Development policy

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.

The non-profit association "Bund für Bildung" translates socially relevant issues into educational projects. The focus is on issues of inclusion, participation and democracy.

To achieve its goal of creating a 'world for all people,' Terre des Hommes functions as an advocate for children's rights, grass-roots movement in terms of development policy, and citizens' action groups. Terre des Hommes raises funds to support development projects that enable people to actively shape their own destinies. At the same time, structures here in the North must change. To that end, Terre des Hommes fosters development policy in the North and stands up for "global learning".

The student solidarity campaign
With this campaign, learning is no longer restricted to the classroom. Schools or individual classes can choose from a variety of projects particularly interesting for students, and support this project once or on a regular basis. Terre des Hommes provides media and class material for the individual projects.

Children for the rights of children
Terre des Hommes also stands up for the rights of children. It is understood that children are most welcome to join the work of Terre des Hommes, for example in one of the teams where children fight for other children's rights. Children and adolescents form groups and teams with friends, develop creative campaigns, and are responsible for their realization. Terre des Hommes supports them by providing material and ideas.

Material
Terre des Hommes provides books for children and adolescents of different age groups. These books describe the life of young people in the South. Collections of slides on different topics, countries, and projects can be borrowed. Many of those collections are already available on CD-ROM. Above that, there are various wall newspapers, leaflets, posters, comics, and videos. The Terre des Hommes website contains pages for children and students.

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.

Youth with disability forum is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established in 2005 in Belgrade operating all throughout the Republic of Serbia. The activities are implemented by regional offices in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Kragujevac. The main objectives and mission of the organization are defined in the Youth with disability forum’s Statutes, some of which imply advocating society of equal opportunities and service and support provision to different beneficiaries.
As a cross-disability and cross diversity non-profit organization, Forum advocating for and representing the interests of young persons, to address the need for improved participation of civil society with emphasis on youth, in the democratic processes in general, and decision-making on the issues affecting young persons in particular.
Advocating for the development of cross-sectoral cooperation, and dialogue represents one of Forum’s priorities and in a very short while our organization established partnerships with a large number of stakeholders from different sectors (public, business, media, ect ). Also, the organizations entered into partnership with many civil society organizations both from Serbia and region Western Balkans.
The key capacities of the organization mostly refer to human resources, with advance knowledge and skills in many fields, particularly project management. The logistic and operative capacities of the organization are another advantage proved by the fact that we have been delegated the organization of several regional conferences by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy as well as other donors.
The projects have been successfully implemented; some are to be continued on the request of the broader community. It serves as a proof of effective realization and ability for implementation of sustainable actions. Committed to excellence is seen as our additional strength, coupled with permanent efforts to improve the quality of results in accordance with the methodologies (EFQM).
Our organization is not based on membership fee, but is open to all young people willing to participate and contribute to the establishment of equal opportunities society in the Republic of Serbia.

Mission is -promoting European values; to enhance: the civil society development, the democratic process of governance, sustainable development of local community, and promotion of new culture of change and conflict managment.

Vision is -Serbia and Yugoslavia are equal members of the European community of nations.

Intention is -supporting peaceful resolution of conflicts between individuals and community, promotion of the idea of justice and standing up against every kind of violence; developing and maintaining co-operation between citizens and communities in FRY and the world; development of non-profitable sector in FRY; respecting human dignity and against violation of human rights; founding market economy.

Obligation is - articulation and developing of the values of civil society; development of sustainable NGOs; development of a sustainable local community; development of an open forum of citizens and organisations (at the local, regional and national level) aimed at facilitating dialog, exchange of information, advancing mutual understanding, solidarity, co-operation and communication.

Principles are - Investing in peoples´ knowledge and skills is an efficient way for institutional development and promotion change; Training is a tool for capacity building but also for changing attitudes and stimulate initiative at community level; Collaboration and expertise exchange at regional and national level are efficient ways for learning from each others´ successes and failures; Participatory and interactive problem solving processes build partnerships and prevent conflicts; Autonomous, accountable and active local governments are the foundation of democracy; Effective and efficient local governments are crucial for the change management and local development processes; For effective & efficient local governance is more important to have knowledge and skills than capital investment.