EDGE Europe Gathering 2022
In 2022, in lieu of the continuous challenges related to the Covid- 19, the EDGE Staff decided to organize two in person regional meetings, instead of planning a virtual conference as done in 2021. This decision was due primarily to the understanding that our members have a need to reconnect in person, while maintaining an understanding that there are still too many health concerns to plan international travel.
In Europe, members and funders allies met at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, on May 11 – 13, 2022. During these three days together, we offered a space for the EDGE community to reconnect, learn from each other and movement leaders.
Continue reading for recordings and a summary of activities at the gathering.
You can download the agenda here: EDGE Europe Gathering Agenda
The agenda for the hybrid event is here: EDGE Europe Gathering Agenda hybrid
We had open space sessions where members and movement leaders shared their experiences and got insight from others in the field regarding their work.Topics included shifting power, ethical investment, decolonizing digital rights and more!
We also had dine-arounds where attendees got to delve deeper into the gathering’s topics, deepen their relationship and get to know each other’s work over dinner.
Asad Rehman is the Executive Director of the radical anti-poverty and social justice organisation War on Want.
Asad is a leading climate justice activist whose work has helped to reframe the climate crisis as a crisis of neoliberal capitalism, inequality, and racism. Asad has led climate justice groups inside the UNFCCC process, and was co-founder of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, is currently coordinator of the Global Green New Deal Project and was also one of the founders of the COP26 Coalition.Over the last 35 years, he has worked with many social movements both globally and nationally including the anti-racist movement, the alter-globalisation movement, and the anti-war movement.
Elisabeth DAU is graduated in public law, specialised in the administration of territories and their international cooperation. At the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, she worked on the issues and assessment (indicators) of democratic governance. In Mali, she coordinated the Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Governance and then worked for nearly ten years with the think tank Institut de recherche et débat sur la gouvernance (IRG), analysing the diversity of forms of democratic governance and the processes of legitimacy of power in Africa, Latin America, Europe and France. She has developed work on the relationship between civil societies and public authorities, international cooperation between territories, territorial food governance, the commons and local democracy practices. Elisabeth leads the research of the programme “Municipalism, Territories and Transitions” common to the Utopia Movement (France) and CommonsPolis (Spain) on the practices of citizen reappropriation of politics in France and in Europe. She is co-founder and volunteer of the cooperative (SCIC) Fréquence Commune, which supports participatory municipalities in France. Elisabeth is a member of the Steering Committee of the magazine Horizons Publics dedicated to public innovation and of the Board of the 27th Region, a laboratory for public transformation.
Iryna Kolotylo is an Education Project Manager in “Eidos” Centre for Political Studies and Analysis (Kyiv, Ukraine), art manager and vvolunteer.In February 2022 she founded the “Chervona ruta” Volunteer initiative in the Chernivtsi region, where they work with IDPs, youth and Ukrainian culture promotion.Over the last 10 years, she worked as a project manager and trainer in various youth projects on anti-corruption, civic education and active citizenship, prevention and combating of discrimination and equality promotion, funded by UNDEF, USAID, FNF, KAS and others. Iryna worked as legal expert in International Department of Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, trainer in tolerance and non-discrimination for police patrol officers. She also worked for Helping Hand NGO in Georgia (Tbilisi) and Raizvanguarda Cultural Association in Portugal (Gois). Iryna studied law in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and contemporary art in Kyiv Academy of Media Art.
Morgan Ody is a small scale farmer based in Bretagne, France. She grows vegetables that she sells in a local market and via a community supported agriculture scheme. After having taken part activelly in Confederation Paysanne’a activity over the last ten years, she became the general coordinator of La Via Campesina, since the International Operative Secretariat of the global peasant movement moved to Europe last December.
Main Gathering Sessions
- Welcome & setting up: what is happening at EDGE
- Conversation on Russian Aggression in Ukraine
- EDGE members engagement and Network Governance
- Dynamic Plenary on Climate Justice and launch of the Climate Justice Report
- Food Sovereignty from the funders’ and movements’ perspectives
- Conversation on Municipalism
This session set the tone for the gathering and introduced EDGE to non-members.
