The Secretary,
White Paper on Overseas Development Assistance,
Development Cooperation Ireland,
Department of Foreign Affairs,
Bishop’s Square, Redmond’s Hill,
Dublin 2
24 August 2005
Dear Sir/Madam
Re: Development Education and Research Network, NUI Galway’s written
submission on the Proposed White Paper on Overseas Development Assistance
I am pleased to enclose a written submission from the Development Education and
Research Network at NUI Galway on the proposed White Paper on Overseas
Development Assistance, for your consideration. We would like to thank DCI for
extending the closing date in order to facilitate this submission.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if your have any queries. You should direct any
correspondence to me at the Department of Political Science and Sociology, NUI
Galway.
With best wishes.
Sincerely,
Dr. Su-ming Khoo
(Submission coordinator, Development Education and Research Network, NUI Galway)
Department of Political Science and Sociology
National University of Ireland Galway
Galway
Tel: 091 493643 (direct line)
Email: s.khoo@nuigalway.ie
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To: Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI)
Policy Submission to the Government’s proposed White Paper on Development
From: The Development Education and Research Network, NUI Galway
Date: 24 August 2005
This submission comes from the Development Education and Research Network at NUI
Galway. It represents the views and opinions of individual staff, researchers and students
in the university and does not represent official university views or policy, although
university policy will be referred to where relevant
The Development Education and Research Network at NUI, Galway
The Development Education and Research Network has been established to promote
development education and enhance networking between researchers and academics
interested in development issues at NUI Galway. The network aims to enable and
enhance the sharing of knowledge and skills relevant to development issues and
contribute to capacity building for development education at NUI Galway. The network
will promote an interdisciplinary, problem and evidence based approach to development
issues. It affirms the wider aims and values of knowledge-sharing, service learning and
civic engagement that are a core competence and a strategic priority at NUI Galway.
Summary
Ireland now stands at a turning point where the vision of official development aid is
moving in the direction of development cooperation as genuine partnership for
development. The establishment of Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI) reflects
the understanding that Ireland’s role with regard to less developed countries must
be one of partnership in realizing their development aspirations. Meeting the target
of 0.7% of GNP in overseas assistance in the shortest possible timeframe is one
important measure of commitment, but it is not the end in itself. More important,
and more politically challenging, is the need to foster and support human rights,
basic education, basic health care, gender equality, environmental sustainability,
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inclusive democracy, accountability and fair trade practices throughout the world.
Responding to this challenge sometimes requires that we ask uncomfortable
questions about the ways in which Ireland and its partners in the EU may, for short
term advantage, tolerate, sustain or encourage inequitable trade and poor
governance. We must also ask if Ireland and its EU partners honour their own
agreed human rights, environmental sustainability and accountability obligations
and targets as we strive to represent a model of best practice.
Support for development cooperation represents both a moral obligation and
enlightened self interest. Our view of development assistance is grounded in our
own historical experiences of development constrained by poverty, illiteracy,
restricted choices and emigration for the most able and most educated in Irish
society. We know from direct experience that a society’s capacity to emerge from
poverty and underdevelopment can be greatly enhanced by cooperation and
support from the international community.
The moral obligation to assist those trapped in desperate poverty is self evident for
most people, but it is also an obligation grounded in our responsibility to take part
in realizing an international system based on justice, human rights and
sustainability. Such an international system is not only an obligation but also
represents enlightened self interest. The self interest springs from the realization
that sustainable freedom, peace and prosperity are not only in the gift of the
powerful. Coercion and compulsion can only secure limited freedoms and at great
cost. Sustainable freedom, peace and prosperity are linked to a vision of
development that maintains every person’s inalienable and indivisible human rights
at its core. The progressive realization of such rights depends in large part on a
shared global vision where the collective ‘goods’ of peace, freedom and prosperity
are openly shared and exchanged between the world’s diverse inhabitants. When
everyone has some share in these ‘goods’ everyone has some reason to share in their
conservation and increase.
Ireland’s contribution to development must be a coherent and integrated effort
that shows continuity in the long-term. We are “in this for the long-haul” and our
commitment must be built on the foundation of a deep and broadly based societal
understanding of the meanings and processes of development. Cooperation in
development as in all other ventures must be based on mutual knowledge and
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respect for the history and aspirations of the partner countries and communities.
