Impact

A roadmap for the implementation of SDG 4.7 was co-created over the two day event with a final draft being presented at the end of the event. This road map forms the guiding principles for all 15 partners of Bridge 47 to lead their work at both a practical level for implementing target 4.7 but also at a policy level for advocating the principles of transformative education.

Key results included:

• 30% of participants were high level decision-makers from across Europe
• 83% of respondents to an evaluation survey agreed or strongly agreed they had connected with people they would like to work with again in the future
• 88% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they gained valuable knowledge, ideas or tools they can use in the future
• 88% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed the programme was inspiring or exciting.

The top 3 areas that people felt were their main takeaways from the event were:

• the importance of a coordinated approach
• the process and methodology of the event
• a better understanding of the different aspects of SDG 4.7. 

Context and challenges

Bridge 47 is a network and EU-funded project co-created and implemented by 15 partner organisations from across Europe and beyond to address the Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), focused on Global Citizenship Education and transformative education in general. Partner organisations are:

• CIVICUS
• International Council for Adult Education
• European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes
• Irish Development Education Association
• Development Education Association of Scotland
• Bulgarian Platform for International Development
• Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation
• Finnish Development NGOs – Fingo
• Association of German Development and Humanitarian Aid NGOs
• Slovak NGDO Platform
• Slovene Platform for non-governmental organisations for development, global education and humanitarian aid
• NGO Support Centre in Cyprus
• Center for Global Education in Denmark
• Center for Education Initiatives in Latvia.

Bridge 47 mobilises civil society from all around the world to contribute to a transformation towards global justice and eradication of poverty through Global Citizenship Education. A key cornerstone of the network is ensuring the voices of all stakeholders are present in the work they do, from academia, civil society and key decision makers.

Bridge 47 as a network organisation has partners across the globe that work on transformative education and Global Citizenship Education. With the opening of the newly elected and appointed European Parliament and European Commission in 2019, they wanted all partner organisations and Network members to be coordinated in their approach to engage with EU institutions to ensure the implementation of the Target 4.7 of the SDGs at European level in the coming period (2019-2024) and beyond.

With partners based across Europe and Network members on all continents, time spent together was rare. Bridge 47 wanted to create a space where a balance was struck between diverse voices being heard and more concrete decisions being made.

Project objectives

Bridge 47 wanted to unite their network and all participants under a roadmap with SMART objectives for furthering SDG 4.7 across Europe. The roadmap needed to be created in a way that made it concrete enough to action but broad enough to be relevant to all levels of society from policy makers to those on the ground implementing transformative education.

The process needed to:

• be accessible and inclusive for 200 participants who came from different cultural and professional backgrounds, experiences and learning styles
• create a space for participants to build connections and networks, meet and learn from each other both during and after the event and where everyone felt heard and where ideas were valued.

Approach

Key steps were:

• Led the initial consultation for event coordinators and key stakeholders to ensure the aims and objectives for the event were clear and objectives for each session were outlined.
• Designed a highly participatory and inclusive process for 200 participants to co-create a roadmap.
• Designed a programme with space for knowledge sharing and inspiration to support brainstorming and idea generation, closing with concrete decisions being made.
• Prepared 6 facilitators for 3 x 1.5 hour working group sessions with 15 to 20 participants in each, in total 18 working group sessions over the course of two days.
• Designed a facilitation guide for working group facilitators to feel confident in delivery.

A roadmap drafting group of five participants was appointed to help oversee the process of content creation, in cooperation with the facilitator and the organisers. This steering group was selected to represent the key stakeholder groups: academia, policy makers, UNESCO, the development sector and the education sector.