SOFEA’s Post

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of Chairing a panel at the Coop Congress run by Cooperatives UK. There’s such a diversity of efforts going on across the country: ✅collective action to demand better from public bodies - seeking to tackle cultures of institutional defensiveness (eg Post Office scandal) rather than authorities opening up dynamically to work with communities to problem solve ✅community share initiative successes (eg renewable energy) - seeing communities own their own clean energy projects and reinvest surpluses back into other local services ✅cooperative partnerships with local Gov to open up social enterprise possibilities - by councils taking a convening role, new cooperatives enterprises and cultures have flourished, bringing with them economic benefits that improve the lives of workers and communities ✅empowering underrepresented groups for community ownership - efforts to ensure the benefits of cooperative enterprises or community share offers are not the preserve of privileged communities.💯🙏 #cooperatives #renewableenergy #greenindustries #partnerships #collaboration #publicservices #communityshares #equity

Our policy team advocate for marginalised communities and the voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations that support them by: ➡ Breaking down the elements that make up an inclusive economy and explain how VCFSE organisations have an impact on building an economy that works for all ➡ Demystifying policy in a way that enables VCFSE organisations to understand how they can contribute to the development of strategy and policy in Greater Manchester ➡ Enabling the voices of low income and marginalised communities to be heard by policy makers and publish evidence to support these voices ➡ Working to ensure that the role of the VCFSE sector in Greater Manchester is understood, recognised, and valued by policy makers, sharing best practice and impact that is being delivered in the city region Find out how this looks in practice ➡

The People’s Report provides a civil society perspective on South Africa’s progress on goals currently being reviewed under the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF): #SDG1Nopoverty, #SDG2ZeroHunger,#sdg13climateaction #sdg16peacejusticeandstronginstitutions #SDG17partnershipsforthegoals Civil society has also identified the following additional goals for review: #SDG4QualityEducation, #sdg5genderequality and #SDG8decentworkandeconomicgrowth Read more here: https://rebrand.ly/f2525d

New Year, a Robust Alliance, Same Mission As 2025 begins, we would like to reaffirm our commitment to the fight for effective land governance in the country. Our Strategic Objectives remain; (a) To Enhance Accountability and Effective Implementation of land and natural resource-based Policies and Laws. (b) To Secure Land Rights for Women, Youth, Persons with Disability and Land Marginalized Groups. (c) To Promote Meaningful and Inclusive Participation of Communities in Land Governance and Climate Justice. (d)To Establish a well-Equipped Institution that will Optimally Deliver the KLA 2024-2028 Strategic Plan. The KLA Secretariat, with the help of our members across over 25 counties in Kenya, the communities we work in, our local and international partners see 2025 as an opportunity to push for community focused and county level land reform priorities. #communitylandprotection #LandGovernance #YouthandLand #womenlandrights#urbanlandtenuresecurity #tekelezahakiardhipwani #timizahakiardhipwani Brot für die Welt Misereor Stand for Her Land Rainforest Foundation UK Landesa We Effect East Africa

Join #Keolis for an insightful session on advancing equity in transit! Sally Stewart-McKinnie will be speaking at COMTO Headquarters tomorrow about successful equity-forward practices from transit agencies and businesses across the U.S. Key topics will include: - Findings from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA)'s Racial Equity Commitment Pilot Program - APTA’s research on transit’s impact on community equity - Effective policies and practices for promoting equity Don't miss this chance to learn and discuss how we can all contribute to a more equitable transit system! #TransitEquity #COMTO #PublicTransit #CommunityImpact

How to reach the grassroots & bring the Rural Pact closer to citizens? Explore a set of tools for local empowerment, such as #SmartVillages and Community-led Local Development (CLLD): bit.ly/3Alf2LH A new publication, co-produced by the European Partnership for Citizen-empowerment (SBE) and the European Rural Community Alliance - ERCA, argues that community-led initiatives can help to restore trust between governments and residents. Discover a range of approaches, including ‘Village Pacts’, to bringing policies closer to local communities! #RuralPact #RuralVisionEU

