Training on sustainable global mobility (on-site activity, Germany)
Aims:
Increase understanding of the link between (global) mobility, climate change and climate justice;
Increase understanding of related political and economic approaches;
Reflection on the role of mobility in international peace and voluntary work (especially within SCI
and partner organisations);
Raise awareness for the need for more sustainable mobility, empowering and training active
volunteers, camp coordinators and seminar facilitators to advocate for sustainable means of
transportation and implement local actions with their sending organisations/local partners;
Enhance networking capabilities on local level and create, share and spread tools and ideas for local
activism and campaigning.
Topics:
Local and global impacts of global mobility on resources, climate change and social justice;
Structures behind global mobility (acceleration, economic growth, global inequalities);
Economic and political approaches to a sustainable global mobility and their critique;
Personal involvement in global mobility;
Peace work, mobility and its climate impacts;
Approaches to a more climate-friendly peace work, lessons learnt from COVID-19 restrictions;
Ideas/inspirations for local workshops.
Outcome:
Inspiration for Mobility Toolkit: NFE methods for a profound understanding of global mobility and its connections to climate justice and peace, promotion of sustainable mobility, background knowledge to develop guidelines for sustainable projects, inspiration for sustainable approaches in peace and youth work for participants and activists.
Concept and Kick-off for research and implementation phase.
- On the MOVE: Follow-up research and implementation phase (decentral activities):
Back home, the participants organise local workshops to transfer knowledge and information from the
training to their sending organisations and to collect feedback, ideas and proposals for travel guidelines
for volunteer projects. Furthermore, they gather inspiration and content for the toolkit. In a reflexive
process, the discussions, results and open questions will be structured by several online meetings with
all participants. These meetings will be recorded (written and/or audio) for further work.
3. Landing and Spreading: Seminar (on-site activity, Austria)
Aims:
Collection and revision of experience, knowledge and skills from the training and the
research/implementation phase;
Transfer of individual experience on global mobility, climate and peace to the structural level of
international voluntary work and its organisations;
Develop guidelines and advice for sending organisations to reduce carbon emissions and other
climate impacts due to travelling to (international) voluntary programs, especially within Europe;
Discuss and work on the idea of SCI-internal carbon compensation;
Develop a toolkit on global mobility and sustainability for peace and voluntary work, identifying
tasks and dividing responsibilities for finalisation phase;
Build and strengthen connections and partnerships for future co-operations and projects in the field
of sustainable mobility;
Plan follow-up projects, share ideas and inspiration for local campaigning/events/activities.
Topics:
Non-Formal Education on climate and mobility in the context of international peace and voluntary
work;
Structural mechanisms to reduce the climate impact of international peace and voluntary work incl.
discussion of reducing emissions and carbon offset as possible paths towards sustainability
Outcome:
Mobility Toolkit containing NFE methods on sustainable mobility for peace and voluntary work.
Strengthened sustainability within SCI activities and work camps: Guidelines to reduce carbon
emissions and other climate impacts from travelling to European and international voluntary
programs to be presented and voted for on in the next European Platform Meeting.
4. Finalisation phase (decentral activities):
Final work on the toolkit, including layout and distribution. This process will be structured and guided
by several online meetings with involved participants.