Development cooperation

Equipment of the protestant land church in Wurttemberg for development related educational work.

The Free State of Saxony supports the goal of a sustainable develop-ment according to the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations 2000. Sharing the responsibility with the federal government and the municipalities, the state of Saxony attempts to contribute to and promote development cooperation. This was reconfirmed through the signing of the 2014 Resolution on Development Policy of the Minister Presidents of the German Federal States.

Lower Saxony is committed to a range of activities in Sub-Saharan Africa and thus assumes responsibility for sustainable global development. The aim is to learn as much as possible from and with one another in the context of a global partnership and responsibility with
cosmopolitanism and cross-cultural competence.

Lower Saxony focuses on three priority areas of development cooperation:

1. Partnership with the Eastern Cape (South Africa) since 1995
2. Project cooperation with Tanzania since 2010
3. Development educational and information work

As part of the development policy information and educational work within Lower Saxony, the State Chancellery promotes the Association Development Policy Lower Saxony (Verband Entwicklungspolitik Niedersachsen e.V. - VEN). The VEN is the network of development
NGOs, initiatives and so-called One-World-Shops (Weltläden). The main focus of the VEN is the development educational and information work. The funds are directed to the implementation of „IBQ - projects“ (information, education and skills) of NGOs in Lower Saxony in the field of development cooperation.

Since 2014 Lower Saxony has been co-financing the nationwide Promoter-Program (Promotorenprogramm). The aim is to raise awareness on development issues in Lower Saxony. The continuation of the program up to 2018 has been decided upon in 2015 and the financial means are guaranteed.

As part of a special program for humanitarian aid, Lower Saxony has decided to take in 70 traumatized women and children from northern Iraq in 2015. They are victims of extreme violence by fighters of the terrorist organization Islamic State, whom Lower Saxony is going to ensure a safe stay over the next two years. The regional government has decided to allocate 1.1 million euros in 2015 and 6.8 million euros for the following years for the reception, accommodation and health care of these women and children.

2016 is planned to focus on the implementation and consolidation of the new Development Policy Guidelines and their linking with the Strategy for Sustainability of Lower Saxony, which is currently under revision. The intensified cooperation with development policy actors within the civil society - a positive effect of the process of drafting the guidelines - will be continued by, for example, giving these organizations an active part in developing the implementation strategy.

Furthermore, Lower Saxony participates in the newly established Bund-Länder-Program. With the involvement of GIZ’s office in Lower Saxony (Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit) project opportunities are currently being examined and planned to be approved
by the end of January 2016.

For a long time now, Hamburg has contributed to sustainable development on a global scale. Projects and measures of development cooperation abroad just as development education and information are the most significant features of Hamburg’s development policy.

The support of projects abroad focuses on the areas of eliminating the causes of poverty, on fostering gender mainstreaming, improving health care as well as on measures for environment and resource protection. On the other hand, a further focus area is the  improvement of the municipal infrastructure in urban areas.

Of special significance are measures to improve the general living conditions in León (Nicaragua), twin city of Hamburg since 1989, and in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), twin city of Hamburg since 2010, with which the development of a municipal climate partnership has been in place since 2011. In 2005, the Senate of Hamburg created the Foundation Asia-Bridge (Stiftung Asien-Brücke) as an independent promotional instrument for sustainable development projects in South and South East Asia. The municipality of Hamburg also supports directly non-governmental groups and initiatives in order to encourage the commitment of the civil society as well as to raise awareness on development aspects.

Measures for professional development are important complements of project funding. By providing research fellowships, Hamburg invites, above all, specialists from Nicaragua, Tanzania and India to Hamburg to take part in qualification programs.

Hamburg appreciates the work of its active citizens in the field of development policy and awareness-raising and cooperates with numerous non-governmental organizations and initiatives. Especially the support of the Hamburg One-World Network (Eine-Welt-Netzwerk Hamburg e. V.) is a vivid example of the close cooperation with actors of the civil society. Since 2006, the Hamburg Senate participates in the Network Fair Hamburg (Hamburg mal fair), a cooperation network of several local actors in the field of development educational
and information work that aims to promote Fair Trade. Since 2008, Hamburg’s public procurement entities demand that tenders include a declaration of compliance with the ILO core labor standards in the production process of goods that are delivered to Hamburg. In 2011, Hamburg was awarded the title Fair Trade City. Hamburg contributes to the “One-World”-Promoters Program (Fachpromotorenprogram) with three appointments, one related to Fair Trade, another to Migration, Diaspora and Development and the other to Global Learning.

In the orientation of its development activities the Senate consults the appointed Hamburger Council for Sustainable Development Policy (Hamburger Rat für nachhaltige Entwicklungspolitik).

Hamburg’s development policy extends to further areas in which it has special resources and expertise such as North-South research at the German Institute for Global Area Studies (GIGA), cultural dialogue with countries in the Global South, promotion of South-North trade as well as research and education in the field of tropical medicine.

AGIAMONDO sees itself as an interface between development agencies looking for expert personnel for development work projects and qualified experts who wish to put their extensive expertise and their social and intercultural skills to good use. We bring together people who share the belief that everyone in the world is entitled to humane living conditions.

Accordingly, it is our aim to alleviate human suffering through intercultural cooperation and by promoting a form of personnel development cooperation that centres on people and their individual needs. As a recognised personnel service provider in the field of development work, we meet this important responsibility by providing expert support, advice and ongoing assistance to organisations and development workers alike. Together, we create the best possible conditions for effective on-location project work.

The DEAB is composed of over 100 Third World Stores, Third World Groups and other organizations related to development policy in Baden-Wuerttemberg. It is the parent organization for action groups involved in development policy and it focuses on topics like debt remission, fair trade and development aid. The many DEAB representatives acting within diverse committees work constantly to foster basic human rights in developing countries. The DEAB is the oldest and largest German network related to development policy. Every organization or group in Baden-Wuerttemberg which is engaged in development policy and which promotes justice worldwide can become a member of the DEAB.

The SüdZeit is a DEAB magazine that sets new trends related to development policy within and outside of Baden-Wuerttemberg. This magazine is published quarterly and contains reports, portraits and detailed overviews related to development policy activities in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Part of the service section of the SüdZeit is available at www.deab.de, the regularly updated website of the DEAB.

The DEAB group advisors for fair trade in Mannheim, Bodensee-Oberschwaben and Stuttgart support volunteers who work in "third world" shops or are involved in our action groups. Each of these groups can contact our advising services in case of problems or questions concerning issues like moving to a new location, sales levels, group activities or possible cooperation with other groups in its region.

Furthermore, the DEAB can provide a "fair trade" stand for professional use at consumer fairs. It is also engaged in an international campaign for debt remission (www.erlassjahr.de). The DEAB is a founding member of the Germany-wide "attac" network.
The DEAB fights for a vision of worldwide justice that encourages everyone to live and act responsibly in business and political life so that people everywhere can live a life of dignity. The DEAB also provides information about social ills in our globalized world, shows how we are partly responsible for those problems, and promotes change for the better.