OPC PAO 2023 - 2027

Results examples The Global Youth Programme is implemented jointly OPC and the Center Party International Foundation (CIS). OPC reports that it has resulted in a new level of contact and co-operation between International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), and the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY), two global organisations for progressive youth organisations. The overall objective of the Global Youth Programme is to enhance youth engagement in politics, promote democratic values and human rights, and foster cross-party dialogue. The programme has according to the annual report led to a significant revival and expansion of IUSY, particularly in underrepresented regions like Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Several previously inactive organizations, such as those in Nepal and Kenya, re-engaged in IUSY activities. Additionally, new member organizations from countries like Brazil and South Korea joined IUSY in 2023. Surveys showed that these activities deepened cross-border and cross-party dialogue, strengthened cooperation, and empowered youth to advocate politically at local, regional, and global levels. IFLRYs key success was its focus on underrepresented regions. In 2023, it facilitated the creation of Juventud Liberal de América Latina y el Caribe (JULAC) in Latin America, which helped strengthen youth networks across the region. IFLRY also addressed language barriers by organizing its first bilingual (Spanish and English) writing workshop, expanding its reach and inclusivity. In Africa, IFLRYs work with the Africa Liberal Youth for Freedom (ALYF) network increased membership, adding four new member organizations. Additionally, IFLRYs Female Leadership Academy continued to thrive, providing political training to young female leaders from Africa, MENA, and Southeast Asia. Both IUSY and IFLRY strengthened their internal capacities through training and new organizational structures. IFLRY established an Advisory Council in 2022 to sustain leadership expertise, which was instrumental in advising on key organizational decisions. IUSY focused on fostering cross-party cooperation and peer-to-peer learning, with members from diverse regions sharing best practices. Notably, IUSY organized its 2023 World Congress, which saw new members like Juventude do Partido dos Trabalhadores from Brazil. According to the annual report both IUSY and IFLRY made significant strides in including underrepresented groups, such as women, LGBT individuals, and youth from marginalized regions. IUSYs working groups, like the Queer and Feminist groups, actively promoted inclusivity through events and discussions. IFLRYs initiatives, like its seminar in Kenya on liberal democracy and human rights, provided opportunities for underrepresented youth to engage in political discourse. IFLRY also tackled the challenge of language barriers, making its events more inclusive and accessible. IUSYs activities led to the issuance of several region-specific resolutions, such as the "Praia-Maria Declaration" on democracy in Africa and the "Ulaanbaatar Statement" on climate change in Asia. These efforts contributed to strengthening political advocacy and awareness of key progressive issues. Similarly, IFLRYs seminar in Kenya educated participants on liberal democracy and human rights, with some even launching projects based on their newfound knowledge. Both organizations fostered cross-party dialogue through events like the IUSY World Festival and the Global Youth Summit. These events encouraged collaboration between liberal and social democratic youth movements, contributing to alliance-building. IFLRYs Libel writing workshop in Latin America and its seminar in Kenya served as platforms for cross-border cooperation, connecting youth from different regions and establishing networks that will continue to enhance political collaboration in the future. While the programme achieved significant successes in organizational development, inclusivity, and political engagement, there is still room for improvement, particularly in the inclusion of underrepresented groups within IUSY and IFLRY. Additionally, while the efforts to bridge language barriers were successful, IFLRY had to overcome some initial challenges in making its activities fully bilingual. Despite these challenges, both organizations have made substantial progress towards their goals, with plans to build on these successes in future activities. The PAOLA program aims to foster democratic development in Latin America by strengthening political parties, enhancing their organizational capacity, and encouraging inclusive participation. In 2023, the program experienced significant progress as it responded to numerous elections, serving as a crucial test for the parties' growth and effectiveness. Over the years, participating parties have strengthened their internal structures, increased their membership, and expanded their territorial presence. Notably, underrepresented groups, including women, youth, and the LGBTQI community, have gained more central roles in political parties, contributing to the development of progressive policies and broader participation in elections. According to OPC and the other participating PAO, PAOLA has made significant strides in enhancing the internal democracy and organizational development of participating political parties. It has helped create clearer, more transparent decision-making processes, improved leadership and communication, and built better organizational structures. In 2023, PAOLAs support helped parties like Pais Solidario in Paraguay and Nuestro Tiempo in El Salvador achieve electoral success. The program facilitated the growth of local branches, improved election campaigns, and