Launch - New Report: Safe Cities Norway 2020-2023 Through the Safe City Norway initiative Nordic Safe Cities, Gjensidigestiftelsen, the Norwegian municipalities and civil society organisations take leading roles in creating safer cities and safer local democracies in Norway. This is done by implementing various initiatives that counter hatred, extremism and conspiracy theories and foster democratic engagement. From 2020-2023, 12 municipalities and over 50 voluntary actors, civil society organizations and knowledge environments have collaborated to create new local measures, a number of which are scalable concepts ready to be put into use in several Norwegian municipalities. We have now gathered these three years of knowledge, corporation, insights, results and experiences from the Safe City Norway in a report: Safe City Norway - 2020-2023: Results, learnings and ways going forward (Trygg By Norge - 2020-2023: Resultater, læringer og veier videre) It aims to inspire national and local actors to take action and combat #extremism in Norway. Our hope is that municipalities, organizations and knowledge environments will stand together to make a difference and contribute to strengthen democratic values and mindsets in local citizens, and nourish resilience against extremist environments and ideologies, especially when it comes to children and young people 🙏 Huge thanks to all who contributed to the report 🙌 🙌 🙌 We look forward to the next years of corporation in the initiative and hope you enjoy the read: https://lnkd.in/dUGApbkk Let us know, if we can help you create a safer local democracy – in #Norway or elsewhere in the #Nordics. #democracy #inclusion #minority #togetherness #prevention #municipality Common Consultancy Analyse & Tal Oslo kommune, Fredrikstad kommune, Kristiansand kommune, Larvik kommune, Skien kommune, Sarpsborg kommune, Stavanger kommune, Arendal kommune, Bodø Kommune, Tromsø kommune, Bærum Municipality, Haugesund kommune Annhild Mosdøl, Ingrid Tollånes, Jeppe Albers, Emil Mønster, Kine Aure Nilsen, Yngve Carlsson, Erik Lindbæk Kruse Ingrid Riddervold Lorange

Happy to finally make this publication go live.  For those of you interested in mobilising action across many partners while having boots on the ground and creating real change, check it out. We show a range of quality concepts and models to build democratic resilience build across 12 Norwegian cities and 50 civil society organisations the past three years. Check out amongst others Game Norway (Arendal), Demos (Frederikstad), Youth Resilience (Sarpsborg), Oslo Talks, Digital Street Team (Bodø). The report includes a run down of valuable lessons learned when pioneering new prevention concepts with civil society. On the inside; Quite the exercise in strategic programming: Ingrediences: 12 cities and +50 civil partner willing to put ressources, attention and time into championing new ideas and making them function into the 'depth of implementation' in a municipality and 'out' into civil society. 1 foundation delivering 40 mio. NOK in direct investments to nurture and innovate local democracy, while setting high demands for quality and collaboration, theories of change, documentation, agility and local commitment to make a long-term difference. And then us in Nordic Safe Cities, doing our best to be a catalyst, steer cities on a joint mission for safety and shape local initiatives to help cities remain on the front foot in uncertain times.

Recognition of the rights of First Nations people is an important foundation to creating a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive financial system. In June, the City of Vancouver unveiled an Action Plan to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), developed in partnership with First Nations people to solidify First Nations rights in the city. To be implemented over the next five years, the plan identifies five themes: relationship foundations; redress, housing and land; cultural presence; stewardship and addressing environmental racism; and communication and accountability. UNDRIP – the only UN declaration developed by the world’s Indigenous people, including First Nations Australians – is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for their survival, dignity and wellbeing. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/g7DBjwtF #FirstNations #SelfDetermination #UNDRIP

What councils want most in 2025? Partnership. LGNZ President Sam Broughton recently shared some of his thoughts in an op-ed, highlighting what councils need from the Government in 2025. One priority stood out: genuine partnership. Imagine what could be achieved with a collaborative Government—one that removes red tape and works alongside councils to unlock growth and deliver for New Zealand communities. It starts with listening to what ratepayers and the wider community truly value in their regions. This year, LGNZ is calling on the Government to empower councils to serve ratepayers more effectively. We share the same goal: thriving communities. To achieve it, we need to work together. https://lnkd.in/gk6w73yc