International Development and Development Education: Challenging the Dominant Economic Paradigm?

This resource commissioned by Financial Justice Ireland and Centre for Global Education, Belfast, assesses the international development and development education sectors' engagement with neoliberalism as a main cause of poverty, inequality, and injustice. 

The research published in our report is based on an assumption that, for their work to have a lasting impact, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) must give attention to the 'root causes' of poverty and involve the public in investigations of, and responses to, those causes.

Most striking from the research findings was that neither sector "give anywhere near adequate attention to explorations with the public of the economic causes of poverty, inequality and injustice and of responses, through education, to the global neoliberal system".  One of the central recommendations of the report is to investigate why this is the case.  We will be following up with a subsequent research project focusing on this question, exploring what the barriers are to international development and development education sectors in the island of Ireland engaging with neoliberalism as the root cause of poverty.