The notion of empowerment lies at the heart of any active civil society. In many countries governments do everything possible to prevent empowerment of its citizens because of their fear that active citizens will reveal their wrong-doings and pinpoint their weaknesses. In such countries, an active citizenship can pose a real threat to those in power. Other, more democratic countries, take a more ambivalent line: On one hand, they recognize the need to promote and support civil society, on the other they draw a line as to how far such initiatives can go and do not hesitate to persecute civil society actors if they cross that line.

Essentially, empowerment means giving ordinary people the means to represent and fight for their own interests, either on their own, or preferably together with others. We need to empower ordinary citizens to stand up for their interests, otherwise governments and business (usually in harmony together) will exploit their populations at will. Social justice and democracy do not come about by chance – they have to be fought for on an everyday basis at every level of society.

Empowering volunteers is one of the key pillars of the YTNF project. We want volunteers to become active in the struggle for social justice & promotion of human rights. To empower someone does not, however, mean simply giving them tasks to do. In order to become empowered, volunteers must first have access to information; they must be encouraged, trained and supported at all stages of their involvement. Above all, they must be given responsibility, which often means that leaders must forego some of their own power. And at the end of the day, they need to be thanked for their work and their achievements.

If we can achieve this delicate objective, we shall have done much towards ensuring the sustainability of our organisations, at least in terms of lessening their reliance on the individual motivation and commitment of one or two persons. If we do not succeed in this, we shall all end up back at square one. The next one and a half years will be decisive.

John Myers

Senior Manager

YTNF