Indexjan07 website version

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INDEX

Issue 18 / January 2008

Irish Newsletter for Development Education Exchange

Global South

BME communities Black voices

Migrants

Third World

Southern voices Developing countries

Southern perspective(s) Majority world

Whatever label we use, are we really listening???

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Editorial

Contents

If you go by funding applications, mission statements, speeches, and seminar titles the Dev Ed sector in Ireland has clearly been championing the involvement of, let’s call them the Global South for the purposes of this editorial, for many years.

But what is the reality? Do we find, as Matthias Fielder discusses on pg 3, tokenism rather than real engagement?

The Dev Ed Spell Check

by Matthias Fiedler

3

Africa Centre Development Education Project

by Mbemba Jabbi

4

Global South Representation

by Son Gyoh

5

Barriers to Inclusion

by Stephen McCloskey

6

INDEX Links: Dev Ed courses and events

7

EU Corner & International Dates

8

Profiles: LCD & Development Action Society

9

News: Dev Ed news, funding, and resources

10

When we look at the portrayal of development issues and developing countries in Ireland it is mostly negative and stereotypical, as highlighted

by Mbemba Jabbi and Son Gyoh on pg 4 and 5.

This is not just in the wider media, but within the development sector, and more disturbingly within the practice of Dev Ed. Arguably proving that we do not yet have real engagement. So why, after so many years, so much talk, and such good will, is this still the case?

On pg 6 Stephen McCloskey looks at the barriers to involvement for, as they call them in Northern Ireland, Black & Minority Ethnic organisations (yes it’s confusing). It also looks at strategies for increasing collaboration with BME orgs.

As usual we have news of what’s going on in Dev Ed in Ireland and Europe, upcoming courses and events to put in your diary, international days and ways to celebrate them, and a cartoon. This issue profiles Link Community Development and Development Action Society, and reviews DERN’s Development’s Future Conference.

We welcome your feedback on this issue and any contributions for future issues. Do let us know if you have any events, courses, resources, or news you’d like us to feature. Email index@comhlamh. org or call the Dev Ed team on 01 4783490.

Reviews and Resources: 11 Development’s Future Conference

Index www.comhlamh.org

“I believe that if humanity is to exercise control over our globalising international economy, the people of North and South must act together in solidarity” – Clare Short MP

INDEX is a Comhlámh publication for the Dev Ed sector funded by Comhlámh, Trócaire, Concern and Irish Aid. The views expressed in individual articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organisations to which they are affiliated, the editorial committee, or Comhlámh.

The editorial committee are: Jenna Coriddi (CGE, Belfast), Maria Barry (Trócaire), Matthias Fiedler (DICE project), Johnny Sheehan (NYCI), and Ali Leahy (Comhlámh).

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The Dev. Ed. Spell Check

I

t was 10 am and the presentation on development education was about to begin when it hit him, he had forgotten to do the dev. ed. spell check for his presentation! Quickly, he booted up his laptop, opened the document and entered “Global South” and “Southern voice/perspective” into the pop up window of the spell check and hit the return button. The result was better than he had expected. It read, “Your presentation has 2,456 words and the phrases in questions are mentioned 49 times, this is an acceptable ratio. However, you may consider ending with a quote from the global south!” The last bit troubled him. Had he again forgotten to finish with a global perspective quote? He opened his “1,000-and-one-quotes-from-the-south” programme and entered the title of his presentation and in a matter of seconds he had 4 quotes on his screen. Without looking at them he clicked on the second quote and copied it to the end of the paper. All was good, he felt well prepared.

Oh, and by the way.

“Those who fish three times in the sea, will get more fish than those who do not fish at all because they don’t like to fish, or those who are by coincidence not fishermen and don’t get to fish that often” (African Proverb) Matthias Fiedler, Project Co-ordinator, DICE – Development and Intercultural Education, www.diceproject.org

Hand on heart, have you never longed for computer programmes like this? Undoubtedly, in recent years “voices of the global south” and “southern perspectives” are in the top five most mentioned terms in workshops and presentations on development education. Likewise, it is almost impossible to hear a presentation that is not beefed up with a quote of some unknown Indian writer or with an African proverb (which often sounds like the presenter has made it up). To sum it up in one word, the global south has become ‘fashionable’. In a sector that is very fashion conscious this, of course, means that a lot of people are wearing it. The problem though, is that fashion wears off quickly and we all know what happens to fashion items afterwards. We all shop in charity shops.

