Mary McGillicuddy1
Developing Civil Society Participation
This paper will examine how development education (DE) through the operations of a DE
centre, can support members of civil society bodies who become actively involved in
overseas development related actions. DE and research on development actions played a key
role in the inception of a North-South twinning endeavour and assisted in developing its
structures, procedures and initial outcomes in a manner informed by good practice. Some of
the ongoing challenges facing a DE centre in engaging with and continuing to provide
support to such a venture and opportunities for enhancement of such connections in the future
will also be discussed.
KADE has been operating a DE centre in County Kerry, based in the capital town, Tralee,
since 1993. It receives financial support from state sources such as Irish Aid, development
NGOs, private foundations and supporters’ membership fees. It has slowly and steadily built
up links with many organisations and sectors in the county. Relationships have been nurtured
and understanding and skills in DE have been enhanced among the target groups of the
formal and non-formal education and community development sectors in the county.
2005 saw the Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs visit Tralee with a panel of speakers to
discuss overseas aid policies. Out of this arose a meeting between two of the panel members,
the Ambassador for the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Chairman of KADE. This resulted in the
KADE Chairman being motivated to propose a twinning exchange. The ‘Twinning the
Kingdoms’ project was established in 2006, utilising volunteer inputs of human resources as
well as an initial ‘Partnership Grant’ from Irish Aid in the Department of Foreign Affairs. The
project grew within one year to a countywide body with representatives from local
government, the VEC, ICA, FAS, Rotary, Tralee Chamber of Commerce and many other
organisations from all over the county, including its Gaeltacht region, and the Embassy of the
Kingdom of Lesotho. The UN Millennium Development Goals underpinned the twinning’s
design and it was expected to operate in a spirit of reciprocity. KADE facilitated coordination
of its initial steering committee in Kerry and encouraged the formation of a similar one in
1
KADE, Kerry Action for Development Education centre, Tralee
1
Lesotho. The Kerry based organisation evolved in its second year into an independent
charitable organisation.
CIVIL SOCIETY AND CITIZENSHIP
Poverty eradication and sustainable development are key concerns for the 21st century in an
increasingly globalised, interdependent and rapidly changing world. It is evident that
economic, social, cultural, political and environmental contexts need to be addressed in order
to effectively respond appropriately to the many challenges facing all citizens. The twinning
project represents a small scale attempt by civil society members to address such concerns as
a response parallel yet different to the work of large NGDO agencies and government aid
bodies.
Edwards (2005, p6) sees civil society as the ‘collective, creative and values-driven core of the
active citizen’. Armstrong (2006, p17) refers to Keane’s (2001, p35) description that “ a
newly emerging global civil society is usually constituted as a ‘third zone, beyond formal
politics and the market, or at least a zone where “civic initiative” mingles with “market
forces” and the power play of “state interaction”.
Non-governmental organisations, NGOs, are a key component in civil society and its
expanding range of social movements. New social movements have been seen by some social
theorists as reactions against bureaucratisation, statism, corporatism and technocratic
interference in all aspects of civic life and existence (Frankel, 1987, p321). Increasingly, the
public is engaging with and even creating their own NGOs and participating in global
activism such as the Global Campaign Against Poverty and the Global Campaign for
Education.
The ‘European Consensus on Development: the contribution of Development Education &
Awareness Raising’ (DEEEP, 2007, p12) recommends that “civil society organisations give
explicit attention to the importance of Development Education and Awareness Raising in
organisational strategies, budgets and public communication programmes, projects and
activities, enabling the public to gain increased critical awareness of development and
increased knowledgeable and skilled participation in development- globally and locally”.
This can be seen to be relevant for the twinning project management and its local DE centre
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can be a key source of expertise to assist this civil society body to accomplish integration of
DE into its operations.