strengthened organizational resilience, especially in times of electoral challenges. Additionally, many parties established capacity-building structures, such as candidate schools and leadership training programs. According to the reporting PAOLA has made tangible progress in promoting the participation of women, youth, and marginalized groups. By providing better tools, networks, and platforms, the program has empowered these groups to take on leadership roles. Many women and young people, such as those from PT in Brazil and PPS in Paraguay, have ascended to important political positions. The programs initiatives, such as the Womens Campus and gender-focused training, have helped break barriers and foster gender equality within participating parties. This focus on inclusivity has led to a stronger representation of underrepresented groups in political decision-making processes. PAOLA has in addition supported political parties in developing evidence-based, participatory policies. In 2023, the program facilitated discussions on key policy areas, including gender equality, climate change, and social policies. It helped parties like Colombia Humana and Acción Democrática in Costa Rica build ideological teams and formulate new policies. Additionally, the program provided platforms for dialogue, helping parties define strategic guidelines and clarify their political stances, which contributed to more effective policy development. Finally OPC reports that PAOLA has also been instrumental in fostering dialogue and cooperation among different political parties and organizations, bridging ideological divides. Through cross-border cooperation and network-building, the program has encouraged collaboration and strategic alliances, as seen with Colombian and Argentine parties working together. In Brazil, previously competing left-wing parties PT and PDT are now part of the same government, thanks to their interactions within the PAOLA program. In El Salvador, Nuestro Tiempo developed a unified platform, bringing together diverse societal sectors. This emphasis on alliance-building has contributed to more inclusive, collaborative political environments across Latin America. The Western Balkans programs overall objective is to enhance the capacity of liberal and social democratic sister parties in the Western Balkans to become stronger political alternatives, thus fostering political diversity, sustainability, and regional cooperation. By improving progressive policy development, internal democratic processes, equal participation mechanisms, and regional dialogue, the program aims to contribute to a more inclusive political landscape in the region. OPC and CIS report that Nasa Stranka (NS) has made significant strides toward the program's objectives. From a small political party, NS is now a key player in governing coalitions at cantonal, entity, and state levels. Their close cooperation with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) is particularly crucial for fostering cross-party dialogue and implementing progressive reforms, especially as they work jointly in the governing coalitions. Notably, NS's policy development efforts have contributed to meaningful progress on Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) European Union (EU) accession priorities. SDP has integrated public policy development into its core operations. Notable conferences organized by FLI (Foundation for Liberal Initiatives) in 2023, such as on undeveloped areas and healthcare reforms, demonstrated SDPs commitment to influencing legislation and policy. Their recommendations led to the inclusion of key policy points in the Sarajevo Cantonal Governments working plan. NS has focused on BiHs EU accession, addressing 14 priority actions necessary to begin EU negotiations. They were also recognized as the most gender-sensitive political party in BiH, further highlighting their commitment to inclusivity. In 2023, the Progres Institute (PI) facilitated strategic training on gender equality, multiculturalism, and underrepresented groups rights. This work led to policies strengthening the rights of women, youth, and the LGBTI community, as well as fostering greater diversity within party leadership structures. Through targeted activities such as strategic workshops and political academies, parties promoted a culture of inclusivity, leading to greater participation of these groups in decision-making processes. Strengthening internal democracy remains a cornerstone of the program. In 2023, NS held strategic planning sessions that focused on adapting to political changes, improving internal communication, and collaborating with external stakeholders. Similarly, FLI and PI supported SDPs regional initiatives, such as expanding into Republika Srpska, and fostering local policy development in environmental protection. These efforts are vital for preparing NS and SDP for upcoming elections and consolidating their regional influence. Youth and womens inclusion in decision-making processes was emphasized throughout 2023. The BDF youth mentoring program connected young political leaders with experienced mentors, preparing them for future leadership roles. NS made notable strides in gender equality, with women holding prominent positions, including a young female mayor in Sarajevo. This progress reflects a broader commitment to gender-sensitive policy, as evidenced by NSs leadership in including gender considerations in BiHs Constitution. On the regional level, the CEE Gender Network and other initiatives continued advocating for gender equality and womens rights across the region. In Kosovo, the program facilitated advocacy on workers rights and gender equality, further cementing the role of underrepresented groups in political discourse.