The analogy is fitting. Fashion is about tokens and if the sector fails to engage with the Global South in a meaningful way and on a deeper level, it will also fail to overcome the charity model that it critiques so often.

Real engagement favours dialogue over dilution, critique over hypocrisy, and seeks to establish a space in which perspectives can be negotiated from different viewpoints.

An honest discussion needs to take place to challenge the notions of “us” and “them”. Tokenism, on the other hand, wears off quickly.

African image

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Africa Centre Development Education Project

F

or the Africa Centre Dev Ed is about exploring development issues through participatory learning approaches with the aim of changing attitudes and promoting positive changes in society locally and globally. Most important for us is creating awareness of positive images and messages about Africa and Africans in Ireland.

The Africa Centre has embarked on some meaningful Dev Ed activities over the last five years, from public lectures and debates, seminars, and a poster campaign “Africa also Smiles”. All our public activities are organised in association with our devoted members, volunteers, and partners in Dev Ed in Ireland. The Africa Centre has a working group on Dev Ed that formulates its activities, consisting of one board member, members of the organisation, and volunteers.

We work towards contributing an African voice to Dev Ed in Ireland by: • Exploring and developing an African perspective in Dev Ed • Promoting a dynamic Africa-Ireland relationship • Engaging in campaigns and advocacy on issues affecting Africans in Ireland and on global issues • Promoting inclusion and active participation of the African community in Dev Ed • Strengthening capacities of African communities to participate in Irish society • Networking with agencies and organisations working in Dev Ed Change in mentality takes time. Dev Ed in Ireland is still dominated in the main by development organisations whose primary target is to carry out development work in African countries. While even those working in Dev Ed use language that is very ethnocentric (e.g. third world, developing, democratising). We want to challenge the stereotypical images some organisations present of superior Northerners “rescuing” and saving suffering and downtrodden Southerners. These images form the basis of their development work, showing the tension that always exists between fundraising and education.

However, fundamental values such as dignity, respect,

“As an African, I maintain that we are finally at a point when we get to say who we are, what we stand for” modesty, and a level of understanding about the positive side of Africa are lost in their agendas.

We work to diffuse the already distorted media representation of Africa that focuses on the poverty, disease, corruption, and natural disasters of the continent. The images and messages we advocate are designed to show the positive side of Africa and portray the crucial ongoing work of Africa’s democratic governments. This is an important step towards restoring human dignity for all.

In general, the fact that Africa consists of 53 countries is ignored and it is considered as one large homogeneous society by most Northern people. One implication is that generalizations are made, based on negative elements of the continent. Even though only a few countries are involved in armed conflict, the message being broadcast in the North is that Africa is a continent at war. Despite evidence showing that African countries are making great strides to ensuring democratic governance the continent is still regarded as undemocratic.

As an African, I maintain that we are finally at a point when we get to say who we are, what we stand for, and to demand that the representation of what is beautiful and cultural about the continent is spread to the Irish communities. The time has come to recognise and include the voices, faces, desires, opinions, and concerns of Africans about Africa. Dev Ed is not about educating the public to raise funds for projects in the Southern countries, but to raise awareness about the interdependence between the South and the North.

Mbemba Jabbi, Project Officer, Development Education & Civic Participation Projects, info@africacentre.ie, www.africacentre.ie

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The importance of Southern perspectives in global citizenship education in Ireland

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he issue of image and resource regulation is core to the values of development education (Dev Ed). These values, which promote diversity and global justice, are not coercively enforced but self regulated

by Dev Ed practitioners. While Dev Ed operates in a world of unequal power relations its methodology suggests a primary target audience of the affluent global north. This situation gives us a sense of the necessity of southern involvement in defining global citizenship and development education.