Facilitated by Martina Fin and Sofia Arroyo
This session focused on the lived experience of Ukrainian activists in the larger context of the aggression in Ukraine. Furthermore, during the conversation, panelists together with participants joining the gathering discussed topics related to imperialism and the role that philanthropy should have in supporting civil society fighting for systemic justice all over the world.
Co-hosted by Belguun Bella Bat-Erdene (Urgent Action Fund) and Iryna Kolotylo (Chervona ruta), facilitated by Martina Fin
In this session, Board representatives and EDGE staff presented to EDGE members their thinking in moving towards a more networked governance model, they gave updates on the organizational strengthening work and asked members to reflect on the role EDGE members can play in strengthening the EDGE network and what an actively engaged membership means.
Facilitated by: Sofia Arroyo (EDGE ED), Cuong P. Hoang (Chair of the Board OS committee), Anna Turley (Bureau Kensington) and Barbara Williams (Bureau Kensington)
EDGE Funders Alliance launched “Beyond 2%: From climate philanthropy to climate justice philanthropy”, a report written by Dr. Edouard Morena, edited by EDGE Funders and published in collaboration with UNRISD.
The session included important insights and contributions from the EDGE community who attended virtually and in-person.
The session was hosted by Asad Rehman (War on Want and Co-Chair of EDGE’s Climate Justice & Global Initiatives [formerly COP26] working group) and facilitated by Sofia Arroyo (EDGE Funders Alliance)
In the current context of a growing food crisis, this session addressed the need to strengthen our struggles to move from a neoliberal international order based on World Trade Organization (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) to a true international solidarity based on food sovereignty. Panelists explored the issue of corporate capture of global food governance and the issues of digitalization in the food and agriculture sectors and the risks linked with it.
Co-hosted by Morgan Ody (La Via Campesina) and Karin van Boxtel (BothEnds), facilitated by Hana ElSafoury (Dakatra Farm)
Democratic issues in times of recomposition of new geopolitical in Europe and anti – social, ecological and transition ways. What are the alternatives that philanthropy and civil society can contribute to create together? This closing conversation explored the need to activate a translocal, European network and ways to build strong resistance and alternative and build community.
Hosted by Elisabeth Dau (Movement Utopia and CommonsPolis) with special insights from Jean Poncet and participants.
Getting grounded in context
As always, we hoped to locate our discussions within the socio-political context of the region that welcomed us. This year, we decided to plan site visits to Marseille and invite local activists to share their work and activities.
Site Visits in Marseilles
Since 2014, more than 20,000 men, women and children have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to cross it in makeshift boats. SOS MEDITERRANEE is a civilian European association of citizens engaged to help those who risk their lives at sea to escape an unbearable situation. Since the beginning of its operations in February 2016, more than 35,000 people have been rescued by the Aquarius and then by the Ocean Viking, a quarter of whom were under 18.
They are currently fundraising for their work, please reach out to Hana if you are interested to learn more.
Fighting against exclusion while experimenting with new ways of collective living, the Coco Velten project accommodates nearly 80 people in social residences, and provides workspaces to nearly 40 associations, artists, craftsmen, social entrepreneurs and small businesses. Coco Velten is also open to the public, connected to its neighbors, offering a Canteen and various social, economic and cultural meeting spaces.
The lease contract of the building where the project resides is about to expire and they are looking for some immediate support. To know more and support their incredible work visit their website and also contact Nicolas Detries
During this site visit we also learned about many other collective, radical and innovative projects such as Yes we Camp and Koutrajmé. Check them out!
La Dar is a self-organised social center, a politically and financially autonomous space, open to the neighborhood, its inhabitants, as well as social movements. The collective of activists rents a place in an area in a process of gentrification (Noailles). Many activities are developed (boxing, canteen, day care for refugees, library, concerts, meeting place for social movements, etc.). It is a political and cultural place, which promotes emancipation and solidarity for all. The site visits started by a walk around the neighborhood.
La Dar relies on flexible donations and grants to stay open, if you are interested in supporting their work, contact Bertrand Fribourg.