DROSOS FOUNDATION supports projects that empower young people. What difficulties are young people facing today?
Promoting the potential of young people has played a pivotal role in our work since DROSOS FOUNDATION was established. We work to ensure that they have the opportunity to thrive, develop their capacities and take control over their own lives. Today, some 19 years after our founding, this task has become even more relevant. Our environment is constantly changing and faces a high degree of uncertainty – particularly in the project countries where we work. Lebanon, for example, is suffering economic chaos of historic proportions. This has left the local young people with a total lack of prospects. Another problem is that in many countries where we’re active, there’s no real labour market for the large numbers of educated young people. Other barriers are gender and other forms of discrimination. On top of this, many youth are facing widespread mental health challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Anything but a rosy outlook.
It’s challenging because young people often find themselves feeling helpless. How can they identify prospects when they are faced with social inequality every day of their lives? People can only have self-confidence if they’re given opportunities – if they can act independently. As a foundation, we can join forces with our partners to give young people the courage to believe in themselves. We can help them to look for prospects where there are real opportunities. In spite of these difficulties, there are still opportunities to develop new ideas and careers. Digital technologies, for example, have gained in importance during the pandemic. Knowing how to use them is one thing, while creating them is another. Many young people could see their future in this field. We as a foundation can be forward-looking and promote opportunities in innovative fields such as this. It’s important to create a social environment and a system in which young people can help to design and in which they can develop their potential. In the end, it’s about their social inclusion.
How does DROSOS FOUNDATION approach these challenges?
Since our establishment in 2003, we’ve been able to develop excellent partnerships and projects in all the countries where we work. It’s vital to us that our funding approach meets current and future needs and has the greatest possible effect that is lasting. As the new CEO, I’ve taken a closer look at what we’re doing well, whether we’re equipped to master today’s challenges, and what we can do better. We discussed these issues with our team from all regions during our 2021 strategy process. We came to the conclusion that many things already work very well, but that there’s a need for further development and improvement in some areas. Our strengths include our proximity to the local context and to our partner organisations and our partnership-based approach. We don’t feel that an organisation has to come to us with a completely mature concept for which we will then donate money. It’s a collaborative process where our partners and our team work together on a concept that supports our funding objectives and meets the local requirements. Instead of only supporting individual projects, we also focus on developing and strengthening our partner organisations. I’ve seen several instances where an organisation wants to do something good but lacks the knowledge or experience it needs in specific areas to bring an idea to fruition. Together with the organisation, we analyse the individual areas and identify the gaps before jointly deciding what support is needed and what form this support can take. We help them—either directly or via external service providers—to close these gaps and to become stronger as an organisation, thus ensuring their long-term existence and ability to bring about lasting social change. With this approach, we ensure sustainability and contribute indirectly to promoting an entire system.
What were the new findings arising from this strategy process?
I’m very satisfied that we’re already doing excellent work. But we can achieve even more, starting internally with us as an organisation by paying more attention to exchanging knowledge, learning from one another and trying to think in an agile and innovative manner. An important aspect that stood out during the strategy phase is the high level of youth unemployment in most of our countries of intervention. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated this situation. Young women have been affected disproportionately. We as an organisation regard this as a very urgent problem. We will therefore focus even more sharply on the skills that children, young adults and youth need in order to gain a foothold in the labour market. This differs according to age, gender, social background, educational attainment and context. A ten-year-old may have a greater need for personal development and boosting of their self-confidence, while a thirty-year-old will require specific support in developing and implementing their business idea. This is what we’re now focusing on with our partners during this implementation phase: How can we help young people to leverage their potential, and how do we approach this specifically in Egypt, Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Switzerland and Tunisia? Instead of completely redesigning our strategy, we’re refining it and focusing on achieving the greatest possible impact. For example, in our project work, we emphasise scaling effects, tackle problems holistically, create awareness and work on the causes of specific hurdles.
What does this mean for DROSOS’s partnership approach?
Partnerships are and will remain at the centre of everything we do. However, we want to nurture these with even greater awareness and focus. We’re currently working mainly with implementation partners such as small and medium-sized civil society organisations, local NGOs, etc. This collaboration will continue to serve as the foundation of our work. We also identify great potential in developing our partnerships and cultivating them as an ecosystem consisting of implementing, enabling and influencing partners. Depending on the topic and needs, we can involve other key stakeholders such as other foundations or organisations. This will enable us to align expertise, funding, knowledge and networks in order to achieve a broader impact. Through collaboration and exchange with influential organisations, we can raise awareness of the challenges facing marginalised young people. It’s imperative to work at the system level in order to tackle the inequalities and hurdles that prevent young people from reaching long-term social inclusion. It will always be difficult to change the mindset of an entire society. But if we can successfully change the way in which society sees, for example, people with disabilities while empowering them to earn their own living, we will have already made enormous progress.
How do you see the future role of DROSOS FOUNDATION?
We’re currently working hard on improving the definition of our future role. I believe it’s our duty to sharpen our reflexes for thinking, to truly understand the networks that make it possible to effect long-term change, and to integrate this into our project and programme work. As we’re not a political organisation and don’t have any hidden agendas, we can have the courage to drive systemic change. I also see a role for us within the foundation sector. There’s great potential for rethinking our sector and approaches, and jointly developing new solutions for forward-looking funding initiatives based on facts. As a sector, we should ask ourselves: Do we ourselves act in the manner that we expect from our partners? As an organisation and sector, we can have great leverage. We can motivate and inspire other players and have a positive impact on society.