THREE YEARS OF THE DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION PROGRAMME: DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION AT EDUCATIONAL CENTRES

In 2008, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation approved the "Development Education Strategy for Spanish Cooperation", a document written as a result of a participative process that establishes the guidelines to be followed by all the actors involved in cooperation: The General State Authorities, Autonomous Communities, Local Authorities, NGDO's, universities, companies, trade unions and other civil society organisations. The Strategy was set up to raise Spanish citizens' awareness of the need to fight against poverty and promote human and sustainable development. The first Strategic Guideline of this document is to provide Development Education with specific mechanisms and instruments so that it can be included in the strategic scope of Spanish Cooperation policies. To this end, the Strategy establishes that the competent educational institutions shall be encouraged, within their scope of competence, to incorporate Development Education into the education system and promote activities to consolidate it within the field of formal education. In 2008, this objective prompted the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and what was then known as the Ministry of Education, Social Policy and Sports to set up a cooperation process whereby the Development Education Programme was created. This paper covers the main points of the Programme: The National Development Education Award, The Teachers Congress "Building Bridges" and the corresponding training. More than 250 teachers from all over Spain have taken part in this programme over the three years that it has been held. The author of this paper was in charge of designing and organising this programme.