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ANNUAL REPORT 2021

FRONT COVER Former gang member Christopher Waithaka has a dream: “Our biggest goal is to find solutions to remove the waste and keep the Nairobi river clean.” Together with a group of friends with similar stories to his, he developed Komb Green, a green space along the Nairobi riverfront in Korogocho. Dreamtown together with our partner Public Space Network has been supporting their efforts and similar public space initiatives all over the marginalised communities in Nairobi.

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 1

CHAIRPERSON'S STATEMENT Looking back on 2021 and all the achievements Dreamtown has accomplished together with our partners, I am overwhelmed and full of appreciation. Despite starting a new year still stamped by a global pandemic, Dreamtown has been able to overcome unforeseen obstacles and staying strong in the reach towards meeting our goals. The year started out the way year 2020 ended: A world still affected by the uncertainty of COVID and the unknown challenges arising from the pandemic. The uncertainty of what the future might bring has in some aspect been reduced as we are saying farewell to a global pandemic, which has taken a stroll on the youth, our local partners as well as on Dreamtown as an organisation. Believe it or not, some good can come from a global pandemic. Together with our partners, we have found strength and benefits in working and communicating digitally and even though the physical distance was limited for quite some time, we have never been in such close contact with our partners. The new ways to cooperate, which were forced upon us during the pandemic, has shown to be very effective and sustainable. One aspect in which the effective and sustainable cooperation is apparent is in the results of our projects throughout 2021. We have been able to maintain a strong presence in the cities where we work, which is essential for us and for reaching our goal: To develop safe, green, and creative spaces together with urban youth. As a means to achieve our goal, Dreamtown has expanded our reach to Kenya. In 2021, we initiated a project entitled Changing Faces taking place in Nairobi, where the main objective is to involve youth organizations in the development of vibrant public spaces. The project spired from our partnership with Public Space Network and UN-Habitat.

From an organisational perspective, Dreamtown has also experienced growth during the last year. We are happy and grateful to have been able to expand our team with four new members: Head of Research and Learning, Head of Communications and Stories, Youth Engagement Lead and Urban Design Lead. The expansion of the team will ensure that we will meet our strategic goals and achieve the best possible outcome of our projects. Besides the expansion of the team, Dreamtown has experienced a thorough capacity assessment funded by CISU. The outcome of the assessment has been positive and strengthened our perspective on where we need to develop as an organisation. This gives us a strong standpoint for continuous learning and building a strong organisation. 2022 is likewise ambitious and we have set an extensive plan for the year to come. Dreamtown will continue to build a strong economic and organisational foundation and we will stay on the path towards transforming spaces, communities, and cities where young people are able to live out their dreams. We are very grateful for the support and contributions which Dreamtown has received throughout 2021. Without the support from our member and collaborators, we would not be where we are today. The support inspires and motivates us all to do our very best in all that we do, and it drives us to initiate new ideas and dreams for the future. Thank you for the support and for keeping the dream alive

Katrine Kirkegaard, Chairperson, Dreamtown

COLLABORATION WITH YOUTH ACROSS AFRICAN CITIES

In 2021 Dreamtown has ... Continued our work in Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zimbabwe and started up new activites in KENYA! Collaborated with communities across 8 DIFFERENT CITIES Strengthened our partnership with 10 VIBRANT AFRICAN CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS Undertaken more than 20 DIFFERENT PROJECTS Supported the dreams and actions of HOUNDREDS of youth groups

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 3

House of Arts festival in Mbare

APPROACH Our vision is to see increased youth wellbeing in cities worldwide. In urban communities, informal settlements, and low-income neighbourhoods we see that young people’s wellbeing is under immense pressure. To reach the vision, we work with the mission to create: Safe communities that enable all young people to take active part in city life. Green communities that strengthen the resilience of young people and their connection with urban nature.

Strategies

Intermediate outcomes

Outcomes

Impact

Creative communities that inspire young people to learn, play and artistically express themselves.

Everything we do is youth driven. We believe that meaningful youth inclusion is essential to create a lasting impact, and this core principle guides our work and all the pathways of change as laid out in our Theory of Change. The Theory of Change gives us different routes to reach our desired impact, but all the routes are necessary and often connected to each other. For example, to improve the wellbeing of young people in cities, we need to have and constantly develop strong partnerships to implement high-quality interventions; work with dedicated young people that take the lead in shaping urban spaces and create enabling environments where young people feel free to follow their dreams.

