Seven glances at 2011 - a WOSM retrospective on the year that passed by
The year 2011 was institutionally a crucial year for WOSM with many global events and initiatives. During the year, World Scouting managed to successfully organize three large World Scout Events, the World Scout Youth Forum and the World Scout Conference in Brazil, and the World Scout Jamboree in Sweden. World Scouting also launched its flagship initiative, ‘Messengers of Peace’.
Here is a summary of the key events and developments at WOSM from the year that passed by.
1. The 11th World Scout Youth Forum, Blumenau
The 11th World Scout Youth Forum was held at Hotel Vienna Park in Blumenau, Brazil, from 3-6 January 2011. The Forum attracted a total of 181 participants from 66 National Scout Organizations from all six WOSM Regions. For the first time in the history of World Scouting, the Forum was broadcast live on the web site. In 4 days, the Forum live-streaming page was visited over half a million times. The participants discussed and deliberated on topics and issues related to World Scouting built around two themes: Youth Empowerment; and Scouting a Worldwide Movement. The Youth Forum presented a set of 25 recommendations to the World Scout Committee as a result of their discussions. Click here to download the report of the 11th World Scout Youth Forum.
2. The 39th World Scout Conference, Curitiba
The 39th World Scout Conference was held from 10-14 January 2011 in Curitiba, Brazil. The Conference was hosted by the União dos Escoteiros do Brasil (the Brazilian Scouts Association) and was attended by 918 participants from 138 countries. The theme of the Conference was ‘Leaders of Innovation’. The World Scout Conference is the governing body (general assembly) of World Scouting, and is composed of all its members, the National Scout Organizations (NSOs).
The Conference also elected 6 new members for the World Scout Committee who joined the six elected from the previous Conference in Korea (2008) to form the new Committee for the following triennium (2011-2014). The World Scout Committee is the executive body of WOSM and is responsible for the implementation of the resolutions of the World Scout Conference and for acting on its behalf between each Conference (every three years). There were a total of 30 resolutions passed at the Conference in Brazil last year and the next one will be held in Slovenia in 2014. The Conference report from Brazil is available on-line.
3. 22nd World Scout Jamboree, Kristianstaad
The 22nd World Scout Jamboree took place from 27 July to 7 August 2011 in Kristianstad, Sweden. With over 40,000 Scouts (14-17 year olds) from 146 countries in attendance, this was the biggest World Scout Jamboree in the history of World Scouting. The theme of the Sweden Jamboree was ‘Simply Scouting’. Approximately 8000 International Service Team members (adult volunteers from across the world) helped to deliver the Jamboree programme for the Scouts. The programme proposed a wide variety of activities and also placed great importance on the way the young people took part in everything by offering them wide interaction with other participants and real participation in the daily life on their campsite.
The Jamboree in Sweden was followed extensively by people across the world via the Jamboree website and the social media feeds. Join In Jamboree activities were developed for those who could not come to Sweden but wished to live the experience through smaller camps organized at their own locations across the world.
Continuing from recent Jamborees, WOSM ran a World Scout Centre showcasing all its work to the participants and visitors. In partnership with the Swedish Guide and Scout Council, WOSM jointly organized a one day international conference Keeping Children Safe From Harm which included several workshops to share Scouting’s contribution to Child Protection. The next World Scout Jamboree will take place in Japan in the year 2015.
4. ‘Messengers of Peace’ – WOSM’s new flagship initiative
On 28 September 2011, WOSM’s flagship initiative, the ‘Messengers of Peace’, was officially launched in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
‘Messengers of Peace’ is a WOSM global initiative supported by the World Scout Foundation and has two elements: the ‘Messengers of Peace’ Global Network and the ‘Messengers of Peace’ Support Fund. The Global Network is the tool for connecting Scouts. Using social media, the Network allows Scouts to showcase their service projects and meet online to share their ideas, tell their stories and work together to build peace in their communities. The ‘Messengers of Peace’ Support Fund will provide financial support to service projects and Scouting initiatives around the world. The Fund enables Scouts in poorer countries to implement the types of vital projects that can change communities. It also supports project management capacity building for NSOs and Regional Offices.
Over the next 10 years, the initiative has the potential to reach 20 million Scouts. Click here to know more about ‘Messengers of Peace’ and for updates and latest developments on the initiative.
