1
Freest J Saralegui-HarriesEconomistas sin FronterasCONGDE: Spanish Platform of NGDO
Development Education in times of crisis: What can we
do?
2
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
3
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
Rise in citizen action for social justice as a response to the systemic crisis.
• breakthrough of populism• disappointment • weariness of political parties & institutions
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION
End apathy and social conformity
Promote learning about the local-global links related to social justice issues
Adequately engage with local struggles for justice & citizens initiatives & movements
4
We need to build a strong civil society where “
Consequences of the neoliberal globalization & role of Global
development education
“ 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”
5
2. The Golden days of GDE:national level
2004-2005 “Development Education: An Indispensable Strategy for International Development Cooperation”.
2007 National Development Education Strategy
DE appears in the political agenda in 1998 with the International development Law
2005-2008 Development cooperation 3 year plan
Formal Education
2006 Subject citizenship education
2000 Promotion of DE @ university level
6
2. The Golden days of GDE:regional and municipal level
Facilitates citizen participation
Great heterogeneity & uneven progress between communities
Combines the local and global
Regional levelPromotes democratic ownership of policies & processes
Budgets are very small
Structures & equipment management insufficient
Lack of performance indicators.
Strengths Weaknesses
Municipal levelBudget in some cases reached the 0,7%
Ability to create a new culture of solidarity that is close to their citizens
DE exists even before than at a national level
7
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
8
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
9
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
2. The Golden days of GDE: “An Indispensable Strategy for International
Development “Cooperation”
10
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.
2. The Golden days of GDE: “An Indispensable Strategy for International
Development “Cooperation”
11
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.
12
3. The Masterpiece3. The Masterpiece
2. The Golden days of GDE: National Development education
strategyPositive 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:
“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
13
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
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
14
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
15
3. FROM THE GOLDEN DAYS TO THE CRISIS: The dark side of the Crisis
Spain is THE 8TH most unequal country of the 34 members of the OECD
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
Economical, political & social crisis
Choked by structural adjustment plans that are causing a social genocide
16
SOCIAL UPRAISE
15 M
Debt platform
Citizens tides
4. The bright side of the crisis: Social upraise
Stop Eviction platforms
"Indignados"
Dignity movements
17
6. Spanish National platform & Development Education Working group
3 Commissions
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.
Social change & communication:
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.
CONGDE
83 NGDO
17 regional platforms.
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
through social communication for change approach.
Working groups
Humanitarian development
GenderGlobal developmenteducation
Finance & policies
18
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
19
DE WG InternallyPosition paper on the importance of development education and the role of NGDO in the construction of global citizenship
GLOBAL CITIZENS
IS ISN'T
Empowered Weak, passive
Co-responsible Responsible in the North of what is happening in the South (and vice versa)
Critical collaborationist
Political Neutral
Inclusive, Intercultural, diverse Confronted (Enriched citizens versus impoverished citizens)
Formed and informed With a local/partial vision
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 peaceful means
A learning of social survival
An option that considers that "another world is possible" and is commitment to the educational value of utopia
An option to contain social unrest
What is this document
• Framework to highlight the importance of DE in the development Cooperation work
• Framework to highlight the work and define the role of NGOs in building a Global Citizenship through DE
Composed by
• Evolution of DE and its 5 generations
• Outlines what GDE is
• Outlines recommendations for the NGDO sector & the administration
21
Development Education WG
La educación que nos une
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.
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”