The board of IOGT International held its meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand on 26th and on 29th of November 2011.
The board has reviewed the Identity and Plan of Action and discussed how to proceed further the coming years. The branding process that started already in the year 2009 gave us clear directions regarding the target group and the next step is to develop external and internal communication strategies and focus on the tools we will use so as many as possible can profit from the work of IOGT International.
The International President and Executive Director of IOGT International together with the board members have participated in numerous meetings concerning the situation of alcohol and other drugs in the world. WHO, WFAD, VNGOC, ECOSOC, IAPA, GAPA, Eurocare are the institutions we are mainly involved with.
The success of the rehabilitation work on Sri Lanka will be soon concluded by the first assembly for family clubs on Sri Lanka.
Our Youth work in Europe is mainly conducted by Active – sobriety, friendship and peace. The outcomes are impressive and Active is reaching further and further. The latest campaign – Human Rights Generation contributed to the broadening of the areas where use of alcohol should be considered: child poverty, violence, corruption, financial crises, social exclusion and youth mobility.
The activities related to the motion of the Universal Fellowship were initiated right after the congress but were also closed due to the lack of interest from the member organizations.
In the beginning of the year 2012, IOGT International will send a trainee to the offices of ECAS, to get more knowledge and
better overview over the EU processes and their connection to various funds from the European Commission.
IOGT International board has created several working groups to proceed further with the Plan of Action. The groups will be as follows: Alcohol policy, Branding, Tools, Child rights, UN Women.
The IOGT board also visited a rehabilitation centre ran by the regional office of IOGT-NTO’s movement International Institute and attended a three days workshop for the regional partners where we presented an overview about “Global Alcohol policy”
by Sven-Olov Carlsson, “Approaches on the community level” by Pubudu Sumanasekera, “Gender and alcohol” by myself and “Alcohol use through the filter of the Convention on the rights of the child” by Sven-Olov Carlsson.
