Project description
Summary
Kria dalan is a voluntary student organization whose purpose is to contribute to sustainable development in Timor-Leste, through solidarity.
The organization is an independent continuation of projects which were originally founded by the International Student Festival in Trondheim (ISFiT) and the Student Peace Prize. The prize was awarded, on behalf of Norwegian students, for the first time in 1999 to Antero Benedito da Silva from Timor-Leste. The Follow-up project of 2017 supported da Silva when in February 2017, 5 volunteers in the Student Peace Prize conducted a dialogue seminar for 60 young farmers and students in collaboration with da Silva. The seminar was successful and inspired the now former volunteers in the Student Peace Prize to found Kria dalan, in order to ensure long-term follow-up and continuation of the project.
Kria dalan aims to conduct a new seminar in August 2018, organized in collaboration with local volunteers, where the participants will be young farmers and students. Our focus is the UN’s s Sustainable Development Goals and we will encourage conversations about sustainable food production, employment and climate adaptation. In order to conduct the seminar we rely on applying for funding to cover our budget of NOK 227 200, -. The budget covers travel and accommodation for 5 volunteers from Norway, as well as trips, meals and equipment for 30 participants over six days.
Kria dalan is a voluntary, Norwegian, student run organization which wishes to promote sustainable development in Timor-Leste through solidarity work.
The organisation has its origins in the Student Peace Prize and ISFiT 2017 (the International Student Festival in Trondheim). The Peace Prize was awarded for the first time in 1999 to the then student Antero Benedito da Silva in Timor-Leste for his work to promote the Timor-Leste independence vote from Indonesia, to the people of the country. Timor-Leste consequentially gained independence in 2002 after a devastating civil war. Ruined infrastructure, and large migrations from the country have created lasting problems. Consequentially, large parts of its population are still living under the international poverty line.
The Student Peace Prize organises follow-up projects in cooperation with previous laureates biannually, and in February 2017 5 volunteer students organised a seminar in Timor-Leste for 60 young farmers and students. Additionally, the Peace Project funded 150 000 NOK for renovations to the Peace Centre, which is a local gathering spot for volunteer projects and is da Silvas workplace. The seminar was in cooperation with da Silva, who now is a professor in peace- and conflict studies at the university of Dili (UNTL), and focused on the meaning of youth community engagement.
The seminar was a success, and the participants, the volunteers from Norway, and presenters for the seminar, all signed a resolution which aimed to make the seminar an annual occurrence. As this would not be possible as a continuation of their ISFiT roles, the Student Peace Prize leader Håkon Noren, and deputy leader of the Follow-up Project Guri Strand Karlsen, created Kria dalan to fulfil the resolution. Kria dalan gives a better foundation for follow-up of the project, as well as organising more seminars in Timor-Leste. Today Kria dalan is an organisation with 6 volunteers, where the majority are students at NTNU in Trondheim and represent a broad spectrum of fields of study. In developing the seminar we are cooperating closely with Cecilia Soares, a volunteer for the Women Peace and Leadership-group of UNTL.
Kria dalans primary goal up until August 2018 is to organise and execute another seminar in Timor-Leste. In the long term we wish to support local volunteers at the Peace Centre, as well as help continue da Silvas work to engage and strengthen young farmers abilities and leadership. Additionally, we wish to build bridges between Trondheim and Timor-Leste by developing exchange programs and cooperation projects. We want Norwegians to gain knowledge about Timor-Leste, and through this knowledge, facilitate constructive engagement among Trondheim students. Kria dalan have the following core goals:
Kria dalan’s goals:
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The board of Kria dalan
| Leader
Guri Strand Karlsen (born 1992) Recently graduated from NTNU with a master in Development Studies specializing in geography, and has a bachelor degree in Social Anthropology from UiB. Previous assistant head of the Follow-up project of the Student Peace prize 2017 og council member i Red Cross Youth’s local council in Trondheim |
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| Deputy leader
Håkon Noren (born 1995) Student of MSc in Physics and mathematics at NTNU, and has a bachelor degree in philosophy. Previous head of the Student Peace prize 2017 and is elected representative of the Norwegian Labour party in Oppland County Council. |
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| Coordinator Rikka Kjelkenes (born 1994) rikka.kjelkenes@kriadalan.orgMasterstudent of Neuroscience at NTNU, and has a bachelor degree in psychology. Previous board member of the dialogue groups of the International Student Festival in Trondheim (ISFiT). |
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| Responsible for competency
Lise Hagen Lie (born 1994) MSc student in Globalization: Transnationalism and Culture at NTNU, with a BA in International Relations from Durham University. ASEF alumni, previous dialogue facilitator for ISFiT 2017, intern at ELKEM Singapore, Matching Responsible for AIESEC Trondheim and project- and recruitment responsible for the UN-students in Trondheim. |
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| Responsible for communications
Guro Holte Igesund (born 1993) guro.holte.igesund@kriadalan.org Student of clinical psychology master programme at NTNU, and has previously had three semesters of a bachelor in psychology. Previous leader of Framtiden i våre hender Trondheim student team, and social media responsible for the Students and Academics International Solidarity and Aid organization (SAIH). Editorial staff of their newspaper Verdens Beste Nyheter. |
Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste is one of the worlds youngest and most vulnerable countries, and the development up till today is summarised below.