The discourse on citizenship and ‘active citizenship’ is quite topical at present and there is
much written about encouraging ‘responsible global citizenship’. Murray (2006, p1) speaks
of the challenges of educating people to be responsible global citizens whose ability to impact
outside of their national boundaries is growing. She also warns that repeated tales of global
poverty can lead to a sense of superiority rather than solidarity. Many people can be
overwhelmed by the scale of problems and driven to apathy rather than empathy.
Murray (2006, p3) opines that the aim of development educators to produce knowledgeable,
informed, skilled and, above all, active responsible citizens can be deemed successful if the
end result or outcome of that education is their action for positive change. She sees values
and attitudes relating to solidarity, empathy and respect as key requirements of a global
citizen and feels that ‘the ability to think and argue critically should be strongly promoted
along with the commitment and conviction to social justice and equity’.
Finlay (2006, p7) warns however that citizens can be encouraged to act in a way that is based
upon a charity approach. He argues there is a need to debate participatory approaches to
development
practice.
A
humanitarian/charity
approach
is
contrasted
with
a
justice/entitlement approach. He asserts that being entitled to resources within a justice
approach to development implies the right to the power to dispose of resources as one sees
fit.
Ditshego (1994, p9) refers us to the 1990 Bulawayo Appeal, a statement by Southerners on
the subject of linking in which they rejected the word charity and any emphasis on
dependency. They called for accountability and an emphasis on dignified human
relationships. Echoes of similar sentiments can be found in Irish history, as illustrated, for
example in a song of Irish labourers which was written in a colonial political, economic and
societal context, ‘Do Me Justice, Treat Me Fair’, wherein the chorus runs ‘Do me justice,
treat me fair, and I won’t be discontented; do me justice, treat me fair, and I’ll not be laughed
at anywhere, but highly represented’ (Hart, 2005). Contrasting viewpoints to development
need to be aired and debated and a DE centre can contribute to such exploration and thereby
enable critical reflection by actors in civil society bodies such as the twinning project.
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Vanessa Andreotti (2006, p48) refers to ‘soft and critical’ models of citizenship education
and stresses the need for educators to be ‘critically literate’ in order to avoid the pitfalls of the
soft approach. She explains the goal of global citizenship from a ‘soft’ perspective to be to
“empower individuals to act (or become active citizens) according to what has been defined
for them as a good life or ideal world” whereas critical global citizenship education aims to
“empower individuals to reflect critically on the legacies and processes of their cultures, to
imagine different futures and to take responsibility for decisions and actions”.
‘Soft’ strategies for global citizenship education aim to raise awareness of global issues and
promote campaigns. Critical approaches promote engagement with global issues and
perspectives and an ethical relationship to difference, addressing complexity and power
relations. A key difference between the approaches as Andreotti (2006, p48) highlights is that
the possible benefits to the soft approach can be greater awareness of some of the problems,
support for campaigns, greater motivation to help/do something, and a feel-good factor
whereas the critical approach, however, can engender independent/critical thinking and more
informed, responsible and ethical action.
Andreotti asserts that for the creation of an ethical relationship with learners, the development
of critical literacy becomes necessary. She asserts that all knowledge is partial and incomplete
as it is constructed in specific contexts, cultures and experiences. Action is defined by
Andreotti as a choice of the individual after a careful analysis of the context of intervention,
of different views, of power relations (especially the position of the intervener) and of short
and long term positive and negative implications of goals and strategies. As she warns, if
educators are not critically literate, they run the risk of reproducing the systems of belief and
practices that harm those they want to support (Andreotti, 2006, p 49).
DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION
The DE Forum (2004) defined DE as “an active learning process, founded on values of
solidarity, equality, inclusion and co-operation. It enables people to move from basic
awareness of international development priorities and sustainable human development,
through understanding of the causes and effects of global issues, to personal involvement and
informed action. Development education fosters the full participation of all citizens in worldwide poverty eradication, and the fight against exclusion. It seeks to influence more just and
sustainable economic, social, environmental, human rights based national and international
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policies.” The Irish government’s recent White Paper on Irish Aid states it intends that :
‘every person will have access to educational opportunities to be aware of and understand
their rights and responsibilities as global citizens and their potential to effect change for a
more just and equal world’ (Irish Aid, 2006, p106).
