Dreamtown Annual Report 2020

ANNUAL REPORT 2020

FRONT COVER John Tendai, Casper Chigama and Augustine Darara are from Harare. Together with our partner, House of Arts Association, they have supported their fellow youths in Zimbabwe during COVID-19, for example by making youth friendly information campaigns and hosting online events.

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CHAIRPERSON'S STATEMENT 2020 has been a year of enormous changes, both nationally and internationally. A global pandemic has ravaged the world, and many countries still suffer from the consequences of COVID-19. This leaves us all in an uneasy limbo, where we are not yet sure exactly what the future will bring.

It has truly been a long and hard year for all of us, and the same is true for our partners in Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. The last year strongly emphasizes that nothing is constant, and that the world can change from one day to another. But we are certain of one thing: our partners have been amazing and stepped up as we have seen young people in marginalized urban areas become victims off restrictions and lockdown.

While we wait for better times, Dreamtown can look back upon a year where we were able to work constructively with our projects, despite the challenges we all faced. We have been able to get through 2020 with a strengthened organisation, and we have gained a lot of knowledge, which we wish to build on and learn from.

One of the most important experiences we bring forward going into 2021 is our ability to maintain and strengthen our partnerships. Throughout the last year, we have experienced an enormous involvement and commitment, and we have been able to continue our work with strong results in Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zimbabwe – and also established a new partnership in Kenya. This would not have been possible without the sizeable network we have built throughout the last years. Now, we truly see the great value of sustainable partnerships.

Despite the struggles, Dreamtown has been able to retain a strong presence in the cities where we work. A year has passed, but we are still striving towards the same goal: To develop safe, green, and creative spaces in slums. We will continue to let our work be guided by the dreams of the young people we work with to realize our mission: to increase the wellbeing of young people living in slums.

As an organisation, we have had to be innovative in our work methods. The physical space has been limited, and the digital limitations have put our daily work to the test.

Together with our partners, we have found new ways to cooperate, and we are now even more conscious of the benefits that digital communication and cooperation bring forth for a sustainable framework for our programmes.

The ambitions for the years to come are likewise lofty, and with our new strategy, we have set a clear pathway.

We will focus on building a strong economic foundation and increase our presence and awareness. This is an essential part of staying innovative, building a stronger organisational foundation, and strengthen our capacity to keep supporting young people live out their dreams and create better cities and communities - also in the aftermath of a global pandemic.

We want to say thank you for your support in the past year. It means the world to us, and inspires and motivates us to keep going forward and initiate new ideas and projects. Together with our partners, and with the support from our members and donors, we will continue to build a sustainable organisation that makes a tangible change in the lives of young people living in slums.

Katrine Kirkegaard, Chairperson, Dreamtown

HIGHLIGHTS

SIERRA LEONE URBAN SPACE CHALLENGE DWORZAK In October, we launched our second Urban Space Challenge in Dwarzack in Freetown. 100 young people started competing on who can develop the coolest public space in their community - and so many cool ideas entered the challenge. Mentored by YMCA Sierra Leone, 10 youth groups developed projects that are now coming to life. We can’t wait to see the public toilets, the basketball field, the public water point, the community football field, the training gym, the counseling center, the computer school - and other amazing public space transformations in the community.

UGANDA GHETTO GO GREEN UPSCALE KAMPALA End of 2020 marked the end of our pilot project Ghetto Go Green in Kampala, implemented together with the hardworking Ugandan organisation - Network for Active Citizens (NAC). But the green dreams do not end here.

With our biggest project to date - 3.8 million DKK - we will expand the Ghetto Go Green programme! This implies that even more young people and urban communities will take part in creating a greener and more sustainable Kampala in the years to come. Thanks to the amazing efforts of NAC and the many young agripreneurs across Kampala. We are seeing the initiative spread. Young people take the lead of the innovative and green urban agenda.

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ZIMBABWE ARTISTIC SPACE MAKING HARARE For years we’ve had a dream. To build the coolest artistic space in the slums of Harare. A space where young people could record music, engage in art, exhibit their talent, hang out, become inspired, meet other youth, and have fun. This dream is finally happening. Our close friends at House of Arts Association have managed to secure a beautiful plot of land in Hatcliffe, which is a poor settlement in northern Harare. It’s been a long and hard advocacy process. But finally, we have a lease which stresses that this land is for the youth of Zimbabwe. The design is on the drawing table, and we promise it will be awesome.

KENYA CHANGING FACES NAIROBI Dreamtown has started to work in Kenya together with the awesome partner Public Space Network. Through the competition - Changing Faces - 300 young people from low-income communities in Nairobi compete on who can develop the most inspiring public spaces. The project brings together youth groups in Nairobi, urban professionals, NGOs, government stakeholders, UNHabitat, and other urban thinkers and doers - all together encouraging a youth-led, inclusive, and vibrant public space agenda.

FEATURE

COVID-19 RESPONSE In the years to come, 2020 will be remembered for one thing: COVID-19.

