As of the 1st of February, the association "Education Development Centre" (EDC) has started the project "Global education - engagement, growth, sustainability’’. The project aims to acquaint the international community with the good practice of integrating global themes in formal education in Latvia, as well as to create a platform for the exchange of experiences between professionals in the field of education of the European Union and the Eastern Partnership countries. The project is included in the agenda of Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Activities of the project will focus on two main goals: 1) to present Latvian innovative experience in global/ development education; 2) to debate on the role of education in strengthening the competitiveness and quality of life in the modern world between professionals of global education field from Latvia, EU and Eastern Partnership countries.

The project anticipates broad involvement of Latvian society – experts of education and development field, as well as civil society activists and young people - in order to facilitate the exchange of ideas on the EU's current events, for example, the European Year for Development, challenges of the European countries and society towards prosperous and secure future, role of global/development education players in Latvia and it’ s partner countries in shaping the public awareness on the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals.

The debate will gather development and education experts from 8 EU Member States (Latvia, Czech Republic, Estonia, United Kingdom, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Germany) and 2 Eastern Partnership countries (Georgia and Ukraine). An exchange of views will be held in order to discuss the role of education in shaping the global and 21st century competencies across the society. The participation of the Eastern Partnership countries is particularly essential for the exchange of ideas and the cognition of the existing good practices, considering current situation of the emphasis on security and cooperation issues in the new geopolitical situation. The debate will contribute to the implementation of European integration ideas in practice, exploring different approaches to incorporating development issues in education.

Latvian and international partners involved in on-site and e - debates will attend the central event of the project - the Global Education Forum, which will take place on 8 – 10 June, in Valmiera, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, bringing together approximately 60 education and development professionals from educational institutions, municipalities, government institutions, NGOs, academic and research bodies from more than 10 countries.

The discussions of the Forum will be summed up in "Recommendations on placing the global education on the School agenda." Recommendations will be publicly available and will be circulated to the members of the Forum and to the major organizations in the sector of global education in Latvia and in Europe.

Latvia has accumulated a unique experience in global education - EDC has created a global education network of schools, it incorporates 30 Latvian schools which have become a global education resource centres, facilitating sustainable change in local communities. EDC has developed professional continuous education programmes for teachers, global/development educational materials for young people and policy makers have been issued, the study of global education presence in the school agenda has been carried out.

Global Education Forum is one of the largest sustainability measures that EDC will carry out in the framework of the European Commission’ s project "Global dimension in Social Science subjects in Formal Education", which is a well targeted process of updating global education at local, national and EU level. Forum "Global education - engagement, growth, sustainability'' is financed by the Latvian government. Global Education Forum is one of the projects approved by Society Integration Fund (SIF) in the program ‘’Support for public participation in the implementation of Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union’’.