Human rights

We invite to conferences, seminars, congresses, professional workshops and informal meetings. People from different backgrounds, positions and interests come together to inspire each other in thought, faith and practice. The centre of all our endeavours is the open dialogue which takes the differently minded serious without denying one's own position. The issues of our conferences derive from impulses given by our own staff, participants, guests and working groups assisting the Academy.

W - as in world 
The World University Service (WUS) is an international non-governmental organisation which is politically and denominationally neutral. Since 1920 the WUS supports students and academics in higher education institutions. Today, WUS exists in over 50 countries.

U - as in university
The core issues of WUS Germany are higher education and defending human rights, especially the human right to education. WUS provides seminars, publications and information. It pursues public relations at political level, institutions, civil society and the media.

S - as in service 
WUS Germany takes part in national and international campaigns in the educational and development cooperation sector, offers consulting and carries out scholarship programmes as well as projects. Among its projects are those dealing with Development Education and Global Learning, capacity building for students from Africa, Asia and Latin America and subsidies for experts returning to their countries.

WUS takes part in national and international campaigns in the education and development sector, offers counseling and implements projects.

Information Centre Education North-South
The Information Centre of WUS is a project carried out jointly by the German State Administrative Units (Länder) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development. The objective of the Information Centre is to intensify communication and the flow of information as well as to help building networks in the field of Development Education and Global Learning.
Contact: infostelle[at]wusgermany.de, Tel. +49 611 9446170

Global Learning Portal
Offers an overview on of school materials, seminars and acitivities around Global Learning in Germany.
Contact: Heike Jäger, jaeger[at]wusgermany.de, Tel. +49 611 9446170

Website of German Federal States in Development Policy 
German Federal States in Development Policy presents the respective development policy objectives and activities of the 16 Federal States. It provides an overview of the multi-facetted commitment and involvement of the Federal States and their desire to contribute to the formation of public policy.
Contact: portal[at]wusgermany.de, Tel. +49 611 9446170

Development training for students from Africa, Asia and Latin America
With its project "STUBE Hessen", WUS offers a study-accompanying programme addressing students from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Contact: stube-ref[at]wusgermany.de, Tel. + 49 611 9446171

Projects with experts from Developing Countries
The project "Subsidies for Experts from Developing Countries" can promote graduated students under certain conditions in their return and professional reintegration in their home countries (reintegration programme).

Lobbying and Networking

The workshop “Solidarische Welt e. V.” (founded in 1980) wants to offer possibilities together with the world store in Augsburg for united action beyond borders. This includes educational work, fair trade, the work for a humane asylum and the support of single projects abroad. We work independently, of benefit to the public and regardless of political parties. Our work is performed in an honourary capacity and full-time. We offer regular series of events: Asia days, African weeks, fair week and peace actions. Moreover, single events, an educational material place, a public library and a north south-info archive. We publish north south information for teachers regularly.

Difäm, the German Institute for Medical Mission, based in Tübingen, was founded in 1906. It is a specialized advisory center, medical relief organization and bearer of the Paul Lechler Clinic for Tropical Diseases. We provide support to development and relief organizations worldwide (for example: Brot für die Welt [bread for the world], social welfare work and disaster aid) for the implementation of health projects; we assist our local partners in planning their projects and offer them ongoing support.

Our doctors have run health programs in southern countries for years and can thus provide the necessary specialized knowledge. Our main goal is to establish a firm basis for sustainable health care by promoting basic health care services and home health care. With our seminars in public health and treatment of tropical diseases, we further the training of local health care specialists and of qualified personnel.

Difäm promotes and carries out projects that help patients suffering from disabilities or diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and leprosy. Our medical aid service provides indispensable medicine, medical tools and auxiliary materials etc. for partner clinics and health care stations in over 90 countries around the world. Our long-term goal, however, is to make these countries independent of foreign aid. For this reason, Difäm provides raw materials, tools and training for local personnel in order to support the local production of pharmaceuticals. In addition to providing direct aid, we are also active in political lobbying and public campaigns for the right to health care.

