Friday 15 October 2010

“Development Education Awareness Rising (DEAR) is among the best answers to the problems we have in the modern world”

On the initiative of the European Development Education Multi Stakeholder Group, and co-hosted by Members of European Parliament Ska Keller (Greens, Germany) and Filip Kaczmarek (EPP, Poland), representatives of European institutions, member states and civil society discussed the role of development education and awareness raising (DEAR) in the fight against global poverty at a lunch event in the European Parliament in Brussels on 15 September 2010.

Ska Keller underlined the key role of DEAR and citizens empowerment to make people participate in the development debate. She insisted on the need for concrete political action and financial commitment for DEAR in the view of the upcoming financial perspectives. Furthermore, she proposed to include DEAR as a mainstream topic and cross cutting issue in European policies – not only on development, but also programmes of other sectors such as Youth in Action.

Filip Kaczmarek emphasised the need for public support if ODA commitments shall be met and stated that “DEAR is among the best answers to the problems we have in the modern world.” In Poland, events as the Global Education Week or the European Development Days, planned for 2011, were crucial to mobilise public interest for development issues. DEAR shall be included in relevant upcoming parliament reports on development policies.

At the occasion of the event, Sergio Guimaraes from the Portuguese Development Agency IPAD and co-chair of the multi stakeholder group, presented the recent “European Development Education Monitoring Report (DE Watch)”, which shows how DEAR policies are gaining ground in Europe, while there is still a long way to go – and even some backslashes – in certain countries. In particular, the report underlines importance of DEAR strategies in member states and at European level.

The European Commission, represented by Markus Pirchner from EuropeAid, confirmed the institution’s commitment to a more strategic approach, which is currently under elaboration through the DEAR supporting initiative in the EC “structured dialogue”. Upcoming highlight of this process is a conference on 11 and 12 October 2010 in Brussels, where state and non-state actors from the European DEAR community will discuss elements for a possible future European DEAR strategy. Commissioner Piebalgs will hold a keynote speech.

In the debate, participants underlined that investment in DEAR and mobilisation of citizens’ support for development would pay in the long run. Integration in formal education should be reinforced, especially through cross-sectoral and cross-institutional cooperation, for example with the Council of Europe. The participants agreed that development education and public awareness should be at the heart of European development policies, and accordingly reflected in political process such as a possible revision of the European Development Consensus or the upcoming financial perspectives. As Sergio Guimaraes put it: “DEAR is at the very core of our concept of citizenship.”

Download the full report of the event

Information provided by Tobias Troll, DEEEP and MSH Secretariat

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