A southern perspective may be understood as the appreciation of the cultural and development context of socio-economic life in the global south and bringing this appreciation on board in representing global development issues. It also implies a shift from the narrow interpretations of events from a western lens, based on notions of a superior western culture from which other societies are benchmarked.

The virtual dominance of NGOs in defining the choice and content of DevEd resource materials and learning tools in Ireland does not bode well for critical literacy in pursuing development education objectives. While NGOs may be well placed in developing Dev Ed resources, there is the danger of becoming accustomed to learning resources whose content reflects the interests and values of charity-based intervention. Today, the images and activities contained in NGO resources veer towards an understanding of development from the humanitarian aid perspective rather than a critical analysis of the issues that fuel the need for aid. It is important to

“Today, the images and activities contained in NGO resources veer towards an understanding of development from the humanitarian aid perspective rather than a critical analysis of the issues that fuel the need for aid.� separate Dev Ed from campaigns aimed at soliciting donations for humanitarian intervention.

It is equally important that Ethnic Minority Led Organisations (EMLOs) with an interest in development education be involved through consultation, capacity building, and the support of mainstream organisations. This would entail collaboration between development research institutions, NGOs, and relevant ethnic minority led organisations. At the moment, there is little evidence that this communication occurs in any transparent or sustainable form.

The recognition of context is central to appreciating cultural diversity in global societies. For example, it is wrong to assume that a child living in a thatched house is a deprived child, as the thatched home is not necessarily a symbol of poverty in Africa, but a traditional, rural architecture. Learning methodologies that examine inequalities between urban and rural settings in both the north and the south may prove more effective than drawing parallel comparisons between life experiences in the north and in the south.

regulating the pattern of graphic images and messages used for funding campaigns, despite its weakness as a non-enforceable code. This is an opportunity for the involvement of EMLOs with southern cultural links. Their participation and input could serve as a way to monitor compliance.

This is of particular importance with regard to the representation of vulnerable communities, who may be uninformed about the code of conduct and unable to secure its protection.

A more inclusive approach in implementing development education that promotes consultations with stakeholders from the global south will promote good practice and more accurate representation for high value learning resources with enhanced Dev Ed learning outcomes. While Dev Ed offers the global south improved awareness to challenge global inequalities, its primary target would be addressing existing stereotypes and attitudes in the global north.

Son Gyoh, MSc Development management, Development practitioner and Resource person, songyoh@eircom.net

The publication of a code of conduct on images and messages

by Dochas is a positive step in

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Creating Partnerships: Development Education and the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Sector

T

he Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) sector is a natural constituency for the delivery of development education (Dev Ed) in the north and south of Ireland. In an increasingly diverse Irish society, BME groups offer the possibility of collaboration with new and more settled ethnic communities that can support learning about other cultures, faiths, and lifestyles. Many BME communities also have entrenched connections with countries in the Global South and can speak at first-hand about current issues like migration, racism, inter-culturalism, and interdependence. Despite these positive possibilities for Dev Ed, the Centre for Global Education had, until recently, not included BME groups in its activities to any significant extent.

In 2006 we decided to prioritise collaboration with the BME sector and received a Trócaire mini grant to carry out research and deliver a seminar in partnership with BME organisations. The research involved qualitative interviews with six groups and postal questionnaires to over 70. The research revealed some of the barriers to involvement in Dev Ed by BME groups and these included: organisational deficits within the sector with many BME groups lacking capacity in the areas of education and training; lack of familiarity with Dev Ed as a concept despite some groups’ active engagement with development issues; Dev Ed was not considered a priority by many groups dealing with issues of racism, under-funding, and community development; the majority of BME groups consulted commented on the fact that they had not been invited by development organisations to get involved in their activities.

We followed up the research with a seminar held on 28 March 2007 which was facilitated by Vipin Chauhan, a consultant with extensive experience in both the Dev Ed and BME sectors. The seminar proposed ideas for future collaboration between the two sectors including: • Involving BME communities in the planning of Dev Ed initiatives from a very early stage of development; • Working initially on small pieces of work that build confidence;

• Initiating contact with BME organisations on their territory; • Encouraging BME groups to adopt a policy position on Dev Ed.

