What is our approach supporting the LGBTI movement?
Print HTMLILGA-Europe’s movement building work is very dynamic. We constantly adapt our work to make sure that it adds strategic value, either to the movement’s internal needs or in response to external developments. ILGA-Europe consider it our responsibility to make sure that all our movement building efforts contribute to creating real sustainable change.
There are a number of key characteristics which sum up ILGA-Europe’s movement building approach:
- It is needs based
- It always takes a long-term view, while adapting to rapidly-changing environments
- It integrates our advocacy and capacity-building work
- It is enriched by strategic partnerships
The needs of our members are at the core of everything ILGA-Europe does. This needs-based approach is a fundamental part of ILGA-Europe ethos. Through open and honest conversations, we listen to what our members really need. We will not intervene at national level unless our members clearly express a wish for us to do so. By giving our members the space to self-assess their strengths and weaknesses, we can help them to grow without imposing our own priorities on them.
Sustainable social change rarely happens overnight. ILGA-Europe also take a long-term view when it comes to assisting the LGBTI movement. All over Europe, local NGOs and community groups are the backbone that will ultimately secure and support social change. We intend to create dynamic, long-lasting partnerships. We will work with our members to instigate sustainable change, all the time being mindful that situations can escalate rapidly. ILGA-Europe are in this for the long-haul.
Thirdly, we match our advocacy aims with our capacity building work in a holistic, sensible way. Our policy and programme teams have adopted a model of integration, meaning that any lessons we learn from our programmatic work can quickly be translated in practice through our advocacy team. We can spread the word about new best practices immediately. Change that is driven at national level by our members can then feed into strategic political work, advancing advocacy goals at local and European level.
ILGA-Europe are lucky to have a great staff team and board but we are the first to acknowledge that we cannot support the European movement by ourselves. That is why we develop strategic partnerships with other interested groups and stakeholders. The reason for this is two-fold: to learn from our new and existing partners and to avoid duplication of work.
To bring all of these approaches together, ILGA-Europe draws on our team’s wealth of capacity-building expertise. Some concrete examples of this expertise include: strategic planning; strategic advocacy planning; human rights documentation and reporting; community organising and organisational development; financial and organisational management; litigation; security & protection; and, strategic communication.
In our approach ILGA-Europe combines regional with in-country activities. Regional activities combine knowledge and skills-building with peer learning, to facilitate effective-knowledge exchange between organisations. In-country support activities respond to needs of organisations through targeted interventions such as trainings, peer learning, strategic planning sessions, coaching etc. These activities can take the shape of distance coaching or in-country sessions. ILGA-Europe also supports the movement through the organisation of the Annual Conference, where a wide variety of workshops are offered every year. Study visits to international organisations take place for activists who have not engaged with such organisations before.
ILGA-Europe has a strong team that delivers a variety of capacity building interventions. The team has developed their expertise and possesses the skills required to deliver responsive, high quality training all over Europe. Due to ongoing communication and cooperation with our membership, ILGA-Europe’s team brings on a wealth of knowledge about in-country developments and the ever-evolving needs of the movement.