We believe that the Third Level Education sector should be an important
contributor to Ireland’s long term vision of development cooperation. The
development of a distinctive third-level response to development cooperation and
development education should be encouraged. The gap between ‘development
studies’ and ‘development education’ may be bridged at Third Level by enhancing
the connections between teaching and professional development, and by combining
research and advocacy in development issues.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction - third level institutions have an important role to play in
development education and support for development cooperation. Proposal
that development education and research at third level develop an
interdisciplinary, thematic approach to complex development challenges
2. Policy coherence, integration and learning –adopting a policy learning
approach to development cooperation
3. The UN ODA targets and guidelines for practice – ‘best’ practice defined as
more than poverty alleviation. Ireland can only play a leadership role if it
affirms commitments to development cooperation based on human
development, human rights and sustainability and honours its commitments
to targets.
4. From aid to development cooperation – ‘developing a genuine partnership
for development’ based on human development, human rights and
environmental sustainability
5. Emphasis on the poorest , but also structural reforms – the current focus on
extreme poverty must not be to the neglect of broader structural reforms,
including market access, debt cancellation and enhancement of capacity for
negotiation and cooperation
6. More equal knowledge partnerships – involves more visibility for developing
country voices and genuine commitment to understand their positions and
their standpoints. This requires a reversal of the 10/90 research gap
7. Technical Assistance and Volunteering - rethinking more sensitive and
appropriate models of sending and volunteering
8. Environmental sustainability: a neglected dimension –sustainability must
become a central consideration, including our responsibility to promote and
transfer clean, sustainable technologies to the developing countries at
4
reduced cost, to avoid using them as ‘pollution havens’ and by adopting less
wasteful, cleaner and more sustainable lifestyles ourselves
9. Multilateralism and UN Reform towards Human Security concerns – we
must reverse the ‘securitization of development’, and emphasize human
security and the ‘responsibility to protect’
10. The Corporate Sector’s involvement - Combine policy of untied aid with
encouragement for emerging corporate social responsibility norms
11. The role of NGOs - Support and enhancement of Irish development NGOs
must be complemented by building up partnership with developing country
governments and civil society
12. An agenda for development education – a view from the NUIG Development
Education and Research Network - a distinctive third-level response can
contribute to better development cooperation and development education.
Universities can bridge the gap between ‘development studies’ and
‘development education’ by developing the connections between teaching and
professional development, and combining research and advocacy in
development issues
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1. Introduction
 Opportunity for third level institutions to play an enhanced role in
development education and support the transition from aid to development
cooperation. Proposal for development education and research at third level
– an interdisciplinary, thematic approach to complex development challenges
.
A major watershed has occurred in Irish development policy with the transition from
Ireland Aid to Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI). A great deal of consultation,
effort and thought has gone into this restructuring process. In the interests of continuity
and policy coherence, the proposed White Paper on Development should integrate the
suggestions and recommendations already brought forward in the existing policy,
strategy and review documents, particularly the 2002 Ireland Aid Review. However, we
also suggest that there are wider strategic opportunities that can be developed and
enhanced within a future programme of development cooperation, especially in relation
to development education and the role of third level institutions such as NUI Galway.
This submission will identify some of these specific strategic opportunities as well as
discussing the wider issues.
The Development Education and Research Network at NUIG welcomes the opportunity
to participate in the consultation for the government’s proposed White Paper on
Development Cooperation and thank DCI for extending the deadline for submissions to
accommodate later submissions. The proposed White Paper is a significant step towards
clear and agreed directions for development policy in the future. The Preface of the 2002
Ireland Aid Review Report states that the object of policy review was ‘to create a
national programme of development assistance which is distinctive and world class in
quality, which places Ireland at the cutting edge of international development policy
and of which we can be proud.’.
We strongly affirm that development education and research activities play an important
role in the realization of Ireland’s national programme of development assistance.
Development education aims to educate, inform and inspire a better public understanding
of global development challenges and to motivate individual students, teachers,
researchers and citizens to understand their role as global citizens and to think, discuss
and act in whatever capacity they can to contribute towards active change in pursuit of a
just, peaceful and cooperative world. Development education also enhances public
awareness and support for official development cooperation programmes.
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The forces of globalization pose particular challenges for development cooperation.