KADE aims to promote and support Development Education initiatives through working with
the formal and non-formal education sectors and the community development sector in our
county. Key questions for our DE centre when we engage with our civil society bodies
include:
-
How can DE and DE centres support members of civil society who become involved
in actions addressing global development issues?
-
How does a DE centre translate relevant academic discourses into comprehensible
concepts and constructs in order to increase dialogue and ultimately understanding of
the challenges and dilemmas of any overseas aid endeavour?
-
How can a DE centre assist members of civil society involved in overseas
aid/development actions to engage consciously and respectfully with their fellow
human beings in a country in the South?
-
How can a DE centre effectively include Southern voices and perspectives in its
education work?
DE grew from a charity vision which initially generally ignored ‘northern’ involvement in
creating ‘southern’ problems, whereas current socially critical forms of DE try to identify and
tackle misconceptions and prejudices inside and outside of the sector, as part of the process of
‘liberating education’ (Yarwood & Davis,1994, p132). DE practice has continued to evolve
and has drawn upon research into past and current work in progress.
DEVELOPMENT NGOs
Similarly, development NGO’s have been depicted by Korten (1990, p117) as having been
engaged in a gradual transition from naïve to sophisticated conceptions of their work. His
1990 four generation model for strategies of development-oriented NGO’s saw the first
category as a ‘relief and welfare approach, the second generation focusing upon community
development, the third category as sustainable systems development and the fourth as
people’s movements’.
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NGO / charity development organisations in Ireland have no clear or shared programme,
ideology or worldview, rather there exists a variety of issues, doctrines or motivating factors
and strategies. Every organisation will have conflicts over ethos and focus, though generally
there exists shared concerns regarding central values of justice and equality.
Thomas (1992, p146) remarks that the notion of development through empowerment, for
example, consists of two distinct approaches- 1. participatory action research which relates to
Freire’s ideas on conscientisation, the process of learning to perceive social, political and
economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality’ and 2.
Provision of tools for self reliance, which relates to Schumacher’s ideas on gifts of
knowledge.
Schumacher’s essentially paternalistic notion of helping people to help themselves, did not
pay attention to whatever structural inequalities led them to appear to need the help in the
first place. He advocated action by NGOs outside government structures to produce
communication, information brokerage, feedback from the grassroots and coordinating
substructures in developing countries. He tended to assume goodwill on all sides and did not
analyse in terms of class relations, interests or exploitation. Schumacher assumed that the rich
would help the poor if only they knew how (Thomas, 1992, p138). Empowerment can be
essentially provision of tools for self-reliance or it can be defined as intervention designed to
lead to challenge of existing power relations. These concepts and approaches require some
unpacking and exploration in order to be fully understood by those espousing this
terminology and delivering or in receipt of its outputs.
Ditshego (1994, p9) as a ‘Southern voice’, has described the residual effect of the hegemony
of colonialism where some Southerners see ‘West as best’ and conversely, others distrust
everything associated with the North. He criticises the patronising approach of much
development aid, which exemplifies the modernisation theory where one part of the world
feels it can develop the other. He asserts that Northern money and material should be used on
projects developed by African peoples and initiated on the basis of locally generated
resources, with the North taking a back seat and playing a supportive rather than leading role.
A DE centre can facilitate the sharing of viewpoints such as this with the management of the
twinning project and others in a spirit of critical reflection upon the process and procedures of
an undertaking.
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Connolly (2007, p17) observes that ‘most Irish NGOs are shifting their primary focus from
direct service delivery to supporting Southern civil society either through funding service
delivery or through capacity building and support for advocacy. But, she observes that there
is ‘little evidence of widespread internal debate by Irish NGOs about the power relationships
involved in working in partnership with Southern civil society organisations and formal
policies and strategic management remains underdeveloped in this area’.