5. 54th JOTA and the 15th JOTI
The 54th Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) and the 15th Jamboree On The Internet (JOTI) took place on 15-16 October 2011. Annually JOTA-JOTI takes place on the third weekend of October, during which hundreds of thousands of Scouts and Guides from across the world talk to each other from an Amateur Radio Station and/or using Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The theme of this year’s event was "Peace, Environment and Natural Disasters". Educational activities were prepared with the aim of helping participants to think, discuss and act on these issues.
JOTA-JOTI is also an opportunity for everyone to discover and experience new projects and new programmes from NSOs across the world and make new friends. However, the impact of such sharing of experiences is much wider than can be documented through a formal report. One such example is how this year’s theme led to our partnership with Shelterbox, an international disaster relief charity, who contributed to the creation of education materials for the event and helped train many Scouts on skills required during a response to natural disasters. The activities included a very exciting simulation game ‘Earthquake in Scoutonia’ to simulate, as realistically as possible, a chaotic situation in the aftermath of an earthquake. Scouts from Turkey registered a very high number of participants for JOTA-JOTI (as has been norm in recent years from Turkey). Not only due to coincidence, Scouts from Turkey (alongside Portugal and Malaysia) took the lead for the simulation exercise. What happened a few weeks later was rather unfortunate, but the Scouts made a positive contribution in a challenging situation: Turkey experienced a horrible earthquake 3 weeks after the JOTA-JOTI. Through the NSO, Shelterbox instantly were able to mobilize the same Scouts who participated and got trained during JOTA-JOTI and the Scouts straightaway got into action, being prepared, as they were.
6. New appointments at the World Scout Bureau, Geneva
The World Scout Bureau (Geneva) has strengthened its team with the addition of new members in various strategic roles to support the work of the secretariat of the World Scout Movement. During the year, a number of job openings were announced and the following candidates were given charge for the responsibilities mentioned below after due process:
• Mr. Bruno Chambardon, Director, Communications & External Relations
• Mr. Peter Illig, Director, Global Projects Management
• Mr. Patrik Hedljung, Director (Interim), Global Projects Management
• Ms. Abir Koubaa, Project Assistant, Global Projects Management Team
• Mr. Tirumale Venugopal Srinath, Senior Unit Manager, External Media and External Relations
Finally, at the end of the year, WOSM Secretary General Luc Panissod announced he had decided to retire at the end of 2012 to give the opportunity for younger blood to take up the top position at the WOSM secretariat.
7. WOSM partnerships and institutional relations
The year 2011 included two very important global multilateral initiatives which hold significance to WOSM's core areas of work: the International Year of the Youth (IYY – 12 August 2010 – 12 August 2011) and the International Year of Volunteering + 10 (IYV+10 – 2011). WOSM collaborated with various bilateral and multilateral agencies (including UN Agencies), other youth organizations (especially partners in the Alliance of Youth CEOs: WAGGGS, YMCA, YWCA, IFRC and IAA), civil society partners and NSOs to give a strong impetus to the above two initiatives.
WOSM had its strong presence at several key events organized by our valued partners, notably the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations (New York, October 2011), the 17th Conference of Parties – COP 17 (Durban, South Africa, November-December 2011), and UNESCO International NGO Day (Paris, 5 December 2011). WOSM continued to support our annual joint ventures with partners for the Clean Up The World (with UNEP), Earth Hour (WWF), World Day Against Child Labour (ILO-IPEC), International Volunteers Day (UNV) and the International Women’s Day.
Specific bilateral joint initiatives this year were seen with UNICEF through the presence of Dr. Susan Bissell (chief of Child Protection, UNICEF) as the keynote speaker at the Conference on Keeping Children Safe From Harm on 1 August 2011; Shelterbox for the JOTA-JOTI; and a joint promotion for UNHCR’s ‘the 1 campaign’ to raise awareness about refugee displacement.
The year ahead
This year (2012), there will be a Regional focus in WOSM, following up on the global events and initiatives last year, with the first in the triennial series of Regional Scout Conferences. As the triennium moves on, the World Scout Committee and the World Scout Bureau will further extend their support to fulfill the needs and wishes of member NSOs, especially those expressed in the Conference Resolutions from Brazil. Several formal and informal working groups are already working hard to ensure that 2012 turns to be an exciting and active year for World Scouting. Here is wishing everyone a very happy new year 2012 from members of the World Scout Committee, the Secretary General and staff of the World Scout Bureau and its Regional Offices.