Development education

Banúlacht is a feminist development education organisation committed to political action: we work through:

Training and capacity building in the community development sector in Ireland Conferences, workshops and seminars on gender, development and human rights Research and policy work Publication of briefing papers, newsletters, reports and training resources

Development Education

Banúlacht carries out an annual programme of workshops and short courses with women’s organisations in Ireland. Workshop themes include: gender and development women, power and decision-making women’s human rights and economic literacy.

Banúlacht’s development education analyses issues such as poverty, alienation, disadvantage and injustice through a global lens and from a gender perspective. We see development education as a process based on the ideals of collective empowerment for social change and the belief in the potential of people to be effective agents of change in addressing their own needs and shaping their own futures.

This kind of education, based on the ideas of Paolo Freire, challenges underlying power relations in society, and aims to contribute to creative and collective action for social change. In our current Strategic Plan we identify contributing to women’s collective empowerment and debate as a core value underpinning our development education work. We define our approach as follows:

Banúlacht works through development education processes that are based on the ideals of collective empowerment for social change. We regard critical thinking and reflection on the complexities of development issues as an essential tool in addressing the causes of inequality and the multiple effects of global and local power relations, especially on women. … The relationship between the local and the global and the belief that ‘the personal is political and the political is personal’ are at the heart of Banúlacht’s approach to development education. Integrating ‘Southern’ perspectives into development education activities and policy work in an Irish context is integral to Banúlacht’s approach to critical engagement on development issues. We aim to facilitate women in the community education sector to develop their own visions of gender equality globally, and ultimately of a more just and a better world. (Banúlacht Strategic Plan 2004-2007, p.4)

Banúlacht is the only organisation in Ireland focusing exclusively on gender and development issues. We occupy a unique position, reaching both the development education and community sectors in Ireland. Banúlacht works within the women’s sector to facilitate analysis of global relations and interdependence. Our development education work is grounded in an analysis of gender and power, and aims to facilitate participants to develop critical skills in order both to identify and critique systems which disempower women, and to develop and highlight alternatives. We aim to build solidarity between women in Ireland and women in the South, and to work with women’s groups to bring a global and a human rights perspective to their local work. Our work aims to contribute to women’s empowerment through a process of demystifying the economy. Course participants learn to analyse the global forces and the societal structures that influence how women interact with the economy. They explore ways in which women’s organisations can use international agreements on gender equality to strengthen their analysis of and advocacy on issues affecting women in Ireland and women in the South.

We have published two development education resources:

Making Connections: Women Developing Links for Change (1994)

Looking at the Economy through Women’s Eyes: A facilitators’ Guide for Economic Literacy (2003)

Economic Literacy

Banúlacht has had a major focus on Economic Literacy since 1998, and has run workshops and short (one- to four-day) training courses on the theme of women and the economy with a range of women’s organisations in different parts of Ireland since then. A development education resource based on our training process, and entitled Looking at the economy through women’s eyes: a facilitator’s guide for economic literacy was published in April 2004. This resource is designed for use by trainers, tutors and facilitators in the community development and development education sectors. Since its publication, it has been reviewed in a number of publications, and requests for copies have come from within Europe and from the South, as well as from many community development and development education organisations in Ireland.

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Training courses

Our training courses for trainers and tutors and for women in leadership and decision making roles in the voluntary, community and development sectors. Themes include development theories, models of development, social analysis, gender analysis, theories of power, economic literacy and women’s human rights. These courses aim to develop the capacity of participants to carry out training on gender and development issues and to engage in lobbying and advocacy in relation to local and global policies affecting women.

Conferences

Banúlacht has held three major conferences since 1999: ‘Women’s Networks and the Wider World, 1999; ‘World on our Shoulders, World at our Feet?’ 2000; ‘From Issues to Action’, 2004. These conferences have brought together women from the community development, development education and development NGO sectors to explore women’s human rights, gender and trade and effective activism.

Our next conference will be held on March 8th, International Women’s Day, 2006.

Making Connections Newsletter

Banúlacht’s newsletter Making Connections, features analysis of women’s issues, updates on international events, articles and case studies from women’s groups in developing countries, updates on Banúlacht’s work and a calendar of women’s events. Special issues on Gender and Trade, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and Gender Budget Initiatives have been especially popular. Funding for this publication has been increasingly difficult to secure: the newsletter was issued three times per year from 1997 to 2002, and from time to time since then.

Contact Maeve Taylor at Banúlacht for more information or to organise a workshop.