AP: Activity Plan 2024-25

The activity plan is designed to cover the period from January 2024^[1] to April
2025, is presented and adopted by the General Assembly 2024.

We will Empower progressive changemakers by:

Tailored Project - Strengthening Youth
Organisations: Catalysts for Democratic Change
(Pending[2])

With the new Strategy, we are adding new type and format of activity and will
organise tailored, mentoring project for progressive youth organisations which
will for 16 months (June 2024 - September 2025). The project activities will
include several digital and in-person activities. Namely, one-to-one interviews
with selected progressive organisations, three in-person event, four mandatory
online workshops, and individual work within each organisation to apply and
share learnings.

Youth Organisations are critical actors, advocating for progressive change and
mobilising the younger population. However, these organisations face challenges
compromising their sustainability and long-term impact: operating in a
restrictive environment, dealing with fluctuating levels of activist engagement
and motivation, and, most significantly, lacking a solid organisational
foundation.

As a result, youth movements tend to be reactive and prone to fading once the
initial urgency of the issue subsides. Unfortunately, this plays into the hands
of the illiberal movements who take advantage of the sporadic nature of youth
activism. To address this, it is crucial to fortify the organisational strength
of youth movements, enabling them to sustain their long-term influence and build
a resilient civil society that contributes to participatory democracy.

This 16-month lasting project aims to provide participating youth organisations
with necessary skills and knowledge to enhance their impact and sustainability.
It will focus on the following key areas:

These efforts will contribute to more resilient youth organisations capable of
active engagement in political processes and influencing decision-making, and
advocating for democratic values, equality, solidarity, and environmental
protection. Thus, fostering a more vibrant and inclusive democratic landscape in
Eastern Europe.

Annual Work Plan: Unite-Think-Act: Political
Participation of Green Youth of Eastern Europe

The Work Plan (WP) aims to enhance political participation of young people of
Eastern Europe through strengthening the political vision and strategic
approaches of green youth organisations of the region, and to empower them to
engage in negotiations and diverse forms of social dialogue with different
stakeholders on local, regional and cross-regional levels.

The WP will incorporate two phases and will consist of an international Re-
focusing Camp as the first phase, followed by Local Actions (LAs). Both
activities aim to provide knowledge, skills, space and resources for members of
youth green organisations of EE to refocus their vision to clear political
goals, develop concrete strategies for achieving political aims, and empower
them to engage in diverse forms of social dialogue with different stakeholders,
thus contributing to the objectives of the WP as a whole.

The first phase, Refocusing Summer Camp , will on one hand provide the space for
young people who are politically active in countries of EE to rethink key
aspects of their political contexts and share with each other their visions, and
on the other, offer them with skills and knowledge of different tools for
defining their vision, conducting political action, creating strategy for
achieving specific goals, and engaging in social dialogue with different
stakeholders. Moreover, it will set the stage for the second phase of the WP and
provide them with an overview of the analytical and action tools they can
utilise in order to better understand different contexts they are in and
subsequently choose the right methods for negotiations and political action.

After the Summer Camp there will be a call opened for MOs, whose members
participated in the first activity to conduct LAs, which will be conducted in
two phases: contemplative and action phase. MOs will apply with their ideas, and
after selection, they will receive one on one support in realising their LAs. In
the first phase, LA organisers will utilise the knowledge produced, and skills
gained during Summer Camp to produce action plans, strategies or negotiation
approaches to achieve their specific political action. In the second phase, they
will execute their vision.

Regional Meeting

This year, we will incorporate Regional Meeting as part of Summer Camp. After
the initial work on getting to know each other, our specific political contexts,
and our collective vision of more democratic, fair, and peaceful Eastern Europe,
we would dedicate a day for work with participants in regional groups.
Reinforcing the notion that Eastern Europe in itself is not a homogenous region
and that different sub-regions have their own unique histories, context,
challenges, and opportunities, we would allocate participants in South Caucasus,
Balkan, East Central groups. During three sessions of the day, participants of
each group would work together to analyse their sub-regional strengths,
weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, all with the aims of reaching a
collective sub-regional vision and specific strategy for achieving the common
(Eastern) European goals of upholding democracy and green values. On session
four, regional groups would present the results of their work in plenary and
discuss them all together.

As an outcome of these sessions, we would have three separate strategic
approaches specific to the regions of Eastern Europe that would feed into our
Strategy 2024-2028 and would serve as a guidance for CDN and our MOs alike when
working on strengthening democracies and upholding green values.

Study Session

The Study Session will gather 40 young activists from Eastern Europe for 6 days
in EYCB in late November 2024. During the Session, participants will have the
opportunity to learn about and discuss the main topics related to economy, the
way it interacts with politics on personal, State, and international levels as
well as how and why economic factors play a major role in our social and
political lives. Main issues with the current economic models of Eastern
European States will be assessed based on personal experience of participants,
after which Green solutions will be proposed, thought about, and assessed on
their applicability to the Eastern European context. Furthermore, once problems
and potential solutions have been identified, participants will reflect on the
interrelation between economic factors and the political participation of youth
in this region, focusing on overcoming economic barriers for political
participation, but also formulating messages and advocacy strategies for driving
political change into a more sustainable, fair, and just use of resources,
wealth, and capital.

