Bridge 47: Cross-sector Building Bridges Forum on the SDGs

Civil Society Organisations working on Global Citizenship Education (also known as Development Education) came together with responsible businesses to find ways to collaborate to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a unique All-Ireland networking forum on 26 September.

The Building Bridges: Cross-sector Partnerships for the SDGs networking forum is the first event of its kind on the island of Ireland bringing together the third sector and the private sector to address the SDGs. It was run as part of a partnership between the Irish Development Education Association (IDEA) and Business in the Community Northern Ireland (BITCNI) via Bridge 47 – an EU project that seeks to build global citizenship in pursuit of the SDGs. More than 70 participants from both sectors took part in the event at Allstate Northern Ireland.

IDEA and BITCNI hosted the forum with the aim to bring their member organisations together and foster dialogue between them as part of their wider efforts to encourage collaboration between the Global Citizenship Education sector and the business sector to work towards the achievement of the SDGs.

The private sector participants, primarily from BITCNI membership, ranged from Small and Medium Enterprises to large multinational companies in the fields of construction, IT, insurance, financial services, communications, banking and agriculture. They included Diageo, ASDA, Lidl, Deloitte, Bank of Ireland and Moy Park.

Among civil society and education practitioners, made up primarily of IDEA’s members, participants included Concern Worldwide, WorldWise Global Schools, Green-schools, Children in Crossfire, Global Action Plan, Trócaire, the Centre for Global Education and Proudly Made in Africa whose CEO, Vikki Brennan, acted as master of ceremonies for the day.

Frank Geary, Director of IDEA, told participants that the SDGs “apply equally to every country, and can only be achieved if all sectors of society including Government, Civil Society, businesses, and local communities draw on each other’s strengths and work together towards achieving them.”  He emphasized that “Development Education has a fundamental role to play in the success of the SDGs, as it raises awareness, facilitates participation and supports engagement with the Goals.”

Gillian McKee, Deputy Managing Director of BITCNI, stated that the Goals provide “a valuable opportunity for businesses to engage in helping to find solutions to the world’s biggest sustainable development challenges. They offer a framework for companies to shape and communicate their sustainability strategies. And they matter to your customers and stakeholders. Business has a vital role to play and can bring valuable resources, skills and expertise to support the attainment of the Goals. Partnerships are absolutely key to this. Many of the sustainability issues that businesses are tackling are too big to tackle alone and require the skills and knowledge that the NGO sector and government can bring. We need to create deeper cooperation than has existed previously in order to tackle the monumental issues we face.”

During a panel discussion on cross-sector partnership examples, panellists from Lidl, FoodCloud, Proudly Made in Africa and Deloitte provided insights on how their partnerships came into existence and the benefits that they are gaining from collaborating with one another.   

Participants also took part in parallel workshops facilitated by IDEA members. These workshops provided a deep dive into some of the individual Goals such as Climate Change (Goal 13), Quality Education (Goal 4) and Gender Equality (Goal 5). They provided an opportunity for both sectors to look at possible solutions together.

As the day concluded, in her closing remarks, Vikki Brennan encouraged participants to “Say yes! If someone reaches out to you to start any of these initiatives. It’s never too late to start a partnership, let alone your sustainability journey.”

The response from participants was very positive with one representative from RPS saying, “Thanks so much for facilitating such an insightful and informative event. I learnt a lot to take back into the company, but much broader than that I developed contacts which was the aim of the event and there were many stories and personal experiences which will remain with me and help me to have a personal interest in focusing on the SDGs as well as corporate awareness.”

For more information on this event or Bridge 47’s activities in Ireland, please contact Ji Hyun Kim, National Officer at ji.hyun.kim@bridge47.org.

Launch of IDEA's Theory of Impact for GCE

September 26, 2025
Date: Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm Location: Online via Zoom IDEA is thrilled to invite members to the online launch of our new “Theory of Impact for Global Citizenship Education” on Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm, Online via Zoom. During this session, we will present the model, share insights into the process behind its development, and explore how it will be used to strengthen impact across the sector. We will also introduce a new tool in progress, an interactive data visualisation map designed to showcase our collective impact as a network. For many years, IDEA and its members have been grappling with the concept of impact in Development Education/Global Citizenship Education (hereinafter ‘GCE’). As GCE practitioners, tracking impact helps us to identify how, where and with whom our work is creating positive change, as well as investigating areas in which our impact could be stronger. Furthermore, we can also benefit from examining the collective impact of GCE carried out by the wide-ranging work of IDEA members, and from exploring how these impacts contribute to the major social changes to which the GCE community aspires. Driven therefore by the need to understand how projects and programmes are collectively “making a difference” in IDEA we looked at models that could help us visualise and capture GCE “impact networks”. We formulated our vision of impact and then a theory of how we expect this desired impact to be achieved to allow us to map our activities and collect data to corroborate that theory. This Theory of Impact model is how we hope to illustrate this complex GCE impact network. Building on work done by IDEA over many years including building sectoral capacity in using Results Frameworks for GCE, our Quality & Impact working group, engagement with Irish Aid on their Performance Measurement Framework (PMF), and the successful roll-out of a Code of Good Practice for DE/GCE, this Theory of Impact represent the next stage of our effort to ‘develop a consistent approach to measuring impact among the sector’. We are therefore thrilled to invite you to the presentation of our ‘Theory of Impact for GCE’. At this online presentation, we will tell you about the process that led to the creation of this model, how it will be used and what we hope it could bring to the sector. We will also touch on a new tool being developed based on the model, which should allow the creation of an interactive data visualisation map of our collective impact as a network. Join us as we launch into this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Join us as we begin this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Register below!

IDEA Advocacy Toolkit and GCE Policy Guide Workshop, November

September 26, 2025
Date: 11 November, 10.30am – 4.30pm. Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row IDEA launched its new Advocacy Toolkit and GCE Policy Guide resource pack in early March. The advocacy toolkit and policy guide were developed for IDEA members to strengthen their capacity to effectively advocate with policymakers and to actively engage in policy processes on GCE in Ireland and the wider world. IDEA will facilitate a full-day in-person workshop on these resources in the IDEA offices on Tuesday, 11 November ,10.30am – 4.30pm. Places are limited to 20 participants and will be given on a first come, first served basis. Please note that this is a repeat of the workshop that took place in May and is aimed at members who did not have the opportunity to participate in May. A vegetarian lunch will be provided. Register below!

Workshop: Brave Spaces for Racial Justice

September 26, 2025
Date: 06 November a nd 18 November from 3.30–4.30pm Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row, Dublin 1 Due to positive feedback following a workshop during our annual conference, we are thrilled to invite members to a full 2-part interactive workshop about “Racial Justice” on 06 November and 18 November. This event will take place in-person in Dublin. Our facilitators Bronwyn April and Mdahyelya Bassi will guide participants through a critical exploration of the interconnections between racial justice, philanthropy, migration, and decolonisation within global and Irish contexts. The workshop will delve into how historical and ongoing colonial legacies influence contemporary issues of racial equity and social justice in Ireland and beyond. The dates for this event are fast approaching, so if you have any specific accessibility requirements, please email events@ideaonline.ie as soon as possible. Places for this event are limited, and registration is mandatory. Deadline to register is Monday, 04 November. Register below!