Romanian Development Camp: ‘ Developing ourselves to help develop others’ Cheile Gradistei, Romania September 2008

The Role of Development Education in Promoting National Donor Capacity Professor Helen O’Neill University College Dublin

What is Development Education? It includes both formal and informal education Formal education includes all levels, primary, secondary and university Informal education includes community and youth groups, trade unions, informal adult education

Why is development education important? Official aid programmes spend taxpayers money in foreign countries All citizens need to be informed about development and global poverty issues in order to support such expenditures

What should development education do? Development education (Deved) should raise public awareness and understanding of the causes of global poverty and inequality and Romania’s role in tackling these issues Deved should build capacity within the formal and informal education sectors to teach and carry out research on development issues

Building capacity in Deved First steps: Providing resources to strengthen capacity of formal education sector to teach and carry out research Providing resources for informal sector Creating and maintaining linkages, nationally and internationally Links between policymakers and Deved practitioners, both formal and informal, existing and potential, within Romania Links between national and international practitioners – formal and informal

Role of universities in Deved Teaching Research Supporting student societies Attending conferences, publishing Linkages, national and international Committees, national and international Acting as experts/consultants Assignments in developing countries

Teaching Academic degree courses (primary and postgraduate) Adult education, continuing education courses, extra-mural courses

Primary degree courses ‘Development’ taught in a range of departments as part of wider degrees (economics, sociology, geography, etc) Modules on ‘development’ for any degree (e.g. UCD ‘Horizons’ programme) Multidisciplinary primary degrees in ‘Development studies’ may be dangerous

Postgraduate degree courses Masters degree courses, often multidisciplinary in ‘Development Studies’ Links/teaching on other degree programmes PhD degrees, focused on research Teacher training degrees (links to deved. in primary and secondary schools)

Courses for the general public Continuing education/extra-mural courses presenting major issues relating to development (global poverty, trade and investment links, human rights, national aid programme etc) Some people there just to learn, others want to be involved in action at home and abroad

Role of NGOs Specialised courses for NGOs (e.g Project analysis, Evaluation etc) Contributions by NGOs to ‘Development Studies’ programmes

Research in universities Individual research and publications Involvement in teams (own university, national teams, European and other international teams (EADI, DSA etc) Policy related research for Romanian official aid programme (Irish example) Policy related research for national NGOs Importance of library & information resources

Supporting student societies Students generally interested in development issues They often set up ‘Third World’ or ‘One World’ societies Often linked to similar societies in other universities

Creating and maintaining linkages National and international, including academic associations (EADI, DSA, Eldis) MFA and universities NGOs (national, international, Trialog) International & regional organisations OECD/DAC, UN agencies, World Bank, European Commission, etc)