Background Paper

Erasmus Global Partnerships MENA Forum 2020 #EGP2020: Fostering Global Citizenship

Education to Move Beyond the SDGs 

ERASMUS GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS MENA FORUM 2020 | #EGP2020: Fostering Global Citizenship Education to Move Beyond the SDGs 

www.erasmuspartnerships.org

Tumenaite N., Donkor, F. K ., Eberz, I., Verma, S., Premazzi, V.  

Education gives us a profound understanding that we are tied together as citizens of the global community, and that our challenges are interconnected. 

Ban Ki-moon (former UN Secretary-General)

TRANSFORMATIVE NATURE OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION One of the world renowned researchers working in Higher Education with a post-colonial outlook, Sharon Stein (2018) , 1

concludes that  “by every indication, the foreseeable future will only become more volatile”. To adequately prepare for such a future over the years, countless policy-makers, activists, researchers, inter-governmental institutions and  governments alike have gone back to Nelson Mandela’s famous words on education with the agreement that it is - “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

To address the key skills to be developed by today’s youth, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has listed several key objectives of the Global Citizenship Education , which include the abilities to:  2

• Develop   an understanding   of global governance   structures, rights and responsibilities,  global issues and connections between global,  national and local systems and processes;

• Recognise  and appreciate  differences and multiple  identities, e.g. culture,  language,  religion, gender  and our common humanity,  and develop skills for living in an increasingly diverse world. 

Besides promoting an understanding of international issues, it is crucial that Global Citizenship Education fosters critical thinking, and focuses on social-justice rather than a “top-down approach” of development (Andreotti, 2006).  Social 3

justice is essential, because it has the pursuit of well-being for all human beings at its core, and promotes positive action in a post-colonial world characterised by growing inequality,  poverty, displacement, and the climate crisis.  

 Stein, S. (2018). Rethinking Critical Approaches to Global and Development Education. 1

 UNESCO. (2015). Global Citizenship Education: topics and learning objectives. 2

 Andreotti, V. (2006). Soft versus critical global citizenship education. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 3 , 40-51.3

It is therefore essential that, in a contemporary post-colonial world, education addresses global issues, promotes critical thinking and most importantly, “engage(s) in deeper, often uncomfortable, yet, nuanced analyses, in addition to acting as responsible global citizens” ( Carr, 2014). Promoting free 4

spaces for such critical discourses to take place within Global Citizenship Education can help further champion the solidarity of the human race and envision new ways of relating to each other and the planet. 

Mapping decolonisation in higher education5

EUROPE & MENA COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF YOUTH

The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) have been among the key lead European actors in youth empowerment and promotion of global citizenship and international education. 

A successful example can be found in the Council of Europe’s co-management system through the Joint Council on Youth, which is the supreme policy-making body for youth issues, and is composed of youth leaders and government officials working in a shared decision making system. One of its supported initiatives is the Euro-Arab Youth Forum, which 

creates space to share practices and experiences in peacebuilding for mutual learning and promotes dialogue on Youth, Peace and Security. The European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity of the Council of Europe — more commonly known as the "North-South Centre" of the Council of Europe — has also been championing global citizenship education and intercultural dialogue as a way to foster cooperation and empower civil society, in particular youth and women, in Europe and neigh-boring regions.

When it comes to international cooperation in the field of Higher Education, there have been great achievements made with the support of the EU programmes such as Erasmus+, which facilitates student and staff mobility and intercultural understanding worldwide. Global mobility through Erasmus+ and similar programmes offered by Marie Skłodowska Curie, DAAD and the like has contributed to the knowledge exchange and development of education as well as  soft and hard skills of young people from Europe and MENA. Further engagement of young people through the AU-EU Youth Cooperation Hub co-launched with the African Union has also empowered young people and contributed to an inclusive and participatory manner of engagement in international cooperation and development. 

Overall, such efforts have contributed to an enhanced soft and hard skills development, socio-economic opportunities, entrepreneurship and finally employability . Employment and 6

social engagement are especially important in ensuring the overall well-being  of societies. For example, based on the British Council’s study “Building Young People’s Resilience to Violent Extremism in the Middle East and North Africa” (2017), investing in and addressing such social and economic factors also supports building a culture of peace and enhancing young people’s resilience to violent extremism. Consequently, 7

it is evident that in the long-term vision to support peace and stability in the MENA region, the European stakeholders should amongst others; increase their international and development

Carr, P. (2014). Journal of Global Citizenship and Equity Education. Linking Global Citizenship Education and Education for Democracy through Social Justice: What can we 4

learn from the perspectives of teacher-education candidates?

Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Ahenakew, C., Hunt, D. (2015). Mapping interpretations of decolonization in the context of higher education. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & 5

Society, 4(1), 21-40.

Erasmus Student Network. Erasmus Impact Study. 6

 All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the British Council. 2017. Building Young People’s Resilience to Violent Extremism in the Middle East and North Africa.7

Gesturing towards de-colonial futures involves learning and unlearning, detoxifying and

decluttering, mourning, grieving and healing, composting and metabolising, in order to build

something new, life-sustaining and life-supporting. It also involves loosening our

attachments to what we think we want so that we might instead go where we are needed.

  De-colonial Futures collective

policies, their investment in the education and employability of young people and building their skills and expertise. Inclusive education is one of the main platforms for the reform of education globally. It is a central plank in the UN's push for ‘Education for All’, based on increased participation and learning of marginalised pupils within the international context.

Furthermore, since young people play a key role as peace-builders, and active agents in the field of development cooperation, it is essential to ensure the inclusion of young people, especially those from underprivileged groups within the planning and practice of peacebuilding education Mallon (2018) and to enhance efforts to empower youth and civic 8

societies worldwide to implement the UN Youth, Peace, and Security agenda.  A key role here can be played by young entrepreneurs, who were supported by international programmes and exchanges, and are looking for mentors and partnerships with other entrepreneurs or potential co-founders around the world. Investing into their empowerment and projects could promote social impact and long-lasting social change.

In this we find an opportunity, thus, to redirect our focus to  alternative models which support entrepreneurship, economic development and human well-being through local and community-led actions and strategies. Although current status quo is still largely based on conditional and limited inclusion within mainstream international institutions — with often symbolic efforts to provide space for marginalised groups to

engage in policies on Education and Development — the road paved so far proves that investing in young people and education has long term effects in the societal and human evolution. 

Mallon, B. (2018). Illuminating the Exploration of Conflict through the Lens of Global Citizenship Education.8

Cultivating the ability to live daily and at peace with uncertainty and ambivalence, with a variety of standpoints

and the absence of unerring and trustworthy authorities...instilling tolerance of difference and the will to respect the right to be different...fortifying critical and self-

critical faculties and the courage needed to assume responsibility for one’s choices and their

consequences...training the capacity for ‘changing the frames’...with the anxiety of indecision it brings alongside the

joys of the new and the unexplored. 

Zygmunt Bauman, The Individualised Society

ERASMUS GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS MENA: MOVING BEYOND THE SDGs

 A core theme in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the need for knowledge co-creation to inform policy and formation of robust partnerships to drive sustainable development. Thus, the UN Agenda 2030 refers to the need for revitalised and enhanced global partnerships to facilitate global engagement in support of implementation of the SDGs. 

International solidarity is a cornerstone of sustainable development and has been defined in the Millennium Declaration as requiring global challenges to be “managed in a way that distributes the costs and burdens fairly. In other words, those who suffer most or who benefit least deserve help from those who benefit most.” However, such recognition that developed countries should bear any costs or compensate for the bias in their favour in global economic governance has been omitted from the UN Agenda 2030 . 9

Therefore, hope is waning amongst key stakeholders  that governments have the political will to challenge the existing inequalities and promote solidarity and social justice and there is a need of renewed commitment and efforts to bring the focus back on global human development and progress . 

In addition to championing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, there is an urgent need to shift towards a more just and sustainable model of development, which promotes and not constrain policies on human rights, environmental protection and empowerment of civic society and local entrepreneurs as key drivers of development. Otherwise, as argued by Khan (2016), “in the absence of significant reform and regulation of these international structures, financing for the SDGs and a transition to development justice will remain illusory.”    10

One area where this has become critical is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as demonstrated by the Arab Spring and ongoing civil disturbances in the region.  While the topic has attracted wide public attention from activists, researchers and policy makers since the beginning of the 21st century; not much has been achieved and almost a

decade later, the public’s attention is focusing primarily on security concerns and the question of undocumented migrants making their route to Europe.

The MENA region is full of young potentials as around half the population is under the age of 30 (UNICEF) , which makes 11

the region the second youngest behind Sub-Saharan Africa. And while these young people could become an important factor to accelerate economic growth, they are three times more likely to be unemployed than the average adult in the MENA region. 

