Enabling effective support

Pestalozzi scholar working with local primary school children.

Pestalozzi scholar working with local primary school children. Pestalozzi International DEC in East Sussex is a DEA member.

Most DEA members who work with schools are involved in local and regional 'Enabling Effective Support' (EES) strategies.

‘Enabling effective support for a global dimension in education’ is an initiative of the Department for International Development (DFID). Initially launched as a pilot project in 2000 in Wales and Yorkshire & Humberside, the initiative has now been taken up by development education organisations and others across the UK.

The EES initiative aims to develop and support educational responses to the development issues raised in the government’s white paper on development.

The aim of the initiative is “to build capacity within the UK’s education systems spo they respond to the challenges of educating young people to understand and help shape the globalising and interdependent world in which they live.”

A key feature of the initiative is the broadening of the range of organisations and people involved in the planning and implementation of development education in schools and colleges. Through collaboration between the statutory education sector and voluntary organisations, the EES initiative enables Development Education Centres, teachers, advisers, Initial Teacher Training tutors, Higher Education institutions, local authorities and others to plan together on a regional basis.

Plans of the regional responses to the initiative are primarily concerned with enabling groups of teachers, ITT tutors and advisers to develop their own understanding of local and global development, and to jointly plan education responses that are relevant to young people today. Plans are also being implemented that involve work with schools and Higher Education institutions in designing and integrating a global dimension in their curricula and policies.

Because of different local and regional opportunities and constraints the regional responses to the EES initiative vary – sometimes significantly. Information about the programme of each region is available from regional contacts. To find your regional contact or view their website, use the regional map on our Find a Member page.

Information about EES can also be found on the DFID website where a key document about the initiative is posted: www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/enablingeffectivesupport.pdf (PDF file).