In 1859, the western part of the Timor Island was colonized by Portugal until the country was declared independent on 28 November 1975. Nine days later, Timor-Leste was occupied by Indonesian forces. Over the next decades, between 100,000 – 250,000 people lost their lives as a result of Indonesia’s brutal regime. After decades of effort to gain international attention around the conflict, José Ramos Horta received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 together with bishop Carlos Belo. In 1999 there was a referendum on independence where 78.5 percent of the population voted for independence. Antero Benedito da Silva shared information about this very vote all across Timor-Leste as head of the organization ETSSC (East Timor Student Solidarity Council) and received the Student Peace Prize in 1999 for this nonviolent approach.
In 2002, the country became independent after a period under the leadership of the UN Transitional Administration (UNTAET). Large parts of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed and from 2002, efforts began to achieve stability and democratic governance. This work was interrupted in 2006 when new unrest and violent riots arose which led to the UN’s peacekeeping forces moving in. Despite this the country has in the aftermath experienced greater stability and conducted successful elections in 2012 and 2017. In 2015 the UN peacekeeping forces pulled out of the country. UN Development Program UNDP has played an active role in Timor-Leste since 1999.
Norway has participated in the development of Timor-Leste since 2002. The cooperation has mainly been related to developing an oil fund according to the Norwegian model, strengthening the production of renewable energy and increasing women’s rights. Today 49% of the population is characterized as poor and the country is one of the world’s most oil dependent. Inadequate health care, malnutrition, low education capacity and an underdeveloped agricultural sector, as well as problems in the justice sector, appear to be fundamental challenges. In Timor-Leste, about 80% of the population are farmers and coffee is the country’s second largest export industry.
In 2006, Antero Benedito da Silva returned to Timor-Leste after completing a master’s degree in peace studies at Trinity College in Ireland. Together with young volunteers, Silva gathered 200 young people to carry out a national dialogue with goals for enhanced unity and shared identity. After completing a PhD at the University of New England, Antero continued his commitment through the building of the Peace Center at UNTL in 2006. The center offers a master’s program in peace and conflict studies, and has a building that serves as a locale for a multitude of volunteer organisations led by youths.
About the seminar
Kria dalan’s primary project is to conduct a seminar in Timor-Leste over 6 days in early August 2018.
We want to contribute to sustainable development in Timor-Leste by facilitating students and young farmers to collaborate on sustainability projects. To achieve this we will facilitate dialogue, create commitment to the UN’s sustainability goals and build entrepreneurship skills. The seminar will be conducted in cooperation with volunteer student groups at the University of Dili (UNTL) and in the long term, Timorese students will take over all responsibility for the implementation of future seminars. Before the seminar starts, we will spend 3 days to train the volunteers in dialogue facilitation and hold leadership training to strengthen the voluntarism.
5.1 Focus area and objectives
The UN’s 17 sustainability goals form an overall framework for the seminar and it is especially Objective 2 on hunger and sustainable agriculture, Objective 8 on work and economic growth, and Goal 13 on stopping climate change and, in particular, climate adaptation. Timor-Leste has well documented challenges with food safety and malnutrition. In addition, climate change causes increased risk of devastating floods and landslides. Therefore, we want to pay particular attention to 1) sustainable agriculture and 2) climate adaptation during the seminar. Following the completion of the seminar in February 2017, it was precisely the theme of sustainable agriculture and climate that the participants wanted to focus on further.
Goals for the seminar:
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5.2 Target group
The goal of Kria dalan is to continue the wishes declared in the Dili Declaration and the main target group that is pointed out in this document is among the most important aspect of this project as it is directly sought after by the people who know it best; the locals. There is especially a need for communication and increased solidarity locally in Timor-Leste between urban and rural areas, and it was the same target group set by the Peace Project 2017; namely young farmers and students. It is therefore of great importance that urban and rural residents can work for a common vision for the future of Timor-Leste. We in Kria dalan strongly believe that young people through dialogue based on respect and openness can come up with the best ideas and solutions for the community. Creating a safe meeting place for young farmers and students is a good starting point for this, considering the challenges Timor-Leste is experiencing now and in the foreseeable future.
In Timor-Leste a large proportion of the population are farmers and Antero Benedito da Silva is highly committed to working for their rights. In 2017, volunteers from Norway met representatives of the agricultural organization União Agricultori Ermere (UNAER), based in the Ermera region. By continuing the relationship with this organization as well as da Silva’s contacts at the agricultural school, we can safeguard the perspective of young people in agriculture during the seminar. Therefore, we urge that half of the participants be young farmers.