THE WELLBEING OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN CITIES HAS IMPROVED

SAFE COMMUNITIES

GREEN COMMUNITIES

CREATIVE COMMUNITIES

Safe communities enable all young people to take active part in city life

Green communities strengthen the resilience of young people and their connection with urban nature

Creative communities inspire young people to learn, play and artistically express themselves

Strong partnerships

Empowered youth

Youth-led urban spaces

Awareness and influence

Partners implement quality programmes together with young people

Young people pursue their dreams and organise around the issues affecting them

Young people take the lead in shaping urban spaces in their communities

Urban stakeholders support young people’s development priorities and activism

Organisational support to CSO partners

Capacity support to young people

Development of urban spaces

Communication, advocacy and research

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 5

URBAN SPACE DESIGN AS A PROCESS 2021 has been a year of consolidation. If anything, this year, we have deepened our understanding of the process of creating spaces for young people. The spaces that we talk about when we say ‘safe’, ‘green’ and ‘creative’ spaces. After many years of working in cities, we are starting to see that there is much more to learn from creating urban spaces, than we first thought. We see a tendency to focus on urban space as something we can see, touch, relate to with our bodies – a ‘place’ with a physical dimension. While the places in cities are of great importance, we are becoming more and more aware about the dimension of learning and capacity building that lies in process of creating these places. We experience that focusing solely on the ‘placeness’ of urban space leaves out on an enormous opportunity to gain knowledge from the process of creating and collaborating around urban spaces. In the model below, we illustrate the stages of urban space development, as we see it. It is especially during the design and implementation phase that the young civil society is strengthened. Here, the youth build on their capacity as groups and as individuals; through activities like developing a design, managing their collaboration, preparing a budget, communicating with

stakeholders, as well as the larger community. These are all competences that will remain with them regardless of the character of their intervention; physical or nonphysical, public, or non-public. They will take these capabilities with them after the project is finished and can utilise them for future projects. We experience again and again, that a process-oriented approach to place-making in space-making projects creates a long-lasting impact that is suited for the context in which we are working. Rapid urban changes related to land-ownership issues, political instability, health issues, climate, and environmental challenges, just to mention a few, makes it difficult, if not impossible to predict and manage a linear, product-oriented approach to urban space making. That said, if an outcome of such a process is physically manifested and publicly accessible, it is, in itself, a big step for youth advocacy. With each initiative that is executed, the young people prove capable of making a change, that they have a voice that is worth listening to, that they have agency. And when the next opportunity shows, they will manage their process better, they will be more confident in claiming space in their city. Starting small, each step of the process is strengthening youth civil society.

URBAN SPACE DESIGN AS A PROCESS

income generation improved health

DREAMING

EXPLORING

DESIGNING

DOING

Moving on ... improved safety

SPACES FOR YOUTH

social inclusion

SUSTAIN EXPAND INNOVATE

environmental sustainability

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

URBAN SPACE

FUTURE PROJECTS

Strengthening young civil society Capacity building Collaboration Empowerment Ownership

Community transformation Community cohesion

Youth mobilise support Youth actively pursue new projects

ZIMBABWE

A repressive state: November 2017. A coup d’état ended Mugabe’s 37 years in power. A dictatorship had ended. Once the news broke out masses of people transformed the streets of Harare into a vast celebration of hope for a brighter future. However, there’s been very little to celebrate during the rule of Mugabe’s predecessor - President Mnangagwa. The economy is on the brink of collapse, the majority of the country’s population fence for their daily living in the informal economy, and the space for civil society is shrinking, making resistance both difficult and dangerous. Despite these overwhelming challenges the young generation remains vocal. They have hopes. They have dreams. And they make their voice heard. In a bid to navigate the contentious political playing field, many young people have turned to artactivism, using tools such as music, drama, sports, and films to engage fellow youth and political stakeholders in critical discussions on the development of the country. Youth led art activism: In 2021, Dreamtown has scaled up our direct support to the art activist movement in Zimbabwe. In close collaboration with our partners and friends at House of Arts Association in Harare and Yellow World in Bulawayo, we have managed to mobilise a vast network of actors within the art sector – including renown hip hop artists, dancers, drama groups, music studios, galleries and radio channels around a common cause. To amplify the voice of young people and strengthen their participation in development. Despite COVID-19’s attempt at killing creativity and collective actions - through lock downs and tough restrictions on the gathering of people - House of Arts and Yellow World has kept the optimism and created some amazing results. A few highlights of 2021 include: Art festival goes online: What happens when you can’t bring people together for a physical festival? You connect people in a virtual space. Across 3 days a massive