OPC applies for the eight PAO programmes below with the overall objective: "Democratic and inclusive political parties with strong organisational capacity address democratic challenges and seek cooperation to drive progressive political and social change" -Policy and organisational support programme (POSP): Southern Africa Social Democratic and Green parties, together with Green Forum (GF) as co-applicant. The Policy and Organisational Support Programme (POSP) focuses on political parties. The programme is led by OPC in cooperation with the GF, and OPCs partner, the Education and Training Unit for Democracy and Development (ETU), in South Africa. The programme builds on the lessons of the four-year programme period of POSP (2019-2022). It will provide an opportunity for the political parties to support and advise each other in addition to benefiting from the provided external support by OPC, GF and ETU. The programme will also provide increased opportunities for dialogue, interaction, and collaboration. The former liberation movements in Southern Africa and the more recently developed Green parties have close ties to the Swedish Social Democratic party and the Swedish Green Party. Parties from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, and South Africa are included in the programme. The programme goal is: Political parties and movements are democratic and inclusive and have strong organisational capacities to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030), drive political and social change, and to build alliances through dialogue and cooperation with like-minded actors. Key target groups are the party/party leadership, party representatives, members and programme participants. Hence, the programme is mainly targeting actors within political parties.The evaluation carried out by OPC of the 2019-2022 programme period has shown that all parties identify youth inclusion, internal training, and gender equality as key areas for development. Types of Activities: Internal capacity and systems development: The programme will continue to offer bilateral sessions and/or mentoring/coaching for sister parties individually to support the development of systems and structures that strengthens internal democracy and inclusive policy development within their parties.Regional workshops: The regional trainings for parties, with Social Democratic and/or Green parties (separate and joint), aim at raising knowledge and creating behaviour change among POSP participants on key issues in internal democracy and policy development, on how to review their own parties internal structures and policies, as well as reforms to improve them. Dialogue and alliance building meetings: This type of activity includes convening, engaging in, or facilitating meetings between actors which increase dialogue on sensitive and/or key political priorities. Online resources and trainings: The online sessions will contribute to all outcome areas depending on the topic chosen by the partners or the sister parties. The development of more comprehensive online platforms during the previous programme period enables more training options (self-paced and user-friendly). -Global Youth Movements, together with CIS as co-applicant. The Global Youth Movements Programme 2023-2027 is jointly developed by OPC and CIS. The programme aims to support the global political youth movements: International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), and the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) through strengthening of the international youth federations of the social democratic and liberal families and facilitate dialogue and collaboration between them. The programme objective is that IUSY and IFLRY contribute to increasing youth engagement in politics, enhancing their capacity to promote democratic values and human rights, and promoting cross party dialogue. This is done by working through four outcome areas which are in line with OPC´s theory of change for building strong democratic organisations as well as the objectives of the Sida strategy which highlights the importance of increasing the representation of youth in politics. Results within these outcome areas are reached by providing institutional support towards IFLRY and IUSY who implement political education and dialogue opportunities for their Member Organisations (MOs) and participants. -PAO Latin America programme (PAOLA), together with SILC and KIC as co-applicants and MoU with Green Forum The PAOLA programme is the continuity of the Latin American programme that started in 2019 as a cooperation between OPC, SILC and KIC. The overall objective of PAOLA is to contribute to a long-term positive democratic development in Latin America. The programme's objective is to strengthen democratic and inclusive political parties with strong organisational capacity to address democratic challenges, that seek cooperation to drive progressive political and social change, contributing to democratic development. Under this umbrella, each PAO can have a slightly different focus, depending on its progressive, liberal and Christian democrat orientation. The PAOLA programme covers 15 countries and includes 29 partners and sister parties that participate in the programme. To reach the objective the programme aims at targeting four prioritised outcome areas in strengthening political