According to the UN, more than 95% of all recorded COVID-19 cases are in urban areas. In Africa, more than 60% of the population live in informal settlements.

Naturally, working in slum communities, Dreamtown shifted our focus in 2020 to support the people we work with in the fight against the spread of coronavirus - and just as importantly, the fight for a decent livelihood and an active civil society.

In 2020, we worked directly with young people to minimize the spread of the virus in urban slums across Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. Below is a brief account of what we have been doing together with our partners.

SIERRA LEONE In 2020, we supported Youth Dream Center Sierra Leone and YMCA-SL in a response to COVID-19 in Freetown. Young women living in slums are extremely vulnerable towards the impact of the pandemic - with restrictions and stay-at-home orders diminishing their opportunities to earn for a living, and with violence in the home on a rise. Together with our partners in

Sierra Leone, we have supported young women living in the poorest slum communities across Freetown with access to clean water and sanitation, livelihood support, and micro grants to their businesses. This allowed the women to invest in keeping their business going, feeding their families, and sending their kids to school.

UGANDA In Kampala, our partners from Network for Active Citizens did an amazing job to support the ghetto communities we work with through our Ghetto Go Green programme. These communities were hit hard by the COVID-19 lockdowns, where bans on mobility and market activities left many people with no access to their normal livelihood activities and to food. With support from CISU and Bestseller Foundation, we built hand

washing stations and supported young people to improve their food security by growing urban gardens - in a time where lockdowns made it difficult to buy and sell food.

The gardens are still providing lots of people with food every day - and the cities’ green spaces proved to offer a beacon of hope in a very difficult time for people in the ghetto communities in Kampala.

ZIMBABWE In Zimbabwe, the pandemic has not only been a health crisis. It has also escalated the political crisis in the country. As a result of the Government of Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 response plans, young people have experienced a shrinking space for their socioeconomic rights. This has especially been the case for youth fending for a living in the informal sector. Extended lockdowns and destruction of markets pushed some of the most vulnerable groups in the country into even deeper poverty. For many of these youth, it has been close to impossible to uphold the lockdowns and curfews. And the COVID-19 crisis came at a time when Zimbabwe is

already experiencing a severe economic and food crisis.

Dreamtown joined forces with a wide network of organisations in Zimbabwe including civil society organisations, media agencies, informal sector labour association to create support for youth whose rights are being violated - by increasing young people’s access to reliable information and creating youth-friendly information campaigns, strengthening young people’s capacity to improve their livelihood, and advocating government to strengthen the socio-economic rights of youth in the informal sector.

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FEATURE

ENGAGEMENT IN DENMARK From Copenhagen to Kampala is a unique partnership between Dreamtown, KVUC and our partner in Kampala, Network for Active Citizens. We have worked with KVUC’s SDG and Global Voices tracks, and the KVUC students have responded to challenges from young people in Kampala’s slum by designing creative projects. We talked about project innovation, how we collaborate across cities, and how we create and communicate change. All meant to strengthen the engagement and knowledge of Danish urban youth about global development collaboration.

The students at KVUC worked in groups to come up with innovative project designs. Each group made their own unique and innovative project idea for social change in collaboration with the Ugandan youth, and presented their idea for their classmates, and for the youth in Kampala.

Network for Active Citizens in Uganda picked the winner of the case challenge. The winning project was called Social Mobility for All - with the main goal to create better wellbeing for vulnerable mothers in the slum of Kampala. The group suggested to create a multipurpose space that addresses SDG 2, 11, and 13, with three intertwining ideas for the space: a safe haven for mothers as a space to unfold and support one another; access to increased nutrition by introducing the crop quinoa in an urban garden - a crop that does well under extreme climate conditions; and a playground that acts as a safe space for children next to the urban garden.

With support from Civil Society in Development (CISU), Dreamtown and Network for Active Citizens secured funding to implement the winning idea, which is now being developed in collaboration with young mothers in Kampala.

ENGAGEMENT WITH, BY, AND FOR YOUNG PEOPLE Our ambition with the KVUC project was to create a space for developing opportunities to act across cities, and to strengthen the understanding among Danish youth about how they can contribute and become drivers of change in the world.

“It helps to shape us rather than to educate us […] There are slightly freer reins, and a different approach to how you think” (KVUC student) We want to develop a course that will strengthen Danish urban young people’s enthusiasm for, knowledge of, and commitment towards global development cooperation.

In our SDG case challenge with KVUC, the young people that took part in Kampala, although far from our classroom in Copenhagen, felt part of the process - through defining challenges, helping the KVUC students better understand their context, and - of course - picking the winning project idea! (Hellen Nakasujja, NAC)

“The young people are excited, and what makes this project more colourful is that they feel like they are part of each and every step of the project - which is something that doesn’t happen usually. The way the project is designed makes them feel like they own the project” (KVUC student)

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KEY RESULTS

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young women and their families received food support during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

brilliant artists from Zimbabwe launched their album “Time is Now”, which was launched with online concerts and shows.

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hand washing stations were installed across ghetto communities in Kampala, Uganda.

