Environment and Development

Environment and Development

Carol HealySu-ming KhooDevelopment Education and Research NetworkNUI Galway (DERN)www.nuigalway.ie/dern

Synopsis

1. Environment and development cooperation

2. Environmental education and development education

3. DERN

4. Environmental sustainability: Bridging development education and research

Environment and Development Cooperation

• Poverty and environment inextricably linked– Global environmental threats compound local

environmental problems – Health is closely related to quality of environment– MDG Goal 7:Ensure Environmental Sustainability– Ireland has obligations to help developing countries

address climate change– Environmental issues are often addressed through

the “three pillars” of cooperation.

3 “Pillars” of Cooperation

Link to environmental justice

Livelihood securityImpact on/

Participation of poor and vulnerable

EnvironmentalSocial

EconomicFuture

generationsCommons

Link environment to rights and law

Accountability and participation Rights involve dutiesNon-discrimination

Vulnerable groups come first

Rights based Sustainability Poverty focused

International policy – UN frameworkNational policy directions set by Irish Aid White Paper on Development (Sept 2006)

What is Development Education?

Development Education

Critical Engagement with development

Critical Engagement with Social Justice issues

Understanding Local/globalInterdependence

Responsible Action

Knowledgeandunderstanding

Attitudesand Values

Skillsand

Capacities

Builds on:

Promote:

Leads to:

What is Development Education?• Concerned with building of knowledge and

understanding, skills and capacities, and attitudes and values necessary that enable individuals to critically examine the world, its development and its interdependencies and to act, both locally and globally to make it a more just, equitable and sustainable place.

• “Development Education aims to deepen understanding of global poverty and encourage people towards action for a more just and equal world” – Irish Aid Development Education Strategy Plan May 2007.

• Aims to promote critical engagement about development and global justice issues

Linking Development Education and Environmental Education

• Development Education + Environmental Education = Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO)

DE +EE =

ESD

• Increase knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment, skills to protect environment•Active participation

•Recognise local-global connections •Understandcauses of poverty and inequality•Enable people to achieve a more just and sustainable world

•Joined up approach to environment, society & economy•Ensure people have a healthy and productive life (esp. FOOD);•Assess, care for and restore the state of our Planet;•create and enjoy a better, safer, more just world;•Caring citizens who exercise their rights and responsibilities locally, nationally and globally.

Development education and environmental research

• Bridging the gap between environmental research and development is essential for sustainable development

• Sustainable development requires 3 pillars to be balanced– Environmental protection– Economic development– Social justice/ inclusion – participation

• How to integrate these into research?• Examples:

– IIED: Impacts of climate change on economic growth– PEP: Research in the area of the environment and development– NUIG: IA-HEA research groups

• Can Development Education be integrated with environmental research through focus on rights, poverty and sustainability ?

IA-HEA Research Clusters

Trade

Sustainable technologies

Law andPolicy reform

Community based health

HIV/AIDS

Creating and sharingknowledge for rights-based and sustainable development cooperation – A research and training programmefor NUI Galway

Coordinated by DERN

Law and Policy ReformBuilding Capacity

for Good Governance

- developing frameworks for

law and policy reform

Social, Economic and Cultural Rights

and the Right to

Development: Concept, Law and Practice

Disability Law in Foreign Policy

and Development Cooperation

Building research capacity: Sex

in Post-Conflict societies: rights, responses and

public policy

Regional capacity building in oceans

and marine resource and

technology law

Appropriate TechonolgiesBuilding Capacity

to deliver Environmental

Sustainability through appropriate

technologies

GIS mapping & analyses of relationships

between environment and human health

in China and South Africa .

Sustainable, low-cost technology systems

for treating water and wastewater

Sustainable, low-cost technology systems

for treating and recovering

energy from wastes

What is DERN?• Development Education and Research Network• Interdisciplinary, cross-faculty network, which includes

over 100 members. • Three main objectives:

1. Mainstream development education

• Embed Development Education in existing professional education

• Identify demand for development education content,

• deliver modules where appropriate

2. Develop research capability and professional expertise relevant to Dev. Ed.

•Research fellowships in Development Education •Support networking through DERN to build capacity for collaboration and professional work

3. Connect Dev. Ed. and civic engagement

•Web based resource + forum•Interdisciplinary seminars

DERN activities• Coordinated NUI Galway research bid for the IA-HEA Programme of

Strategic Cooperation (€1.5m, 13 Projects)• Mainstream development education into research activities • DERN website: www.nuigalway.ie/dern• Seminars:

– Organic growing as national policy in Cuba, – The Jaipur foot– Career Options in Development– Funding opportunities and research needs for Development.– Development as Global Responsibility

• Development’s Futures Conference - Nov 2007• Networking with with other third level institutions, NGOs etc . • Publications contributing to current thinking on the development

education landscape• Next priority: develop content for development education (lectures,

modules)• WE ARE LOOKING for staff who want development education in

their teaching and research

www.nuigalway.ie/dern

What Next?• Staff interested in development education

content for their teaching and research to contact Carol

• Waiting for result of IA-HEA bid (July?)• Other research proposals/ needs? Contact

Carol/ Su-ming• Upcoming seminars – Rainforest Day!• Topic/speaker suggestions welcome• Conference – Nov 24-25 2007

Incorporating ESD- some questions

• Already overloaded curriculum• Buy – in• To what extent can ‘mainstreaming’ and the

integration of third level serve to realise the vision of Development Education?

• How to capture the complexity of development through educational processes?

• How to ensure genuine discourse?• How can short term funding achieve the long

term aims Dev Ed?• Critical engagement versus policy relevance

Some Resources• Africa Up in Smoke: Working Group on Climate

Change and Development• Stern Review, 2006• Stop Climate Chaos• IIED- http://www.iied.org/• PEP http://www.povertyenvironment.net/pep/• Comhar’s Principles for Sustainable

Development. www.comhar-nsdp.ie• M. Gorman, D. O’Connor; Ireland’s Overseas

Aid Programme and Agenda 21• Irish Aid Environmental Policy