ISSUES THEMES 1: KEY LOCAL-GLOBAL ISSUES

WHAT IS …Globalisation, Development, Inequality, Injustice, Power, Conflict?

The world distribution of wealth and income is highly unequal.

The richest 10% of households in the world have as much yearly income as the bottom 90%.

Wealth – total assets rather than yearly income – is even more unequal.

The rich are concentrated in the US, Europe and Japan, with the richest 1% alone owning 40% of the world’s wealth.

Poverty, on the other hand, is widespread across the developing countries – which have five-sixths of the world’s population.

But it has fallen sharply in China.  

Source and further information:  BBC News  Key Facts: The Global Economy (website)

An example from an NGO network that wishes to highlight global inequalities:  

• Global Wealth Inequality – what you never knew you never knew:   The Rules (video)

People under 25 make up 43 percent of the world’s population, but the percent age reaches 60 percent in the least- developed countries.  Here are some other interesting facts presented by The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):

• The World at Seven Billion :  Top Issues Fact Sheet (pdf)

Infographic style presentation by National Geographic Magazine:

• 7 Billion: Are You Typical?

An example of globalisation and interdependence, produced by young people in the UK:

• Living in a Global Dimension
  

An example of global inequalities by a concerned individual – with examples of NGOs :

• Think globally, act locally

Video animations on global inequalities provided by the Irish Development Education portal website www.developmenteducation.ie:

• Consumption in a World 32: 1      Watch the video here

• What if the world had 100 people?     Watch the video here

According to the World Bank, eighty percent of the world’s 20 poorest countries have suffered from a major conflict in the past 15 years.
1.5 billion people are affected by violent conflict. 50% of all child deaths occur in conflict-afflicted areas. Source: World Bank

• Conflict & the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA): Breaking the cycle of conflict and poverty

According to UNICEF, 3 out of 4 fatalities of war are women and children. Since 1990 conflicts have directly killed as many as 3.6 million people; tragically, more than 45 per cent of these are likely to have been children. That’s about 1.6 million.

Hundreds of thousands of children are caught up in conflict as soldiers; many are forced to become refugees or internally displaced persons, suffer sexual violence, abuse and exploitation, or are victims of explosive remnants of war: UNICEF – childhood under threat (website)

ISSUES THEMES 2: KEY LOCAL-GLOBAL ISSUES

Poverty

According to the United Nations, every day, 1.4 billion people – nearly one fifth of the world’s inhabitants – cannot fulfil their most basic needs, let alone attain their dreams or desires.

Here are some other key facts that they highlight:

• The largest segment of the world’s poor are the women, children and men who live in rural environments. These are the subsistence farmers and herders, the fishers and migrant workers, the artisans and indigenous peoples whose daily struggles seldom capture world attention.

• Empowering rural people is an essential first step to eradicating poverty. It respects the willingness and capability that each of us has to take charge of our own life and to seek out opportunities to make it better.

• Children and youth comprise between 35 and 60 per cent of the developing world’s population, and among poor rural populations their proportions are likely even higher.

Source and further information

According to the World Bank, almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than €2 a day.

1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day.

At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.

Source and further information

Some key facts highlighted by UNICEF:

Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion

Number of children living in developing countries: 1.9 billion.

Number in poverty: 1 billion (every second child)

An estimated 23,000 children die each day due to poverty.

Source and further information

Further information: UN presentation on rural poverty including lots of facts, stats, maps and the solutions (pdf)

Child Labour

According to the United Nations, on average, one child in every seven can be classified as a child labourer.

Most child labourers are working in agriculture (60.0%). 25.6% work in services, 7.0% in industry and 7.5% work in undefined areas.

Only one in five child labourers are in paid employment. The overwhelming majority are unpaid family workers.

Source and further information

According to the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, there are 115 million child laborers involved in hazardous work: Source

Hunger

According to the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, 1 in 8 people goes to sleep hungry every day.
That’s about 870 million people worldwide, or 25,000 each day.

Source (Infographic)

Further information: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Further information: link to the Global Issue of Conflict in Syria

Environment

According to UNESCO, in developed countries the amount of waste generated is a reflection of a ‘throwaway’ culture. They include some examples of the items on the throwaway list in the USA each year:

• 52,000,000,000 cans
• 8,000,000 TV sets
• 30,000,000,000 bottles and jars
• 7,000,000 cars
• 4,000,000 tonnes of plastic
• 30,000,000 tonnes of paper.

