Target countries: Ireland and Tanzania, along with our international online community
Start date and end date of the Action: 1 April – 31 December 2015
Name of Co-applicant in the Action: Uvikiuta

Insight is an eight month long non-formal development education training course for adults and consists of three phases (phases 1 and 3 were included in this project). The programme focuses on topics such as poverty, human rights, trade, globalisation, conflict, sustainability, inter-culturalism, systems thinking, social change and aid. The approach engages participants in an experiential learning journey that aims to challenge their views, opinions, knowledge and awareness of the world around them.

Insight 2015 contributed to a network of influential community stakeholders and practitioners that promoted public awareness of global justice issues and engaged citizens in Ireland’s role in tackling these issues. The programme engaged citizens, informing and involving them in discussion, debate and action regarding Development challenges. Traditional workshops, theatre and video documentary were used to engage the public in the project. Also celebrities and politicians were involved to maximise public engagement.

Phase 1 of Insight included three weekend workshops with 24 Irish participants. During this time, the programme explored the concept of development as well as prepared the participants for an overseas phase in Tanzania. There was a comprehensive social media coverage of Insight 2015 on both Facebook and Twitter using #EYD2015.

Phase 3 of Insight was the public engagement phase which took place in Ireland over three weekend workshops and in the spare time of the 22 Irish participants and 8 Tanzanian participants. The focus was on participants becoming active in their local communities in the area of development and engaging with the public on development related issues.

A documentary of Insight 2015 was released online in early December and since then it has had 668 views of the trailer and 1,301 views of the final documentary:

A Theatre piece was worked on during all phases of the programme, completed and performed in 5 regional centres – Ballymun, Navan, Laytown, Drogheda and Dundalk – with 200 people participating. The main Exhibition event was launched by Minister Gerald Nash in Drogheda 27th October. Also 24 regional events with 386 people were completed until December 2015.

24 participants from Ireland signed up for the programme and 22 completed it. 75 % of the group designed and facilitated the above mentioned 24 regional workshops. The involvement and participation of the group which completed the programme superseded expectations. The participants now understand a range of Development theories. They have a greater understanding of the causes and effects of Poverty and Inequality and can identify for themselves a range of linkages between the two. The participants also have a clear understanding of the MDGs / along with post-2015 framework and the SDGs including a history of where they came from, and can assess the direction needed after 2015. 50% of the group demonstrated advanced problem solving ability through the Theatre of the Oppressed workshops, while a further 35 % indicated through self-assessment that their problem solving capacity increased.

Related to communication activities, there has been an increase of 475 likes on Facebook since April 2015. Per post, the average was 22 likes, 3 comments and 3 shares, and an average of 1,030 people were reached per post. On Twitter, we had an average of 2.65% engagement rate, 1 link click, 3 retweets, 4 favourites and 1 reply per day. The blog “See the World Differently” has an average of 4 visitors a day and 1 comment per blog. Insight 2015 also had three mentions on national TV (Irish TV, TV3, RTE1), and three radio shows (Newstalk, Today FM) gave coverage to the programme.