Together We Stand; Together We Learn

Dear friends,

Last weekend, Joe Costello TD, Minister of State for Trade and International Development, revealed in an interview with the Sunday Business Post that Ireland will not meet its 0.7% of GNP target for overseas aid by the 2015 deadline. Abandoning our aid commitments risks undoing the progress that has been made to create a more just and sustainable future for everyone. IDEA has issued a press release which you can find here.  Please circulate this, and please feel free to adapt it. Please also share any feedback and comments with us.

This decision comes at a crucial moment as governments across the world are in the midst of deciding global ambitions and goals for development and sustainability for the next 15 years. The United Nations post-2015 goal-setting process will reach its pinnacle during the coming year. Development education values have been at the heart of the discussion so far. Local global interdependence is central to the current emphasis on taking a universal approach to these goals involving all countries, and by extension all people, throughout the globe. There has also been a strong emphasis on people’s participation in the decisions that affect their lives, highlighting the importance of active citizenship and development education. Therefore, the development education community has a central role to play in this process, both in elaborating these themes and in educating people, politicians, and our own communities about them.

Last week I represented DEEEP and the DARE Forum at a meeting in Istanbul called by the United Nations, CIVICUS , Overseas Development Institute and the UN Foundation to discuss a worldwide civil society mobilization for 2015. The meeting was attended by a range of international NGO’s, civil society networks, campaigners, activists and educators. 

It was agreed that 2015, and the confluence of the inter-governmental negotiations on climate change and the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, offers a once in a generation opportunity for transformational change.

It was also agreed that no ‘one size fits all‘ approach could possibly harness the diversity of perspectives, issues and approaches that will be needed to create a global mobilization. So, the meeting decided to aim for light-touch coordination and umbrella communications resources that could be used and adapted in local and national contexts. I worked on a shared narrative which aims to capture key global justice issues. You can read the conference communiqué here. I would be very interested to hear your feedback. CIVICUS  will take the process forward in the coming weeks and we will keep you informed of any developments and opportunities. I believe there is an essential role for the development education community in this approach to a post-2015 campaign that is taking a justice centred approach to interdependent issues. 

It is essential that it is an educative process that engages, educates and mobilizes people in all countries to create a transformative shift in our approaches to development, sustainability, and our global society.

Last year at the IDEA conference we explored the idea of global citizenship and its place in education and activism. The Wheel , the network of Irish community and voluntary organizations, are initiating a process to explore what we understand by citizenship in Ireland today and for the future. Last Saturday I was invited to join a discussion on the question of ‘what do citizens expect and what is expected of citizens?’ This was a challenging, stimulating and very educational few hours. The Wheel will be initiating a series of public conversations between now and 2016 and I would urge IDEA members to join in for both a thought provoking discussion, and a great way to interrogate and reflect on our notions of active citizenship and global citizenship. We will share further news in future e-circulars. 

Looking forward to working together on these challenges and opportunities.

All the best,
Frank

Anya’s Next Chapter: Farewell, Legacy, and Our New Recruitment

October 6, 2025
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.”

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!