online art festival was held. Recorded in Harare and Bulawayo, the festival included more than 50 different acts by young artist. The festival was broadcasted across 10 social media channels and reached more than 30,000 people. From The Hood to the big screen: Yellow World ventured into a long term dream and produced their first movie entitled IKASI (meaning The Hood). The idea behind the movie was to use entertainment as a creative way to make people listen and understand the challenges faced by young people living in poor urban communities. Cool bonus info, the whole cast around the movie including the script writer and the actors - were young people living in some of Bulawayo’s most vulnerable urban communities. The movie gathered lots of attention and was showcased from the hood - through street cinema sessions - to a red carpet stakeholder event at Bulawayo’s main movie house. The movie won the prize for ‘the most outstanding short film of the year’ at the most prestigious film awards in Zimbabwe. An Art Space is taking shape: A long term dream of House of Arts is to establish an art space within their homegrown of Hatcliffe. The vision of the space is to create a massive statement on the creative energy and positive resources that exits within some of the most poor and vulnerable peri-urban communities, far from the buzzling central business district of Harare. The development of the art space is in its final stages. Land approximately the size of a football pitch has been secured, and several structures have started to pop up including a stage, dance studios, offices, a café, toilets and the like. We envision the space will be formally opened in 2022. Having secured this land, through challenging negotiations with local and national government, is a strong testament on the progress made in terms of strengthening the participation of youth in urban Zimbabwe

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 7

House of Arts space under construction

House of Arts festival in Mbare

UGANDA

Dreamtown’s collaborations in Uganda in 2021 were all about greening. Kampala is severely challenged by effects of the climate crisis, and the city’s resources and environment to the test. That’s why, together with Network for Active Citizens and a large group of community-based partners, we promote youth-led climate action across ghetto communities in Kampala – we call it Ghetto Go Green. Green public spaces: In 2021, we continued to establish green public spaces across Kampala. At the end of the year, six green spaces are in full use by young people. To relax, host meetings, and learn about urban agriculture in the spaces’ demonstration gardens. In a year where COVID-19 kept schools closed in Uganda, and restricted people’s gatherings, the green spaces had an immense impact. They allowed children and youth to continue to learn and access safe spaces. They also act as innovation hubs for entrepreneurship where young people exchange ideas and collaborate on building business models around climate-smart solutions. Reuse of waste materials and innovative solutions for urban farming are on the rise. The green spaces are used by hundreds of young people and continue to attract attention from other organisations and communities. More spaces are already on their way… Green play spaces: It started as an idea to find creative solutions to issues of safety for young mothers and food insecurity in the ghettos of Kampala. Now, a green play space is live in Kamwanyi community. A multipurpose safe space for young mothers and their children. A group of young mothers co-developed the space as a place to meet, have discussions, grow vegetables - and bring their kids to play in a safe environment at the same time.

Urban gardens for livelihood: To date, more than 134 youth established their own urban gardens. Inspired from trainings in urban agriculture, young agripreneurs set up gardens - and no space is too small. Someone who really embraced the greening journey is Michael Sengtongo. “Before we transformed this space, this was basically a dumpsite. It polluted the air and the soil. It was not healthy to be here”. Michael was in a training at the local green space and got inspired to transform the old dumpsite close to his house into a garden. “It does a lot for us. It gives us fresh vegetables when what you get at the market is often not fresh. But now it is also a place you just want to hang out, because the air is fresh again.” Just like Michael, many other young people have set up their own urban gardens and produce crops for their household, the community around them, and for selling at the local markets. This improves the food security and quality and creates a new income opportunity for the youth. Climate action: Through a climate vulnerability assessment, we got to know a lot more about the most important challenges that communities across Kampala face because of the climate crisis. Floods causing widespread infrastructural damage, destruction of livelihood, displacement, and outbreak of diseases are among the key challenges. We continue to improve our understanding of how climate change affects the people who live there so we can take action. The findings from the assessment guided our advocacy work to increase attention on and resources for climate adaptation in the city’s most under-prioritized areas. In 2021, young people engaged local authorities in 21 community youth parliaments across Kampala.

