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Freest J Saralegui-HarriesEconomistas sin FronterasCONGDE: Spanish Platform of NGDO

Development Education in times of crisis: What can we

do?

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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

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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

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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”

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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

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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

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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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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”

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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”

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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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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

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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

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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

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

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SOCIAL UPRAISE

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Debt platform

Citizens tides

4. The bright side of the crisis: Social upraise

Stop Eviction platforms

"Indignados"

Dignity movements

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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

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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 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

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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

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”

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The end!

THANK

YOU