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art installations were made in Harare, Zimbabwe, representing the energy and excitement of the young people in Mbare community.

project designs developed by young people in the SDG track at KVUC in Copenhagen.

They competed in the SDG Case Challenge with ideas to tackle issues posed by young people living in the ghetto communities in Kampala.

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The creative and activist movement Key To The City blossomed in Harare and Bulawayo. Joined by media houses, artists, radio stations, tv stations, galleries, youth groups, civil society groups, and many more.

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6 large water tanks and water management groups were set up across Sierra Leone to support access to clean and safe water during, and after, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Young people from Sierra Leone and Uganda shared their stories about daily life during COVID-19 in videos from their communities.

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young women received training and support to their businesses in informal settlements in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

45 young people in Kampala grew their urban gardens, creating green spaces in the city and giving access to nutritious food and income for their families.

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youth entered the Changing Faces competition with Public Space Network in Nairobi to improve the public space in their communities.

youths entered the 2020 edition of the Urban Space Challenge in Dwarzack community in Freetown, Sierra Leone, competing on developing the coolest public space interventions.

FINANCIAL YEAR (2020) THE RESULT FOR 2020 Despite 2020 being an unpredictable and difficult year due to Covid-19, Dreamtown’s financial year of 2020 has been positive overall. We have seen a substantial increase in our income, which has almost doubled from DKK 2,347,776 to DKK 4,683,722. CISU (Civil Society in Development) remains our main contributor with 87% of our income coming from our CISU-granted projects, which in 2020 included, for the first time, a project in Kenya and an engagement project in Denmark. Project funds from private foundations have also increased significantly, most notably due to The Roskilde Foundation once again granting Dreamtown a project. This time it was a project worth DKK 1,000,000. As a result of the increased income, we have almost doubled the amount

that we have sent to our talented partners to just above DKK 3 million.

To keep up with the increased number of projects, Dreamtown has had a focus on strengthening the organisational capacity. This includes the employment of Finance Director Thomas Chandler, student assistant Stine Kronsted, and a new office space. This has ensured that Dreamtown has continued to have the capacity to administer current projects, while continuing the development of new project ideas and searching for new funding opportunities.

OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR 2021 Dreamtown’s financial strategy for 2021 includes the continuation of the excellent relationship we have with CISU, as we will apply for several new projects within the Civil Society Fund and the new funding modalities focused on engagement in Denmark and rebuilding civic space abroad. Based on the project proposals that have already been approved, which start in 2021, we expect the number of projects funded by CISU to increase, which will result in increased income. We also aim at creating connections with new private foundations in

order to diversify our project portfolio, and thereby minimize dependency on too few funding streams. We will continue to strengthen the organisation by investing in staff and a larger office, which will ensure that Dreamtown has the space to grow. All in all, we are very optimistic about 2021, and we expect to increase income and, most importantly, the amount of funds we can send to our partners.

Memberships and donations 1%

INCOME

Funding from private foundations 12%

Funding from CISU 87%

NOTE: ‘Funding from CISU’ and ‘funding from other organisations’ entails funding that is tied to specific projects.

EXPENDITURES

Information and engagement work in Denmark 3%

Administration and organisational development in Denmark 32%

Project activities in Africa 65%

NOTE: ‘Administration and organisational development in Denmark’ contains salary costs, property expenses, and additional administrational costs.

LOOKING FORWARD In our new strategy, the focus is on consolidation.

From undertaking a rapid expansion across Africa in the previous strategy, we will spend the next 3 years strengthening the bonds with our partners, fine-tuning our approach, enhancing and documenting our impact, and creating a sustainable organisation able to lift our work to new heights in the future. While we do this, we will stay curious about the world around us and think creatively about how we can evolve as an organisation.

The objective of the strategy 2021-2023 is to create a sustainable organisation which makes a tangible change in the lives of young people living in slums, and which is renown as a leading NGO in Denmark working on urban development.

We want to create a sustainable organisation that is able to effectively manage Dreamtown’s current work, and at the same time scale up our interventions in the future.

The organisational strategy is anchored in three goals focused on financial sustainability, Dreamtown’s strategic position as an NGO, and the human environment within the organisation.

We want to make a tangible change in the lives of young people living in slums. This is all about how we develop the best possible approaches, partnerships, and alliances to create the most impact for and with our target group.

We value having a programmatic approach where we continue to learn, and which stays open to exploring new and innovative ideas – all while we can ensure a high quality of our work.

We want to become renowned as a leading NGO in Denmark working on urban development. The target group of our communication include different groups in Denmark, strategically selected. We want to develop inspiring communication products, and increasingly collaborate with the young community journalists we work with in our programme countries to ensure a strong representation of the voices of our target groups.

We will develop a sustainable organisation

Our work will make us renown as a leading NGO in Denmark on Urban Development

Our organisation makes a tangible impact in the lives of young people

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THANKS TO...

OUR PARTNERS

OUR DONORS

...AND ALL OUR WONDERFUL MEMBERS!

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