E-Circular 20 May 2015

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the IDEA E-Circular for 20 May 2015.

This fortnight, we're looking forward to the IDEA AGM and Annual Conference taking place on 12 June. We also have news about the UN Youth Delegate Programme for Ireland 2015, the Irish Aid Fellowship Training Programme, and an event on Meeting the Challenge of Climate Justice, hosted by Trócaire, Maynooth University and St Patrick’s College. Dóchas are also offering support with getting your stories into the Irish Times, and we have the latest news on the Global Centre for Education, Africa Day events and an internship in Brussels with Global Call to Action Against Poverty. 

Got news for us? Email eimear@ideaonline.ie
 

IDEA NEWS 

IDEA Annual Conference 2015 – Universality in Action
Date: 12 June 2015
AGM (IDEA Members Only): 10:00
Annual Conference: 11:00 – 16:00
Venue: Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council, Wood Quay, Dublin 8
 
2015 is an important year for development education and global justice. As well as being European Year for Development, the Sustainable Development Goals will be launched in September. These new goals will be universal, applying to all countries in all parts of the world. To reflect this, the focus of IDEA’s Annual Conference is Universality in Action. Join us to discuss what universality actually means in practice and the essential role for development education in ensuring the Sustainable Development Goals deliver universality in action. This year our keynote speaker is Joanna Maycock, Secretary General of the European Women's Lobby. Joanna was formerly Head of Europe for Action Aid, and is a former President of CONCORD.

Challenging the Crisis Launch
 
The Challenging the Crisis team at IDEA would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended our campaign launch. In particular we'd like to thank Mairéad McGuinness MEP, Lynn Boylan MEP, Isabelle Kidney, ILCU, and Duncan Stewart, Environmentalist, for speaking at the event and also our Young Global Advocates for doing such a great job of organising and running the launch.

 

MEMBER & PARTNER NEWS

UN Youth Delegate Programme for Ireland 2015
 
The National Youth Council of Ireland, together with Irish Aid in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, have launched the United Nations Youth Delegate Programme for Ireland in 2015 (UNYDP).

The UNYDP will support two young people (one male and one female) aged between 18-25 years to join Ireland’s delegation to the United Nations in New York in September/October 2015.
 
Closing date for receipt of  applications  is Friday, 5 June 2015.
 
Contact unyouthdelegate@nyci.ie for further information.

Meeting the Challenge of Climate Justice: From Evidence to Action

This public conference aims to address this challenge of climate change by bringing together some of the world’s leading voices on climate science, climate justice and climate activism.

Speakers include Mary Robinson, UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, Bill McKibben, environmental activist, author and co-founder of 350.org, and Professor Jean Pascale van Ypersele, Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), among others.

This free event will take place 22 June – 23 June 2015, Maynooth University, Co. Kildare, Ireland and is open to all but registration is required. Find out  more.
 
Interested in pitching a story for the Irish Times ‘Inside Out’ series?

As part of the European Year for Development, The Irish Times is publishing a full page spread on its website each month, shining a light on development issues and including powerful human stories from people around the world affected by these issues. The series also highlights the work of development organisations at a global and local level. If you have a development education story you would like to pitch, email Naomi Linehan at comms@dochas.ie, and she will pass your suggestion to the relevant editor for consideration.

Africa Day

Designated by the African Union as an annual celebration of the continent’s unity, Africa Day falls on 25 May each year.  Irish Aid’s flagship ‘Africa Day Dublin’ event will take place on Sunday, 24 May, in Farmleigh Estate  in the Phoenix Park. Africa’s rich culture will be showcased through family-friendly activities, along with music, exhibitions, sport and educational elements. Africa Day events are part of the programme of activities for the European Year for Development 2015. Find out  more. 

From the Local to the Global: Key Issues in Development Studies – 3rd Edition

From the Local to the Global is an ideal introduction to the key development issues that shape our lives. This text brings together some of the foremost activists, academics and development practitioners from across the world to analyse the main challenges to poverty eradication and human rights. This completely revised third edition highlights the extent to which the local and global are interconnected in today’s globalised economy and questions the legitimacy of the neoliberal model of development. In an important year for development, this book provides a comprehensive, accessibly written overview of the issues central to global justice and equality including aid, debt, trade, gender, security, migration and climate change.  Find out  more.

 

OTHER NEWS

Internship with Global Call to Action Against Poverty

Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) is a global civil society movement calling for an end to poverty & inequality. As the campaign gains momentum, GCAP is opening a 6 months internship/trainee position in their Brussels office to support the European coordination of the movement – to start as soon as possible. 

Apply before 31 May by sending an email to Claire.desmesnards@whiteband.org with the title ‘Internship/trainee position” and your possible start date.

Inspiring Change: Empowering Women’s Futures in Africa

The Trinity International Development Initiative (TIDI) are collaborating with the African Embassies accredited to the Republic of Ireland on this conference to mark Africa Day 2015. The event will take place in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, 25 May from 2-5pm.

To reserve your place RSVP to: tidi@tcd.ie 
 

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Irish Aid Fellowship Training Programme 

Irish Aid's Fellowship Training Programme (FTP) aims to increase the specialist knowledge of staff working in ministries and in civil society organisations in key partner countries.  It does this by providing scholarships to mid-career professionals to study postgraduate or masters courses in Ireland or in a college within their own region. Find out  more.

 

GREAT READS THIS WEEK
 

EU must pull its weight to help create a better global financial system
In the run-up to the Financing for Development meeting in July, pressure is growing on the EU to back developing countries’ agendas on aid, debt and tax.
The Guardian, 20 April

A portal to the future of the arts in education
Exposure to, and participation in, the arts help to cultivate creativity, artistic appreciation, imaginative exploration, experimental initiative and empathic awareness, all of which are valuable for young people’s development.
Irish Times, 19 May

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!