IDEA Annual Conference 2024

United in Impact: celebrating our journey, charting our future

Wednesday, 04 September 2024

IDEA’s Annual Conference ‘United in Impact: celebrating our journey, charting our future’ took place on Wednesday, 04 September in Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8. The event also celebrated the 20 years since IDEA’s establishment. 2024 marked 20 years since IDEA’s establishment as a network for DE in Ireland. In these uncertain times, our members’ work has been more important than ever.

This one-day event featured speakers, workshops, and opportunities to network. We celebrated our shared history, acknowledged our present context, and envisioned the future for GCE we wished to create together. We crafted our future - united in purpose, impact, and action.

Key Elements of the Conference

Keynote Speaker

IDEA 2024 Annual Conference: Keynote Address by Dr Eilish Dillon

‘What Difference Does Global Education Make? Reflections to mark 20 years of IDEA and on Future Directions’

During her address Dr Eilish Dillon examines “What difference does Global Education make? But also, what is different in Global Education?” Her thought-provoking and entertaining address touches on many issues including changes within the sector, critical policy analysis and what we could do with more funds in the future.

"All education is political. Even if we think it is not. Those who think education needs to be neutral and apolitical…that’s a politics of the status quo. Highlighting that politics, owning it, but in an open critical reflexive way is really important."

Dr. Eilish Dillon, Assistant Professor, Department of International Development, Maynooth University.

Panellists

This session was moderated by Pierre Yimbog, Co-founder and Managing Director of Black & Irish and Company Secretary, IDEA.

Panellists included:

Dr. Lilian Nwanze-Akobo: Director of the Higher Diploma in Further Education (HDFE) Programme, Maynooth University
Niall Tierney: Director, Global Programmes and Global Citizenship Education Unit, Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs
Sarah Kelleher: CEO of Lourdes Youth & Community Services (LYCS)
Mohammad Naeem:Former UN Youth Delegate of Ireland

Sessions

There were four parallel workshops led by the following facilitators:

The network we want: How IDEA members act together with Mark Cumming
Envisioning the future of GCE with Vicky Donnelly
Decolonising Justice: Connecting racial equity, philanthropy, and migration for a global Ireland with Bronwyn April and Mdahyelya Bassi
A Guiding Principles approach to laying the foundation for GCE with Laura Power