Development issues have become very much more complex and interwoven, requiring a
more sophisticated, knowledge intensive and interdisciplinary approach. The increasing
professionalization of the development sector also brings new challenges and
requirements for higher levels of global relevance and engagement as well as higher
standards of accountability. Our response is to develop a thematic approach that can
connect development education to research at third level, based on the UNDP
Millennium Development Challenges. The thematic focus will provide opportunities for
interdisciplinary engagement and encourage substantive coherence around practical,
time-bound goals for international action that provide a framework for development
cooperation up to 2015. We feel that this is the most practical way for the third level
sector to make a distinctive national contribution to the key objective of policy coherence
for development.
2. Policy coherence, integration and learning
 Adopting a policy learning approach to development cooperation
Policy coherence requires that development cooperation policies and programmes should
become increasingly integrated across two dimensions: vertically (within DCI and DFA)
and horizontally (cross-sectorally with other policy Departments and sectors such as
Education, Agriculture, Trade and Industry and most importantly, Finance). We feel that
DCI must actively advocate that the development cooperation objective is given
‘principled priority’ at every opportunity. Due to the complex and changing nature of
development issues, policy coherence demands that policy learning takes place.
Development policy as a whole is moving toward more evidence-based approaches to
inform policy, using in-depth country and cross-country case studies and adopting
problem-oriented initiatives. Current examples include initiatives in reducing maternal
mortality and reducing sexually transmitted HIV-AIDS. In addition to more factual and
problem-oriented ways of thinking, policy learning for development cooperation also has
to involve a broad and open discussion of different ways of thinking about problems
since policy and implementation do not just depend on facts, they also depend on culture
and values (Stone et. al. 2001). Anthropological and sociological approaches provide
greater insight into local social, cultural and economic practices and systems and these
can be of particular benefit to policy learning processes.
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3. The UN ODA targets and guidelines for practice
 ‘Best’ practice means more than poverty alleviation – it means development
cooperation. Ireland can only play a leadership role if it affirms
commitments to development cooperation based on human development,
human rights and sustainability and honours its commitments to targets.
Ireland’s development policy has given its citizens many reasons to be proud and
optimistic. We commend DCI for an aid programme is already of high quality and in line
with international good practice. Increasingly, the objective is to move Ireland’s
development cooperation programme from ‘good’ to ‘best’ practice: ‘…to set an
example for other donors’ (OECD 2003:19). DCI can best pursue this leadership role, by
promoting policy coherence but also policy learning. It can do so by adopting more
evidence based and ‘learning approaches’; by adhering rigorously to the principles of
untied aid, and by actively promoting local partnership and ownership in development
cooperation efforts, especially through good knowledge sharing and through the
continuation of its targeted focus on the poorest and least developed countries.
We suggest that policy learning and policy coherence should be key principles of
Ireland’s ODA and that it should strive to maintain its key distinguishing strengths which
are its poverty focus, flexibility and responsiveness. In addition, however, we emphasise
that the focus should develop beyond the alleviation of ‘poverty’ towards cooperation for
‘development’, informed by the models of human development, human rights and
sustainability.
Ireland was ‘on track’ to achieve its stated commitment of 0.7% GNP in official
development assistance by 2007, as announced by An Taoiseach at the 2000 Millennium
Summit, only up to 2002, after which it became subject to financial constraints. While the
absolute sums dedicated to ODA have increased, the failure to adhere to the interim
targets is very disappointing, evidenced by the considerable public outcry about the
slippage on ODA targets. This shows that the public aspiration to join the leading, ‘best
practice’ group of donors is a very real one. ODA amounts are growing across the
OECD, hence Ireland’s aspiration to be at the ‘cutting edge of best practice’ can only be
fulfilled if it returns to its promises of 2000, and sets a new timeline for achieving the
0.7% goal no later than 2010. As it stands, Ireland’s interim goal of 0.5% by 2007 means
that its distance from the leading groups may increase as other countries honour their
commitments. While ‘slippage’ in aid targets is hardly a new thing (the ODA target set
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by the UN 1961 First Decade of Development was 1%), a return to previous
commitments would signal a turnaround in development cooperation and serve to build
further international commitments. In order for Ireland to build on its strengths and play
the leadership role that it aspires to in international development cooperation, it must
practice leadership to stimulate and inspire a vision of international cooperation for peace
and development
4. From aid to development cooperation
 ‘developing a genuine partnership for development’ based on human
development, human rights and environmental sustainability
A fundamental driver for new directions in development cooperation is the shift from
‘aid’ to ‘development cooperation’ as the paradigm for action. Development cooperation
is the vehicle for realizing all the Millennium Development Goals, through the
progressive realization of Millennium Goal 8, ‘developing a genuine partnership for
development’. The development focus is moving away from relief efforts and towards
more long term strategies that address the root causes of human insecurity, deprivation
and underdevelopment. Current initiatives have moved towards this development
cooperation model by helping to establish a human rights infrastructure and enhancing its
practice, by engaging in public health issues and by beginning to address the issues of fair
versus free trade policies in relation to development.
