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DSAI Civil Society Study Group Workshop - Linking the local with the global: Ireland-based CSOs address development issues

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civil soc SG feb event 2020

Where: TCD, Museum Building

When: 2-5pm, 19th February 2020

 

Agenda

1.45-2.05                              Registration

                                                Tea/Coffee

2.05-2.10                              Welcome (Dr Nita Mishra)

                                               Introduce the Agenda                  

2.10- 3.20                             Panel 1 (Discussant/ Moderator- Dr Galia Chiamak)

                                               (15 minutes each speaker + discussion)

                                                AkiDwA

                                                Welcome Café

                                                Migrant Artist Community

                                                Discussions

3.20-3.40                             Tea Break

3.40-4.55                             Panel 2 (Discussant/ Moderator- Dr Laurence Cox)

                                                Basic Income Ireland

                                                Dundrum Climate Vigil

                                                Community Supported Agriculture

                                                Discussions & Wrap Up

                                                Thanks (Dr Nita Mishra)

All are welcome. 

Please RSVP civilsociety@dsaireland.org

 

Participants and speakers from Dundrum Climate Vigil, Welcome Café, Basic Income Ireland, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), AkiDwa and others engaged in development issues (climate action, food security, poverty and migration) locally share good practice in the Irish CSO sector. As such these evidence-based development practices link the local (Irish community-based groups) with the global keeping with the Irish Aid vision of ‘A Better World’ and open pathways for better understanding of 'what development really means'.

 

Purpose:

Evidence of good practice in the Irish CSO sector; examples of Irish based CSOs can be used globally to showcase different types of community-led groups engaged in climate action, poverty and migration issues locally

Throw light on pathways for global CSOs, especially small community-based groups

Links with the One World One Future vision of Irish Aid

 

Outline:

  • the journey this far
  • showcase good practice
  • difficulties and how these were overcome or in process of overcoming
  • strategies
  • planning processes
  • advice? learnings
  • what works and what does not work

 

Moderators/ Discussants

Dr Galia Chiamak, Associate Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Dr Laurence Cox has been involved in many different social movements over the years, from anti-apartheid to the struggle against Shell in Ireland and Nigeria. He co-edits the activist/academic journal Interface (http://interfacejournal.net) and does popular education with movements from across Europe. Laurence is Associate Professor of Sociology at Maynooth, researching popular struggles for a better world; his next book is the life story of an Irish hobo who became a Buddhist monk and anti-colonial activist in 1900s Asia.

Speakers

1.Muhammad Achour of Migrant Artist Community

Muhammad Achour is an Architect with a BA from School of Architecture, Aleppo Syria, MSc in Architectural Science, Richview, UCD. A teacher assistant at DCU.  A member of the newly formed Migrant Artist Community. Achour is also a founder of start-up Irish Association: Place of ARcture which aims also to form a network of Artists, Architects and Educators to advocate for engaging art and architecture within the youth in local communities and refugees camps.

Migrant Artist Community is a group came together primarily as a point of contact to open up a debate about the inclusion in Irish arts of artists from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds including those living in the Direct Provision system. The artists want to share new perspectives with the local and wider community and add another rich layer to the Irish art scene.

2.Dr Caroline Munyi of AkiDwA is a gender, peace and development specialist. Caroline studied in Kenya, Uganda and Ireland. Caroline started her career in Kenya and worked on integrated rural development programmes with funding from Misereor (now Caritas Internationals) with communities in the remote Eastern Kenya. In Trinity College, she pursued a Master of Philosophy degree in International Peace Studies and a Ph.D. in the same area but specialised in the area of Masculinities and Violence. She has coordinated Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) projects for AkiDwA and ActionAid Ireland. Currently Caroline is the Coordinator of AkiDwA’s Migrant Women Health Programme.  Her talk will focus on AkIDwA as a CSO, successes and challenges and looking into the future.

3.Prof John Baker of Basic Income Ireland.

John Baker of Basic Income Ireland is Joint Coordinator of Basic Income Ireland, which was founded in 1995 and has been more active since 2011. BII has held monthly open meetings in Dublin, organised local meetings around Ireland, hosted an annual forum, engaged with other civil society organisations, including political parties and trade unions, appeared on local and national radio, written for and received coverage in magazines and newspapers, leafletted in Henry Street and planted a tree in Merrion Square. John worked in UCD from 1977 to 2013 and was a founding member of the Equality Studies Centre and the School of Social Justice.

4.Nadette Foley of Welcome Café.

(Glencree Peace & Reconciliation Centre and other community-based groups)

5.Nathalie Markiefka of Community Supported Agriculture & Foodture

She is an environmental activist with a focus on Community Supported Agriculture; a Dublin CSA steering committee member; helps promote CSA nationally and internationally. After graduating with a MSc in Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security from NUI Galway  she helped set up ‘Foodture’ the social enterprise which mission is to nurture a culture of Food Citizenship through educational content and to map the sustainable food system in Ireland.

Community Supported Agriculture is a partnership between a group of people and a farmer. The members receive a share in the CSA when they commit to pay an agreed fee to the farmer for the duration of a season, and in return they get healthy, local food produced using agroecological principles. This partnership allows everyone to share both the rewards and also the challenges that our independent farmers face every year. The CSA model is a way to self-organise food distribution systems. This is more than a model to feed you with healthy, local and organic food; it is a commitment, and encourages learning and community engagement. Although CSAs are a relatively new concept in Ireland, they have been thriving in other parts of the world for many years. www.communitysupportedagriculture.ie; Www.foodture.ie

6.Dr Wendy Cox of Dundrum Climate Vigil

Dr Cox is a long-time activist who has taught at third level and managed non-governmental organisations (Amnesty International and the Irish Council for International Students) in Ireland. She was a founder member of the Irish Refugee Council.

She worked most recently as an independent social researcher with community groups and voluntary organisations in Dublin and is currently active in two local citizens’ projects: Imagine Dundrum and the Dundrum Climate Vigil. The vigil takes place weekly on Main Street, aiming to raise awareness locally and to support the school student climate strikers and their demands for a liveable future on a safe planet.

 

Dr Nita Mishra is the Convenor of the Civil Society Study Group, DSAI. She is a Researcher on Social Inclusion at the Food Business and Development Department of UCC.

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