Thomas (1992, p136) recommended that development policy must be viewed in terms of
process rather than prescription, and this applies to a NGOs role in development as much as
state-led development. Sen (1987, p166) comments that in addition to measuring their work
in terms of impact and efficiency, there is a need for ongoing implementation analysis and
critical self-evaluation by NGOs of their role and work in the overall development and
societal context as an important exercise to remind themselves of their original purpose. Of
course, no organisation wants to be classified as what Handy (1988, p7) describes as a
‘disabling organisation’; he credits Ivan Illich with identifying it as disabling its clients in
order to enable them, creating thereby a spurious dependency. Some voluntary organisations,
sure of themselves and what they offer, need opportunities to help people and people to be
helped. And, as Johnson (1992, p296) has emphasised, DE cannot leave it all to Northerners
to articulate and interpret global development issues. There is a tendency to know what
northern NGOs think they are doing, but not what Southerners think of NGO efforts and their
effects.
Use of Korten’s (1990, p117) four generation model for strategies of development-oriented
NGOs would see the twinning project to date as having developed into largely a combination
of the first and second categories, i.e. utilising a relief and welfare and community
development approach, with the problem being defined as shortage and local inertia, the time
frame being the present, the scope being that of a neighbourhood or village, the chief actors
being the NGO and the community, the NGO in the role of ‘doer’/mobiliser, management
orientation being logistics and project management and an information focus on
disadvantaged children and some focus on community self-help. The twinning project would
not appear at present to have a large focus on defining the institutional and policy constraints
current in the targeted communities/country and would not fully emphasise a people’s
movement approach wherein support would be given to mobilisation of an indigenous vision.
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DE CENTRE CHALLENGES
A key challenge for our DE centre has been to create what Andreotti (2007, p49) describes as
an ‘ethical relationship’ with learners such as those involved in the twinning project (and with
the South), wherein development of critical literacy occurs. This involves skills of critical
engagement and reflexivity so that there is analysis and critique of relationships among
perspectives, language, power, social groups and social practices by the learners/civil society
target group. This criticality, she emphasises, does not judge something to be right or wrong,
but is an attempt to understand the origins of assumptions and the consequent implications.
The DE centre’s service can provide the space for those involved in a project such as the
twinning to reflect upon and explore how they came to think/be/feel/act as they do and the
impact of their systems of belief locally/globally vis-à-vis issues of power, social
relationships and the distribution of labour and resources (Andreotti, p49).
DECs need to encourage their target groups to be aware as Ponting (1991, p222) has
highlighted, of the consequences of unbalanced development effects for industrialised
countries in the North and those of the South. Political and economic control of a large part of
the world’s resources has enabled the industrialised world to effectively live beyond the
constraints of its resource base. Raw materials have been readily available for northern
industrial development, food was imported where necessary to support a rapidly rising
population and a vast increase in consumption formed the basis for the highest material
standard of living ever achieved in the world. Much of the price of that achievement was paid
by the population of the South in the form of exploitation, poverty and human suffering,
therein creating the ‘Third World’, but do many people today readily recognise this reality?
Being fully human for Freire implied being active and reflective; the fact that people are
passive and unthinkingly accepting of their situation is the result of being oppressed and
education has a liberating potential so long as it is ‘dialogical’ and problem posing. DE
centres can stimulate problem posing for those involved in overseas development activities
and thereby help to ensure that reflection on actions is undertaken in a critically reflective
manner here in the North. Also, as Finlay (2006, p11) has highlighted, thinking about
criticisms of development that emphasise the ways that developmental discourse controls and
constructs ‘undeveloped’ countries and subjects as inferior helps stimulate critical discussion
and can instil a heightened awareness of the role of language and discourse in many aspects
of our lives.
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A DE centre can work to make its people conscious of the impact of any overseas aid
measures, be they of their government or of their own locally developed NGO or charity.