Source: UNESCO

Voices of Youth, a UNICEF online programme presents categories on the atmosphere, land, water, biodiversity, global responses and sustainability

Text: Voices of Youth

Not forgetting the issue of water: even as America passes the 300-million mark, Americans use 75 percent more water per capita than the average person in the world’s developed nations.

Source and Further information: Population Reference Bureau

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has a tool to help you measure your carbon footprint (text)

They also present some examples of what we can do to help our living planet (text)

ISSUES THEMES 3: KEY LOCAL-GLOBAL ISSUES

Gender

How are they local issues? 

How are they global issues?

Women are still the poorest of the world’s poor, representing 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty. When nearly 900 million women have incomes of less than $1 a day, the association between gender inequality and poverty remains a harrowing reality.

Source and texts: World Revolution

Watch the Campaign video from the Girl Rising Movement to promote equal rights and opportunities for girls worldwide here: “Girl Rising”

Further information: 10 x 10

Education

According to the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, there are 61 million children shut out of primary school.

When will they ever learn?

Source and Video: Education Envoy

According to the United Nations, girls account for two-thirds of the children in the developing world who are not in school.

Source: World Revolution

The United Nations on the many reasons why education is important for creating solutions to the main global issues

Source: United Nations – Global Issues (text)

Violence against children

According to UNICEF, 86 per cent of children between 2–14 years old experience physical punishment and/ or psychological aggression. Two out of three children are subject to physical punishment.

Voices of Youth, an online programe created by UNICEF explains the different categories of violence

Source and further information: Voices of Youth

Violence against girls and women

According to the United Nations half of all women who die from homicide are killed by their current or former husbands or partners. Here are some other key facts that they highlight:

• It is estimated that, worldwide, one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.
• Rape has long been used as a tactic of war, with violence against women during or after armed conflicts reported in every international or non-international war-zone.
• In the Democratic Republic of Congo approximately 1,100 rapes are being reported each month, with an average of 36 women and girls raped every day. It is believed that over 200,000 women have suffered from sexual violence in that country since armed conflict began.
• The rape and sexual violation of women and girls is pervasive in the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
• Between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
• Sexual violence was a characterizing feature of the 14-year long civil war in Liberia.
• During the conflict in Bosnia in the early 1990s, between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped.
• Between 500,000 to 2 million people are trafficked annually into situations including prostitution, forced labour, slavery or servitude, according to estimates. Women and girls account for about 80 per cent of the detected victims.
• In Europe, North America and Australia, over half of women with disabilities have experienced physical abuse, compared to one-third of non-disabled women.

Source and further information: United Nations

Child soldiers

Hundreds of thousands of children are serving as soldiers in current armed conflicts.

Child Soldiers International works to end the military recruitment of under-18s globally and to prevent their use in armed conflict.

Further info: Child Soldiers

Further info: Child Soldiers – FAQ

Success stories:

• Nabeel, a former child labourer in Jordan who dropped out of school and was working as an auto mechanic was encouraged to return to school and learned how to read and write. Website
• Ollie, a street kid from the Democratic Republic of Congo decided to take control of his life and to create an association by street children, and for street children. A model of courage and determination. Website

Refugees

According to the United Nations, more than 43 million people worldwide are now forcibly displaced as a result of conflict and persecution, the highest number since the mid-1990s. Here are some other key facts that they highlight:

• Several million people remain displaced because of natural disasters, although updated statistics are not available.
• More than 15 million of the uprooted are refugees who fled their home countries, while another 27 million are people who remain displaced by conflict within their own homelands — so-called ‘internally displaced people.’
• Estimates of major refugee populations include Palestinians (4.8 million), Afghans (2.9 million), Syrians (1.9 million and rising*), Iraqis (1.8 million), Somalis (700,000), Congolese (456,000), Myanmarese (407,000), Colombians (390,000), Sudanese (370,000).
• Children constitute about 41 percent of the world’s refugees, and about half of all refugees are women.
• About two-thirds of the world’s refugees have been in exile for more than five years, many of them with no end in sight.

Source and Video: United Nations – Refugees

Further information: United Nations – Refugees – Faces Behind the Figures

Further information on the Syrian Refugee Crisis: UNHCR

ACTION THEMES 1: KEY LOCAL-GLOBAL ACTIONS

WHAT IS … Global Citizenship Education, Development Education, Social Justice Education?

