KADE is a development education center located in Tralee, Ireland that was established in 1993. It operates Kerry's Development Education Centre and works to increase skills, knowledge and understanding of global issues among groups in Kerry. KADE receives funding from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and other Irish organizations. It coordinates educational activities like a yearly intercultural event and maintains a website and library. KADE aims to support civil society participation in development through critical and empowering development education approaches. It seeks to address power imbalances and include diverse perspectives from the global South in its work.

1. Developing Civil Society Participation Mary McGillicuddy, Coordinator Kerry Action for Development Education 11 Denny Street, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland 353-66-71813578 [email_address] www.kade.ie

2. Paper’s Focus The role a DE centre plays in relationship to a twinning project it was instrumental in establishing DE perspectives Challenges / opportunities for a DE centre

3. KADE, Community and Voluntary Association Established in 1993, KADE operates Kerry’s Development Education Centre, based in Tralee Target groups: in Kerry, formal & non-formal education sector, community development sector & local media

4. KADE works to develop people’s skills, knowledge and understanding of the world KADE is responding to the need for a locally accessible (Kerry) source of Development Education activities, contacts and resources KADE’s Rationale

5. Funding Sources KADE receives 3 year funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Irish Aid multi-annual programme grant scheme and also receive other grants from Irish bodies and development agencies. Staff: 1 full-time coordinator, 1 part-time administrator, 2 part-time outreach workers and 1 part-time CE trainee.

6. Denny Street Centre Location

7. KADE Centre Activities KADE newsletter produced periodically and distributed to over 600 sites Website maintained Information & library service provided by centre staff Outreach DE delivered to schools and community groups KADE coordinates a yearly intercultural celebration, ‘Global Tralee’ on Mar. 17 Staff participate in national and international (DE) networks / bodies

8. Jr. Minister for Overseas Aid’s Tralee Visit, 2005 Lesotho Ambassador on the speakers’ panel KADE Chairman also on the panel

9. Lesotho Ambassador Visits KCC ‘05

10. President Visits Tralee ‘05

11. KADE Lesotho MDG Exhibit Launch ‘06

12. Twinning Project Year 1 Report 2007

13. Civil Society Key concerns for the 21 st century: poverty eradication & sustainable development. Civil society- a ‘third zone’ (Keane, 2001)

14. Active Citizenship ‘ responsible global citizenship’ Murray (2006)- successful DE when the end result is action for positive change Values: solidarity, empathy, respect & ability to think & argue critically

15. Finlay (2006) humanitarian / charity approach vs justice / entitlement approach

16. ‘ do me justice, treat me fair’ Soft / critical models of citizenship ‘ critical literacy’ power relations Andreotti (2006)

17. DE Defined DEEEP - foster full participation of all citizens in worldwide poverty eradication… Irish Aid- every person will have access to…

18. Key Questions for a DE Centre: How can DE and DE centres support those involved in development actions? How does a DE centre translate relevant academic discourses into comprehensible concepts and constructsin order to increase dialogue and understanding of the challenges of an aid endeavour?

19. More Key Questions- How can a DE centre effectively include Southern voices and perspectives in its education work? How can a DE centre assist members of civil society involved in overseas aid/development actions to engage consciously and respectfully with those in the South?

20. DE: charity vision origins, ignoring Northern involvement in creating Southern problems v.s. socially critically current forms which try to identify and address misconceptions and prejudices as part of the process of ‘liberating education’ (Yarwood & Davis, 1994).

21. Development NGO’s (Korten,1990) 4 generation model: relief & welfare community development sustainable systems people’s movements

22. Dochas ( www.dochas.ie ), NGO Roles

23. Development through Empowerment (Thomas, 1992) Participatory action research- Freire conscientisation ideas, power relations Schumacher- provision of tools for self-reliance

24. ‘ Southern Voice’ some Southerners see ‘West as best’ others distrust everything associated the North (Ditshego, 1994)

25. Challenges (Connolly, 2007) “ little evidence of widespread internal debate by Irish NGO’s about power relationships involved in working in partnership with Southern civil societyorganisations and formal policies & strategic management remain underdeveloped in this area”

26. Process, not Prescription critical self-evaluation overall development & societal context

27. DE Centre Challenges ‘ ethical relationship’ wherein development of critical literacy occurs critical engagement & reflexivity critique of relationships of : perspectives, language, power, social groups, social practices * not to judge, but to understand (Andreotti, 2006)

28. DE centre can provide the space to enable members of civil society to reflect & explore how one comes to think / feel / be / act as one does & the impact of one’s belief systems locally / globally (issues: power, social relationships, distribution of labour & resources) (Andreotti, 2006)

29. Emancipatory Mode social education which seeks to empower people so that they can democratically transform society (Giroux, 1983) desconstruct & reconstruct

30. KADE DE Strategy resource centre locally based information ‘signposting’ training provision public seminar debate series advocacy

31. Conclusion ‘ Global Justice through Local Education’