We suggest that development cooperation should be achieved through
1) Playing our role in driving essential structural reforms and
2) Implementing of global responsibility and partnership in accordance with the key
principles of human development, human rights and environmental
sustainability.
‘The promotion of human development and the fulfilment of human rights share…a
common motivation and reflect a fundamental commitment to promoting the freedom,
well-being and dignity of individuals in all societies’ (UNDP Human Development
Report 2000, Ch 1). These two concepts enrich and affirm each other in a profound
manner. The proposed White Paper should emphasise the common motivation and basic
compatibility between human development and human rights and move to base its model
of development cooperation on this shared approach. A more rigorous way is
conceptualizing this is seen in the ‘indivisibility of rights’ position (Earle 2001, Khoo
9
2005). This more rigorous approach is adopted in the 1986 Right to Development and
1993 Vienna Declaration on Human Rights. Simplistic quantitative approaches to poverty
tend to ignore the less tangible, qualitative dimensions of development and may diminish
the quality of the processes of participation necessary to make the rights based vision of
development a reality.
5. Emphasis on the poorest , but also structural reform
 the current focus on extreme poverty must not be to the neglect of
broader structural reforms, including market access, debt
cancellation and enhancement of capacity for negotiation and
cooperation.
While we recognize that the current focus on extreme poverty, or ‘poverty that kills’
(Sachs 2005) is urgent and necessary, we would urge DCI not to restrict itself to a
minimalist approach. The academic and NGO sectors have expressed some concerns that
the MDGs could promote exclusionary and top-down approaches (see Gold 2005).
It is important that longer-term human development, seen as the widening of human
choices, is pursued, and not a ‘sticking plaster’ or a ‘containment’ approach to
development. Genuine development cooperation cannot be pursued without systematic
attention being paid to issues of structural injustice and ‘double standards’. This is in line
with a more ‘preventative’ approach to economic and social development, not just the
diagnosis and treatment of the worst ills, but an approach that builds up the resistance of
local economies and societies to external shocks and increases local capacities to identify
and solve their problems. A much more sustainable approach must bear in mind the
provisions needed to finance development cooperation in this deeper sense.
According to the Monterrey 2002 Financing for Future Development document,
developed countries must not only commit to the 0.7 ODA target, but also act to improve
market access for developing countries to sell their exports and speed up exit of HIPCs
from unsustainable debt. On the question of debt, we suggest a principled stand on moral
hazard, involving the complete cancellation of all unpayable debts, especially by pushing
to immediately cancel ‘odious debts’ incurred by non-democratic regimes and by
immediately reversing forms of loan conditionality such as privatization and user fees
that place unfair burdens on the ordinary people of developing countries.
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Trade issues are important and bilateral and multilateral trade arrangements will have to
be harmonized in ways that take the development dimension seriously. The increased
focus on poverty alleviation and basic needs must not ignore the role of productive
employment. To move beyond aid and towards genuine cooperation for development
requires reform of the underlying macroeconomic structures and conditions. It is
necessary for agricultural trade policy to move ‘from double standards to development
standards’ These must include support for ‘special and differential treatment’ and
attention to issues of food and livelihoods security as well as the enhancement of
developing countries’ infrastructure, training and institutional capacity (Leen 2003).
Ireland has already invested in developing negotiation and implementation capacity and
has built up experience since its involvement the Lomé negotiations. Measures to help
fair trade must be carefully negotiated against measures to protect infant and strategic
sectors, with an overall need to strengthen developing country governments’ capacities to
negotiate their own positions.
