Environment

Since 2010, Support Malawi Heidelberg e. V.  promotes miscellaneous education projects with various focus in north and central Malawi.

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.

The BEI was established in 1994 as an umbrella association for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in order to set the stage for more coordinated and co-operative development projects. The BEI's main objective is to create a network and provide assistance for the development projects of its 65 associated member organizations. These organizations focus on different aspects of development policy-related work and have different political approaches to achieve solidarity in our "One World." Their main objectives include:

• to promote education on development policy, public relations and intercultural communication in Schleswig-Holstein
• to support the Human Rights Movement and the Emancipation Movement in developing countries
• to co-operate in development projects with partner organizations in developing countries - to promote Fair Trade
• to support the Agenda 21 goals
• to provide information about the countries of origin of immigrants and refugees, reasons for migration and refugee flows, and racism
• to promote environment and climate protection

The BEI aims to establish a network for these different One World projects, which are carried out by full time and voluntary workers. The association wants to provide support and training for the involved partners, and aims to represent their and its own development policy concerns in terms of political and administrative issues. The BEI's work is based on the concept of Sustainable Development, which combines ecological, economic and social issues. This concept makes changes necessary both in the North and in the South. In this context ecological issues are as important as the development concepts, because they are mutually dependent.

In different projects and events the BEI functions as a facilitator of co-operation among its associated member organizations, other local development networks or initiatives, and organizations concerned with different aspects of development policy-related work. In Germany the BEI is co-operating on a federal level with the Platform of the German One World Regional Networks (agl) and the Association of German Development NGOs (VENRO).

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.