Content of Global Line course

The course contents are decided every year by DPOD, the Danish DPOs and Egmont Højskolen. A specific Global Line theme can be chosen for each year. This decision is agreed upon the year before in October, so that potential participants can be informed before applying. However, the course generally covers: democracy, human rights, advocacy, strategic planning, logical framework approach, fund raising, accounting, Denmark for beginners and IT workshop. Global Line training is highly concentrated and includes a lot of studying, despite the absence of exams and tests.

The overall contents of the general course are as follows:

Democracy

Participants work with all aspects of democracy, from na¬tional elections to democracy in the family, the local community and organisations. As a practical part of this, participants will visit the Folketing (Danish parliament) and meet one of its elected members. The course will present tools to enhance organisational work, such as work plans and constitutions. Furthermore, participants will gain skills in democratic participatory learning processes as a cross-cutting issue throughout the course. Lastly, participants will build capacity at a personal level, dealing with topics such as communication and conflict resolution.

Human rights

The course focuses on a variety of areas, including human rights from a historical perspective. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is used as the starting point for a discussion on the human rights situation in the students’ home countries. Against the background of the new UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, participants will discuss the situation of people with disabilities in their respective societies. They will also gain insights into disabled people’s opportunities for integration into Danish society, and be inspired as to how the convention might be used in their own organisations.

Advocacy

This covers an introduction to advocacy as an activity in its own right, as well as training in advocacy techniques. Special focus will be on how to identify focal messages, collect data and lay out advocacy strategies. Representatives of organisations that already have experience of advocacy will be able to exchange ideas. The main goal is that participants gain clearer understanding of what advocacy is and how it can be used strategically to strengthen organisations and their causes.

Strategic planning

Participants work with strategic planning as a tool to assist organi¬sations in staying focused. As part of strategic planning exercises, participants learn to analyse the vision and mission statements of organisations, and they learn to apply SWOT analysis as a technique to help organisations understand their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their opportunities and threats.

Logical framework approach

Participants will learn to command this widely used planning tool. Through case stud¬ies and exercises, the preparatory stages of participatory project development will be examined, including stakeholder analysis, setting of objectives, and summarising a project in a log-frame matrix. Participants will also get the opportunity to work on cases relating to their own organisation.

Fundraising

Participants will work on drawing up a fundraising strategy, includ¬ing how to target the various potential donor groups, such as individuals, local government, private companies and international NGOs. The course will stress the importance of supporting fundraising efforts with case stories and factual documentation of achievements.

Accounting

The course introduces the basics of double-sided bookkeeping, including cash reconciliation, trial balance and making the closing sheet. Students will also learn to create and read a financial statement.

Denmark for beginners

The idea is to give participants an insight into the Danish welfare system with special focus on the social sector.

IT workshop

The IT workshop will introduce participants to the most commonly used tools of Internet search and word processing. Students are expected to have basic computer skills and be able to work independently with new tools.