The principle of development cooperation requires the perspectives and expertise of the
partner countries developing countries to be deployed in a more inclusive and egalitarian
manner. A strategic and capacity building development approach would seek to build
negotiating and implementing capacity in the key areas of Multilateral Trade
Negotiations, Human Rights and Development Policy and Planning. Only 33 out of 77
ACP countries have permanent representation at Geneva, so boosting knowledge and
information sharing mechanisms could be an effective focus. Partner country should be
developed and enhanced, as should the capacity of ‘like-minded groups’ and South-South
cooperation platforms.
6. More equal knowledge partnerships
 more visibility for developing country voices and genuine commitment
to understand their positions and their standpoints. This requires a
reversal of the 10/90 research gap
One cross-cutting issue that has surfaced at a number of recent public and high level
platforms on development issues is the role of knowledge and its relation to power. We
suggest that the transition to a genuine model of development cooperation must involve
efforts to make more equal knowledge partnerships with developing countries. This
involves according visibility to developing country voices and a genuine commitment to
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understand their positions and their standpoints.
In 1990, the Commission on Health Research for Development estimated that less than
10% of the global health research resources were being applied to the health problems of
developing countries, which accounted for over 90% of the world’s health problems – an
imbalance subsequently captured in the term the ‘10/90 gap’. This is just one example similar gaps exist in many other development sectors. Researchers in a range of
disciplines in NUI Galway are involved in research projects in developing countries
aimed at addressing some of these gaps. NUI Galway has an established track record in
the area of social and preventative health research and we suggest that this type should be
supported in order to bridge knowledge gaps for development. We suggest that integrated
policies for development cooperation should seek to reverse the 10/90 gap in research –
where research on the problems affecting 90% of the world’s people only receives 10%
of the world funding for research. The agenda of civic engagement and the public
intellectual role of third level institutions as advocates for development cooperation
should be revitalized through more joined-up initiatives and the enhancement of
established networks of development educators and researchers. Some mechanism could
be promoted whereby supply and demand for development research and education can be
linked more effectively.
7. Technical Assistance and Volunteering
 rethinking more sensitive and appropriate models of sending and
volunteering
The transition away from the charity focus of Ireland Aid and towards development
cooperation requires sending and volunteering programmes to be re-thought with care.
While the current enthusiasm for volunteering should be maximised, it is important that
volunteering involve more critical thinking and a more professional approach. Receiving
countries must be treated in a respectful and informed manner, with attention paid to the
specific details and context of individual development challenges. The desire to promote
and harness voluntarism is laudable, but responsible and informed approaches to
volunteering must be fostered so that volunteering can be driven by the spirit of
cooperation and the desire to meet the receiving country and community’s genuine
needs, not by a show of tokenism or a sense of cultural superiority.
More background knowledge is a necessary prerequisite for this and development
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education has a strong part to play in this. One thorny question that requires careful
attention is a proper analysis of domestic versus international priorities for volunteering.
A balance needs to emerge between local, national and international focal points for
volunteering; and between the personal and altruistic dimensions of volunteering. We
suggest that development education must develop to address these issues and questions
more deeply.
8. Environmental sustainability – a neglected dimension
 sustainability must become a central consideration, including our
responsibility to promote and transfer clean, sustainable technologies
to the developing countries at reduced cost, to avoid using them as
‘pollution havens’ and by adopting less wasteful, cleaner and more
sustainable lifestyles ourselves.
Environmental sustainability is perhaps one of the greatest challenges for development
cooperation, yet it is arguably the most neglected dimension. Perhaps this is partly due to
the fact that this is one area where the performance of the developed countries is still far
from the ideal. While the gradual implementation of responsible waste and pollution
management gives us some hope that we can better our own environmental performance,
genuine development cooperation will require more sustainable behaviour on the part of
the developed countries. Millions of people are struggling ever harder to survive because
environmental damage is leading to increased climatic risks and the loss of natural capital
such as soil fertility, water availability and forest cover. Poor people are much more at
risk from ‘globalized’ environmental problems such as transnational pollution and
climate change.
A sustainable development approach pays real attention to the need to protect and
enhance natural capital and seeks to reverse unsustainable forms of development. The
promotion of unsustainable economic growth will only serve to accelerate the depletion
of natural capital while pushing the poor into more ecologically fragile areas and
increasing their vulnerability to further impoverishment. By the end of this decade, this
could be the fate of up to one billion people (UNDP 1998). Commitments and
responsibilities towards sustainable development must be much broader and deeper in
order to prevent this scenario from taking place. This requires Ireland amongst other
developed countries to honour its Rio commitments to the ‘precautionary principle’ and
the exercise of ‘common but differentiated responsibility’.
