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Global Citizenship Education

Irish Aid’s Global Citizenship Education funding aims to increase awareness and understanding of global development issues among the Irish public.

 

  • Overview
  • Our Global Citizenship Education Partners
  • Applying for funding
  • Results

Overview

Overview

What is Global Citizenship Education?

Global Citizenship Education is a lifelong educational process which aims to increase public knowledge and understanding of the rapidly changing, interdependent and unequal world in which we live. By challenging stereotypes and encouraging independent thinking, global eitizenship education helps people to critically explore how global justice issues interlink with their everyday lives.

Global Citizenship Education is transformative. It enables people to analyse and challenge the root causes and consequences of global poverty and inequality and to transform the social, cultural, political and economic structures which affect their lives and the lives of others. It aspires to change the way people think and act; empowering them to take action and become active global citizens in the creation of a fairer, more just, more secure and more sustainable world for all.

Global Citizenship Education addresses a wide range of themes and issues, including:‌

Why do we provide Global Citizenship Education funding?

Our funding to global citizenship education supports the implementation of the Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Strategy 2021-2025The long term goal of the Strategy is that through the provision of global citizenship education, people are empowered to analyse and challenge the root causes and consequences of global hunger, poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change. 

Global citizenship education plays an important role in building the conditions in which we can continue to meet ongoing global challenges, contributing to both our foreign policy and international development policy objectives.  The four core values underpinning our foreign policy are a fairer, more just, more secure and more sustainable world.  Irish Aid promotes these values abroad through our international development programme and at home through our support for development education.  Global citizenship education promotes citizenship literacy among the Irish public by deepening understanding of global justice issues and Ireland’s core values, advancing our foreign policy aim of contributing to the collective international effort to build a better world for all.

Our funding for global citizenship education enables us to work in partnership with educators across the primary, post-primary, higher education, youth and adult and community education sectors to increase the accessibility, quality and effectiveness of development education in Ireland.‌

Projects and programmes approved for global citizenship education funding share the following characteristics:

  • Contribute to the learner’s knowledge and understanding of global justice issues and facilitate the learner to engage with multiple perspectives
  • Enhance the learner’s skills and competencies, placing particular emphasis on the development of critical thinking skills
  • Strengthen the leaner’s values and attitudes, supporting the learner to recognise our global interconnectedness and consequently our rights and responsibilities as global citizens
  • Promote action at a local and global level,  empowering the learner to engage in individual and/or collective action to bring about a positive difference in the world

All projects and programmes approved for global citizenship education funding have a strong focus on achieving the results set out in the Global Citizenship Education Strategy and the Performance Measurement Framework and contribute to awareness raising of and engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals.  

Our Global Citizenship Education Partners

Global Citizenship Education Grants Funding

33 organisations have been granted Irish Aid funding through the Global Citizenship Education programme. This funding is a mixture of new projects approved in 2023, plus Year 2 funding for projects approved in 2022. A total of €2,127,722 in funding was approved for 2023, with an additional €964,520 approved for 2024, and €636,387 approved for 2025. 

Organisation

Year 1 Funding 2023

Afri €52,000
AkiDwa

€40,000

An Taisce

€120,000

ARD Family Resource Centre

€41,200

Educate Together

 

€21,544

Engineers Without Borders

€48,645

Financial Justice Ireland

€100,276

Galway One World Centre

€80,828

Latin America Solidarity Centre

€32,430
Lourdes Youth and Community Services

 

€124,619

 

Meath Partnership

 

€48,099

 

SERVE

 

€27,182

Tearfund

€24,330

Tools for Solidarity €22,000

 

University College Cork

€73,623

University College Dublin Volunteers Overseas

€67,350

 

Voluntary Service International (VSI)

€23,444

Youth Work Ireland Galway

€51,433

Youth Work Ireland Tipperary

€80,000

Total Funding

€1,079,003

 

Organisation  Year 2 Funding 2023
Centre for Global Education €75,000
Cloyne Diocesan Youth Services (CDYS) €55,000
ECO UNESCO €120,000
Friends of the Earth €70,000
GAISCE €70,000
Global Action Plan €60,000
Inishowen Development Partnership €100,000
Irish Girl Guides €70,000
Munster Technological University €160,000
Proudly Made in Africa €75,000
Scouting Ireland €100,000
Viatores Christi €19,641
Waterford Sustainable Living Initiative €19,235
Waterford Sustainable Living Initiative (Dear Co-funding) €5,504
YMCA €49,339
  €1,048,719

Updated Innovation Challenge Fund figures for 2023 GCE grant round

In 2022, a total of €3,543,876 was provided to 9 organisations for multi-annual funding under the Global Citizesnhip Education Strategic Partnership Programme as follows:

Organisation Irish Aid Funding Allocation
 WWGS  €1,197,406
 DICE  €320,000
 80:20 (DevelopmentEducation.ie)  €110,000
 SUAS  €300,000
 IDEA  €500,000
 Youth 2030 (NYCI)  €400,000
 Saolta (Development Perspectives)  €290,000
 Global Village  €150,096
UBUNTU  €276,374

Applying for funding

How to apply for Global Citizenship Education Grant funding

Irish Aid issues a call for global citizenship education project proposals annually. The Global Citizenship Education Grant Scheme is open to Irish-based organisations only.

Grants are allocated in the range of €10,000 to €180,000 annually. In 2023, applications can be submitted for projects with a duration of one, two or three years.

The 2023 Global Citizenship Education Grant call for proposals is now closed and the 2024 Global Citizenship Education Grant call will open in Q4 of 2023

 

Results

Results

An updated approach to results will be developed as part of the roll out of the new Global Citizenship Education Strategy. In 2022, as an interim measure, partners will be asked to provide quantitative basic data to include the following: 

  • numbers directly reached (disaggregated by geography and gender). 
  • this total figure to be broken down by primary students, post-primary students, 3rd level students (not student teachers), student teachers (primary), student teachers (post-primary), young people, youth educators, educators in ACE sector, adults (ACE), other (please specify). 
  • Estimated numbers indirectly reached (as relevant, please clarify how this figure is calculated). 
  • Institutions supported (primary schools, post-primary schools, HEIs, youth organisations, organisations in ACE sectors, others (please specify). 
  • Knowledge products produced (new and updated). 

Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Strategy Making progress on global citizenship education across Ireland 2021-2022

Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Strategy Making progress on global citizenship education across Ireland 2020-2021

Irish Aid Development Education Strategy Making progress on global citizenship education across Ireland 2017-2020 

Irish Aid Development Education Strategy making progress on global citizenship education across Ireland 2017-2018

Irish Aid Development Education Strategy Making progress on global citizenship education across Ireland 2018-2019

Irish Aid Development Education Strategy Making progress on global citizenship education across Ireland 2019-2020

Reporting requirements

Irish Aid monitoring of Global Citizenship Education Grants includes:

  • Annual report on results and expenditure
  • Audited accounts to be submitted annually‌