Michael in his urban garden

Green Play Space in Kampala

KENYA

Nairobi - Protecting public spaces in a city on speed: Nairobi is developing. And its developing fast. Once a forest, the face of Nairobi is now made of concrete. New buildings are shooting up and the prize of urban lots are sky rocketing. Amidst this rapid urbanisation land-grabbing has become a major issue. The few green and recreational public spaces that exist are under constant threat of being captured, often through shady politics, and transformed into private properties. For the people living in Nairobi, and especially in the high-density and low-income neighbourhoods, this means there are very few places left, where young people can meet, relax, and have fun. The lack of available public spaces, and the threat of land-grabbing has incited young activist to think creatively around how to protect and transform the few remaining spaces that exists. These are the youth Dreamtown supports and works with in Nairobi. Partners in Nairobi: In Nairobi Dreamtown has a close collaboration with the Kenya organisation – Public Space Network. Public Space Network is a vibrant and interdisciplinary group of urban experts – such as planners and architects. Public Space network work in close collaboration with youth groups from low-income neighbourhoods around the protection and creation of green, healthy, and vibrant public spaces. In addition, we have established a strong collaboration with the United Nations settlement programme – UNHABITAT. The Changing Faces Competition: The major collaboration between Dreamtown, Public Space network and UNHABITAT has in 2021 focused on the facilitation of a city-wide urban space competition called ‘Changing Faces Competition’. The purpose of this competition to inspire and support youth led groups, from low-income neighbourhoods, to take the lead in changing the face of the public spaces that exist within their communities. The interest in the 2021 edition of

the Changing Faces Competition has been remarkable. At the outset of the competition more than 114 teams from across Nairobi signed up with innovative ideas. At the end of the competitions more than 52 public spaces were developed. The public space interventions included a range of inspiring initiatives such as transforming depleted court yards filled with trash into safe playgrounds for kids, rehabilitation of run-down parks renown for violence into popular gathering places and much more. In addition to the immediate health and wellbeing benefits for the local populations, these public space interventions have proven powerful in bringing different groups together – including youth groups and elders - around a joint stance against land-grabbing in their community. A more example of one of the initiatives is presented below. Changing the Face of the Nairobi River: One of the teams who parted in Changing Faces are Komb Green. Komb Green is a youth led organisation from Korogocho which is one of the largest slum settlements in Nairobi. Komb Green have for several years worked to transform the Nairobi River section that runs through their community, into an inspiring river front park. The park includes urban gardens that can feed the community, bamboo and stonewalls that protects the community from river floodings, recreational spaces where community groups can meet and play facilities for children. Through the Changing Faces competition Komb Green was able to take their dream of a park to the next level. Komb Green is also an amazing story about the power of transformation. Many of the group members have extremely tough life stories. Many of them used to make a living through armed robberies and prostitution but decided to turn their life around and create a remarkable change for their community. The big dream and vision of Komb Green is for many more river front communities to collectively develop a green ore connecting the many riverfront communities dotted across Nairobi.

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 11 1) Korogocho context

2) Nairobi River and view of Dandora

3) Korogocho street

4) Stone dyke by Komb Green

5) Komb Green park

6) Youth working in the park

Church Komb Green Office

Towards Market Rd.

Tree nursery

Water tank

Dandora

Playground Entrance gate

Korogocho Greenhouse

Tree nursery N ma Ma

Memorial Park

g'e d oa oR nd

6 4 Community bench Donkeys

Korogocho market

Stone dyke

Bio-toilet

Toilet End of park

Small dumpsite

Trash crane

Nairobi River Path to Dandora

Open field

Korogocho 1:1000

SIERRA LEONE

Our work in Sierra Leone evolves around the safety of young people, especially young women, and support to youth communities who work to improve their local environment. Our work keeps growing in Sierra Leone, where Dreamtown has worked since 2010. In 2021, despite the challenges of COVID-19, we have run three major projects, supporting young people in 10 communities. Luckily, much more is also on the way… Safety in the city: Safety is a massive challenge in Sierra Leone. Especially for young women. In 2021, our focus on safety increased as part of our Safe in the City collab with Youth Dream Centre Sierra Leone and YMCA Sierra Leone. Our youth-led response to the emergency of sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone empowers youth groups and students in education institutions to understand and act on gender-based violence. More than 1500 young people in youth groups in Kissy community acted against SGBV through safety initiatives – everything from safety patrols to safety lights to community campaigns to socio-economic businesses that support young women. We are so inspired by the innovation around. And across three cities – Freetown, Makeni, and Koidu – 100 young women are now active in Safety School Clubs that strengthen knowledge about violence against women and how to respond, report, and change the culture of silence that surrounds it. From urban challenge to solution: What started out with 100 young people in 20 teams, ended up with 10 cool ideas for urban spaces becoming reality in Dwarzark community. The Urban Space Challenge is a competition for young people in partnership between Dreamtown

