The Minister for Overseas Development and Diaspora, Colm Brophy TD, will chair a major European conference on the promotion of sustainability and global justice at Dublin Castle on Thursday and Friday of this week (November 3rd and 4th).
The European Congress on Global Education will be attended by representatives of 22 countries. It will discuss strategies to build public awareness and understanding of global issues such as climate change, migration, global hunger and poverty.
More than 300 people are expected to attend, which will culminate with the adoption of the Dublin Declaration on Global Education, setting out the parameters for national and trans-European cooperation in this area. It comes 20 years after a first European Congress at Maastricht in the Netherlands.
The Congress is the final event of Ireland’s Presidency of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe and will be attended by the Council’s Deputy Secretary General Bjorn Berge. The UN Secretary General’s Advisor for Transforming Education, Mr. Leonardo Garnier of Costa Rica will speak, as will the Sierra Leonean Deputy Minister for Education, Ms. Mamusu Massaquoi.
Minister Brophy said:
“Ireland is pleased to host this landmark conference which comes at a pivotal moment given the acceleration of the climate crisis and increased hunger and conflict around the world.
“The Dublin Declaration that we will adopt will set out how Governments will work with youth representatives, civil society, business and academia to build a coalition for change. Our aim is to mobilise the public at an individual and collective level to think about they can contribute to sustainability and global justice.”
Global Education is an umbrella term which encompasses Global Citizenship Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Human Rights Education and other related areas.
Minister Brophy launched an Irish Strategy for Global Citizenship Education in November 2021, which is implemented by the Irish Aid international development programme within the Department of Foreign Affairs. Subsequently, in June 2022, Minister for Education Norma Foley TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD and Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman TD launched a second National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development.
ENDS