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Developing Civil Society Participation
Mary McGillicuddy, CoordinatorKerry Action for
Development Education 11 Denny Street, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
[email protected] www.kade.ie
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Paper’s Focus
The role a DE centre plays in relationship to a twinning project it was instrumental in establishing
DE perspectives
Challenges / opportunities for a DE centre
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KADE, Community and Voluntary
Association Established in 1993, KADE
operates Kerry’s Development Education Centre, based in Tralee
Target groups: in Kerry, formal & non-formal education sector, community development sector & local media
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KADE works to develop people’s skills, knowledge and understanding of the world
KADE is responding to the need for a locally accessible (Kerry) source of Development Education activities, contacts and resources
KADE’s Rationale
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Funding Sources
KADE receives 3 year funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Irish Aid multi-annual programme grant scheme and also receive other grants from Irish bodies and development agencies.
Staff: 1 full-time coordinator,
1 part-time administrator, 2 part-time outreach workers and 1 part-time CE trainee.
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Denny Street Centre Location
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KADE Centre Activities
KADE newsletter produced periodically and distributed to over 600 sites
Website maintained Information & library service provided by
centre staff Outreach DE delivered to schools and
community groups KADE coordinates a yearly intercultural
celebration, ‘Global Tralee’ on Mar. 17 Staff participate in national and
international (DE) networks / bodies
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Jr. Minister for Overseas Aid’s Tralee Visit, 2005
Lesotho Ambassador on the speakers’ panel
KADE Chairman also on the panel
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Lesotho Ambassador Visits KCC ‘05
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President Visits Tralee ‘05
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KADE Lesotho MDG Exhibit Launch ‘06
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Twinning Project Year 1 Report 2007
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Civil Society
Key concerns for the 21st century:
poverty eradication &
sustainable development.
Civil society- a ‘third zone’ (Keane, 2001)
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Active Citizenship
‘responsible global citizenship’
Murray (2006)- successful DE when the end result is action for positive change
Values:
solidarity, empathy, respect
& ability to think & argue critically
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Finlay (2006)
humanitarian / charity approach
vs
justice / entitlement approach
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‘do me justice, treat me fair’
Soft / critical
models of citizenship
‘critical literacy’
power relations
Andreotti (2006)
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DE Defined
DEEEP - foster full participation of all citizens in worldwide poverty eradication…
Irish Aid- every person will have access to…
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Key Questions for a DE Centre:
How can DE and DE centres support those involved in development actions?
How does a DE centre translate relevant academic discourses into comprehensible concepts and constructsin order to increase dialogue and understanding of the challenges of an aid endeavour?
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More Key Questions-
How can a DE centre effectively include Southern voices and perspectives in its education work?
How can a DE centre assist members of civil society involved in overseas aid/development actions to engage consciously and respectfully with those in the South?
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DE: charity vision origins, ignoring Northern involvement in creating Southern problems
v.s.
socially critically current forms which try to identify and address misconceptions and prejudices as part of the process of ‘liberating education’ (Yarwood & Davis, 1994).
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Development NGO’s
(Korten,1990) 4 generation model:
1. relief & welfare
2. community development
3. sustainable systems
4. people’s movements
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Dochas (www.dochas.ie), NGO Roles
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Development through Empowerment
(Thomas, 1992)
1. Participatory action research- Freire conscientisation ideas, power relations
1. Schumacher- provision of tools for self-reliance
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‘Southern Voice’
some Southerners see ‘West as best’
others distrust everything associated the North
(Ditshego, 1994)
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Challenges
(Connolly, 2007)
“little evidence of widespread internal debate by Irish NGO’s about power relationships involved in working in partnership with Southern civil societyorganisations and formal policies & strategic management remain underdeveloped in this area”
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Process, not Prescription
critical self-evaluation
overall development &
societal context
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DE Centre Challenges
‘ethical relationship’ wherein development of critical literacy occurs
critical engagement & reflexivity critique of relationships of :
perspectives, language, power, social groups, social practices
* not to judge, but to understand (Andreotti, 2006)
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DE centre can provide the space to enable members of civil society to
reflect & explore
how one comes to
think / feel / be / act
as one does
& the impact of one’s belief systems locally / globally
(issues: power, social relationships, distribution of labour & resources)
(Andreotti, 2006)
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Emancipatory Mode
social education which seeks to empower people so that they can democratically transform society (Giroux, 1983)
desconstruct & reconstruct
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KADE DE Strategy resource centre locally based
information ‘signposting’
training provision
public seminar debate series
advocacy
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Conclusion
‘Global Justice
through
Local Education’