parties and organisations: -Organisational development and internal democracy; Inclusion of underrepresented groups; High qualitative policy development Dialogue; Cooperation and alliance building The purpose of the programme activities is to strengthen the abilities of the participants and the target groups in the four outcome areas so that they can become actors that use this knowledge and skills to change and improve the way their political parties and organisations work and in their daily practice as politicians. This is achieved through training, practical exercises, concrete cooperation and coordination on matters of common interests. Another purpose is to strengthen the networks and cooperation between parties and organisations in the region and exchange experiences to learn from each other. The main structure to implement those activities are so called political academies. These can take place with one party or organisation in one country or local community, with several parties and organisations from the same country, and regional academies with several parties and organisations from different countries. These activities are complemented with workshops, seminars, study visits, conferences, networking activities, women's leadership trainings, policy development workshops, coalition and dialogue meetings, online academies etc. The programme also organises joint activities between the three "political families", such as political seminars, developing methods and working with programme strategic development and evaluation. This plays a crucial role in preparing parties for broader alliances, reducing their prejudice about other political parties from different ideological orientations. -PAO Western Balkans together with CIS as co-applicant The Western Balkans Programme is jointly developed by OPC and CIS. The programme works through political foundations to strengthen progressive parties and movements in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and regionally through the Central East European Network for Gender Equality (CEE Gender Network). The programme objective is that Liberal and Social Democratic Sister parties in the Western Balkans represent progressive and inclusive political alternatives, and thereby strengthen the political diversity, sustainability as well as cooperation in the region. The programme is a combination of bilateral sister-party support and multi-party initiatives on national and regional level, working within three main groups of activities: (1) Political education, (2) Policymaking, institutional and organisational development and (3) Social and political dialogue. -MENA programme, OPC alone The programme aims to strengthen partners organisation with the overall objective that: The programmes political parties and movements are democratic, inclusive and legitimate with strong organisational capacities to address democratic challenges, drive political and social change, and to work in strategic alliances with other like-minded movements, trade unions and CSOs. The programme is implemented by OPC in close cooperation with for example the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and its youth association Fatah Youth in Palestine. Partners are chosen as they are strategic partners in some of the most important contexts for the development of the region. The activities are categorised in three types: -Education seminars, workshops and trainings: Activities with the aim to stimulate learning and strengthen capacities among participants in the programmes outcome areas. -External activities, meetings and campaigns: Practical training activities carried out by participants of the projects education seminars/workshops as part of their training. -Seminars, conferences and networking activities: Activities to increase dialogue, exchanges of ideas and cooperation. Some are internal to highlight priority areas in the parties, others aim to stimulate relations and cooperation among different political actors. -Palme Academy programme, OPC alone The Palme Academy programme 2023-2027 will be implemented by OPC and is a continuation of the previous four-year programme. Building on the experiences from the implementation of this, and other PAO programmes, OPC plans to further develop and supplement it with new components. The implementation of the programme are guided by the following programme objective: Social democratic sister parties have, through educational activities and global dialogue with likeminded parties, increased their capacities and skills on how to run and represent political parties for progressive and sustainable societal change. To reach this objective, the programme will work to achieve results related to four outcome areas. Leaders of the sister parties in general, and leaders with key positions in particular, are the target group central for the results aimed for, and the actors who have to change their behaviours for change to happen within their respective parties. The outcome areas are: - Organisational Development, and Internal Democracy, -Inclusion of Underrepresented Groups, -High Qualitative Policy Development, Dialogue, -Cooperation, and Alliance Building. OPC has a broad perspective, which implies that capacity building on an individual level also must contribute to change on an organisation level. Organisational change is central to OPCs