The Irish Development Education Association (IDEA) welcomes the adoption of the milestone European Declaration on Global Education to 2050 by ministers from across Europe, at the European Congress on Global Education to 2050, #GE2050, hosted by Irish Aid in Dublin Castle today. The process leading to the adoption of the Dublin Declaration was co-chaired by Ireland and Luxembourg over the past 18-months. The Declaration was developed by GENE, the network of Ministries and Agencies with national responsibility for Global Education in European countries, with input from civil society, youth organisations, research and educational institutions and a number of global critical friends.

Speaking at the Congress, Frank Geary, Director of IDEA, said: ''We welcome the commitments by the ministers today towards achieving access to quality Global Citizenship Education (GCE) for all by 2050. This Declaration is a milestone for GCE and for education more broadly. It clearly positions GCE as central to developing the critical thinking, skills, attitudes, and values we need to tackle the many challenges ahead. It also provides a strategic framework that takes us beyond the United Nations’ Sustainable Development. Goals.

The Dublin Declaration recognises the importance of GCE in responding to the growing necessity to put global and local justice, solidarity, and other issues at the heart of education system reform, curricula, and learning. This is something that is already visible in Irish education – through the second National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development, the Irish Aid Global Citizenship Education Strategy (2021-2025) and the plans to introduce a new Leaving Certificate subject on Climate Action and Sustainable Development in 2024.

Ireland has already been recognised at European and international level as a leader in GCE because of the quality of the organisations and programmes being run, and the support structures that are in place for the sector. We in IDEA look forward to playing our role in the further strengthening and growth of GCE both here and in Europe in the coming years.”​

Further Information:

• IDEA, the Irish Development Education Association, is the national network for Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in Ireland representing over 90 organisations involved in the practice of GCE across the formal, non-formal and informal education settings.       
• IDEA members include Development NGOs, such as Concern, Trócaire, GOAL, Plan International; youth organisations such as the National Youth Council of Ireland and the YMCA; community and voluntary organisations such as Comhlámh, Development Perspectives; educational institutions and networks such as the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education in DCU, Dept of International Development Maynooth University, trade unions such as the Association for Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), and other civil society organisations such as Children in Crossfire and Poetry Ireland. Full list of our members available here.
• The Dublin Declaration (attached) was endorsed by Governments from across Europe. It will involve the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Ms Jutta Urpilainnen, has already strongly endorsed the process.
• In addition to Governments and International Organisations, the Congress and Declaration involved civil society and youth organisations, research and educational institutions and local and regional authorities

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