The Foundation Education and Development is the Swiss centre for Global Education. We support teachers in Switzerland at all levels in their daily work by giving them impulses for their lessons which are directed towards a viable development in a global society. We sell and lend over 800 tried and tested teaching aids in German, French and Italian language. We provide teacher training. We inform and advise with relation to Global Education. We are part of a network of national and international organisations having similar aims. The services of the Foundation Education and Development are available at four regional centres throughout Switzerland: in the German and Rhaeto-Romanic-speaking region, in the French-speaking region, and in the Italian-speaking region.

The AG Bildung im iz3w offers a versatile range of material on the topic of North-South policy for youths and teachers in political education. We offer workshops, project days and seminars, produce radio podcasts and films and provide educational material on CD-ROM.

The federal state of Hesse is self-conscious of the challenges of globalization. The federal state government (Landesregierung) supports the numerous actors of the civil society in their international relations and helps whenever its intervention as facilitator is necessary in order to provide access for private measures and programs.

Through development cooperation, Hesse contributes to the promotion of trade and economic development as well as to ensuring the protection of human rights and the promotion of peace and understanding among nations. This way, Hesse contributes to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Economic development is a necessary condition in order to eliminate poverty. Strengthening the private sector helps enabling economic growth, employment, leads to employee qualification and generates income. Hence, Hesse’s development cooperation concentrates on projects aiming at economic growth and the integration of its partners into the global market. This represents also a means of improving the conditions in developing countries for foreign private investments. To achieve these purposes the government of Hesse works close together with associations and organizations active in the field of development cooperation, notably with the Network for Development Policy in Hesse (Entwicklungspolitisches Netzwerk Hessen) and with local actors of the economy.

Hesse supports above all educational projects as well as projects facilitating the transfer of know-how and the strengthening of market-oriented economies – from self-help projects to qualification projects in international marketing.

These measures also include the promotion of Fair Trade. On the one hand, Fair Trade is a means of supporting producers in developing countries; on the other hand, it provides opportunities for action to citizens who, in their role as consumers, wish to contribute to a fair shaping of globalisation.

The federal state of Hesse supports development education and information, on globalisation issues and education for sustainable development, following the motto „shared responsibility in thinking and acting“. This enhances the understanding of global inter-dependencies and encourages cooperation with partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In our charitable organisation, experts on educational matters and coaches from the Brandenburg and Berlin area are working on the following topics:

• adult and youth education in politics (development policy, ecology, development of democracy, civic participation, questions concerning human rights, migration, etc.)
• intercultural communication
• mediation and conflict management, mediation training and parental training
• organisation counselling
• anti-discrimination training
• study travels focusing on political and cultural matters and related to natural history in (Eastern) Germany and Eastern Europe

In terms of language and culture, we have gathered experiences and established contacts particularly with (Southeastern) Europe, Turkey, the Arab States, Israel, Latin America and Africa.

bezev engages itself in various fields in order to improve the life of people with disabilities, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. bezev is an education and information centre and acts as an interface between theory and practice. bezev intends to establish a closer network between the academic knowledge of Special Education and the practical work of development cooperation agencies. bezev performs lobbying work in the area of development policy. People with disability should be involved on an equal footing in all development policy schemes.

Weimar stands for art and culture, classicism and the modern age, cosmopolitan attitudes and nationalism, democracy and forced labour, even genocide. Weimar is a town of European importance. Our centre is situated in a small park in the centre of Weimar. The European Youth Education and Meeting Centre (EJBW) is an institution for political education, intercultural learning as well as theatre and pedagogical work. We invite children, young people and multipliers from Weimar, Thuringia, Germany and all over the world to come to our - national and international - seminars. Our centre is available to you for co-operation or just as a guest house. Creative thinking, independent judgement, solidarity and responsible action - these are the aims of our educational work.