Fair trade

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.

All Weltladen shops in Germany are members of the Weltladen parent organization which has its headquarters in Mainz. It coordinates joint efforts as well as publicity campaigns and provides continuing education for employees and current information on Weltladen shops. The Weltladen parent organization sees itself as an organisation dedicated to serve its members.

Its most important goals are:

• to promote the idea of fair trade and to bring the Weltladen shops to the attention of the public and policy-makers.
• to give the public a clear and coherent idea of Weltladen shops and their philosophy.
• to establish Weltladen shops as specialized shops of fair trade and to systematically improve and support their work.
• to further develop the work of the Weltladen shops under today´s changing conditions.

Accordingly, one main focus lies in the organisation of political activities, like our "Weltladen Days", which traditionally take place in May. The Weltladen parent organization promotes fair play in world trade through activities that attract public attention. Another principal concern of its work is to become known to a broader public. Currently the Weltladen parent organization is cooperating closely with youths on the subject of global learning. The Weltladen parent organization is a member of the Forum for Fair Trade, a union of the most important players in fair trade in Germany.

The Landeszentrale für Umweltaufklärung Rheinland-Pfalz is an institution founded by the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It reports directly to the Minister of the Environment and is based in the ministry responsible for the environment and forestry in Mainz. The national centre was founded by a cabinet decision on 1 February 1990. Its objective and task are to inform the population about environmental concerns and to motivate them to learn an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The crux of the matter is the following: We have already been living beyond our means for a long time. We live at the cost of following generations. And, still, we refuse all too easily to believe that terms like ‘climate catastrophe’ and ‘ozone hole’ are real threats. We continue to live as if the supplies of natural resources and energy sources were inexhaustible, as if water, soil and the atmosphere are able to indefinitely absorb toxic substances. However, an acceleration of this development is foreseeable. About 20 percent of the global population use approximately 80 percent of the resources for themselves and are responsible for the corresponding share of the environmental damage. When the remaining 80 percent of the global population follow (why shouldn’t they?), the collapse of the system ‘earth’ will not be long in coming. We have no choice but to introduce sustainable development that brings economic and social interests worldwide in accordance with each other. It does not help much, though, to point a finger at ‘the others’, the industry or the government. It is up to all of us. The first step towards change is a change of (environmental) thinking, which is what the LZU demands. And everyone has to participate.

The developing-educational information centre EPiZ in Reutlingen is a house of global learning which acts on a regional and national level, as well as all on an international one. The program of EPiZ is “Bildung trifft Entwicklung” (BtE), “education meets development”, which allows global learning in cooperation with advisers from the development policy and from voluntary services related to development policy as well as with people from countries of the global south. The library and the global classroom with their interesting materials towards development policy give access to a variety of possibilities to deal with the topic of global learning. The rooms open for our guests the whole world in its cultural diversity and at the same time show acting options for one world.

Think globally, act locally: This is the goal that Berlin’s Office for Development Cooperation (Landesstelle für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit des Landes Berlin - LEZ) aims to live up to through a variety of activities. Over 100 embassies, numerous international associations and political foundations as well as over 300 development actors make Berlin to a centre of multifaceted international knowledge and of outstanding worldwide contact and communication opportunities.

The LEZ and Berlin’s Senate are supported in their work by the Advisory Board for Development Cooperation (Beirat für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit), a committee of experts in development policy. The management of project funding for Berlin’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is taken over by the Foundation North-South Bridges (Stiftung Nord-Süd Brücken - SNSB) on behalf of the LEZ. Civic engagement also makes an important contribution to Berlin‘s development cooperation and is largely represented and supported
through Berlin’s Development Cooperation Council (Berliner Entwicklungspolitischer Ratschlag – BER). BER is an important reference point for NGOs and initiates discussion processes with and within the civil society.

In June 2012, the Berlin Senate adopted the new Development Policy Guidelines. Hereby competence fields were established on which Berlin focuses its development policy. These include: development educational and information work, maintaining town partnerships,
training of specialists and managers on an international scale as well as exercising its network function as the federal capital. The new Guidelines stand for Berlin’s decision to modernize its development cooperation work. They recognize the need for a worldwide development of all states and supersede the idea of a one-sided development policy of giving and receiving. This is to be pursued through equitable international policies which equally take into consideration the responsibility towards economic weaker countries.

