DEEEP

2004 - 2015
DEEEP was a project of  CONCORD‘s DARE Forum, the European Development NGO confederation. The DARE Forum united representatives of 28 national development NGO platforms and 5 NGDO networks. The DARE Forum created DEEEP in 2003 and the last phase of the project ended in December 2015. As facilitator of the European development education sector, the DARE Forum aimed to be a driver for new transformative approaches to development.

Being funded mostly by the European Commission, DEEEP projects were developed in 3-year phases, the first one (DEEEP 1) starting in 2003, the last and fourth one (DEEEEP4) finishing in December 2015.

DEEEP4 challenged the classic approach to international development, which failed to adequately address the root causes of inequality and injustice, such as the exploitation of people and planet, or extreme poverty and extreme wealth. Development education was perceived as a key tool in gaining a critical understanding of the world around us and in creating an active global civil society, which works systemically for greater global justice. To get there, DEEEP4 facilitated joint action and collaboration amongst multiple stakeholders including NGOs, educators, citizens, state and research institutes.

In short, over the years, DEEEP aimed to:

  1. Create a global movement of citizens working for change
  2. Coordinate the development education sector
  3. Sharpen the identity and concepts of development education
  4. Contribute to wider discourses on development and education
  5. Improve the quality and impact of development education

Activities

For background information, we invite you to read the DEEEP4′ Vision & Mission paper.

  • AdvocacyThe aim of the advocacy work was ‘to achieve global justice by being translators, enablers and advocates of the Sustainable Development Goals’. Concretely, the advocacy work consisted in advocating on the EU level for policies supportive on Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) / Global Citizenship Education (GCE); common policy issues; supporting DEAR/GCE at national level. The core processes were the following: Global Citizenship Education in the Post2015 framework (post MDGs), The European Year for Development 2015, The Multi-Stakeholders process, European Policies in Development Education. (See tab “Bridge 47”)
  • Research: Research has a vital role to play in promoting innovation within the field of development education theory and practice. DEEEP adopted a participatory, cross-sectoral approach to its research which enabled the project to explore a range of different perspectives and approaches on education and international development. They published several reports and articles with academics and practitioners that stimulated innovative thinking about new paradigms for development and education which have global justice at their core. The publications targeted development education practitioners and academics, civil society organisations and anyone interested in education and social change. (See publications below)
  • Capacity Building: Capacity development activities aimed at supporting national platforms and Development Education practitioners in raising awareness, educating and mobilising the European public for global justice.Three main activities were ran during the 4th phase of the DEEEP project:  a Development course, National Seminars and Sub-granted projects. (See the tabs below)
  • Communication: We have organised a webinar and a seminar aiming to first question the way we communicate development issues and then change these practices. The main outcome of this ‘communication cycle’ is the ‘Toolkit: Transformational communications for global justice‘. (See publications below + Tab “Reframing the message”)
  • Movement building: DEEEP & CONCORD, together with its partners, GCAP, CIVICUS and the Forum for a new World Governance, wanted to  support the emergence of a transformational World Citizens’ Movement. They have organised 3 global conferences which brought together more than 600 individuals from civil society organisations and social movements from all over the world, across topical silos and beyond all cultural or organisational differences. (See timeline below)

 

For more details about the activities, have a look at the timeline below.

Useful links & Info

The sub-granted projects
In 2013:

  • BPID – the Bulgarian Platform for International Development – for the project Young Professionals Development Program
  • CONCORD Italia for The world needs citizens
  • The Lithuanian Platform for Let’s get global

In 2014:

  • FoRS – the Czech NGDO Platform
  • Comhlámh – an Irish NGDO
  • Think Global – a British development education association
  • HAND – the Hungarian NDGO Platform

In 2015:

  • Fair Trade Wales an NGDO based in Wales (UK)
  • GLEN – The Global Education Network – in partnership with Powerline for the project Technology for transformation and engagement
  • EDUCASOL – The French Platform of Global Citizenship Education –  in partnership with F3E for the project Time to assess our evaluation tools
The sub-granted seminars
In 2013:

  • Plataforma – Portuguese Platform of NGDOs –  with their seminar “Educators, Facilitators or Change Makers? The role of Development Education in promoting systemic change
  • The Hellenic Platform for Development with “Engaging Citizens in Political Debate
  • Coordinadora – Spanish NGDO Platform – with their seminar named “Global Citizenship as a motor of Change
  • LAPAS – Latvian NGDO Platform –  with their seminar “Localizing global issues: Development of methodology for grassroots informing, empowerment and social inclusion

 

In 2014:

 

In 2015:

  • SKOP – Maltese NGDO Platform – for the seminar Multiplication and synergies at the centre
  • ITECO – Belgian training center for Global Citizenship –  for Development education and popular education working together
  • PIPA – People in Peril Association based in Slovakia – for Volunteers in the spotlight
  • MUNDU – Center for Global Education based in Denmark – for the seminar Story telling for global justice
  • Alianza por la Solidaridad  – Spanish NGO –  for the seminar Scientific citizenship, did you say?
  • Fair Trade Wales –  for Innovative technics for global citizenship education
  • France Volontaires – French NGO –  for Youth in international volunteering
The Codes of Conduct

Dochás, the Irish NGDOs platform, collaborated closely with CONCORD and DEEEP to elaborate the European Code of Conduct on Messages and Images so as to help the Development sector communicate differently, to show NGO’s that they can reproduce stereotypes without knowing it and because we all need to question the messages and images we deliver. The Code was approved by CONCORD General Assembly in June 2007.

Resources

1. English: Code of conduct 

2. Guides and Toolkits: A GuideIllustrative Guide from Dochas / The video from Dochas / Ethical Communication Guide from DEEEP

3. SloveenGuide to the Code of conduct

Reframing the message
Reframing the Message” was an EU-supported training and communication project implemented by three organizations in three European countries (Wilde Ganzen from the Netherlands, Divoké Husy from Czech Republic and CISU – Civil Society in Development from Denmark). DEEEP was working in close collaboration with this initiative.

The project aimed to strengthen the communication on development for the civil society organisations of these three countries so it reflects the structural causes of poverty in a balanced manner. “Reframing the Message” served as best practice example on how to work ‘hands on’ with civil society organisations and their communication. It is a practical take on the various initiatives such as DEEEP4 that aims to challenge and change the existing paradigm on development.

During the two-year-project period, “Reframing the Message” offered the following activities for the participating organisations and to a larger audience:

  • A variety of different trainings, workshops and presentations. On communication strategy, storytelling, social media, smartphone as a monitoring tool, efficient websites and press work – capacity building was a key component in the project.
  • Developing an online communication toolkit in Dutch and English.
  • A sub-granting pool
  • A competition on communication products and plans in connection with a counselling program with professional communication advisors.
  • Stakeholder meetings and a national network for development education.
  • National actions for the “World’s Best News” campaign.
Bridge 47 - Global Education in the SDGs
We succeeded to mention Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in the 4.7 target of the  The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was a big achievement and a clear commitment of the world leaders to work together for a new approach to developing our planet. After the adoption, the big question was: how to start the actual work now? How do we put this in practice? Reaching these ambitious goals will be the challenge of our generation.

Therefore, we have started the creation of the “Bridge 47 network“, a network aiming to gather all kinds of ‘value-based educations’ and all kinds of educational actors working towards reaching the target 4.7. The stakeholders have now a space for mutual support and peer-learning to change education which will be taken forward by Kehys, the Finnish NGDO platform towards the EU, via a specific project funded by the EU. For more information, we invite you to visit the Facebook group.

Timeline