Global Citizenship Education

Here is a definition of Global Citizenship that sums up why it has a real place in school, from Oxfam Education (UK).

Global citizenship must be at the heart of education. This is because it is good education. There are a number of reasons to believe this:

• Global citizenship is exciting and relevant to children, and gives learning meaning.
• Global citizenship acknowledges that we have the power as individuals: each of us can change things, and each of us has choices about how we behave.
• The world we live in is unfair and unequal, and global citizenship promotes the challenging and changing of this.
• Global citizenship enables the challenging of misinformation and stereotyped views about Majority World countries, and allows children to counter ignorance and intolerance.
• In our interdependent world, global citizenship encourages us to recognise our responsibilities towards each other, and learn from each other.
• In our rapidly changing world, global citizenship is about flexibility and adaptability as well as about a positive image of the future.
• Teaching approaches used to promote global citizenship have a positive impact on pupils and can raise standards.

Source: Oxfam Education

An example of how a school in America views Global Citizenship Education:

Global Citizenship Education

Development Education

How the Irish Development Education Association (IDEA) explains Development Education: what is it? why is it important? how can we get involved?

What is Development Education?

A 10-minute video from the Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium (CDPC) on their Development Education Programme for Transition Year students with lots of views on benefits of Development Education expressed by students, ex-students and teachers: A Chance for Change (Part 2)

Social Justice

Social Justice is a Key Concept in the Religious Education curriculum. Check your course book for key definitions and examples.

Here are some other definitions of Social Justice:

How a school in America views Social Justice: Definition of Social Justice (video)

How the United Nations (UN) defines Social Justice and information on the World Social Justice Day: World Social Justice Day (text)

How the International Labour Organisation (ILO) explains the need for Social Justice and its Decent Work Agenda: The need for Social Justice (text)

ACTION THEMES 2: KEY LOCAL-GLOBAL ACTIONS

WHAT IS A… Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO)?

Examples of different types of NGOs:

International Committee of the Red Cross, 1863 – 2013: 150 years of humanitarian action.

The film explains the meaning of the Geneva Conventions, the universal humanitarian principles underlying the Movement’s efforts and the general activities carried out by the different components, the ICRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the National Societies, as they work together to help those in need:

Story of an Idea

Further Research:

Look for websites of other NGOs who work on issues that concern or involve young people.

Can you identify the local-global themes that they are trying to deal with?

How do they compare to SAB?

WHAT ARE … Human Rights?

Example from an American NGO which promotes Human Rights Education among young people: The Story of Human Rights (video)

The views from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCR) presents its views:

The views according to Voices of Youth, a UNICEF project: Voices of Youth (text)

Further Research:

Schools Across Borders provides some resources with activities to help students work together on Human Rights.

Check out the Resources section of our website. Ask your teacher for access!

WHAT ARE … The Millenium Development Goals?

In 2000, a total of 189 countries at the United Nations signed up to a plan that to focus on the most pressing issues facing the developing world.

They decided on eight main goals that would be given top priority from 2005 – 2015:

1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To achieve sexual equality and empowerment of women
4. To reduce infant mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. To guarantee the sustainability of the environment
8. To set up a world partnership for development

How The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) promotes the 8 MDGs:

Millennium Development Goals video spot

Another example to help you remember the 8 MDGs provided by the Irish Development Education portal website, developmenteducation.ie

Millennium Development Goals (graphic)

Main UN website pages focusing on the MDGs. Click on the Goal boxes on the right side of the main page to access more information and infographics on each MDG: UN millenium goals (website)

We should always ask what we can do. These are the suggestions offered by the UN: UN millenium goals – Get Involved (website)

ACTION THEMES 3: KEY LOCAL-GLOBAL ACTIONS

WHAT IS… Conflict Transformation?

An example from an American NGO called Search for Common Ground (SFCG)

Tips for Transforming Conflict: Search for Common Ground (text)

A longer list has been developed by an NGO based in the UK and Serbia called Transconflict

The Principles of Conflict Transformation: Transconflict (text)

Examples of people working with NGOs or as active citizens to work for peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict: Insight on Conflict (text)

Further Research:

Schools Across Borders provides some resources with activities to help students work together on Conflict Transformation

Check out the Resources section of our website. Ask your teacher for access!

WHAT IS… Non-Violence?