The Erasmus Global Partnerships MENA Forum will engage a diverse group of stakeholders — activists, entrepreneurs, academics and policy makers — to facilitate dialogue and exchange knowledge in a cross-continental discussion between the EU and MENA on Education, Peace and Employability and the role that Civic Society and local Entrepreneurs play as key drivers of Sustainable Development in  order to:

• Serve as a forum for discussions on how Global Citizenship Education & Internationalisation of Higher Education contributes to skill development and the increase of employability of young people;

• Explore the role of Inclusion, Media & Information Literacy and improved Socio-Economic opportunities in building and sustaining a Culture of Peace; 

• Train young leaders on Design Thinking through on-site training and online webinars and empower them to cooperate across borders and disciplines and create Social Entrepreneurship projects;

• Create policy recommendations for effective Development and Development Cooperation between Europe and MENA in the fields of Education and Entrepreneurship.

 UN General Assembly 2015f, art. 18.9

 Ibid. 10

 UNICEF. MENA Generation 2030. 11

TERMINOLOGY

Development Justice: In her discussion paper for the UN Women, Tessa Khan noted that Development Justice aims to “displace the neoliberal emphasis on market-driven growth, consumption and externalisation of environmental and social costs that have locked millions of women into poverty” 12

framed around five “foundational shifts”: redistributive justice, economic justice, social and gender justice, environmental justice and accountability to peoples. 13

Global Citizenship: According to UNESCO, Global Citizenship refers to a sense of belonging to a broader community and common humanity. It emphasises political, economic, social and cultural interdependency and interconnectedness between the local, the national and the global.

Global Citizenship Education: UNESCO defines Global citizenship education’s key aims to be transformative, building the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that learners need to be able to contribute to a more inclusive, just and peaceful world. Global citizenship education takes ‘...a multifaceted approach, employing concepts and methodologies already applied in other areas, including human rights education, peace education, education for sustainable development and education for international understanding’ and aims to advance their common objectives. Global citizenship education applies a lifelong learning perspective, beginning from early childhood and continuing through all levels of education and into adulthood, requiring both ‘formal and informal approaches, curricular and extracurricular interventions, and conventional and unconventional pathways to participation’.

REFERENCE LIST

1. All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the British Council. 2017. Building Young People’s Resilience to Violent Extremism in the Middle East and North Africa. Digital access: https://appg.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/3502_bc_appg_inquiry_report_06.pdf?_ga=2.96848348.2100479453.1573585672-436973620.1573233668 

2. Andreotti, V. (2006). Soft versus critical global citizenship education. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 3 , 40-51.

3. Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Ahenakew, C., Hunt, D. (2015). Mapping interpretations of decolonization in the context of higher education. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 4(1), 21-40. Digital access: https://decolonialfutures.net/mapping-decolonization/ 

4. Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. 2014.

5. Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. 

6. Carr, P. (2014). Journal of Global Citizenship and Equity Education. Linking Global Citizenship Education and Education for Democracy through Social Justice: What can we learn from the perspectives of teacher-education candidates?

7. Erasmus Student Network. Erasmus Impact Study. Digital access: https://esn.org/erasmus-impact-study 

8. Khan, S. (2016). UN Women Discussion Paper. DELIVERING DEVELOPMENT JUSTICE? Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Digital access: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2016/delivering-development-justice-en.pdf?la=en&vs=4552 

9. Mallon, B. (2018). Illuminating the Exploration of Conflict through the Lens of Global Citizenship Education. Digital access: https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue/issue-27/illuminating-exploration-conflict-through-lens-global-citizenship-education 

10.  Peters., A. M. 2014. Social Exclusion/Inclusion: Foucault's analytics of exclusion, the political ecology of social inclusion and the legitimation of inclusive education. Digital access: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23265507.2014.972439 

11. Stein, S. (2018). Rethinking Critical Approaches to Global and Development Education. Digital access: https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue/issue-27/rethinking-critical-approaches-global-and-development-education

12. UNESCO. (2015). Global Citizenship Education: topics and learning objectives. Digital access: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993 

13. UN Millennium Declaration 2000, art. 6

14. UN General Assembly 2015f, art. 18.

15. UNICEF. MENA Generation 2030. Digital access: https://data.unicef.org/resources/middle-east-north-africa-generation-2030/

Khan, S. (2016). UN Women Discussion Paper. DELIVERING DEVELOPMENT JUSTICE? Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.12

 Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. 2014.13

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