The National Youth Council of Ireland's Development Education Programme was established in 2004 as a strategic partnership between  NYCI  and Irish Aid  at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The NYCI's Development Education Programme (DEP) works to integrate development education, including anti-racist and intercultural education, into the core programmes of youth organisations.

Development education in youth work aims to support young people to increase their awareness and understanding of the interdependent and unequal world in which we live, through a process of interactive learning, debate, action and reflection. It challenges perceptions of the world and encourages young people to act for a more just and equal society at a national and an international level.