Bobby Mc Cormack is the co-founder and CEO of Development Perspectives. He previously worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Dept of Humanities in Dundalk Institute of Technology from 2006 - 2019. He has an MA in Development Studies and is a qualified mediator. Bobby was a board member of Dóchas from 2021 - 2024 and in 2017 was the recipient of the Dóchas, “Global Citizen of the Year“. Bobby was the co chair of the CONCORD Development Education and Awareness Raising forum for two years and was a civil society representative in the European Commission multi stakeholder forum for Development Education.
Grants Clinic for Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Funding Applications 2025
Date: Tuesday 12 November 2024, 11.00am – 1.00pm
Location: Online via Zoom.
Our first training event on the Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Grants Round is a Grants Clinic, focusing on the application form that will be facilitated by Bobby McCormack, CEO of Development Perspectives and Chairperson of IDEA National Council, and Elaine Mahon, IDEA. This will take place on Tuesday 12 November, 11.00am – 1.00pm, online via Zoom.
IDEA provides support for members - and spaces for members to support one another - in applying for Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Grants. This training and support is free of charge to all.
As in recent years, we are also inviting any other actors who are not yet members of IDEA to these training events.
To make this training as useful as possible for all attending, please make sure that you have a copy of any previous application form you have worked on relating to the Irish Aid GCE grants available to you during the session.
Register below!
Image Credit: Nick Youngson
Attribution: Pix4free.org
Biographies
Elaine Mahon has worked in IDEA since 2013 in a variety of roles focussing on strengthening capacity of IDEA members. Elaine’s strengths lie in the areas of knowledge and understanding of Development Education practice, strengthening quality in educational work, monitoring results and organisational management. Elaine facilitated the development and roll-out of the Code of Good Practice for Development Education, which was led by IDEA members and leads on its implementation in IDEA.
We are looking for a consultant to design an interactive data visualisation tool for our Theory of Impact for Global Citizenship Education in Ireland. The consultant will lead the design or tailoring of off-the-shelf survey software and analytics software to our needs, in collaboration with IDEA staff. Please submit a tender including a description of stages in the development process, number of days, expected fee, and experience of relevant personnel for the work to be carried out to anya@ideaonline.ie . The deadline for application is Wednesday, 29 October, 5.00pm. Read the full terms of reference here.
After three remarkable years with IDEA, we are sad to share that Anya Sparynska is moving abroad to begin a new adventure. During her time with us, Anya made an indelible mark - first by shaping a pioneering programme role, and later by guiding us in a capacity development role that strengthened our impact across Ireland’s development education sector. From designing and implementing innovative initiatives to building partnerships and capacity across our member organisations, Anya has left IDEA stronger, more connected, and more ambitious for the future. “I am sad to leave at such a pivotal time in IDEA: we are faced with unspeakable horror, as the need for justice and accountability grows ever more urgent. I have seen, however, our members and staff respond with creativity, humanity and dedication to these challenging times and find inspiration in it, even at this darkest hour. A desire to be close to my family and the pressure of the housing crisis have driven me to Brussels, but I know I will be back as Ireland - it’s passionate, brave and kind people - now feels like home. I will be sure to follow IDEA and our members’ work closely in the coming year and hope to stay in touch! “Working at IDEA has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. Seeing ideas and passion turn into real impact and change has been incredibly fulfilling - I’ll carry those lessons, and the very special friendships made along the way with me always.”
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 (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!
