Stockholm, Sweden, October 23 2009

In the frame of the European Development Days 2009, hosted by Sweden in October 2009, the European Multi-stakeholder Group on Development Education organised the side event "European Citizens as Catalysts for Change".

 

High profile speakers, such as Justin Kilcullen (President of CONCORD), Denis Huber (Executive Director of the North- South Centre of the Council of Europe), Koos Richelle (Director General EuropeAid, European Commission), Margot Wallstrom (EC Commissioner), Eva Joly (MEP, Chair of teh Committee on Development of the European Parliament), Benjamin Mkapa (former President of Tanzania) and many more, debated on the role of citizens for the eradtication of global poverty.

 

"Citizens should be at the heart of the global poverty debate, as they are the ones to ask for change and be the change. However, they need to be empowered to fulfil their democratic potential as change actors. Development education, moving form awareness on global challenges, through understanding of causes and consequences of global inter-dependencies to informed action and critical involvement of each citizen is the tool to empower citizens to be “catalysts of change”.

 

All speakers made strong statements on the importance of development education. So emphasised Justin Kilcullen, CONCORD president, the central role of citizen’s engagement and development education in the new CONCORD strategy. Eva Joly, MEP and Chair of the European Parliament (EP) Development Committee, committed to support a EP report on the status of Development Education in Europe.

 

Another aspect explored during the talk show was the need for national strategies on Development Education, still missing in many EU member states. Manuel Correio highlighted the example of Portugal, that has recently endorsed the national strategy, and underlined that political advocacy and campaigning is explicitly included in the strategy as a four pillar, taking development education beyond a purely pedagogic agenda. This strategy was elaborated in an inclusive, multi stakeholder approach, an aspect also underlined by involved other speakers. As Anja Frings put it: “Change can only be achieved if we work together”.