“...all of these issues are surmountable if the will exists within DE organisations to create new partnerships with BME groups” However, the most significant proposal was that Dev Ed providers should use their training delivery to help build the capacity of staff and volunteers in BME communities and so address the most pressing need within the sector.

Shorter term suggestions included auditing current Dev Ed engagement with the BME sector to support stronger links in the future.

We recognise that working in the BME sector can be a challenge: the sector is fragmented; it can be difficult to identify key actors in education; organisations are at different levels of capacity and potential involvement in Dev Ed; Dev Ed can be regarded as irrelevant or low priority by BME groups. However, all of these issues are surmountable if the will exists within Dev Ed organisations to create new partnerships with BME groups.

For the full report on the Centre for Global Education’s seminar with the BME sector visit www.centreforglobaleducation.com Stephen McCloskey, Director, Centre for Global Education, Northern Ireland

Index Links

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Courses Comhlámh’s Skills in Development Education Course This 9 evening course builds on any basic understanding participants may have of Development Education (Dev Ed). It provides participants with the tools to engage groups in Dev Ed activities and to explore global development issues.

Date: Thursday evenings, 21st February -17th April, 6.30pm – 9.00pm Venue: Carmelite Centre, 56 Whitefriar Street, Aungier Street, Dublin 2 Cost: €80.00 (members) / €120.00 (non-members) / €50 (unwaged and student) / €5 (asylum seekers) Contact Ali on 01 4783490 or email ali@comhlamh.org Comhlámh’s Options and Issues in Global Development Course A one-day workshop for people interested in volunteering overseas in a developing country that provides a chance to meet with others and consider the options available.

Date: Saturday 9th February 2008, 10am to 4:30pm Venue: Comhlámh, 10 Upper Camden St, Dublin 2 Cost: €25 (members) / €40 (nonmembers), €20 (students and unwaged), including lunch Contact Siobhan on 01-478 3490 or email siobhan@comhlamh.org Comhlámh’s “Coming Home Weekend” This residential weekend offers returned development workers (RDWs) an opportunity to meet, relax, and have some fun while sharing tips on readjusting to the ‘culture shock’ of being home. Free to people who have been overseas in a development capacity for over three months.

Date: February 8-10th 2008 Fri evening - Sunday afternoon inclusive, Venue: All Hallows, Dublin Contact: Deirdre at deirdre@ comhlamh.org for details For more information on Comhlámh’s courses visit www.comhlamh.org

Events

Dtalk courses – Kimmage Development Studies Centre Advocacy and Policy Influencing 19-21 February How to be an effective Development Advisor 3-4 March Working with the Media 5-6 March Leadership and Teambuilding 5-7 March Proposal Development and Grant Management 25-27 March Community Responses to HIV 27 March Creative Facilitation 26-28 March Contact: Kathleen Cox, Programme Administrator on 01 4064307, email kathleen.cox@kimmagedsc.ie, www.dtalk.ie

Comhlámh’s First Wednesday Debates Comhlámh holds debates on the first Wednesday of each month from 6.15-7.45pm at Bewley’s Café Theatre (Grafton Street). No reservations needed.

Aid: Are we using our critical voice –service delivery or activism?

6th February Migration: Forcing movement, Closing doors?

March 5th Human Trafficking: The slavery of our time?

April 2nd Media: Reality TV, New Media and development - is the truth out there?

May 7th For more info visit www.comhlamh.org

ECO-UNESCO Upcoming courses Introduction to Sustainable Development FETAC 2008 equips participants with a nationally recognised qualification (FETAC level 5/6). Over 10 weeks, participants will study sustainable development through case studies and practical activities.

Dates: Wednesday evenings 30th January to 19th April 2008 Venue: Dublin City Centre

Aontas Adult Learners’ Festival The second annual nationwide will take place from 4-8 February 2008.

Contact: Phone 01 4068220, email mail@aontas.com, visit www.aontas.com

ECO - Education 1- day training course explores how to introduce environmental education in educational activities with young people.

Dates: Thursday 7th February 2008 Thursday 3rd April 2008 Venue ENFO - 17 St. Andrew Street, Dublin 2 ECO - Futures 1-day training course demonstrates how education can be used as a tool to help to achieve Sustainable Development.