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We have the responsibility to promote and transfer clean and sustainable technologies to
the developing countries at reduced or affordable cost, to avoid using them as ‘pollution
havens’ and by adopting less wasteful, cleaner and more sustainable lifestyles ourselves.
9. Multilateralism and UN Reform towards Human Security concerns
 Reverse the ‘securitization of development’, and emphasize human
security and the ‘responsibility to protect’.
The Irish government has a good track record on security issues due to its history of
neutrality and its active involvement with non-proliferation initiatives. While nuclear
non-proliferation has been the main focus at the international level, the Irish government
must increase its efforts to highlight the non-proliferation of conventional arms and to
bring the development cooperation perspective in to support arms controls measures such
as the EU Arms Trade Treaty.
More importantly, attention must turn to the wider determinants of insecurity. In the
current context, the ‘securitization of development’ must be turned around. We must
return the focus back towards human security through development and human rights and
away from crude visions of military security based on asymmetric force. The UN director
general, Kofi Annan’s report ‘In Larger Freedom’ (UN 2005) sets out a programme for
reform of the UN system that aims to re-orient the international system towards the goals
of human security, human rights and human development. Ireland occupies a key position
as an ‘honest broker’ which can help to advocate a human security perspective. Ireland’s
key responsibility is to help re-focus international efforts towards genuine development
cooperation, peace and human security concerns. The political will to ‘help’ must be
based on a vision of global security and ‘the responsibility to protect’ solidarity, justice
and rights (UN 2004) as the underpinning of a fairer and more balanced world order.
10. The Corporate Sector’s involvement
 Combine policy of untied aid with encouragement for emerging
corporate social responsibility norms
Although we have emphasised so far the central objective of policy coherence and policy
integration, it is important that commercial corporate policies and development
cooperation objectives are not conflated or confused. This is in line with the principle of
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‘untied aid’. Policy integration in this sense means the enhancement of the development
focus, rather than the advancement of the Irish corporate sector’s special interests. New
‘good practice’ norms are emerging for corporate behaviour within the umbrella of
‘corporate social responsibility’ and these measures should be encouraged and developed.
11. The role of NGOs
 Support and enhancement of Irish development NGOs must be
complemented by building up partnership with developing country
governments and civil society
Irish based NGOs have historically played a very important role in the design and
delivery of development cooperation in Ireland. NGOs perform an absolutely central and
essential role and this should be supported and enhanced. However a capacity-building
approach to development cooperation means that partnerships with developing country
governments and developing country NGOS and civil society must be fostered and their
own policy, institutional and fiscal capacities to deliver development must be built up,
with due attention to the need for careful monitoring and evaluation.
12. An agenda for development education – a view from the NUIG Development
Education and Research Network
 a distinctive third-level response can contribute to better development
cooperation and development education, while also addressing
current issues of professional development and training. Universities
can bridge the gap between ‘development studies’ and ‘development
education’ by developing the connections between teaching and
professional development, and combining research and advocacy in
development issues
Many issues have been identified by the recent reviews of development education
practice in Ireland (Ireland Aid 2002, Kenny and O’Malley 2002, Ireland Aid 2003).
These include the lack of secure and adequate funding for development education, issues
of weak organisational and management capacity, the lack of minimum standards of
development education and the lack of in-service training, as well as the lack of ‘models
of excellence’. Although there are a number of existing networks and coalitions of people
15
involved in development education, leadership and coherence in this sector is
problematic, especially given the increasingly technical and professionalized aspect of
globalized development issues.
We suggest that the third level sector develop its capacity to respond to these challenges
through a sectoral approach that promotes cross-disciplinary networking and capacity
building’. Longer term perspectives, evidence-based and problem-driven thinking can all
be linked with the Millennium Development challenges. We suggest that a distinctive
third-level response can contribute to better development cooperation and development
education, as well as other issues of professional development and training.
In 2002 NUI Galway began to develop a dynamic initiative in civic engagement and
service learning through the establishment of CELT, the initiation of the Community
Knowledge Initiative and the introduction of ideas of service learning and civic
engagement for staff and students. Since then a number or different initiatives have
begun, including knowledge sharing programmes, a student mentoring scheme,
undergraduate and postgraduate service learning modules and the ALIVE volunteering
scheme.
