Transcript Diapositiva 1 - Concord Italia

Development Education in
times of crisis: What can
we do?
Freest J Saralegui-Harries
Economistas sin Fronteras
CONGDE: Spanish
Platform of NGDO
1
Development Education in times of
crisis: What can we do?
1. Consequences of the neoliberal globalization &
role of Global development education
2. Golden days of GDE
3. From the golden days to the crisis: consecuences
& solutions?
4. What are NGDOs doing in this context? The Role
of GDE
5. The Spanish DE working group
2
Consequences of the neoliberal
globalization & role of Global
development education
Loss of democratization of the
state, politics and society
Deep distrust
&
disaffection
Two
different
realities.
Political apathy &
social conformity
• breakthrough of populism
• disappointment
• weariness of political
parties & institutions
Rise in citizen action for social justice
as a response to the systemic crisis.
End apathy and social conformity
GLOBAL
DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION
Promote learning about the local-global
links related to social justice issues
Adequately engage with local struggles for
justice & citizens initiatives & movements
3
Consequences of the neoliberal
globalization & role of Global
development education
We need to build a strong civil society where
“
“ Each citizen, no matter where they
live, forms part of the global society
& knows that they are a participant,
along with their co-citizens, in the
fight against exclusion, the root of
any type of inequality or injustice”
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
national level
DE appears in the political agenda in 1998
with the International development Law
2004-2005 “Development Education: An Indispensable Strategy
for International Development Cooperation”.
2005-2008 Development
cooperation 3 year plan
Formal Education
2007 National Development
Education Strategy
2000 Promotion of DE @ university
level
2006 Subject citizenship education
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
regional and municipal level
Strengths
Regional level
Weaknesses
Great heterogeneity & uneven
progress between communities
Budgets are very small
Facilitates citizen participation
Structures & equipment
management insufficient
Promotes democratic ownership
of policies & processes
Combines the local and global
Lack of performance
indicators.
DE exists even before than at a national level
Municipal level
Budget in some cases reached the 0,7%
Ability to create a new culture of solidarity
that is close to their citizens
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
National Context
Dynamic and changing Social and political context:
• Spain is a new donor country
•Spanish society have a high consideration for development
• Favorable context for development & DE especially since 2004
•The next 3 year development plan is going to be drafted
Growing NGDO sector:
• Spanish Platform is weakened
• DE working group has had a low profile:
oTired of self-criticism & questioning DE
oTired of diagnosis
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2. The Golden days of GDE: The DE
working group
Change of mindset: Start a process of empowerment and ownership
• Need for political documents, strategies: It’s up to the WG to set an agenda for
DE
•Liaise with other DE actors: local NGDO platforms, other national platform and at
a European level (Dare forum)
•Undertake seminars and conferences about the need of a strategy and the role of
DE in development
•Open new channels of communication with development and education
authorities
Outcome:
•The DE group becomes an important actor in the DE & development sector.
Other actors look towards the group
•The document has a great impact on DE definition & the DE
National Strategy
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
“An Indispensable Strategy for International
Development “Cooperation”
Objective: to contribute to the elaboration of the next 3 year Plan for
Spanish Development Cooperation by advocating for the inclusion of DE
This document:
•Spells out the broad consensus agreements elaborated and supported
by the DE working groups of the Spanish and the European NGDO
platforms.
•Presents an overview of the current DE movement in Spain, the
participating actors, and the required areas of work;
•Offers concrete proposals for the improvement of policies to support DE
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
“An Indispensable Strategy for International
Development “Cooperation”
The importance of this document :
It envisaged as DE being a long term development strategy and
looked towards social transformation taking into account the global
perspective,
DE is a project for the entire world. It shows us that our society is not
limited to our neighborhood, our city, our country.
It is a political endeavor: “Only a DE exercised from the base and its
corresponding mobilization that can give legitimacy to political actions”
It proposes a revision of the definition to obtain a more integral concept
that is in tune with the current social, economic, and political realities.
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
How should DE be undesrtood?
Education for development should be understood as a process to
create critical awareness and to make each person responsible
and politically/socially active.
The end objective is to construct a new civil society in both the
global North and South – one that is committed to the principle of
solidarity, which implies equal treatment and participation, and
whose demands, needs, worries should be taken into account
when making political, economic, and social decisions.
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
National Development education
strategy
Positive aspects of the strategy:
• Shows the commitment of Spanish development policies with DE
• DE becomes a strategic dimension of international development and key in
social transformation
DE is defined as:
3. The Masterpiece
“a constant educational process (formal, non formal and informal) that,
through knowledge, attitudes and values, aims to promote global citizens
that generate a culture of committed solidarity in the fight against poverty
and exclusion as well as with the promotion of human and sustainable
development”
• Recognises the role of the different actors in DE and the different scopes
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths:
• The process: of developing a position paper empowered the DE group. This led to being
known, having channels of communication that didn’t exist before. We were considered as
experts by authorities.
•The strategy: incorporated the concept of DE as strategic and set aside DE as mere tool.
Recognized the role of the different actors and that more funds and personnel had to be given to
DE if it was going to be important.
