Initiatives Taken by the Council for a Community of Democracies to Support the Civic Education Roundtable of the Seoul Non-Governmental Forum 

Since the fall of 2001 the Council for a Community of Democracies has advocated placing education for democracy squarely on the agenda for the Seoul Community of Democracies Conference. We have done so because we believe that highlighting civic education as a theme for cooperation among democracies is especially vital at this time for four reasons.           

First, the role of democracy education in the struggle of democratic opposition groups and NGOs over the past decade was critical to the overthrow of dictators around the world.

Second, once the new democratic regimes were in place and controlled their countries educational systems they faced the challenge of introducing the values for which they fought into the minds of their countries’ children. That task, fundamental to the consolidation of new and fragile democracies, has only just begun in many countries. 

Third, we have been made dramatically aware in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11 that extremist education in Islamic madrassas has been central to al-Qaeda recruitment. The introduction and strengthening of secular education based on democratic values in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan, to name just two, will be fundamental to the long-term effort to eradicate the ideas upon which terrorism has thrived.

U.S. NGOs have a great deal to offer the international community. Two NGO coalitions, the Center for Civic Education and the DEEP coalition headed by the American Forum for Global Education, with the support of foundations, USAID and the US Department of Education have developed international networks and a range of programs to address the growing appetite for democracy education. Furthermore, thousands of broad based US NGOs from the League of Women Voters, to trade unions and community groups have enormous capabilities and much to contribute to non-formal civic participation in democracy related activities.

Given these considerations, CCD believes that civic education is a theme that can lead to a number of deliverables both at the Seoul Ministerial and the NGO Forum. For that reason, as coordinators of the US NGO group for the Forum, we have advocated that it be placed on the Forum’s agenda. In meeting with the convening group embassies and the NGOs of the US Coordinating Group we have found strong support for the idea of cooperation in the realm of civic education. We have also learned that there is substantial enthusiasm from the American NGO community. Finally we have had the endorsement of the Korean Government as well as the NGO host of the Seoul Conference, the Sejong Institute.  In the course of our consultations we have created a consensus out of which concrete results are likely to flow on the question of civic education from both the Forum and Ministerial meetings.

To determine lessons learned from the US government’s experience with civic education we arranged a meeting between Under Secretary Paula Dobriansky’s staff and representatives of USAID, the Department of Education and with those in the former USIA including representatives from ECA and with Penn Kemble who made CIVITAS a major USIA initiative.  We have also met with representatives of the major US NGOs to study their past activities and future plans.

Our Executive Director briefed representatives of the groups on the Seoul meeting at a New York gathering. Participants included members of the Board of Directors of the American Forum for Global Education as well as representatives of the DEEP coalition, the group of American NGOs currently funded by the US Department of Education. He has been invited to address an international gathering of that coalition jointly sponsored by the American Forum and by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund at the Rockefeller estate, Pocantico in late June.

We will be meeting with several of those likely to be panelists for the Seoul NGO Forum to discuss how to most effectively produce results at that meeting. We plan to be in touch with several foundations to apply for funding that would allow follow-up to the Seoul meetings.

Possible results flowing from Seoul include:

1. A commitment by many countries to increase the funding of civic education in their schools.
2. Expanded cooperation between governments and NGOs to share materials and ideas about best practices.
3. A commitment of those countries that have substantial experience in the field to assist others who have not.  
4. An appeal to international institutions including the IFIs and related UN agencies to provide resources for civic education. Such support should include bolstering the already existing international support office of CIVITAS in Brussels to enable expanded exchanges of ideas and people. 
5. We urge that member governments and international financial institutions make education for democracy an integral part of education reform efforts in Africa and elsewhere—starting with the initiative set out in the speech by President Bush.

We are convinced that these and related results on the issue of civic education flowing from the Seoul Conference will greatly contribute to the success of the Community of Democracies movement and will provide cement to the democracy building process around the world.