In the quaint town of Cres, on a Croatian island, RARE participants gathered for three days to continue their learning together about building organisations that are prepared to withstand crises.
Hertie School’s former President Helmut Anheier guided the group to discuss how NGOs, especially advocacy organizations, face an increasingly complex and challenging environment. Some of them - like information or coordination problems - arise from the everyday task environment in which NGOs operate, others such as succession issues are impactful but rarer events, while others are the result of internal and external crises that can emerge suddenly or result from longer-term developments. The discussion began by reviewing the current environment of NGOs and quickly addressed key governance and organizational perspectives. Using a tailormade series of real-life case studies, Anheier led the RARE group to explore challenges and crises, review responses by management and assess how best to prepare for similar situations.
On the third day, the RARE group looked back at their journey over the past one and a half years, and discussed how to continue cooperating and supporting each other. Finally, the day closed with a graduation ceremony. On behalf of the Council of Europe, Tigran Karapetyan congratulated the participants, highlighting the inmportance of civil society collaboration on rule of law and human rights issues. The ERSTE Stiftung and Stiftung Mercator also offered the opportunity to join their alumni programmes.
Camp 9 was realised with funding from the Council of Europe, Stiftung Mercator and ERSTE Stiftung – thank you for your support!
So it’s a wrap! What have we accomplished in 16 months?
- we have improved the ability of human rights defenders in the EU to respond to systemic and systematic attacks to fundamental rights and democratic institutions;
- we have raised the visibility of those working to reverse the trend towards shrinking civic space across countries;
- together we form a strong and sustainable alliance of rule of law advocates who are ready to act in solidarity to safeguard each other’s rights and freedoms across the European Union.
Stay tuned for our campaign that will call for the adoption, by the European Commission, of a Europe-wide civil society strategy - of which you can read more here.
Applications are now open for RARE 2022-2024. This is an exceptional opportunity for human rights defenders and civic space advocates from across the EU to meet, learn and strategise together. Apply by 24 July 2022 to join RARE and take action together for civic space and the rule of law in the EU.
Apply now: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/rare-apply-now
RARE Camp 9 - Taking care of organisations
On the Croatian island of Cres, RARE participants gathered in June 2022 to continue their learning together about building organisations that are prepared to withstand crises.
