*** Please help with the Big Catch Up! ***

From Never Again

Strategy paper

Through the establishment of Never Again International, the leadership of commited young people and the influence of experts, 'Never Again' is moving from empty rhetoric to an ideal that people around the globe are taking to their hearts.

The joy of recognising our common humanity through condemnation of humanity's worst act brings us together to work as equals in spaces where ideas blossom. Our network works on many levels but the very forming of a structure in honour of 'Never Again' makes the world just a little less likely to participate in or ignore genocide.

This is why a focus on our structure and the tools at our disposal is vital to bridge divides and ensure we are an organisation in which all voices are heard and all outcomes valued equally.

Never Again suffers from a major imbalance. The vast majority of its members (100s) are in the Great Lakes of Africa while the 'global face' of the organisation is based on a small (10s) network of people who have greater access to the internet. While in Africa Never Again is being spread by word of mouth, drama and song, outside there has so far been less success in engaging people who are unable to get online.

This paper aims to identify problems in global participation, both in the developed and developing world, identify what our different functions are and then find ways to overcome inequalities by seeking strategies to increase our effectiveness as a collaborative organisation.

As technology moves at an ever-faster pace, we have greater tools at our disposal, but there are also risks such as overload of information, differing levels of access and confidence or forgetting the simple methods that might be more effective at certain times.

How Never Again operates

Never Again members are now involved in many different activities, including:

• delivering projects funded by NGOs
• performing and writing art such as drama and songs
• talking to international policy makers
• creating websites and other media
• organising meetings and seminars

Interaction happens in several different ways:

• Personal contact in groups, schools and clubs
• International contact between individual members via the internet and in person
• Contact between Never Again members and potential partners or funders, both in person and by email

Our main means of outward communication is via the website, which as a wiki is also a developing project in itself. Ideally, the wiki-website would represent the activities and interactions of all members to the outside world and would also be a means for project collaboration internationally (see Never Again:Wiki Mission Statement). We have shown so far that it has the potential to fulfil both these objectives, but improvements are needed.

• while sign-ups are increasing on the wiki, the majority of new members stay silent. How can we improve participation on the wiki?
• our ability to showcase our activities is limited to those activities we receive material about.

There are mitigating factors to both these points. Firstly, most people visit us primarily to find out about Never Again rather than to participate. However, we need to draw them in better. Secondly, many of our activities don't actually need reporting, they are more about the experiences of members than the need to tell people what we have done. However, good ideas from seminars are being lost if they are not recorded and enacted.

Ideas

• Since the vast majority of "global face" discussion occurs on the internet, perhaps there is an inability of the Great Lakes members to communicate their thoughts and ideas to global community. If the Never Again Great Lakes community could elect a trustworthy communications liaison who does have access to the internet, the Never Again Great Lakes community would have a voice in our online discussions and become a part of our "global face".

Recommendation: - international committee, when formed, to have regional representatives

• It is often easy to forget that broadband makes a big difference to our ability to edit wikis and use complex software. Many people, in all countries, have very limited access to the internet and we need to ensure that there are channels by which they can tell those with more cyber-access what Never Again members in their areas are doing.

Recommendation: Promote the Never Again International Yahoo email address as well as a public address and possible local phone lines as 'reporting lines' which can be picked up and fed onto the wiki to showcase all work. Regular phone conversations to regional representatives with notes to be put online

• Theodore Zeldin is trying to create connections between people in Rwanda and around the world using his remarkable conversation methodology, which was tried at our global conference in 2005. The friendships that could be created with this would build direct links between people in countries with different powers. For example, a member in America, knowing what his friend is going through in Burundi, would be able to use his democratic representatives to try and push for action by the Security Council (for example). In the experience of the UK MP and MEP systems, such personal contact has a much greater effect in parliaments and, we would hope, policy making.

Recommendation: try to build conversation partner links between members in different countries