This definition has been approved by the DE Forum during the 2004 annual meeting, and endorsed by CONCORD during the General Assembly of November 2004.

 

Development education is an active learning process, founded on values of solidarity, equality, inclusion and co-operation. It enables people to move from basic awareness of international development priorities and sustainable human development, through understanding of the causes and effects of global issues to personal involvement and informed actions.

Development education fosters the full participation of all citizens in world-wide poverty eradication, and the fight against exclusion. It seeks to influence more just and sustainable economic, social, environmental, human rights based national and international policies.

 

As development political domestic work we understand the sensibilisation on topics of development policy.  Development political domestic work has a holistic and broad character. The goal of the work is to make topics of development policy sustainably affecting society and enable concrete engagement to create a sustainable society in which justice and human dignity play a central role. Therefore the mediation of knowledge, the advancement of consciousness and taking influence on decision-makers are important parts of it.

Development Education is a process which seeks to generate changes in values and attitudes both at the individual and collective level, with an eye to a fairer world in which resources and power are fairly shared in a spirit of respect for human dignity" (extract of "Reference document on Development Education by ACODEV Sectorial Group on Development Education).

Global Development Education is a life-long educational process which:  

     •      gives information about people living in developing and developed countries and facilitates understanding the connection between their own lives and lives of people in the whole world  

     •      facilitates understanding of economical, social, political, environmental and cultural processes which influence lives of all people      

 •          develops skills, which enable people to solve problems actively   

  • supports values and attitudes which enable people to take part in problem solving on local, regional, national and international level    

        •   leads to accepting responsibility for creating a world where all people have the opportunity to live a dignified life according to their conception.                                   

Global Development Education (GDE) is to prepare an individual for life in the current inter-connected changing world. The intention is lead students to understanding of the problems of present world, to creating one’s own opinion about these problems and the development of skills to solve these problems. GDE aims can be defined accordingly in fields of specific competencies of the educational process participants, that is in the fields of knowledge, skills and attitudes

 

Development education aims to raise awareness and understanding of how global issues affect the everyday lives of individuals communities and how all of us can and do influence the global.

Global education follows the model of sustainable development as established in Agenda 21 and developed further in the course of time. It aims at the strengthening of self-organisation and self-competencies as a prerequisite of human development. The content of global education focuses particularly on the subject areas of social and economic development, related to ecological, political, and cultural aspects as well as interactions between local and global realities.

Global education serves  the recognition and shaping of social, economic, technological, political, demographic and environmental inequalities and global processes which are due to globalization. Its aim is to sensitise the participant of the learning process, to enhance his/her social participation as well as to extend his/her responsibility towards future generations, together with the development of relevant attitudes and competences. That can be achieved through dynamic and active learning process and awareness raising, focusing on the continuously changing global society and on the relation of the self and its broader environment. Global Education prepares the individual to evaluate his/her place, role and responsibility and to determine his/her individual and community related tasks in global processes. Global education stimulates open-mindedness, critical thinking, global solidarity, responsibility and conscious co-operative actions

"Development education is education that opens people's eyes to the realities of the world, and awakens them to bring about a world of greater justice, equality and human rights for all".

In Denmark we work with what is officially called "international dimension in all kinds of education". From an NGO's point of view we talk about an inter-cultural and global dimension in all subjects and topics in the education system. The aim is naturally that all Danish should accomplish a competence in dealing with, mixing with and respecting other cultures and a competence in understanding, and self involvement and taking responsability in society and world affairs, no matter local or global.

L'éducation au développement et à la solidarité internationale a pour finalité le changement des mentalités et des comportements de chacun, dans le but de contribuer individullement et collectivement à la construction d'un monde juste, slidaire et durable. Pour cela, elle a pour objectif de favoriser:

• la compréhension des méccanismes d'interdépendance et d'exclusion dans le monde
• la prise de conscience de l'importance de la solidarité internationale comme facteur de changement social
• l'action pour la construction d'un monde solidaire.

Eduquer au développement et à la solidarité internationale c'est s'impliquer dans un procéssus global dont la dimension Nord/SUd est un élément constitutif déterminant.

Development Education is about increasing people's awareness and understanding of global issues and of the inter-dependence of different countries and arts of the world in relation to those issues. In particular, it is about what sustains underdevelopment and what is needed to reach and sustain more equal development. It is an education based on reflection, analysis and action at local and global level.

Learning for globally balanced co-existence or shorter - global learning is a lifelong process of learning and acting that accentuates interdependence and individual's entanglement (role) in global events. The aim of such learning is globally responsible and active individuals and communities. Global learning is a process of inciting the individuals and communities for the own engagement and action when it comes to solving mankind's greatest common challenges.

In order to achieve that we have to develop formal and non-formal programmes of education and learning that are based on development of critical thinking and other personal and social skills. Active citizens that are educated and trained in such a way can contribute through their own actions and through participation in various organizations to more just and sustainable economic, social, environmental and human rights based national and international policies.

 

Development education is a dynamic, interactive and particpatory process, which aims:

• to achieve a complete and comprehensive education for each person; to promote awareness and understanding of the causes realted to development problems and of the interdependence between local and global issues.
• to promote inter-cultural understanding
• to promote social transformation/change based on equity, justice and solidarity;
• to promote the right and the duty of each individual and people to participate  and contribute towards sustainable development.