#WeCooperate to build security! And you?

Two months, almost 3 million people reached, hundreds of contributions submitted - and an online audience motivated and mobilized to share ideas on how we can work together to achieve peace and security.

Security is a joint effort: we have to co-operate to live in a safe world. Be it human rights, environmental issues, conflict prevention, or any other side of security – it touches our daily lives and everyone can relate to it. This was the message we reached out with – and we were overwhelmed by the amount and quality of entries with which people responded. 

A truly global co-operation

Those who engaged with the campaign come from well beyond the OSCE participating States, picking up the message in China, India, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere.

With support from the United Nations and European Union agencies, other international organizations and institutions, academic and youth networks, #WeCooperate quickly spread through social media networks, becoming itself a great example of co-operation. 

On Facebook...

On Twitter...

Thank you @OSCE for a great initiative! #Spain supports #WeCooperate https://t.co/NZZwKdydqm

— OSCEspaña (@SpainOSCE) June 8, 2015

#WeCooperate to strengthen #food security and food safety around the world! @FAOnews/#IAEA — http://t.co/Kz5tJCvTQS pic.twitter.com/g6ZXrRPn7d

— IAEA (@iaeaorg) May 25, 2015

#WeCooperate to bring #youth from #Africa and #Europe together :) #youthpress #adyfe pic.twitter.com/sseR93oJI3

— European Youth Press (@youthpress) June 8, 2015

On Instagram...

 

A photo posted by OSCE (@osceorg) on May 23, 2015 at 9:02am PDT

The cause of the #WeCooperate campaign was also endorsed by high-profile champions from within the OSCE and beyond, such as the High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors, director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Michael Georg Link, Moroccan TV journalist and civil society activist Leila Ghandi, or Eurovision finalists – Finnish punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät.

 

A photo posted by OSCE (@osceorg) on May 11, 2015 at 5:14am PDT

 

A photo posted by OSCE (@osceorg) on May 23, 2015 at 2:59am PDT

And the winner is…

Every two weeks we announced a new #WeCooperate winner, awarding different prizes to highlight various areas of the OSCE work. The first prize – a solar backpack – went to Kyrgyzstan, to the ‘Mehr-Shavkat’ Public Fund based in Aravan. The second prize – a GoPro camera – landed in Vienna with Master’s student Viola Schipfer. A spontaneous quiz rewarded four lucky winners with a spot prize to meet the Eurovision contestants from Finland in person at the OSCE premises in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. And finally our main prize – a trip to an OSCE event - went to Shend Mulliqi from Kosovo, whose entries highlighted the importance of teamwork, sportsmanship and passion in achieving goals.

The dedicated efforts of the campaign’s participants made selecting the winning entries a true challenge. We decided to award all runners-up with an honourable mention. The biggest takeaway was seeing that the message is carried further, even after the winners were announced. #WeCooperate stories are worth telling – and we will continue doing so together with you, because co-operation matters!