International Development Select Committee

1

20 February 2009

International Development Select Committee

House of Commons

7 Millbank

London

SW1P 3JA

Dear Sir/Madam

Response to Inquiry into Aid Under Pressure: Support for Development Assistance in a Global Economic Downturn

Please find attached our evidence submitted for this inquiry. We would be happy to supply further evidence on any of these areas if required.

Yours faithfully

Hetan Shah

Chief Executive

Submission of Evidence from DEA to the International Development Select Committee Inquiry into International Developmenton Aid Under Pressure: Support for Development Assistance in a Global Economic Downturn

February 2009

Executive Summary

• DFID’s work on Building Support for Development has had a significant impact on public understanding of development issues, especially through work with schools.
• DFID’s development awareness work should continue and be increased. It is effective and there is a need for much greater public understanding. It should be widened to support other sectors of education, particularly youth work.
• DFID must ensure that it does not lose the educational focus of its development awareness and move towards less effective, shallow, campaign based approaches.
• DFID could be more effective by working more closely with DCSF and its agencies.
• Sharing learning from the range of work DFID supports would increase their effectiveness.

About DEA

DEA is an education charity that promotes global learning. We work to influence schools, curriculum, youth work and education policy so that children and young people develop an understanding of global issues and events and a global outlook. DEA defines global learning as education that puts learning in a global context, fostering:

•critical and creative thinking;

•self-awareness and open-mindedness towards difference;

•understanding of global issues and power relationships; and

•optimism and action for a better world.

DEA has a network of member organisations working directly with educators across the country.

Analysis and recommendations

Our response refers particularly to the fourth issue raised by the committee:

The effectiveness of DFID’s strategy for strengthening public support for its work

1. DFID’s work in strengthening public support for its work was outlined in their 1997 White Paper. It was described in detail in Building Support for Development in 1999.In their 2006 White Paper, ‘Eliminating World Poverty: Making governance work for the poor’ DFID states that the UK will, “Double our investment indevelopment education, as weseek to give every child in theUK the chance to learn aboutthe issues that shape their world”(p124).The budget for Development Awareness is £19m during 08/09, rising to £24m in 09/10. All these commitments are welcome.

1. DFID’s funding and programmes have had a major impact on public understanding of development issues, especially through schools, and should be continued or, ideally, increased. We believe that this contribution has been largely effective although there are always minor areas for improvement.

1. Please note that DEA has moved from using the term, ‘development education’ to talking about ‘global learning’. The reason for this is that, as the White Paper recognises, “in today’s increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, our lives in the richest countries are affected by what happens in developing countries, and we also have an impact on the lives of people there.”(p123). We have found the term, ‘global learning’, to be a more useful in working with educators as it helps people to appreciate this global interdependence and they can see it as a mainstream educational agenda.

1. Development issues are challenging for educators who are not familiar with the complexities of the debates. There is not currently enough global learning taking place. For example, DEA commissioned Ipsos MORI to survey young people in 2008, they found:

• Almost one in five (19%) have not discussed news stories from around the world at all in school.
• Only around two in five (42%) of pupils believe that what they do in their daily life affects people in other countries, showing they are not making the connections about, for example, climate change.

(Ipsos MORI surveyed 1,955 pupils from 82 middle and secondary state schools in England between 11th January and 28th March 2008 on behalf of DEA. See for full details.)

1. Organisations which DFID funds such as Development Education Centres (DECs) play an important role in producing education materials and supporting teachers and other educators to engage with global and development issues. They help young people to make sense of the global context of their lives;recognise that what they do affects people and the environment in other countries; and understand and respond to some of the complexity of development issues. Most of this work would not be possible without DFID’s support. Examples of the positive impact of DFID’s support can be seen in collections of case studies such as ‘Global Matters’ and ‘Think Global’[i].

1. The key word, from DEA’s perspective, in the 2006 commitment is education. Public support cannot be built by simplistic public relations and awareness raising campaigns. The public may believe these and support them when they see them but will soon forget and will not feel strongly enough about them if they have not thoroughly thought the messages through and made connections to their own lives. For example, many people were involved in Make Poverty History but the evidence shows that their engagement was largely shallow[ii]. The role of education is to ensure that people reflect critically on the issues and come to own their responses whilst maintaining an openness to review in the light of new circumstances.

