FK looks back at an active year
In the course of 2005, 942 FK participants were posted abroad. Out of these, 401 were Norwegians working in the south, while 278 participants from Africa, Asia and Latin America were posted in Norway.
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942 participants worked for a longer period abroad.
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Shabana Rehman was lifted by the Norwegian cross-country legend Vegard Ulvang during one of the 20 international events in Norway in 2005.
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| The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Mathaai, visited Fredskorpset and Director General Tor Elden. |
263 participants were exchanged between countries in the south. In total, FK has 101 running exchange programmes, which include 445 partners from 56 countries. These partners belong to the public and private sectors, as well as to the civil sector.
In 2005, FK’s biggest countries in terms of number of partners were Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Malawi.
As a response to the tsunami crisis, FK facilitated a special program on Sri Lanka. Hence, an extraordinary number of participants went there in 2005.
The first group of FK Seniors started in 2005, and went to assignments in Norway, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi.
Courses
FK has organised a number of preparatory courses and home-coming seminars during the year. A majority of these have taken place in Norway, but preparatory courses for south-south participants have also been organised in Kampala, Cape Town and Bangkok.
Conferences and network activities
In close cooperation with our local partners, conferences on media fighting corruption were organised in Tanzania in March and in Malawi in June. Similar conferences on the same topic were organised in Uganda and Kenya in 2004. All conferences have been well attended, with participation from a broad range of the media institutions as well as from local and national authorities. A conference on human rights and the environment was organised in Cambodia in October.
In collaboration with the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, FK arranged the conference Next Step Livingstone in Zambia in June. This conference also had financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The conference gathered more than 120 participants from America, Europe and large parts of the African continent. The conference was opened by President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia.
FK’s various networks for participants and partners in the south have had a number of meetings, e.g. in Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, India, Uganda and South Africa.
Five years of bringing people together
FK’s fifth anniversary was celebrated in June, with Graca Machel as our guest of honour. Together with Minister of Development, Hilde Frafjord Johnnson, several hundred invited guests took part in an event that served food and entertainment from four continents, and where Graça Machel shared her visions for the future of Africa.
Regional office in Zambia
Edwidge Mutale is our new representative in Southern Africa. Her office is in Lusaka, Zambia.
You can follow FK and the FK participants on www.fredskorpset.no.