Dates: Thursday, 28th February 2008, Thursday, 24th April 2008 Location: ENFO - 17 St. Andrew Street, Dublin 2 Contact: Sorcha O’Brien, Education & Training Officer on 01 662 5491, email training@ecounesco.ie, visit www.ecounesco.ie

Reimagining Women’s Human Rights Banúlacht’s International Women’s Day Conference 2008.

Date: Friday, March 7th Venue: Axis Community Arts Centre, Ballymun, Dublin Contact: Phone 01 8723039 or visit www.banulacht.ie

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EU Corner 2008 is the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

Activities during the year aim to foster better understanding and communication between the diverse crowd that makes up European citizens and to explore how intercultural dialogue can help us make the most of this diversity. Visit www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu

Updates from DEEEP – Development Education Exchange in Europe Project

October 24th & 25th saw the most recent meeting of the Development Education Forum. This meeting was held in Brussels and all 4 working groups were actively engaged in their respective pieces of work. The Advocacy working group published a document that has been greeted with great enthusiasm, “The European Consensus on Development: the contribution of Development Education & Awareness Raising”. It provides the first strategy framework on European development education and awareness-raising at local, regional, national, and European levels. This joint statement has been drawn up by the representatives of a wide range of EU Institutions, governmental, intergovernmental, and civil society organisations. Download at www.deeep.org/english/ europe/strategy/european_consensus_30102007.pdf

DEEEP’s Development Education Summer School 2008

In 2008 the Summer School will look at “Getting Eradication of global poverty and social inclusion on the political agenda through development education, campaigning, advocacy”. It will take place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22 – 29 June 2008. Visit www.deeep. org/english/ for more information contact Summer School Organiser, Rina Froklage at r.froklage@coswmbrabant.nl

New Member States views on European Development Aid

This survey of 11,000 citizens, from the 12 countries that joined the EU since 2004, found that most see European development aid in good light even if they don’t understand it very well. Most of them see the EU as the biggest fund donor (which it actually is, providing more than 55% of public development aid worldwide). They consider that poverty eradication is the main development aim and that the EU, compared to member states, is the best channel for providing aid.

Despite these perceptions, they do not know European development policy very well (more than two thirds affirm that they have not seen or heard any information or campaigns about it). The Millennium Development Objectives are not familiar to them either. For the full report see ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ ebs_286_en.pdf

International Dates to Remember 28 February National Science Day

Download school textbooks focusing on the challenges facing rural communities in Africa, called ‘Water’ and ‘Food, Land, and Trees’ at www.selfhelp.ie/selfhelp/Main/currdev_2004.htm.

25 February - 9 March Fair Trade

Fortnight

www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved_fairtrade_fortnight.htm

8 March International Woman’s Day

www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/index.asp

21 March Anti-Racism Day

See what’s happening in Australia at www.racismnoway.com.au. Other actions and information also at www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/

22 March World Water Day

This year the theme is sanitation. Visit www.worldwaterday.org for info, events, or to get ideas for activities. You can download the WHO advocacy guide, ‘Celebrating water for life’.

7 April World Health Day

For ideas of how to celebrate this day visit www.youthdeved.ie/resources/publications. The free resource ‘Drinking from the Well: A Global Health and Justice Resource for Youth Workers 2006’ has ideas for activities that explore attitudes to health, and examine related issues.

22 April Earth Day

Visit www.earthday.net for ideas of what you can do.

3 May World Press Freedom Day

Two articles in this newsletter look at the issue of the representation of developing people and developing countries in our media. Free press around the world is necessary if we are ever to have a more just and contextual portrayal of global development issues.

Visit www.worldpressfreedomday.org

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Profiles

Development Action Society (DAS) All children in the non-formal education centres receive free health checks, there is special counselling for ‘at risk’ children and malnutrition is prevented by the provision of a nutritious meal during school. Many of the mothers are engaged in income generation programmes, as are older female children. Since 2002 DAS has partnered with Suas Educational Development on a combination of educational and organisational development programmes.

