News from DEEEP

DEEEP, a project initiated by the CONCORD Development Education Forum to mobilise global citizens for systemic change and global justice,  launched a new online platform movement.deeep.org.

Focusing on their recent conference for the moment, this portal will progressively replace the current website.This will be soon the perfect place for you to search for information about global education, meet new people active in Global Justice, find resources on the online library, exchange about the latest hot topics...

Two articles including the input of DEEEP research officer, Amy Skinner, have been published in November 2013:

Article 1: Development Education in International Development Policy: Raising Quality through Critical Pedagogy and Global Skills. The essay provides a background overview of the key challenges of the education goals in international development up until now and provides some food for thought and initial arguments for why it is important to make global citizenship education a key focus of any education initiatives on the post-2015 framework. 

Article 2: Catalysing the shadow spaces: challenging development discourses from within the DEEEP project. This article explores the idea of applied development education at organisational level in order to critically reflect on current development paradigms within which we are working and how we as development educators can promote change from within.



Source: DEEEP Times December 2013

 

The European Economic and Social Committee on the European Year of Development 2015

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) welcomes the fact that the European Commission has responded to the joint initiative by civil society and the EESC to nominate 2015 as the European Year of Development.

The aim of the proposed European Year of Development (EYD) 2015 is to inform EU citizens about EU development cooperation, highlighting what the European Union can already achieve as the biggest aid donor in the world and how it could do even more with the combined strength of its Member States and its institutions. The European Year of Development will be the first European Year with a strong global and rights-based dimension.

The EESC calls on the EU institutions to do their utmost to reach the goals as stated by CONCORD: this Year is "a unique opportunity for a broad public discussion and meaningful civic engagement on the vision of Europe on Global Development, within Europe as well as for other continents, with its dimensions of Human Rights, environmental sustainability and social cohesion." Engaging and involving European citizens and civil society organisations and their partners throughout the world in development and in a political dialogue on global development and global justice is seen as the key to the success of the Year and development as such.

The EESC comments that CSOs play a key role not only in implementing development activities, but also in political processes and expresses its concern that at this stage only a very small percentage of the funding for the EYD is earmarked for civil society engagement and activities.


The EESC is providing an overview on the initiative to nominate 2015 as the European Year of Development and is gathering opinions how the Year could be designed. HAVE YOUR SAY!  


Find the full opinion here (section “Related documents”).


Source: CONCORD / European Economic and Social Committee

 

First EU Accession Conference with Serbia

Negotiations with Serbia on its accession to the European Union were opened on 21st of January 2014 at the first Intergovernmental Conference at Ministerial level. This follows a decision by the EU General Affairs Council on 25 June 2013 to open negotiations with Serbia.

Several countries in the Balkans have made progress on their way into the EU: Montenegro started accession negotiations with the EU in 2012. The European Commission has also recommended that membership negotiations start with Macedonia. In addition, Albania will probably be granted EU candidate status.

Most striking is the progress seen in Serbia, long considered the eternal troublemaker in the region. The governments of Serbia and Kosovo achieved an historic breakthrough in April 2013 when they completed an agreement concerning the normalisation of their relations. Critical to this agreement was Serbia's concession to dismantle its parallel structures in North Kosovo in exchange for the right to form an association of the Serb-inhabited municipalities and to grant them a high level of autonomy within Kosovo.

Although the EU does not ignore Serbia's deficits, prospects are good that the negotiations will still run smoothly. Serbia's aspiration to accelerate its EU integration process is also clearly influenced by Croatia's EU entry in July 2013, which demonstrated that the prospect of gaining membership can materialize if there is sufficient commitment by the applicant state.

Find out more about the process in this video. 

More information on EU Enlargement on the EC website.  


Sources: Council of the European Union Press Release and Tolksdorf Dominik: Start of EU Membership Negotiations With Serbia Could Further Stabilize the Western Balkans in The World Post, 10/16/2013  

EU Support for Rural Development in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The EU has approved €18 million to support reforms in agriculture and rural development in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This will complement the €56 million already available under the 2012-2013 Instrument of Pre-Accession.

Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle said: "This funding will help improve services and infrastructure in poor rural areas, bringing concrete benefits to local citizens. It will help the country meet the EU standards in agriculture and make further progress in European integration."

The bulk of the programme (€15.5 million) will be implemented under joint management with the World Bank. It will specifically target poor rural areas and municipalities, thus facilitating access to funds.

Read the EC press release here. 


Source: CONCORD, EU Monitoring Newsletter 17.01.2014

E-Course on Human Rights

The next North-South Centre Global Education: the Human Rights Dimension E-course will take place from 17 February - 16 March 2014 and you can apply now.

The application process consists of two steps:
1. Submitting the online application form underneath with your personal and organisational details;
2. Downloading the online MS Word application form and sending this filled-in form by email to: icd@netuni.nl

The deadline for submitting the complete application is 10 February, 2014.


Only applications that are complete will be considered. We will inform all applicants about the selection on 12 February, 2014. Please note that participation in this course requires an active collaborative participation taking at least 10 hours per week for four weeks!

More information online.  

Please also visit the website for the Global Education: The Intercultural Dimension course which takes place from 24 March - 20 April, 2014 and apply now.


Information provided by Miguel SILVA, North-South Centre - Council of Europe
 

The Age of Sustainable Development: Free Online Course by Jeffrey Sachs

If you are interested in sustainable development but were not really sure what it meant, you are in luck! The excellent free open Coursera has gotten Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University to give a 14 week online course.

Find out all about it here.