and YMCA Sierra Leone. In this year’s edition, young people developed solutions in public spaces based on challenges their community faces. Water points, community cleaning, computer centre, basketball court, community field, public awareness on menstrual hygiene and women’s rights, and gym facilities. The creativity is overwhelming! One of the innovations that transformed the community was championed by team Upper George Brook. They live in an area of the community where there was no access to water. They managed to dig a water well that now provides access to water for the very first time, for about 5000 people. “Many people thought we were not going to complete this well, because of how hilly and rocky the place is. Today, here is the well standing and everybody in the community now has access to clean water. Through the training on advocacy, we were also able to reach out to one of our water companies, who also donated a tank to us that we are now using to store the water” - Amara, Member of Upper George Brook. Spaces for youth: Together with Youth Dream Centre Sierra Leone and our network across seven communities in three cities in Sierra Leone, we are scaling up to support more young people take lead in community development – as well as in their own lives. In 2021, we continued the journey with a basis in seven community centres that we supported. Now, 35 youth groups with a membership of more than 1000 young people will build their skills in electrical work, hairdressing, IT and media, plumping, construction work, tailoring, and much more. And the groups work and collaborate on community initiatives, to push for youth inclusion in decision-making and for more youth friendly spaces in the community.

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 13 1) Jumbo Gym Dwarzark

2) Water point Dwarzark

3) Kono Youth Public Space

4) Unique Family Safety Soap Initiative

5) Safety Lights Kissy Brooks

6) School Safety Club YDC

“Many people thought we were not going to complete this well, because of how hill and rocky the place is. Today, here is the well standing and everybody in the community now has access to clean water.” - Amara, Member of Upper George Brook.

4 5 2 1

SHRINKING SPACE

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a compounding effect on Zimbabwe’s already fragile economic and political architecture. The pandemic threatens many young people’s livelihoods, as the lockdown measures have left the many young people working in the country’s informal sector with even fewer ways to survive. At same time, the measures have had far-reaching repercussions on young Zimbabweans’ space to exercise their rights. Actions in Mutare: It is in light of these challenges that we implement the Rights and Participation project together with our partner Justice for Children. In the project, we work in the communities of Mutare – Zimbabwe’s third most populous city. Here we are building the capacity and resilience of a wide array of vibrant youth groups. Kodzero is one of these groups. Based in the Zimunya township, they do important work with raising young people’s knowledge and awareness of their rights while also strengthening their responsibilities in society as rights holders. In the Rights and Participation project, youth group leader Chiedza Manyumwa has had the opportunity to go to Harare visiting the national parliament, the constitutional court (Zimbabwe’s highest court) and Zimpapers (Zimbabwe’s largest newspaper). This has given her a deeper understanding of the existence and operations of these institutions. “The Rights and Participation project has helped us in attracting a lot more interest from the youth in our community. We keep learning from the project, and we can use the knowledge to inspire and inform”. - Chiedza Manyumwa, 23 years old, youth group leader of Kodzero

Through Rights and Participation, Kodzero has successfully acquired flex funds. With the funds, their plan is to establish an information hub, where young people get access to the internet enabling them to become more active citizens. Other project activities include the human rights mobile clinics, where more than 100 young people have received information on human rights and accessed legal services. Rights and Participation also increased young people’s knowledge and understanding of their rights during the COVID-19 lockdown by holding virtual public lectures with informative discussions of critical democratic issues. Actions in Harare: In addition to the action presented above, Dreamtown has been leading a large consortium project entitled Resilience Capacities. The focus on the intervention has been to support the work of urban youth led organisations in the context of COVID-19 and shrinking civic space. The project consists of the Danish organisation Plan Børnefonden and the Zimbabwean CSOs Plan Zimbabwe, Justice for Children ( JCT), Care at the Core of Humanity (CATCH) and Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT). Through this intervention more than 50 youth led organisations coming from across Harare’s most vulnerable urban communities, have been supported to strengthen their organizational resilience and to undertake interventions that improves the wellbeing of vulnerable urban youth. In addition, direct legal aid and psychosocial support has been given to individual youth whose rights have been violated.