• It had its own funding lines. There was a commitment from the authorities
• DE at least for some years was within the education curricula
Weaknesses:
• National DE strategy wasn’t followed by an action plan
• Lack of proper evaluation procedures
• The Human and financial resources within the Spanish Development Agency weren’t enough
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2. The Golden days of GDE:
Lessons learnt
• Reflection has to lead to action
• Empowerment and ownership are key
• Start from common understandings to overcome barriers
• Learn from other experiences
• DE is only legitimized through specific representation both within the
organizations, the platforms and at a political level.
• It’s necessary to open communication channels with actors at different levels
• A strategy has to be followed by an action plan
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3. FROM THE GOLDEN DAYS TO THE
CRISIS: The dark side of the Crisis
Choked by structural adjustment plans that
are causing a social genocide
Spain is THE 8TH most unequal country of the 34 members of
the OECD
Economical, political
& social crisis
Average income has dropped by 4%,
The income of the people who have the lowest incomes have
fallen by 5%
10,5 million poor people
26% unemployment & 55% youth unemployment
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4. The bright side of the crisis: Social
upraise
Dignity movements
Citizens tides
15 M
"Indignados"
SOCIAL UPRAISE
Debt platform
Stop Eviction
platforms
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6. Spanish National platform &
Development Education Working group
Sector coordination and strengthening :
to promote the efficiency, sustainability and good practices of
the sector, as well as encourage the participation of member
organizations in coherence with their values and principles.
Social change & communication:
3 Commissions
83 NGDO
to contribute to the strengthening of informed, critical citizens
that have solidarity and that encourage social and political
transformation in the fight against poverty, the promotion of
Human Rights, gender equality and environmental sustainability
.
CONGDE
17 regional platforms.
through social communication for change approach
Advocacy :
to contribute to a global development model that is
constructed in a participatory way and is environmentally
sustainable, based on the expansion of people’s opportunities
for them to lead a dignified life and equally exercise their
rights.
Working
groups
Humanitarian
development
Gender
Global
development
education
Finance
&
policies
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Development Education WG
Internally & Externally: Networking
Internally
• Working in two commissions:
Advocacy & Social change &
communication.
• Internal training & seminars
• Participating in CONCORD
DARE Forum
Externally
• Working with the Administration
• Form part of the Cooperation
Council
• Bonding with CSO
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DE WG Internally
Position paper on the importance of development education and the role
of NGDO in the construction of global citizenship
What is this document
GLOBAL CITIZENS
IS
ISN'T
• Framework to highlight the importance of
Empowered
Weak, passive
Co-responsible
Responsible in the North of what is happening in the South
(and vice versa)
DE in the development Cooperation work
Critical
collaborationist
Political
Neutral
Inclusive, Intercultural, diverse
Confronted (Enriched citizens versus impoverished citizens)
Formed and informed
With a local/partial vision
• Framework to highlight the work and
define the role of NGOs in building a Global
Citizenship through DE
Committed
Charity
Universal
Entrenched in group membership
Active
Indifferent
Proactive
Reactive
Transformative
Obedient and passive
Has solidarity acting on the causes
Superficial acting only on the effects
Global-local-global
Local
Empathic
Isolated
Aware
Unaware
To generate proposals and solutions
Just to study problems and raise awareness
A learning process of conflict resolution by A learning of social survival
peaceful means
An option that considers that "another An option to contain social unrest
world is possible" and is commitment to the
educational value of utopia
Composed by
• Evolution of DE and its 5
generations
• Outlines what GDE is
• Outlines recommendations for the NGDO
sector & the administration
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Development Education & the
Spanish new educational system:
An image is more than words 
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Development Education WG
La educación que nos une
Platform composed not only by
educators
or
people/organizations
directly with education but by other
social actors such as social movements
and NGDOs
“Because we believe that education, to
be understood as such, must be public,
democratic, inclusive, co-educational,
scientific, ecological and secular”
WE DON'T ACCEPT
WE PROPOSE
1- An education that is detached from the cares of life,
that looks away frm the serious problems of
humanity, separating people from their territory and
that generates social and environmental
injustices.
1 - A transformative education that works from the community and from the
territory, creating a network of people committed to building a more just and
respectful society with the Planet
2 - Education as a mere way of training labor,
consumers and customers.
2 - An education that respects the rights of children and youth and address the
emotional and ethical dimension of people, that responds to the human need to
explore and create, and whose purpose is to develop critical citizenship, who
are responsible and committed.
3- That the organizations who decide on school
contents and how to evaluate the education systems
are purely economistic (OECD and the Spanish
Confederation of Business Organizations) and
religious organizations (Episcopal
Conference)
3 - That the educational community and society as a whole are those who
decide on the what, the how and the why of the education of our children.
4- An education conceived in terms of
competitiveness and ranking, neither as a tool for
school and social exclusion.
4-An education that compensates inequalities; that is commited to teamwork
and to the construction of collective knowledge.
5 - School segregation on the basis of academic,
economic, religious, cultural, gender, linguistic
variables and social fragmentation from childhood.
5 - Retrieves the value of diversity understood as richness: the diversity of
cultures, languages, proposals, people, is an essential requirement for human
development and the construction of a united and cohesive society.
6 - Recentralization of education policies that result
in: a) loss of democracy in schools. b) hampers the
task of educators that now answer to the dictates of
examinations c) Diminishes the competences that the
different regions in Spain had adquired in education.
6-Return the competences back to the educational community, the educators
and the different Spanish regions.
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The end!
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