theory of change and is, according to OPC, needed for creating change on a societal level in the long run. OPC focus on the political participation of women and youth within its operations but also to a greater extent then previously marginalised groups in general. Programme, OPC alone The new programme fully aligns with the overall theory of change of OPC PAO operations. Is new, but it is built and developed from earlier operations and many years of co-operation with relevant actors in the region. The overall objective is to contribute to the establishment of stronger social democratic partners in the countries and to create a strong network in the region to provide mutual support and exchange of ideas for policy making. The main actors targeted in this programme are parties and organisations with social democratic values. OPC will cooperate with several political parties and social democratic groups of activists from the region. A more general focus will be on youth organisations in all the countries. The actors are connected through international organisations for youth and women. To reach the objective, the programme will work to achieve results related to four outcome areas: Outcome area 1: Organisational Development and Internal Democracy, Outcome area 2: Inclusion of Underrepresented Groups, Outcome area 3: High Qualitative Policy Development, Outcome area 4: Dialogue, Cooperation, and Alliance Building The programme will be implemented through various activities and in a combination of bilateral sister-party support and multi-party initiatives on both the national and regional level. The Swedish study circle methodology will be used based on the positive experience from earlier programmes implemented in the region. The national activities are developed by each partner based on their local context and priorities contributing to the overall outcome areas of the programme. These will include political trainings and networking events for party representatives to develop organisational structures to increase internal democracy and enhance the capacities to recruit new members. The planned activities will also strengthen the social and political dialogue with the public, civil society, minorities and other relevant actors. The regional activities will mainly focus on alliance building with likeminded political actors for capacity development and policy-making on topics that are relevant for all involved. Programme, OPC alone This programme is a continuation of a ongoing programme. The programme aims to strengthen democratic and inclusive political parties to address democratic challenges and contribute to democratic development. The programme is predominantly carried out through different capacity-building activities and training initiatives. The overall objective of the programme is that: participating parties are democratic and inclusive political parties with a solid organisational capacity to address democratic challenges seeking cooperation to drive progressive political and social change and contribute to democratic development. The programme started in its current form in 2019. Still, OPC and the participating political parties have worked together in different constellations in previous programmes. The long-term partnership has proven vital and is characterised by openness, trust and mutual respect and understanding. The objective derives from OPC:s overall ToC. The ToC focuses on political parties being transparent and democratic organisations with the operational capacities to work efficiently, prioritising and developing adequate reforms addressing real problems and driving change. Also, parties need the ability to mobilise enough support in collaboration with others to have the power to enforce progressive development. To reach this objective, the programme aims at targeting four outcome areas in strengthening political parties and organisations: Organisational development and internal democracy The main target group for this objective is persons related to the party organisation, as members of the board, staff and different leaders in the organisation that have the leverage to change the organisation and the way it works. Inclusion of underrepresented groups The main target group for this objective is young and female representatives in a leading position in the party, like the party board leaders of the youth and women's organisation, elected female and young representatives. High qualitative policy development The main target groups for this objective are the political leadership in the party, decision-makers and advisors in legislative and executive branches on the national and regional levels. Dialogue, cooperation and alliance building The target group for this objective are all participants in the programme. Building majorities and alliances is a democratic critical capacity, necessary from the smallest local entity to the national government, regional coalitions and global cooperation. The purpose of the programme activities is to strengthen the abilities of the participants and the target groups in the four outcome areas. As a result, they can advocate for change from within their party. The programme is predominantly carried out through different capacity-building activities and training, such as: Leadership training, Regional academies, Political school and Policy consultations.