TACKLE: Promoting the emergence of young activism against discrimination and structural racism in Europe

Empowerment actions will target key stakeholders in particular (students, youth organizations at local level, and people and groups discriminated against). Universities are a privileged space for young people who wish to engage in civic activism. To further strengthen this, the action will develop and implement a training curriculum to allow legal clinic students to acquire knowledge in the fight against discrimination and structural racism. Theoretical and practical training will also be provided on European advocacy and citizen mobilization. This knowledge and know-how are indeed necessary so that they can take an active part in campaign actions, of which they will be the main spokespersons. Victims of discrimination will also be involved in this training course, which will include a section relating to media communication and public speaking. ASF has 30 years of experience in international cooperation in Africa, including in the area of migration in Tunisia and Morocco. As a result, it has been able to develop a network of civil society organizations and activists from the Global South, which it wishes to make available to the action in order to create bridges between the two shores of the Mediterranean and promote a deep understanding of the issues related to irregular migration and its causes. In addition to the objective in terms of capacity building, the knowledge dynamic will be oriented towards the joint design of strategy of influence among activists of both shores.

Taking into account the existing opportunities for influence, the action aims to deploy an advocacy and citizen mobilization campaign around the European elections scheduled for 2024. The campaign will be based on local advocacy actions, targeting the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) candidates in the intervention areas. National campaign task-forces made up of students, young activists and victims of discrimination/migrants will propose to candidates to commit to a “Pact for Equality” covering concrete measures in terms of public policies on migration, international cooperation and fight against structural racism. Visibility actions, public conferences as well as communication tools will also be deployed as part of the campaign in order to raise public awareness. After the elections, advocacy tours will be carried out by the national task-forces in order to monitor the implementation of the commitments by the new MEPs and strengthen the relations with relevant stakeholders, particularly with the Commission’s Coordinator on combating racism and DGs involved in the promotion and the monitoring of the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan. Based on data collected through documentation, evidence-based policy briefs and advocacy materials will be produced and disseminated during the advocacy tours. 

A substantial part of the action’s budget (about 1/3 of the overall budget of the action) will be devoted to strengthening the financial and organizational capacities of grassroots civil society organizations at local level. A call for proposals will be designed and launched from the first year of the action, in order to involve grantees in the various activities planned. The call will particularly target community associations made up of migrants as well as youth-led associations. A definition of the type of funded actions will be developed from the start of the action, but preference will be given to organizations with public education and outreach objectives in their mandates. If relevant, civil society organizations from the Global South may also participate in the call for actions deployed in connection with EU policies. Supported organizations will have the possibility of benefiting from capacity building and coaching programs in organizational matters and project management throughout their project.