Kria dalan also wishes to build on the work of the volunteer group Women, Peace and Leadership, and thus ensure equal gender distribution among the participants by involving the knowledge of the volunteers in WPL and by requiring that half of each target group also consist of female participants. This is a particular focus due to the challenges Timor-Leste faces in regards to gender equality and women’s role in society.
It is crucial to continue the cooperation with volunteers from the Peace Center who participated in the planning and implementation of the seminar in 2017. In 2018, we want to spend more time on dialogue facilitation and leadership training of a group of selected volunteers in order to give students in Dili increasing responsibility. This is done by providing more learning and experience from voluntary organizational work, while at the same time we have a goal that the seminars will eventually be conducted exclusively by volunteers in Timor-Leste. This means that the volunteers at Peace Center will also be part of the target group of Kria dalan, and the same demands will be made for mixed gender participation here.
5.3 Method
Dialogue is a popular method in peacebuilding, as it allows for the relevant actors to meet and be heard as equals. While societal, financial and religious positions, or access to different networks might distinguish them, the participants are treated as equally important in understanding the issues at hand. In our case, it is not hard to imagine that life in Timor-Leste for a young farmer is quite different from a university students’. In order for us to have a productive seminar, we need participants to look beyond their initial assumptions and dispositions in order to listen to the ‘other’. Only by achieving this may we find sustainable and equitable solutions to climate change and peace in Timor-Leste. This is why dialogue is a crucial element to our project. Only by creating a level playing field will the different voices of the participants be heard. This way we make clear that gender, financial and societal dissimilarities do not lead the conversation in such a way that only a few are able to express their experience.
Sultiest is an online test, designed to promote “sustainability literacy”. The test is developed in cooperation with many well known international actors, such as the United Nations, and the International Association of Universities. The test has been taken in more than 700 universities, and 62 countries, and is currently in cooperation with NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). The test can be modified to fit an individual organisations needs, and thus Kria dalan can use the test to evaluate the ‘sustainable literacy’ of the projects participants both before and after the seminar, and such have a statistic to show progression in its participants.
While assuring this ‘literacy’ is important for our goals, it is equally important for us to inspire and focus on entrepreneurship as a driving force for change, as well as a show of progression after the seminar. UNDP (UN development program) has since 1999 worked to promote entrepreneurship, civil engagement and community building in Timor-Leste. Thus, Kria dalan wishes to use parts of the seminar to focus on building a foundation of knowledge and competence for youth entrepreneurs, in cooperation with UNDP, by finding speakers and ensure a long term follow up of startups. Specifically we wish to give a platform where one can learn project management, budget planning, needs analysis, as well as the creation of a projectfund of NOK 20 000,- which startups can apply to for funding. By doing this we hope to establish new, sustainable, projects which help solve local issues and create employment opportunities.
Budget
| Expenses | Sum (NOK) | Sum (USD) |
| Implementation of a six day seminar for 30 participants. | 71 250,00 kr | USD 8 900 |
| Funding for start-up projects initiated by the seminar | 20 000,00 kr | USD 2 500 |
| Travel expenses for volunteers from Norway | 84 500,00 kr | USD 10 560 |
| Study trip to the Ermera region in Timor-Leste | 6 400,00 kr | USD 800 |
| Expenses related to marketing and printing posters etc. | 9 600,00 kr | USD 1 200 |
| Arranging lecture on the seminar inviting external speakers to Trondheim | 7 700,00 kr | USD 960 |
| Administrative costs. | 16 300,00 kr | USD 2 040 |
| Expenses related to attending courses and building knowledge about TImor Leste | 10 950,00 kr | USD 1 370 |
| Compensation of CO2 emissions from flights | 500,00 kr | USD 62 |
| SUM | 227 200,00 kr | USD 28 400 |
| Reflections from last seminar
– José da Costa Pereira Soares, Community Development at Universidade Nasional Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL) |
SWOT-analysis
A SWOT-analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) gives an easy insight to the positive and negative aspects of the seminar project.
| I N T E R N A L |
Strengths
– Effective multicultural cooperation – Local continuous engagement – Extensive knowledge of local needs and resources – Based upon previous successful projects |
Weaknesses
– Volunteers have limited time and resources for the project – Potentially low impact without the needed resources – Potential difficulties applying methods and goals in a multicultural context |
| E x T ERNA L |
Opportunities
– Established networks and relations within the target groups – Building entrepreneurships in target areas – Cultural and knowledge exchange within target groups, both locally and multiculturally |
Threats
– Language and cultural barriers – Instability in host-country – Inefficient communication due to time zones and lack of internet access |
| POSITIVE | NEGATIVE |
| Organisation Number: 919 659 998
Account number: 4212 30 37728 Adress: Kria dalan c/o Håkon Noren, Osloveien 5, 7017 TRONDHEIM Kria dalan 2018 |