Tackling Poverty and Inequality: Learning from International Practice for Changing North East Contexts
On Tuesday 3rd March, we held the first of three community café events, part of a series of five events co-hosted by IPPR North (http://www.ippr.org/north/) and the Department of Social Sciences’ Centre for International Development (www.northumbria.ac.uk/cid), in partnership with three local community development consultants. These events are aimed at reinvigorating community development by providing opportunities to engage with examples of development practice from across the Global South, particularly drawing on the expertise of colleagues within the Centre for International Development.
The events use the Café Culture format, with the aim of stimulating new ideas and encouraging lively discussion in an informal environment. Around 40 participants came from a range of organisations including Newcastle City Council; People, Purpose, Planning; Swing Bridge Media; Gentoo; The Angelou Centre; and from many of the Universities in the region. The evening involved lots of animated discussion, fuelled by coffee and cake, and stimulated by interesting presentations from Dr Sarah Coulthard on the concept of wellbeing and its application in relation to fishing communities in South East Asia, and John Stirling, visiting fellow of CID, on his experiences of working with trade unions in the UK and in Sierra Leone, and the way in which learning travels between these different contexts. Ably chaired by Ed Cox, Director of IPPR North, the two hours flew by, and everyone wished we had longer to continue to share ideas.
I’m looking forward to the next of these events at the end of March, with Dr Vasilios Ioakimidis and Dr Darryl Humble, discussing examples of practice from the Middle East and from South India, around the broad theme of social movements.
Full details of the HEIF-funded project can be found here: