The United Kingdom One World Linking Association (UKOWLA) is a membership organisation that supports community based links in the UK with communities in the South.  These communities include towns, schools, local authorities, faith groups, diaspora groups and other community-based organisations.

Formed in 1984 when North South community linking was beginning to attract attention and interest, UKOWLA is the leading umbrella organisation for North South community linking.  As such UKOWLA:

• Produces the ‘OWL’ newsletter three times a year and organises national and regional conferences
• Facilitates the expression of perspectives on linking by Southern partners and in doing so advocates clear principles in the relationship between Northern and Southern partners.  These principles include equal sharing of control and decision making, reciprocity, and inclusion of as many people in the link as possible.
• Recognises the opportunities for strengthening communities at both ends through the link with the partner
• Sees linking as a means to community development, development education, advocacy, fair trade and ultimately to improving international relations for world peace

UKOWLA recognises that many other agencies in both the North and South have similar goals and thus sees the need for collaboration with these agencies.

UKOWLA is the lead agency for BUILD (Building Understanding through International Links for Development) a coalition of development organisations and NGOs from North and South, representatives from the private sector, politicians and others, which aims to bring North South community links into the mainstream for public education in the UK.  BUILD is currently engaged in a programme of mapping links in the UK, setting up an all party parliamentary group on connecting communities and producing a Handbook of Good Practice in linking.

UKOWLA’s involvement in the DFID Global School Partnerships programme will allow the project to widen the outreach of schools’ partnerships and will help schools to embed their links within their communities in both the North and the South.

Please contact us for more information.

UKOWLA
The Glade Centre
Frog Lane
Ilminster
Somerset
TA19 0AP
UK

Telephone: +44 (0) 1460 55449
E-mail: info@ukowla.org.uk