Blog.

Cutting out the middle-man: development education at the coal face in Tanzania

Young Scientists exhibitions could be Ireland’s greatest export yet, reports Michael Doorly from the finals of the Young Scientists Tanzania exhibition. “Have you ever heard of development education?” I ask Agnes the 15 year old team leader from Pemba Secondary School in Mwanza, Tanzania. “No” she says bluntly, “what is

One World Week Theme for 2012 – Bouncing Back!

One World Week is a week of youth-led awareness raising, education and action that takes place throughout Ireland during the third week in November every year. During March/April, youth groups around Ireland vote on the theme that they would like to explore for One World Week 2012. This year’s theme

We’re 100 blogs old!

This week marks the 100th post since we launched the developmenteducation.ie blog just over a year ago. Thanks to all our readers and contributors for the lively discussions and debates. Sparks did fly. Disagreement was had. Long may it continue! To mark the occasion we have launched an exciting quarterly

We need to talk about Kevin

This article is a response to Kevin Myers’ opinion piece on Friday, 5th October in The Irish Independent, titled: Why do we send money to nations that can spend millions on arms? It’s quite an achievement really. Sukhoi warplanes, Uganda, anti-gay laws, aid from Ireland, Eamon Gilmore, democracy, political correctness,

Celebration or Realisation? Uganda at Fifty

In a new series by www.developmentEducation.ie, Jamie Hitchen explores daily life and politics from Kampala, Uganda. Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Ugandan independence from British colonial rule. Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM), in power since 1986, will be celebrating the day’s events at the official event,

Blood Wood

 “Without forest we would have no access to clean water as the source of life …Forest is like the skin covering our body.” Chut Wutty  1964-2012 When the issue of ‘Blood Wood’ in Cambodia recently came to my attention, I was brought back to the time in 2008 at the

Are Africa’s women on the rise?

This was the question question recently explored by Malawian women’s rights campaigner Jessie Kabwila for the BBC’s Africa Debate programme last week. There have been a number of successes for African women over the last 12 months, according to Kabwila. These include: two Nobel Peace prizes – recognised for their

What we’re reading: £500million UK aid spent on private sector contracts; Andrew Mitchell throws class-based wobbly; development jargon sucks; how much water do we eat; why study development?

Many of the larger chunks of UK aid spending are channelled through big multilateral organisations and British firms. Last year alone, £500m was spent by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) on consultants. So much for untied aid reaching local firms in developing countries! The Adam Smith Institute, for