Protest Agractie Nederland, #DOESLIEF campaign and Petitie Jeugdzorg nominated for Issue Award 2020

Amstelveen, (January 16, 2020) –The farmers' protest started by Bart Kemp (Agractie Nederland), the youth care petition signed by 140 municipalities by councilor Rob Jonkman (Christian Union, municipality of Opsterland) and the #DOESLIEF campaign of the SIRE foundation have been nominated for the Issue Award 2020. The Issue Award 2020 will be presented to the person or organization that managed to put a social and political topic on the agenda in a striking, effective way in 2019. According to the professional jury, led by behavioral scientist Reint Jan Renes, these nominees were the most successful initiatives in the field of social and political agendas in the past year.

Agractie Nederland– Sheep farmer Bart Kemp is the initiator of Agractie, which on October 1, 2019, managed to put the nitrogen issue in relation to Dutch farmers on the agenda of politics and society in a striking way with a large-scale demonstration in The Hague. Through this well-organized and coordinated action, Kemp and his organization wanted to create sympathy and understanding for farmers, provide insight into the importance of farmers for Dutch society and reduce the gap between farmers and citizens.

#DOESLIEF – With this campaign, the SIRE foundation (Stichting Ideële Reclame) encouraged people to treat each other more friendly and with more respect, both in daily life and on social media. SIRE showed with hard figures how Dutch people have become unkind to each other, and also showed examples of small, everyday, unkind behavior. The hashtag #DOESLIEF was picked up en masse by (social) media and society. The campaign has led to half of the Netherlands taking action, for example by speaking to someone, using #DOESLIEF or discussing it with others.

Petition Youth Care Municipalities – Councilor Rob Jonkman (Christian Union, municipality of Opsterland) coordinated the petition that was drawn up at the initiative of five municipalities. In this petition, the House of Representatives and the cabinet are asked to assist municipalities and make more money available for youth care. The campaign quickly received support and was signed by 140 municipalities. The government will start an investigation into municipal budgets this year and plans to change the youth care system.

Jury

The professional jury of the Issue Award consists of chairman Reint Jan Renes (lector at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), Marjan Olfers (professor of sports and law at the VU), Kemal Rijken (publicist, writer, historian and political scientist), Liesbeth Breeveld (head of communications at the SER), Rob de Lange (author and general reporter at the Financieel Dagblad), Guido Rijnja (communication policy advisor at the Government Information Service) and André Manning (director of Logeion, the professional organization for communication professionals).

Previous winners

Last year, the Issue Award went to Tim Hofman for his initiative of a petition for a broader child pardon. In addition, Arjen Lubach received an Oeuvre award with his program “Sunday with Lubach” in which Lubach highlights social issues. In 2018, educational action group PO in Actie won the award for the way in which workload and salary problems in primary education are put on the agenda, in 2017 the prize went to Hugo Borst and Carin Gaemers for the issue 'Quality of elderly care'. The Issue Award has existed since 2011.

Issue Award presentation January 23

The Issue Award will be presented during the Issue Congress on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at 5:00 PM at the Balie in Amsterdam. The prize is an initiative of communications consultancy De Issuemakers, which aims to make visible and reward the successful agenda-setting of social issues.
More information about the Issue Award can be found at www.issueaward.nl