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 15

Rights and Participation workshop

Youth visit at the parliament

ENGAGING YOUTH IN DENMARK

Dreamtown’s pedagodical approach to meaningful global learning experiences: In 2021 Dreamtown have dived deeper into creating meaningful learning experiences on Sustainable Development with, by and for young people in Copenhagen. This has resulted in reflection on which values to base the engagement on, as well as how to facilitate non-formal learning processes within a formal school setting. However, most of all, it has been a process of considering what kind of stories we want to engage young people in Denmark through. Stories about whom? In whose name? And for the benefit of whom? Based on the core values of Dreamtown, our own experiences in facilitating non-formal education, and with inspiration from research such as Development Education and its practice as well as notions of Global Citizenship Education, Dreamtown has launched our approach to creating meaningful learning experiences about Sustainable Development. The main aim of Dreamtown’s approach is to engage young people in deeper learning, reflection and dialogue on social change and sustainable urban development, which inspires personal and civic engagement in ways which are interactive, fun, creative and inspire hope, curiosity, and agency in young people. Dreaming, exploring and designing for social change: In September 2021, we once again packed our facilitation gear with excitement and made our way to Copenhagen Adult Education Centre (KVUC). It was now our second time to facilitate a course with the Sustainable Development high school track at KVUC, in collaboration with our Ugandan partner, Network for Active Citizens (NAC). The overall purpose of our collaboration with KVUC is to strengthen Danish, urban young people’s enthusiasm for, knowledge of, and commitment

towards global development cooperation with a focus on sustainable cities. Through a case competition, the students at KVUC worked in groups with challenges posed by young people in Kampala’s ghettos. Over six weeks, we talked about project innovation, collaboration across cities, and how we create and communicate social change. Based on this facilitation experience, Dreamtown collaborated with a MSc student from Aarhus University in developing a handbook that provides the information and tools needed to conduct Dreamtown’s SDG Challenge Youth for Urban & Social Change. Experience the sustainable development goals up close in copenhagen: Young people in Denmark will soon be able to experience the SDG’s up close by traveling with Copenhagen’s newest metro line: the M3 Cityring. In 2021 Dreamtown started working on a campaign for educational institutions in Denmark to build enthusiasm about the challenges that the 17 SDG’s illuminate and, more importantly, the actions taken by young people globally on these challenges. The 17 stations of the M3 Cityring are no longer just a way to travel across Copenhagen and Frederiksberg but have been transformed into a map - a SDG map that shows the way to exciting and innovative urban initiatives that unfold how the goals take place in our everyday life in Copenhagen as well as in other cities around the world. Dreamtown has mapped out the many amazing actors in Copenhagen that work towards creating a more sustainable city. This mapping has led Dreamtown to start partnerships with Buddha Bikes, COurban, Copenhagen Municipality – and many more are to come. Young activists behind urban initiatives in Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe share their stories and Dreamtown document them to show how young actors innovate and address the challenges the SDG’s illuminate.

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 17

KVUC students watching videos from Kampala

ORGANISATION/HR

2021 has been a year of organisational growth and organisational strengthening across several areas. HR: A lot has happened on the HR front in Dreamtown. In 2021, several cool people and positions were included in the team. These include Simon Sticker - Head of Communication and Stories; Jakob Falk - Head of Research and Learning; Benedicte Bertelsen - Youth Engagement Lead; and Stine Kronsted - Urban Design Lead. With this dream team onboard, we have laid a solid foundation for the years to come. New Office Space: We are growing as an organisation and have moved office – once again. We now have a cool loft space in central Copenhagen - with damn good coffee. Come by and say hi! In 2021, we also did a full upgrade on our IT setup and communication systems. Capacity assessment: In the fall of 2021, Dreamtown went through an extensive capacity assessment, facilitated

by an external consultant funded through CISU. The assessment examined our organisational performance across several critical dimensions and included interviews with a range of partners in Africa. We are proud to say the assessment concludes Dreamtown has a strong and relevant voice as a youth and urban focused NGO and that we’re anchored in a solid organisational set up. We also appreciate the constructive recommendations raised – many of which focus on the documentation and description of the ways we work. We look forward to taking action on the recommendations and make our, at times, informal ways of working more formalised and documented. Wellbeing policy: In Dreamtown we work for the wellbeing of young people in cities. Our focus on wellbeing also transcends into our daily work life in Copenhagen. In 2021, all staff in Dreamtown participated in co-designing an organisational wellbeing policy with the purpose of making Dreamtown the best possible place to work for all staff, interns, and volunteers.

