Global learning/global education

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.

Traditionally, many strong, successful and efficient organizations, networks and initiatives are active in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. They are the main actors of development work. Therefore, the state development policy is characterized by the participation of the civil society. In February 2013, the state government approved the new Development Policy Guidelines (Entwicklungspolitische Leitlinien), which were developed through a participatory process that was at the time unique throughout Germany. Through the initiative “world:citizens consulted!” (Welt:Bürger gefragt!), more than 1,500 citizens from all over Baden-Württemberg as well as 120 organizations and associations actively helped defining these guidelines.

Even within the adoption of the Development Policy Guidelines the developing political dialogue is still undergoing. Every year citizens of Baden-Württemberg come together to the Annual Development Policy Conference to review the implementation of the Guidelines and work on new policy proposals. Furthermore, the Council for Development Cooperation (Rat für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit), which brings together experts from significant developmentally active networks, advises the government in development issues.

Development policy in Baden-Württemberg is especially challenging for the classic political core areas of the federal states: For example it concerns education policy when trying to incorporate Global Learning and Global Studying into the curricula of schools and universities, research efforts and university strategies for internationalization. It also relates to economic policy in the areas of public procurement, the promotion of foreign trade and Fair Trade, as well as environmental policy focusing on questions of ecological sustainability.

In Baden-Württemberg, development policy is a joint task that is primarily supported by the efficient and professional commitment of its civil society. The government of Baden-Württemberg promotes this commitment but does not wish to replace it. The federal state merely provides a reliable framework for advancing development policy and supporting its participants. The two foundations Development Co-operation Foundation (Stiftung Entwicklungszusammenarbeit) and Baden-Württemberg Foundation (Baden-Württemberg Stiftung) were established by the federal state of Baden-Württemberg to pro-mote, advice and support private and municipal initiatives. The Of-fice for Development Co-operation (Landesstelle für Entwicklungszu-sammenarbeit) in the State Ministry (Staatsministerium) is available to all citizens, civil society organizations, ministries, municipalities and to the Parliament of Baden-Württemberg (Landtag) as direct and competent governmental partner. The federal state supports civic initiatives in the field of development policy by providing funds.

Since 2013, together with the Federal Government, Baden-Württemberg promotes the One-World-Promoters program (Eine-Welt-Promotoren-Programm). Eleven full-time positions within host organizations of the civil society have already been created in order to support the valuable work of organizations, networks and initiatives in Baden-Württemberg. After the expiration of its pilot phase in 2015, Baden-Württemberg will continue to finance the program in 2017.

Every year, the “Fair Trade” exhibition (Messe FAIR HANDELN) provides a platform for the exchange of ideas, networking and joint initiatives to all active actors in Baden-Württemberg. With over 150 exhibitors, the fair has become a flagship project of the Fair Trade movement with impact far beyond Baden-Württemberg.

Development cooperation is a key task of international politics. Even if the competencies for development cooperation basically lie within the Federal Government, the Free State of Thuringia aims to provide its own case-by-case or project-based contribution to this field area and to cooperate with the Federal Government.

In the Guidelines for Development Cooperation (Leitlinien der Thü-ringer Entwicklungszusammenarbeit) adopted on January 2nd 1996, the Free State of Thuringia acknowledged its responsibility for deve-lopment policy. Accordingly, the aim of the Free State of Thuringia has always been the improvement of living conditions of individuals through development cooperation. True to the principle of self-help, over the last twenty years numerous measures of vocational training of professionals in Thuringia or in their home countries as well as corresponding projects have been promoted. The collaboration with the Kingdom of Cambodia in the field of environment has been the focus of international cooperation for many years.

The Thuringian State Government sees development cooperation as a cross-cutting area and thus supports initiatives and projects of the development policy network in Thuringia. The One World Network Thuringia (Eine Welt Netzwerk Thüringen), as an umbrella organi-zation of the development policy commitment of Thuringian NGOs, is the most important cooperation partner of the Thuringian State Government. Furthermore, the Free State of Thuringia welcomes the work of social groups, churches and other non-governmental actors of development cooperation and supports them through mutual in-formation and experience exchange in their self-responsible action.