Information provided by DEEEP

 

First CONCORD Gender and Development Lunch at the European Parliament

In the context of the current processes and discussions underway to determine the Post-2015 Framework, the CONCORD Gender Working Group is organizing, with the support of Mr Gustafsson, MEP – Chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality – and Ms Estrella, MEP –Vice chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality - a “Gender and Development Lunch” on 29th of January 2014 (12h-14h) at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The purpose will be to further discuss the outcome of the UN General Assembly held in September 2013 and the next steps the European Union, multilateral organizations, and civil society organizations in Europe and globally can take to ensure the adoption of a Post 2015 Framework in which gender equality and the empowerment and rights of women and girls feature as central elements, with a special focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights.


More information and subscription here.


Source: CONCORD Member to Member newsletter from 14th of January 2014

National Conferece in Serbia: Define the Civil Society You Want

The Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Republic of Serbia has announced a call for participation in a national conference entitled “Get Involved – Define  the Civil Society You Want: The Vision for the Civil Society in Serbia in 2018 – creation of the first National Strategy for the enabling environment for the development of civil society”.

The conference will be held on the 20th-21st of February, 2014 in Belgrade. The national scale event will be organized in cooperation with the EU IPA 2011-2013 funded “EU Support Office for Cooperation with Civil Society” project and TACSO Serbia’s People 2 People programme. The conference will bring together around 300 representatives from government and public administration institutions, and civil society to discuss the importance of creating the first strategic framework for the establishment of an enabling environment for civil society in Serbia and is a great opportunity to contribute to the drafting of the National Strategy document.

The conference will also present the best EU and regional examples and lessons learned related to the process of creating and implementing a strategic framework for the development of civil society. Accommodation and travel costs for participants outside of Belgrade are limited and only one representative per CSO will be allowed to register. The deadline for applications is the 4th of February, 2014.

For more information and application procedures follow this link.


Source: BCSDN Newsletter E-Mail Alerts Nr. 285 of January 15, 2014

Destination Unknown: Conference about Children on the Move

As the Maltese partner of the Terre des Hommes International Federation and member of the Destination Unknown Campaign, the Maltese NGO KOPIN is happy to invite you to the Destination Unknown EU Public Conference which aims at raising awareness on the reality of children on the move in the light of recent development on EU asylum policy.

At the conference, which will be held on 19 February 2014 at the European Parliament in Brussels, Farah Abdullahi will provide his perspective on children on the move, also with a focus on Malta, to Commissioner Malström and other key stakeholders in the field of migration and asylum.


Information provided by KOPIN

European Commission Releases Q&A Regarding the DEAR Call

The European Commission has updated the list of online documents for it’s curent call on Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR Call).

A new "Questions & Answers" document is available on the Commission website.

 

Source: EC

ITUC: Development Partnerships Officer

The Trade Union Development Cooperation Network (ITUC) seeks a full time Development Partnerships Officer for their office in Brussels, Belgium.
Apply by 31 January 2014.

Find the job advertisment here.  


Source: ITUC

Oxfam: EU Partnership Development Adviser

Oxfam is looking for an exceptional, dynamic candidate with high level expertise and professional experience of relationship building, intelligence gathering and influencing EU institutions.

Deadline is 27 January 2014, see full add here. 

This is a new post at the Oxfam International EU Advocacy Office in Brussels, and the purpose of which is to work with Oxfam affiliates to develop our strategy to cultivate a closer partnership with the EU Institutions and identify and cultivate new funding opportunities that align with our strategic priorities, in order to increase the income of the Oxfam confederation. The post holder will also work to raise the profile of Oxfam’s development work with key EU staff and departments, and facilitate access to affiliate staff to key fora and opportunities related to their programmes.



Information provided by Oxfam

New Policy Digest: Development Effectiveness & the Role of CSOs

As a result of numerous changes in the world the development community is no longer talking about aid effectiveness, but about development effectiveness.

The key role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in addressing this paradigm shift, to which they also contributed, is to focus on poverty reduction and factors affecting development such as human rights, participatory democracy, social and environmental justice, sustainability and gender equality. CSOs engage in development effectiveness in many important ways. Firstly, CSOs monitor the actions of donors and other actors in development and play the ‘watchdog’ role. Secondly, they shape the global agenda of development effectiveness by participating in multi-stakeholder discussions. Thirdly, CSOs make sure their actions reflect the internationally agreed principles of development effectiveness. This policy digest will look more closely how CSOs can act in these roles in order to enhance development effectiveness.

Download the Policy Digest from the TRIALOG website.


Information provided by TRIALOG.
 

EU13 Platform Strategy Meeting 2013

The annual TRIALOG exchange meeting of development NGO platform representatives from EU member states after 2004 (EU13) looks back at a tradition of nine years, when TRIALOG organised the first “Central Training” in Vienna. A lot has happened since then and the meeting moved from a training setting to a networking and planning event for the now 13 national platforms.

  This year’s TRIALOG Strategy Meeting was hosted by the Slovenian platform SLOGA in Ljubljana and gathered around 30 participants from national platforms, CONCORD and other TRIALOG partners. During a market place session the platforms shared their highlights and challenges of 2013 and exchanged on their situations. CONCORD director Seamus Jeffreson presented the confederation’s annual priorities for 2014 and looked into statistics of EU13 engagement in CONCORD working structures. A special session was dedicated to the EU Presidencies in Lithuania and Latvia. The policy topics chosen by EU13 platforms this year were “European Parliament (EP) Elections 2014” and “The European Year for Development 2015 (EYD2015)”. In workshops the participants went deeper into the planning of activities related to these topics.

Read more and find the presentations here.


Information by Elisa Romero, TRIALOG