Miss Lolita and her class in the DAS school at Advasi, Kilkota

DAS is a community-based NGO in South East Kolkata that provides high quality education, vocational training, health care, and awareness programmes to people living in disadvantaged communities. Founded 20 years ago by a group of local women, DAS currently serves over 1,000 children through progressive interventions that include pre-primary schools and coaching centres. The aim of these programmes is to provide local children with the opportunity to gain access to government schools.

Once ‘mainstreamed’, DAS offers these children coaching support with the aim of ensuring that they stay in school.

DAS also provides a wide range of awareness programmes, aimed at empowering the local community to address issues in their own locality. Issues such as child labour and malaria, once rife in the area, have been significantly reduced through continuous advocacy and awareness programmes. As the issues change so do the methods used to tackle them. With issues such as HIV/AIDS and alcoholism now more in the open, DAS are experimenting with even more innovative, integrated, and involved ways to continue addressing the issues. www.das.co.in Contact DAS via Suas Educational Development Suas Educational Development, 14 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland Email: info@suas.ie Tel: +353 1 662 1400

Link Community Development Link Community Development (LCD) is an international education-focused development organisation working in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda towards improving education for children. It is decentralised and its various offices work in partnership.

The Link Schools Programme offers schools in Ireland and the UK the opportunity to link with a school in Africa, while the Global Teachers Programme (GTP) provides a personal and professional development experience for teachers. Both have a development education perspective.

The GTP centres on a 5 week placement in an African school. In 2007 LCD Uganda hosted Irish Global Teachers in the Kamwenge district. LCD Uganda already had an existing relationship with local schools and their communities through their schools improvement programmes, which frames the work that the Global Teachers carry out during their stay. Peter Isingoma, the programme coordinator, visited Ireland in December 2007 to speak at Comhlámh’s International Volunteers Day event.

LCD works to improve schools and the quality of education they deliver, to build the capacity of district departments of education so that they can better meet the needs of their schools and communities, and to support government education policy by using lessons learned at the grassroots level to inform national and regional strategies.

Link Community Development, 23 Crofton Rd, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Phone: 01 2841414 Email: info@lcd.ie Visit: www.lcd.ie and www.lcd.org.uk/africa/uganda

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News

Dev Ed News Requests to hold events at the Irish Aid Centre

Focus Action Magazine issue 80

The Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre will open on O’Connell Street, Dublin in January 2008. The Centre will be a state-of-the-art, flexible, multi-media exhibition space which highlights development issues and volunteering opportunities. Irish Aid is seeking proposals from NGOs/ Civil Society partners and faithbased organisations for development related events that might take place at the Centre.

Comhlámh’s magazine on development issues looks at: ‘Bring a global movement home’. Instead of the World Social Forum this year will see a week of Mobilisation culminating in a Global Day of Action on Saturday, January 26th 2008.

The following facilities will be available: conference room (100 seated), workshop (30 seated), and a small temporary exhibition space. Possible proposals include: Debates, lectures, conferences, and cultural events. Proposals should be development related, high quality, non-fund raising, and should focus on broad development themes rather than a particular organisation. For more details on the Centre, the criteria for hosting events, and information to include in submissions please visit the Centre website www.irishaid.gov.ie/centre Proposals should not exceed two pages and should be e-mailed to irishaidcentre@dfa.ie. Irish Aid will make the Centre available to the development and development education sectors for relevant events as far as availability allows. Priority will be given to Irish Aid funded organisations. Contact at Lo Call Number 1890 252 676

Funding Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund This grant scheme is funded by Irish Aid and run by Connect-World. It aims to assist and promote more and better quality media coverage of development issues in the Irish media. Visit www.connect-world.net.

Upcoming Deadlines: TV Seed Grant Standard Grant Round I Standard Grant Round II

3 March 2008 30 April 2008 30 September 2008

Resources

‘Diverting the human traffic’. Urban demand for cheap expendable labour is turning the trafficking of Indian children into a lucrative business.

‘Activist voices: The battle against Neo-Liberalism’.

Activists from Latin America and Asia talk about their struggles and their alternatives.

‘Changing Investments - A Chinese Road in Ethiopia’.