Annual Report 2021 | Dreamtown.ngo | Page 19

Dreamtown visit in Dandora, Nairobi, Kenya

FINANCIAL YEAR (2021) THE RESULT FOR 2021 2021 has been another year marked by the unpredictability of Covid-19, which has meant that travelling and managing projects has been extra challenging. 2021 has however been a year in which Dreamtown have continued the expansion of our project portfolio. As of December 2021, we had 13 ongoing projects and another 9 set to commence during 2022. This increase has also meant, that we have experienced an increase in our yearly project income from DKK 4.6 to 9.1 million, 7,1 million of which was transferred to our partners. Dreamtown’s overall turnover has increased along from 0,92 million to 1.65 million. Our excellent collaboration with CISU continues, and the contribution from CISU constitutes 93% of our project income in 2021.

We have had an increase in salaries, administration, and property expenses from 1 million to 1,5 million, due to the large increase in projects, as this has necessitated a further strengthening of Dreamtown’s secretariat. During 2021 we have welcomed Jakob Falk as Head of Research and Learning, Benedicte Bertelsen as Youth Engagement Lead, Simon Sticker as Head of Communication and Stories. As well as having more resources to manage the ongoing projects, it has also meant that we have an improved capacity to develop and secure future projects for the benefit of young people in Denmark, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR 2022 With many new projects already being granted for 2022, an even busier year lies ahead of us. We expect to have a higher number of large projects ongoing and will therefore need to continue strengthening our human resource base in the secretariat. Due to the increase in projects, we expect a significant increase in our turnover. This will be spend on increased staff costs, as well as an expected increase in administrational costs due to the growing documentation requirements from the donors.

CISU has been the main source of projects for Dreamtown until now, and this will also be the case in 2022. We are very happy that CISU provides a solid foundation for our activities. With the continuing growth of our organisation, it becomes increasingly important to achieve funding from other sources as well. This is a big goal for 2022 and something that we will focus on greatly, so we can continue to support the many talented young people we work with.

ANNUAL INCOME 2021

NET TURNOVER

Remuneration 1%

PROJECT INCOME

Members and donations 2% Corporate donations 4%

Project wages 59 %

Admin. constribution 33 %

Funding from private foundations 7%

Funding from CISU 93 %

EXPENDITURES Administration 2% Staff costs 14 %

Project expenses 83%

WE KEEP GROWING We are super excited about what 2022 will bring. A lot of exciting plans and ideas are already in the making. To name a few, Dreamtown will participate at the World Urban Forum in Poland. Organised by UN-HABITAT, this is the largest event worldwide where urban actors discuss the urban development agenda. Dreamtown will participate with a strong team of youth activist from different African cities to ensure the voice of the young is heard loud and clear. In 2022 we also expect to unveil a number of new and innovative partnerships that are currently in the making which include cutting edge organisations from across Denmark, Kenya and South Africa. In 2022 we will likewise continue our journey towards strengthening our organisational foundation. This includes an increased documentation of practices, formulation of additional policies and guidelines and review of our monitoring and evaluation systems. From an organisational development perspective, we foresee exciting additions in 2022. With a Head of

Research and Learning onboard, we will initiate the process of establishing a research unit. This unit will work towards ensuring that the impact we create is well documented, that the advocacy we engage in is evidence driven and that the knowledge we generate is brought into dialogue with relevant stakeholders. Furthermore, with our new Youth Engagement Lead on board, we will scale up activities in Denmark that ignite young people’s enthusiasm and engagement in sustainable urban development. Globally as well as in Denmark. More than ever, it remains the obligation of Denmark to continue to use our privilege to support and collaborate with the rest of the world to create more sustainable and just communities. We stand with the rest of the Danish civil society to hold our political system accountable when it comes to living up to our human and global obligation to stand by those that need it the most. Denmark can – and should – be at the forefront of upkeeping an ambitious and diverse policy and financial contribution towards development collaboration.