Global Connection aims to engage educators and schools in Development Education activities and equip them with relevant training and materials, thus making them promoters and multipliers of national campaigns that aim to create awareness about Development and about global interdependencies.

This project aims at promoting Development Education within the educational sector across Europe, focusing specifically on Lithuania, Cyprus, Scotland, Ireland and Bulgaria.
This project acknowledges the fact that highly valuable Development Education material has been developed, however it recognises the difficulties of teachers and educators to access the existent material, as well as to apply these resources to their local or national educational context. More specifically, the project addresses the lack of access to, as well as the need for, Development Education material by teachers, educators, youth trainers and other actors across Europe, and especially in those countries that have joined the EU only recently.
The project aims to:

• Raise awareness in Cyprus, Lithuania, Scotland, Ireland and Bulgaria about development issues and about the interdependence of EU countries and countries of the developing world;
• Engage educators and youth to take action in support of the developing countries;
• Build capacity among educators to integrate Development Education in their lesson plans.

Project Activities
The project will be implemented simultaneously in Cyprus, Lithuania, Scotland and Ireland. It will last from January 2008 until June 2010.
Project activities will include:

• Creation of Teachers’ Advisory Groups to gather and review existing educational material on development issues and global education;
• European Workshop that will bring together the national advisory groups and offer collaboration and exchange of experience among the European participants;
• Creation of a European Depository with material recommended by the Teachers’ Advisory Groups;
• Modification of existing material according to the local needs;
• Trainings and workshops for teachers and educators to acquire skills of how to best implement the Development Education material in their lesson plans, and of how to mobilise action among students in support of the developing countries;
• Testing of the material in selected schools;
• Final Conference reflecting on Global Education in formal and non-formal education.

Intended Project Results:

• Development Education material adapted to local needs, in accordance with educational curricula in Cyprus, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Scotland and Ireland
• A European collection of case studies, best practice and general Development Education materials reviewed, modified and adapted by an international educational advisory committee and made accessible through the web
• A trans-national network of schools and educators jointly working to integrate Development Education into schools
• Schools and teachers trained to use Development Education material in their lesson plans, thereby serving as multipliers.