Where once Chinese technicians and labourers were dispatched to Africa to demonstrate Third World solidarity, now they come seeking fuel for China’s booming economy.

‘Woman Power - North and South’. A group of Irish women from Banulacht went to Tanzania last summer to meet and learn from their counterparts.

Free from info@comhlamh.org or 01 4783490

UCD Development Studies Library (DSL) Many of DSL’s journals are now online and can be accessed from the library, including • World Development • Development in Practice • Gender and Development • Journal of International Development • International Journal of Human Rights • Journal of Human Development • Journal of Refugee Studies There is now free access to the World Bank E-Library (a collection of around 1800 titles available online), the full World Development Indicators online, and the Global Economic Monitor (weekly, monthly, six monthly, and annual data and statistics). Also the Economist Intelligence Unit reports are now available only online. If you would like to use DSL and access any of our e-resources please email Sally.Corcoran@ucd.ie or Marie.Campion@ucd.ie

Compass Directions issue 3 now available!

This e-mag, aimed at primary school teachers, is produced and distributed at the start of each school term. Its aim is to make it easier for teachers to integrate development issues across the curriculum. The theme of the winter e-mag is Citizenship and Stewardship.

Contact sarina@comhlamh.org to receive a free copy or phone 01 4783490.

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DEA Research on Southern involvement in Dev Ed www.dea.org.uk/sub-440653

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Reviews & Resources

Development Education’s Future The ambitious Development’s Futures conference at NUIG on Nov 24th and 25th seemed to have as its intended aim not only to cover every issue in development but to foresee the future for us all, and targeted just about everyone working in the area. I enjoyed every session and learnt more in two days than my brain could cope with!

The weekend was a much needed space to step back from the practical activities of Dev Ed, to reflect on its theory, my reasons for working in this area, and finally to try to catch up on the trailblazing work being done by the sector. The Dev Ed sector’s diversity was well represented with presentations on research, theory, examples of good practice, and educational policy.

In some sessions the structure felt a bit disjointed. Having a session specifically on research, one on methodologies, and so on may have worked better. In other cases the mixture made sense, widened my perspective, and I think added to debate. However in some sessions the skills of the chair were very much drawn upon to provide cohesion and focus.

In addition to the sessions there were numerous speakers, stands, a photo exhibition (Visible Work, Invisible Women – Women & Work in Rural India Exhibition), and even a sean-nós singer. The resources resulting from this conference are a guidebook to the conference, a website, and an e-book of the full conference papers. These extremely useful resources are a much needed solution to the information overload frequent at this type of event. A further suggestion to address this could be to provide space for a speech at the beginning to outline the aims and hoped for outcomes, while a plenary at the end could help tie ideas together.

The guidebook (provided, along with a cd of the previous conference, in our Irish Aid goody bags) served as a useful reference to the different speakers, their colleagues, and their papers. It is also serving as a very necessary reminder to me not to forget the weekend but to engage with the ideas and issues it explored.

while blaming all of its failures on the local and national, and attacked the collapse of restraint on corporate power. Pointing out that there has been a division of how economies are doing from how people are doing in the measuring of growth and development, and that growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. A reminder to examine what it is we mean by development and what do we imagine in its future. While the conference acted as a reminder to dare, to dream, to imagine, and finally, to pilot. www.nuigalway.ie/dern/ 2007conference.html Ali Leahy, Project Officer Development Education, Comhlámh

My highlight was Palagummi Sainath’s examination of inequality and luckily the video is available on the website.

He railed against a global system that assigns all successes to globalisation

Have you ever used cartoons as a resource for Dev Ed? Cartoons can be used as a very accessible tool to get discussion going. Each issue we feature a cartoon you can cut out and adapt for your particular needs. Why not build up your toolkit? For a great introduction and insight into ideas and activities for using cartoons in education go to www.developmenteducation.ie/cartoons

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www.africacentre.ie

Contact info@africacentre.ie

To subscribe to INDEX visit our INDEX page at www.comhlamh.org/media-publications To join Comhlámh go to www.comhlamh.org/get-involved-join-us.html INDEX is a Comhlámh publication for the Development Education sector, funded by Comhlámh, Trócaire, Concern and Irish Aid

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