The Guidelines point to the inter-dependency between development cooperation and international and inter-cultural cooperation in the fields of economy, culture, education, science, public sector and migration.

Within the field of development cooperation, Berlin dedicates special attention to the development of skills in Global Learning, i.e. in understanding global inter-dependencies as well as to the promotion of Fair Trade and fair procurement. Berlin sees the main task of its commitment therefore in development education. Here, the LEZ is supported by the Development Education and Information Centre (Entwicklungspolitisches Bildungs- und Informationszentrum e.V. - EPIZ) as well as by the Foundation North-South Bridges (SNSB). By conveying knowledge about foreign cultures and countries and clarifying the causes of negative developments in industrialized and developing countries the reputation of Berlin as a cosmopolitan and tolerant city gets consolidated.

The large number of refugees and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals create new challenges for Berlin. As a contribution to Berlin’s refugee policy, the LEZ will deal with the areas of migration, integration and welcoming culture and hence implement one of the guiding principles of the Development Policy Guidelines. To implement the Sustainable Development Goals the LEZ will develop and support initiatives.

Organizations such as the GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Engagement Global, German Institute for Development (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklung – DIE), Berlin’s Association for International Cooperation (Berliner Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit mbH – BGZ), Seminar for Rural Development (Seminar für ländliche Entwicklung – SLE) are important partners of Berlin’s development policy. Also, close cooperation takes place with the ASA-Programme as well as the Alumni programme of the Technical
University of Berlin. Joint events are organized within forums for international exchange of experiences.

On the initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung – BMZ) the federal states have initiated a “Promoter”- Program (Promotor/innen-Programm). The One-World-Promoters work within development organizations and initiatives. These experts promote global responsible thinking and acting and mobilize for more commitment to issues of sustainable development. Berlin’s Promoter-Program is coordinated by Berlin’s Development
Cooperation Council (BER) and managed by the Foundation North-South Bridges (SNSB). Currently, eight Promoters are working in the following fields of action: strengthening civic engagement, fair and sustainable economy, decolonization and anti-racism, Global
Learning, climate and resource justice as well as municipal development cooperation.

The LEZ supports a variety of NGOs developmental projects in the area of development education and information work as well as school and town partnership projects. The support of NGOs particularly enables the LEZ to shape and encourage a wide range of development education and volunteer work.

The development support of Berlin’s NGOs was very positively evaluated in 2010. To further promote their work and to gain the interest of more citizens in development policy areas, the LEZ is supporting the creation of a One World Centre (Eine-Welt-Zentrum). The project aims to become a key development site in Berlin.

In addition to national initiatives, the LEZ also promotes European projects. Between 2013 and 2015, the LEZ carried out a follow-up project of the Europe Aid award-winning „Awareness for Fairness“, which had aimed to improve the quality of Global Learning and anchor the concept in the educational landscape of the EU. The program intends to anchor developmental subjects more in school and non-school curricula as well as in teaching practices.

The implementation of the project “Global Fairness” serves LEZ’s policy objectives in development cooperation in the subject area Global Learning and strengthens Berlin’s town partnership with Prague. In the long term, the purpose is to achieve more awareness of global fairness issues and ultimately changes in consumer behavior.

In collaboration with European partners and the EPIZ e.V., Berlin promotes the cooperation of committed stakeholders and the establishment and improvement of networks in the field of sustainable development and good governance. With Berlin as lead partner and in cooperation with BGZ and EPIZ e.V., the project TriNet Global – “Local Authorities, Business Sector and Universities as Agents for Change” has been successfully implemented. The exchange of best practice and the innovative implementation of projects are supposed to strengthen sustainable development and the involvement of cities, industry and universities. Berlin’s focus within these projects were discussions and workshops on city infrastructure and its improvement on a global scale, promoting companies participation in international activities as well as the development and pilot-like implementation of learning modules for Global Learning in universities. As part of the Asia-Pacific Weeks 2015 and TriNet Global, new approaches and strategies for the implementation of Innovation Labs as a multi-stakeholder approach to development cooperation were worked on by participants in an interactive workshop.

Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim – Social Welfare Work – Worldwide Church

• Partnership program with Bolivia (information, guests, trips to meet our Bolivian partners)
• Financial support of educational work and lobbying activities related to development policy and the Worldwide Church
• Continuing education events for professionals
• Recommending guests and speakers from developing countries and eastern Europe
• Information and additional material on the "www.erlassjahr.de" (year of remission) campaign