In the education sector as whole, a transition has occurred away from ‘…the narrow
view of education as formal schooling’. The wider emphasis is on ‘the broad view of
education as a lifelong process which includes life skills, social responsibility, ethical
and moral development and professionalization’ (Kanji, 2003: 34).
A sustainable development approach needs to be more fully incorporated into the
development education agenda in Ireland since ‘…[e]nvironmental stresses and the social
phenomena that they engender have both direct and indirect ties to the global
community’s greatest challenges: poverty, terrorism, globalization, poor governance and
inequality’ (UNEP 2004, cited in Ikeda 2005: 6). ‘Sustainable development’ is not just an
‘environmental side-issue’. It is a comprehensive concept that opens up exciting new
possibilities for multi-disciplinary collaboration and cross-fertilization’ (Ikeda, ibid.). We
will undoubtedly see a greater convergence the development education and
environmental education agendas as the idea of ‘education for sustainable development’
(ESD) begins to take shape (Belgeonne, 2003). This year, 2005, marks the UN Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development. UNESCO’s implementation scheme envisions
‘a world where everybody has the opportunity to benefit from education and learn the
16
values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and positive societal
transformation’. http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php
DCI’s dialogue with third level institutions on the subject of development education is
still at an early stage, compared to its long involvement with the primary and secondary
sectors. The development education and research network at NUI Galway would
welcome more opportunities to make a distinctive contribution to the future of
development education in Ireland, to engage in dialogue with DCI and shape a vision for
the ongoing role of the Third level sector. The Universities Ireland consortium has
recently discussed ‘joined-up’ North-South cooperation on development, involving the
creation of better linkages with third level institutions in Africa and other developing
countries and regions. Third level institutions in Ireland could be more involved in both
broad and specialist dimensions of development education. They can work to enhance
the design and delivery of interdisciplinary development studies courses within their own
institutions, and give support to third level institutions in developing countries. They
could undertake and enhance basic and applied research in development studies and
support planning and infrastructural development of institutions. The capacity of the
third level sector can be enhanced by facilitating the linkages between departments,
faculties and research units, providing opportunities for training and the building of
informal networks, providing resources to support teaching and learning for development
education.
DCI’s current Development Education Strategy plan 2003-5 identifies Third Level
institutions as a priority area for integrating and supporting the delivery of development
education. It suggests that third level institutions can play ‘a critical role in the
strengthening of the interface between development studies and development
education’ and that they are ‘ideally placed to undertake research which can support
and assist the integration of a development perspective in the priority work areas’.
We suggest that the universities can bridge the gap between ‘development studies’ and
‘development education’ by developing the connections between teaching and
professional development, and by combining research and advocacy in development
issues. There is a strong and growing interest in development issues amongst students,
lecturers and researchers and this reflects both informal civic dimensions of engagement
with the ‘big issues’ of human rights, peace and sustainability and the development of
various professional training pathways at third level. We hope that the capacity can be
built within the third level to bridge to 10/90 research gap and integrate the development
17
dimension into a wider range of professional pathways, not just in teaching, youth and
community work as envisaged by the development education strategy plan, but also in
research and professional practice in medicine, nursing, health promotion, engineering,
governance and policy studies, environmental science and ecology, business
management and accounting and a wide range of other public and professional
disciplines.
Conclusion.
The Development Education and Research Network welcomes the opportunity to
contribute to the forthcoming White Paper on Development. We believe that policy
coherence, policy integration and policy learning are essential to the move from old
models of development assistance as aid or charity, towards a new model of development
cooperation that can fulfil the Millennium Development Goal of ‘developing a genuine
partnership for development’. We strongly support the wish for DCI to push forward
towards the realization of a ‘best practice’ model of development assistance and urge the
Government to consider honouring its promises to fulfil the 0.7% ODA target by 2007 as
part of a programme of exemplary donor cooperation. We believe that an open
commitment to a model of human security and human development based on human
rights and sustainability will assist DCI to realize the broader aim of ‘best practice’. This
in turn depends on a deeper commitment and policy coherence that supports cooperative
and positive internationalism, structural reform and a capacity building approach for
developing country partners.
We suggest that the third level sector has a critical role to play in developing a ‘cutting
edge’ development education programme for Ireland, and put forward some suggestions
for developing and integrating the development dimension into our teaching, research,
training and public intellectual roles.
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