The main focus of Thuringia’s development policy is sustainable education. Since 1995, it has been supporting the “Thuringia days of educational and information in the field of development (Thüringer Entwicklungspolitischen Bildungs- und Informationstage – THEBIT) aimed at familiarising pupils of Thuringia with the problems of de-veloping countries and, consequently, at contributing to dismantling xenophobia and the promotion of tolerance.

Against the backdrop of the „Development Year 2015“ with nu-merous international decisions, whose implementation lay in the responsibility of each individual, another focus of Thuringia’s govern-ment will be addressing how the worldwide Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be successfully implemented. The starting point for the discussion process on this issue is going to be the FutureTour (ZukunftsTour) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development with its stop in Thuringia in February 2016.

Description of the organization:

The Ministry of Education and Culture in Saarland is responsible for the topic of development cooperation. The goal is to work closely with actors from civil society and the municipal level who are active in development policy. Together with these partners, the Saarland assumes global responsibility. This includes fostering partnerships with countries and regions of the global South and promoting development policy information and education as well as civic engagement for the One World.

Goals and priorities

Since development cooperation is above all a task for society as a whole, the successful work of private initiatives, the churches and other non-governmental organizations in particular receives financial and non-material support. Saarland organizations working in and for South-North partnerships network with each other. Together, the state government and civil society want to make a concrete contribution to fighting poverty worldwide, securing peace, realizing democracy and making globalization fairer.

Particular importance is attached to the open and cooperative exchange of all actors in development policy work, both in global partnerships and in information and education work. In order to promote this exchange, the Ministry of Education and Culture invites to the open forum on development cooperation twice a year.

The Saarland Development Cooperation Guidelines were adopted by the Saarland Parliament in March 2017 and are the result of a development process with the active participation of civil society and Saarland non-governmental organizations. They represent the framework of Saarland's development cooperation and are intended to strengthen existing structures, initiatives and activities. They serve as orientation and form the basis for Saarland's future development policy relevant engagement.

The fields of action of Saarland's development cooperation are:

- development policy information, advisory and educational work

- science, research and teaching

- international exchange

- economy, enterprises, public administrations and municipalities

- international trade and agricultural policy

- North-South partnerships/cooperations

- impact of European policy on countries of the global south

Since 2018, the State Coordination Office for Education for Sustainable Development has been the key position for the structural anchoring of Education for Sustainable Development in school education. With the state coordination office, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is systematically and structurally anchored in the education sector. In order to link global interrelationships and individual behavior, even schoolchildren are to be sensitized to sustainable development.

There are also far-reaching efforts in the area of fair trade/sustainable procurement. For example, with the decision of the Council of Ministers on May 2, 2023, fair trade coffee and another fair trade product - such as chocolate, tea or sugar - will be used in all houses of the state government from July 1, 2023. "If you want to have good working conditions in your own country, you cannot save on the price of coffee, cocoa or sugar at the expense of people in the global south. Therefore, in the future, there will be fair trade products in the areas of the ministers, the Prime Minister, but also in the hospitality of guests," explains Secretary of State for Education Jan Benedyczuk. With this decision, the state government has launched the "Fair Federal State" project. With this, Saarland will be the first federal state to submit an application for certification as a Fairtrade federal state in the fall of 2023. The certification is intended to structurally anchor Fair Trade in Saarland.

There are also far-reaching efforts in the area of fair trade/sustainable procurement. For example, with the decision of the Council of Ministers on May 2, 2023, fair trade coffee and another fair trade product - such as chocolate, tea or sugar - will be used in all houses of the state government from July 1, 2023. "If you want to have good working conditions in your own country, you cannot save on the price of coffee, cocoa or sugar at the expense of people in the global south. Therefore, in the future, there will be fair trade products in the areas of the ministers, the Prime Minister, but also in the hospitality of guests," explains Secretary of State for Education Jan Benedyczuk. With this decision, the state government has launched the "Fair Federal State" project. With this, Saarland will be the first federal state to submit an application for certification as a Fairtrade federal state in the fall of 2023. The certification is intended to structurally anchor Fair Trade in Saarland.

The application documents must be submitted to the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Saarland by December 31 of the previous year at the latest for the budget year of the funding. For project funding within the framework of development cooperation, the guidelines of development cooperation of the Saarland apply as a content-related framework. The legal framework for funding is formed by the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Culture for the granting of subsidies for the funding of projects within the framework of development cooperation, as amended from time to time.