Even if the aid does not have strings attached in terms of trade or economic conditions, it may
be structured in such a way that it creates needs and destroys ‘normal’ social patterns of
behaviour in the host society and even in the donor society where a paternalistic helping
mentality may be engendered or further reinforced. One international debt cancellation
activist described her recommended tactical strategy as a two handed ‘pair of gloves’
approach, wherein it can be effective to give to immediate, urgent aid projects, while ensuring
the other hand is also covered, i.e. address structural change issues through action through
campaigning/advocacy measures (Reilly, 2007).
A DE centre can aim to undertake a form of social education in what Giroux (1983 in Huckle,
1991, p54) has described as the emancipatory mode, which seeks to empower pupils/people
so that they can democratically transform society. It can do this by encouraging learners to
reflect upon their experience in the light of critical theory and act on the insights gained. As a
form of praxis it allows people to reflectively deconstruct and reconstruct their social world.
It assists in the development of critical and active citizens capable of bringing about more
equitable and sustainable development.
KADE was instrumental in creating the twinning project and now works to ensure that its
participants and other local NGOs doing similar work are aware of relevant research and
consciousness of the potential positive and negative impact of twinning, linking, or aid
actions as they take their projects forward. It is necessary, of course, that there is adequate
understanding of and respect for the work of DE centres in order for DE centres to effectively
reach and engage with these bodies. Good working relationships need to be developed and
maintained with the target groups and effective methods of communication and education
must be employed. Challenging assumptions and creating space for debate can be difficult,
but is not impossible.
The Department of Foreign Affairs’ new linking and immersion grant scheme is to be
welcomed in that it provides an incentive for schools and other organisations to conduct
development education focused measures, in an attempt to instil more awareness and
knowledge of development issues and challenges prior to any interaction with members of a
developing country. This is a mechanism that can positively influence the activities of well9
meaning but sometimes less than well-informed individuals and organisations. Local DE
centres can provide the pre and post visit DE measures for such bodies.
Opportunities for reflection and learning about the development education related aspects of
such endeavours can serve to influence a project’s research stage, its implementation and
evaluation processes and the outcomes. This would be in line with what is recommended by
Brodhead (1988, p114), who has argued that regarding efficiency for development education,
the key is not to ensure that programmes are sustainable without external support, but rather
that the benefits resulting from them are lasting. The limited resources available for DE may
mean that the only true guarantee of impact is the integration of the DE ‘message’ into the
programmes of other agencies, groups and institutions, e.g. such as fostering the growth of
community based initiatives.
KADE operates a multi-pronged DE strategy which includes:
-
operation of a locally based resource centre reference library
-
provision of an information service which can ‘signpost’ local NGOs to recognised
expert sources of information such as: the Dochas NGDO association website
resources, e.g. their NGO Code of Good Practice, etc.
-
delivery of DE training to local NGO’s upon request
-
coordination of a periodic local public seminar series, ‘Development Debates’ at
which guest speakers present their perspectives and experiences on various
development issues and topics
-
advocacy work to encourage locals to act, for example, to change their own behaviour
here in the North in order to effect positive change for their fellows in the South. The
Berne Declaration Swiss NGO (www.evb.ch), as an example of similar practice,
perceives Switzerland as a ‘developing’ country with regard to its governance and
business practices and works at home, nationally to make every dimension of Swiss
society more socially responsible and equitable.
CONCLUSION
DE centres must vigilantly question their frames of reference and examine the assumptions
operative in their organisational structures, policies and practices and encourage the local
NGOs with whom they interact to do the same. There is a tension in the social sciences
between discussion of abstracted social processes or meta-narratives and discussion of lived
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experiences or small scale examples. Ultimately, and it has been said before, it is effective to
build up from the small scale and develop strategies and alliances that address over-arching
structural problems (Redclift & Benton, 1994, p5-6). This discussion of a small scale
twinning project and a small scale DE centre’s operations provides food for thought which
can result in further research into effective strategies for DE measures with members of civil
society and recommendations for positive action in the future.
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