1. DFID currently supports national level development education organisations, including the DEA, as well as Cyfanfyd (Wales), IDEAS (Scotland) and the Centre for Global Education in Northern Ireland. Moves are also being made by DFID to strategically engage DCSF and DCLG (the latter on Community Cohesion). This is positive but more needs to be done, in particular to engage with other agencies in the mainstream education sector. It would also be valuable for DFID to work more closely with other government departments which have an interest in education for sustainable development (DEFRA and DECC), and culture (DCMS).

1. DFID worked together with the Education Department in 2000 to produce ‘Developing the Global Dimension in the School Curriculum’. The joint working was positive for all concerned. Furthermore, the booklet was revised in 2005 and over 50,000 copies of the second version were requested showing a very high demand from teachers.

1. DFID funds the Global Dimension website which provides teaching resources for teachers. It receives 25,000 visits per month. This also shows the value which teachers attach to finding quality resources for global learning and the demand that exists for this agenda in schools.

1. DFID puts a large proportion of its funding into supporting links/partnerships between schools and communities in the UK and those in other countries through the DFID Global Schools Partnerships programme and through a Community Linking initiative.Some of this work is good but when done badly, linking can reinforce negative stereotypes rather than contribute to an understanding of the root causes of poverty. We would recommend that further research be carried out into the impact of linking on learning. Anecdotal evidence suggests that DFID’s other education work is more effective than this linking approach.

1. One of DFID’s key programmes for schools work is ‘Enabling effective support for a global dimension in education’ (EES). This costs about £1.5m per year and aims “to build capacity within the UK’s education systems so they respond to the challenges of educating young people to understand and help shape the globalising and interdependent world in which they live.” Each government region has a different strategy in response to EES. The ‘enabling’ aspect of the strategy makes evaluation particularly difficult but from our close engagement with those involved, we believe that this strategy has been excellent value for money in increasing the capacity of schools to grapple with the development agenda.

1. DFID’s Development Awareness Fund grants have been a very significant element of the funding for organisations supporting global learning since 1997. The total budget for 08/09 is £4.5m with £1.86m of this being for new projects in this financial year. There is excellent education work being done by small NGOs, including the UK’s network of 45 Development Education Centres (DECs) which would not be possible without this funding.

1. DFID’s work with young people has tended to focus on schools. However, there is increasing demand from the youth sectors to introduce development awareness and global learning into their work in response to the interests and concerns of young people and the recognition that global youth work can enhance the positive outcomes for young people and their communities. Global youth work can also bring quality global learning to young people not engaging with school; it can support and take forward the learning from international volunteering and exchanges; and can help give young people the confidence and skills to be involved in international decision-making forums on issues that affect them. At present there is very little support for global youth work and no strategic coordination that could ensure the potential of this work is maximised. We strongly recommend that this is addressed.

1. More work should also be done in Further Education and Higher Education, working with the strategic national bodies for these sectors would be a valuable first step.

1. DFID’s work could be made more effective if they were able to do more to ensure an even geographical spread of support programmes across the UK. For example there is only one Development Education Centre in the whole of London and only one in the whole of the North East.

1. With the DFID Development Awareness Fund grants, more work needs to be done to ensure that learning from projects is captured in such a way that it can be used by DFID, current and future grant holders and other stakeholders. Project evaluations are done but these need to be brought together so wider conclusions can be drawn about which projects have the most positive impacts and how the grant programmes might be adapted to encourage more of these. The Development Awareness Fund also tends to fund new projects and there should be consideration for drawing on the best of existing projects for further funding, development and potentially rolling out on a wider basis, rather than purely a focus on innovation.

1. Further research is needed into global learning to ensure that DFID builds on its best work and develops the most effective programmes it can, for example:

• What impacts do different kinds of DFID funded interventions make? Which are the most effective and have the most long term effects?
• What constitutes good quality global learning, and what are the pitfalls that need to be avoided?
• How does global learning impact on standards, teacher retention, community cohesion and other key issues in schools?

Submitted by DEA on 20 February 2009

[i]DEA (2008) Global Matters

Think Global (2008) is available from:

[ii] Darnton, A (2006) Make Poverty History: End of Year Notes, From the ‘Public Perceptions of Poverty Research Programme. Available from: