Permaculture as a Path to Peace – 3PEAS – was 23 month long capacity building project run by GAIA (Kosovo) and in partnership with 15 partner organization from Europe, from 14 countries (Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Greece). The project directly involved 74 youth workers and young participants which took part in different international activities. In addition, the project included 5 local actions, production of the online toolkit, manual, documentary and permaculture first aid kit. The project activities included (1) Permaculture Design Certificate Training Course in Croatia, (2) 11-month long European Voluntary Service in Kosovo, (3) Workshop for SAVA pool of trainers on social permaculture, Novo Brdo, Kosovo (4) Youth Exchange on urban permaculture in Mitrovica, Kosovo (5) permaculture4peace local actions in Kosovo, Bulgaria, Turkey and Albania (6) project documentary, (7) online toolkit 3peas.design and (8) evaluation and follow-up meeting in Kosovo.The 3PEAS project built capacity of partner organizations to use permaculture ethics, principles, tools and strategies in youth work and peace work. It opened another perspective of youth work in challenging circumstances and explored potentials of permaculture approach in specific contexts, such as post-conflict societies of Western Balkans, rural areas and divided communities. The project provided space for establishing new partnerships, but also enhancing the existing once. Several new project ideas were created during the project life span, including the follow-up project idea 3PEAS 2.0.Permaculture Design Certificate Training Course gathered 25 youth workers from partner organization, 25 youngsters took part in Mitrovica Urban Garden youth exchange which was organized together with Down Syndrom Kosova. One young person from France was involved as EVS volunteer in creation of GAIA’s permaculture program in Kosovo and almost 30 other youth workers took part in capacity building activities. The project involved 74 youth workers and participants in mobility and capacity building activities directly. Among them 43 participants were dealing with different economic, social, geographical and healt. In addition to that, through dissemination activities in Albania, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Turkey and other countries, the project reached out to more than 200 youth workers and young people from partner organizations, and more dozens of thousands people through social media, articles, screening and sharing of the documentary and presentations. An online toolkit and platform – 3peas.design - has been created by the participants and project team and updated with new information, tools and reports on permaculture education in different social contexts, within SCI, GAIA Kosovo and partners. 3PEAS manual for understanding permaculture ethics and principles in peace education, youth work, community based project and social permaculture in general has been created and translated into several languages languages. 3PEAS documentary has been created and used for promotion of permaculture, but also as a tool for sharing inspiration about the unique program and the place in Kosovo which was initiated by the project. Several follow up ideas were created throughout the project and especially on the final event, and among them 6 project were approved include Permaculture as a Path to Peace 2.0.

STEP to Change is a project which aims at starting an empowerment process for International Voluntary Service (IVS) organisations, bringing competences on organisational management, impact measurement and improvement, and by allowing to make a first global diagnosis of the existing needs and capacities of IVS members and regions worldwide.The proposal follows the mission of the CCIVS which is, among other functions, to empower its members and IVS orgs so that they will have better capacity to reach their goals and achieve their vision as ngo's and as a movement. The General Assembly of the CCIVS 2014 in Korea approved a plan for the CCIVS to implement an Empowerment & Monitoring system which should allow to assess the needs of IVS ngo's, provide them with support, trainings and synergies, which may turn weaknesses into strengths and opportunities.This project aims at being the start for the implementation of such a system within the CCIVS. It will also allow to complete a global Impact research on IVS.The general process, priorities and baselines will be arranged by a Steering Team (ST), which will be formed by representatives of 4 IVS networks and a team of 4 experts, in the seminar Setting the Path (France, March'17). There, experts will finetune and develop the tools, and implement a peer-training, to ensure a highlevel of quality for the next phases.The central events of this project will be the regional STEPs (Strategic Trainings for Empowerment Processes), which will happen one in each region(Africa, America, Asia, Europe), led by the team of experts. Each of these STEPs will consist on a first international training on organisational management and impact measurement, for partners in the region,which will allow also to complete a needs-assessment of the participating ngo's. The training will be followed by a field itinerary, which will lead experts to visit each of the countries of the participating ngo's, to lead training, impact measurement of IVS projects and field visits.Outcomes of the STEPs will be global/regional needs-assessment and impact measurement of ngo's in 20 countries, worldwide, and trained professionals.All these materials will be processed by the team of experts, with the help of the ST, to create a first global diagnosis of needs in the movement, and a global report of the impact of IVS.The final seminar Build the Common Path (Hungary, May'18), will have two main goals: first, to process, discuss and valorise the results of the global research-training; second, to build common strategies to set up the long term Monitoring and Empowerment programme of the CCIVS, including fundraising and sustainability strategies adapted to each region and donor.STEP to Change will leave empowered multipliers in 4 continents, trained professionals, a global report on Impact of IVS and a first global diagnosis of the IVS movement, basis for a common strategy for a long-term Empowerment & Monitoring programme for the movement.

“Peers to Peace: Peer learning and Peer support for Capacity Building in international volunteer work” was a worldwide project that involved 25 different partners in 24 countries from Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe. The key focus of the project was the peer approach. Through peer-learning and peer-supporting in the following areas of expertise: knowledge management, volunteer management, project management and fundraising the capacity of project partners was improved. This applied on small scale in the single events and on a large scale with upgrading the online tool for peer-support. This tool facilitates an easier access to resources and (exchange of) information and further stimulates possibilities for innovation and capacity building of project partners and International Voluntary Service movement as a whole. The project spanned over 21 months and included 3 main mobility events: a Peer university on volunteer and knowledge management in May 2017 in Poland, a Learning seminar on knowledge management and fundraising in July 2017 in Malaysia, and Training on project management in March 2018 in Greece. Besides these mobility activities, 3 capacity building events were organized as part of the project: 1) a steering team meeting in January 2017 in Germany, 2) a crucial Technical Meeting in November 2017 in the UK, as well as 3) an Evaluation meeting combined with a final event in June 2018 in Belgium. Moreover, exchange of EVS volunteers took place between Europe and Asia (3 volunteers from Asia hosted in Belgium and Greece; and 1 European volunteer hosted in Malaysia), promoting transnational non-formal learning mobility and supporting an exchange of experiences between Program and Partner Countries. The main target group of the project were youth leaders, youth workers, volunteers and activists, for a total of more than 100 people directly involved, who acted as multipliers within their sending organizations and contributed to the setting up and implementation of the peer learning system thanks to their experience. Participants came from a great variety of countries and this increased the intercultural dimension of the project and its impact, guaranteeing a real exchange and strengthening the networking capacities of the organizations. Projects results were shared among partners and within the networks they belong to. These included: 1) SCI-Moving Forward - a handbook for volunteers and staff members in SCI and partner organizations focusing on increasing the understanding of how SCI works internationally intended to support greater participation and knowledge transfer among International Volunteering Service organizations, including important chapters on finances, knowledge management and volunteering within SCI; and 2) innovative online peer- learning platform that has been newly integrated in SCI’s Members Area allowing for direct exchange of knowledge and experience among SCI members. The participation of other major IVSO networks, such as Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), Network for Voluntary Development in Asia (NVDA), and Voluntary Workcamps Association in Nigeria (VWAN, central NGO in Africa) enriched the project with diverse inputs on volunteering and youth work in their context.

The White Paper for International Voluntary Service (2011-2021) draws the strategic objectives for Cultural Heritage and Diversity with the vision to ‘Preserving, protecting, and promoting cultural heritage and diversity through International Voluntary Service activities in order to foster mutual understanding and respect within the global community’. With the Strategic objectives to create:A. A global community where mutual understanding and respect are brought by active citizens that preserve protect and promote cultural heritage and diversityB. Develop and expand cooperation between organisations, institutions and government bodies in the field of Cultural Heritage and DiversityC. Raise awareness about the impact of IVS in cultural heritage and diversity issuesHeritage has been an important element of local communities where IVS organisations have set up projects since 1920 (1st workcamp). Throughout the years organisations, mainly in Europe, have developed cooperation with various stakeholders, involving young and adult volunteers in the protection, preservation and valorisation of our tangible and intangible heritage. This topic has been taken until recent years in other regions of the world demonstrating the value of non-formal learning as the IVS educational approach to disseminate the values and expertise developed at the inter-governmental level to a large public and in particular to young people, based on a dynamic dialogue between the different stakeholders.The aim of this project is to work towards the strategic objectives of the White Paper and to promote the work of IVS organisations and NFL, whilst valorising local customs and the diversity of these.The world is under an increasing threat from globalisation and extremism; these two factors contribute to the breaking down of cultural norms, traditions and the destruction and loss of heritage sites. This project will celebrate both tangible and intangible heritage and to revel in the diversity of this heritage. The applicant organisations propose actions which focus on food, culture, language, cultural and natural sites indigenous traditions …. etc. The aim is to be as diverse as possible and to show the richness of this diversity and to include local people as educators, emphasizing the bottom up approach of IVS and the work in local communities and with young people with fewer opportunities.The partners are grassroots IVS organisations from Africa, Asia and Europe for a 24 month project The different actions include:• Research, analysis and preparation phase (September 2016)• Stakeholders Forum (October 2016)• Capacity building trainings on Volunteer and Heritage Management ( April/May 2017)• Local Awareness Raising Actions (June 2017 – December 2017) • Global Communication Campaign (January 2017 – March 2018) • Final evaluation and dissemination meeting (April 2018)• Finalisation of the Impact measurement results and publication (April-August 2018)

"The project “Frame[v]work” aims at improving the quality of volunteers exchange within the IVS movement, in order to reinforce the concepts of international voluntarism, active participation and international solidarity. The name refer to the concepts of framework, network and voluntarism: “Frame[v]work"" intends to be a capacity-building project to develop a functional, shared framework for international voluntary work and volunteers exchange in the IVS movement. The partners of the projects are networks and organisations who implement long-term and short-term voluntary projects involving local activists, international volunteers and local communities. The members of the partenrship share the same needs:-the need to find solutions to stop the drop of volunteers in workcamps;-the need to harmonize the exchange procedures for short-term and long-term volunteers developed by the different networks of the IVS movement;-the need propose clear and unify promotional strategy for international voluntarism, in order to reinforce the involvement and active participation of young people, including those with fewer opportunities;-the demand to map all the existing best practices on volunteer exchange and to share them within the networks, in order to increase the quality standards of projects and the campacity on the assessment of their impact. IIn order to improve the quality of the international voluntary activities of the IVS movement, it is vital to involve as many networks as possible in the process. For this reason, the partnership include large networks (CCIVS, Alliance, NVDA, SCI) and several organisations coming from different regions and continents. The final outcome of the project will be the creation of new guidelines for voluntary exchange, more updated and comprehensive that the ones already existing.The project foresees 4 phases:- A preparation phase, with the creation of the Steering Team and the kick-off meeting, where representatives from the networks and organisations will analyse the current exchange procedures and prepare the ground for the following regional laboratories;- The 4 regional laboratories, where organisations will analyse all the aspects of their region related to volunteer exchange, quality standards of projects, promotion and communication;- An evaluation and production phase, where the outputs from each laboratory will be evaluated and consolidated into a final production (exchange guidelines with a contribution from all networks);- A dissemination phase, including a training course to share the new guidelines with IVS organisation and to illustrate the way they can be applied to voluntary projects, in order to improve their quality and impact."