Conference

As part of “Green Visions on European Security” project, in collaboration with
Green European Foundation and Heinrich Boell South Caucasus Office[3], we will
organise one-day conference in Tbilisi in August. During the event we will focus
on EU enlargement, Green perspective on European security especially in the
context of European Elections happening before our event as well as discuss the
GRIP Study and our articles. We will combine Panel Discussions and Non-Formal
Education methods to gather input from the audience through reflection walls,
group work, menti interactive presentations, etc., ensuring high engagement
levels. The conference would be held in Tbilisi with tentative date as 11^th of
August.

We will Strengthen the Network by:

General Assembly

The General Assembly (GA) the highest decision-making body of our network that
will take place on 27-28 April in Vilnius, Lithuania hosted by Belarusian Young
Greens. The GA will elect the new Executive Committee (EC), debate and vote on
resolutions, and amendments to internal documents, hear and adopt reports and
plans; and most importantly discuss and adopt 2024-28 Strategy Paper; as well as
approve/reject candidate members of the Network. The General Assembly will
include public conference with delegates, activists and partners to discuss
Fight Against Authoritarianism in Eastern Europe and Influence of EU elections.

Tentative dates for 2025 General Assembly are end of March/Early April. Call for
host organisation will be published in October 2024 and be selected by December.

Executive Committee Meetings

The Executive Committee will convene five times per year with different
priorities and agendas: in February and April 2024 for the 2023-24 EC mandate,
and tentatively in May, August, and October 2024, as well as in February and
March 2025 for the 2024-25 EC mandate. Between the in-person meetings, the EC
will have online calls on a bi-weekly basis.

Regional Calls with MOs and Feedback

The Executive Committee will organise quarterly online calls with the members of
the network in the regional format. Besides the calls, responsible EC persons
will try to arrange in-person meetings during the events to discuss important
political and organisational developments, as well as receive feedback.

By late November, the Secretary General will send evaluation form to Member
Organisations and other stakeholders to assess CDN’s work throughout the period.
Based on the input, Sec-Gen should prepare report to the Executive Committee and
discuss on the live EC meeting, thereby incorporating analysed feedback into the
planning for 2025.

Study Visit

Study Visit will be organised one of the countries where we currently lack
representation. These are the priorities: 1. Lithuania, Greece, Hungary 2.
Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania. 3. Slovenia. It will be decided later by the
Executive Committee. Tentatively in September 2024.

Strengthening Internal Capacities

As mentioned in Strategy, CDN needs to strengthen internal capacities to be able
to effectively deliver its work and achieve objectives. These are focus areas
for 2024-25 activity plan: 1. Develop a comprehensive governance handbook; 2.
Improve delegation order and reinforce in practice; 3. Optimise office structure
and positions; 4. Establish quarterly newsletter using “Action Network”
platform; 5. Revise secretariat contracts 6. Clarify salary range policy; 7.
Reinforce intra-organisational financial procedures and rules.

We will Bring Eastern European Perspective by:

Digital Events

Throughout the period, we will organise informative and engaging webinars on
relevant political developments in Eastern Europe. These digital events will
serve as a platform for discussions, analysis, and insights into various topics,
including but not limited to Elections (in the format of existing
ElectionVision).

Statements

CDN will actively monitor and respond to important political developments in
Eastern Europe by publishing our positions and statements through social media.
The procedure is defined in communications strategy and includes involvement of
relevant Member Organisations.

Newsletter

CDN will launch and maintain a quarterly newsletter to disseminate essential
updates, valuable insights, and informed perspectives on key political
developments, current events and ongoing issues in Eastern Europe. Besides, this
newsletter will serve as a platform for sharing contributions from Member
Organisations and other progressive actors, further enhancing engagement within
the network.

Networking

We will maintain and strengthen cooperation with our sister-organisation Young
European Greens with a particular focus on the institutionalisation of our
partnership through ensuring implementation of revised relations paper.
Consequently, taking part in each other’s General Assemblies as well as other
events, and having close communication through contact persons from EC. The Sec-
Gen and EC member(s) will participate in the congresses organised by the
European Green Party (EGP), even though our role is primarily that of an
observer. Moreover, we will seek involvement in various other activities hosted
by EGP, Green European Foundation, and Greens/EFA, with the added benefit of
being able to organise side-meetings with key stakeholders during these events,
thereby further deepening our relations within the Green European community. In
addition, CDN will engage, seek partnerships and collaborations with other
Progressive and Green actors across Europe such as Heinrich Boell Foundation
offices in our region.

[1] In the previous years, CDN had Activity Plans presented work from January-
December However, we have decided to transition to a new approach in order to
enhance transparency, democracy, and allow for a better planning. Our Activity
Plans will now align with the timeline from one General Assembly to the next.

[2] In collaboration with Green Forum, we applied for funding from the Swedish
Institute for the project in February 2024. The results will be announced by
late May 2024.

[3] To be Confirmed