merrion street

Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Sean Fleming, TD, has announced €2.1 million in Irish Aid funding to 33 organisations working in schools and communities across Ireland. The funds will be used for activities to build awareness and understanding of global issues such as climate change, hunger and injustice and to support the public to act individually and collectively to make the world a better place.

Among the groups to receive funding in this round are Educate Together; Galway One World Centre; Financial Justice Ireland; Youth Work Ireland, Tipperary; University College Cork and Meath Partnership.

Minister Fleming said:

“Recent global events have shown how interconnected our world has become. We want to work with people of all ages across Ireland to increase their understanding and awareness of issues such as climate change, conflict and migration.

“The organisations that will receive this Irish Aid funding are working to build awareness of these issues and how each of us can make a difference through individual and collective action. We are supporting a number of new partners this year and I encourage organisations wanting to work in Global Citizenship Education to apply for the 2024 round which will open from October 2023.”

The funding will be provided by Irish Aid through its Global Citizenship Education programme. Minister Fleming highlighted a number of organisations, including AkiDwA, the national network of migrant women living in Ireland, and Lourdes Youth and Community Services, a community development organisation in Dublin’s North Inner City.

The Minister also announced a second year of funding from the Innovation Challenge Fund, which encourages fresh thinking on how to engage the public on global themes. More than €70,000 was allocated to 13 projects, ranging from using the creative arts to promote global citizenship education and supporting links between primary schools in Ireland, South Africa and Kenya.

Minister Fleming said:

“Supporting innovation in the sector is a key part of our work on Global Citizenship Education. We are delighted to support these 13 organisations in trialling new approaches, including building partnerships with the Global South.”

Note to Editors:

• Irish Aid defines Global Citizenship Education as a lifelong educational process, which aims to increase public awareness and understanding of the rapidly changing, inter-dependent and unequal world in which we live. GCE covers a wide range of issues including climate change, hunger, migration, peace and conflict, global inequality and injustice.
• Irish Aid is providing grants totalling €2.1m to 33 organisations under its 2023 Global Citizenship Education (GCE) grants round to organisations based in Ireland.   This includes funding to 19 organisations in the 2023 round and Year 2 funding to a further 14 organisations.
• The GCE grants scheme is a competitive process under which grants of between €10,000 and €180,000 for one, two or three year projects, are awarded to Ireland-based NGOs and educational institutions. A call for proposals was published on the Irish Aid website in October 2022.
• All applications were assessed by Irish Aid officials and external consultants. The appraisal process includes assessing organisational capacity to deliver the proposed projects and intended results.

ENDS