The Government’s official development assistance programme, Irish Aid, wants the Irish public to have the opportunity to be more deeply informed about development and global issues, the role of government and civil society, and to be more critically engaged with Irish Aid programme.

Irish Aid intends that development education reaches a wide audience in Ireland by increasing the provision of high-quality programmes to teachers and others involved in development education and by working with the education sector, NGOs and civil society partners.

The current Irish Aid Development Education Strategy 2007-2011 ‘Promoting Public Engagement for Development’ sets out four component objectives for support for development education in Ireland over the next five years.
The objectives are:

1. Strengthen coherence between development education and national education, citizenship and development policies in Ireland and support the growth of best practice in development education at European and international levels.
2. Contribute to high quality development education in Ireland through strengthened support for development education practitioners and the organisations in which they work.
3. Support the further integration of development education in formal and non-formal education programmes in Ireland
4. Ensure that our development education initiatives raise public awareness and understanding of the underlying causes of global poverty and inequality and Ireland’s role in tackling these issues.

Based on the above objectives, Irish Aid operates a Development Education Funding Scheme to support development education programmes in the formal and non formal education sectors.     

Copies of the Funding Guidelines, the Development Education Strategy 2007-2011, the application forms and explanatory notes for each grant type are available from the Development Education Unit, Irish Aid or can be downloaded below:

Also available for downloading are FAQs on the Irish Aid Development Education Funding Scheme.