Peace/conflict

Weltfriedensdienst (WFD) is a development policy-related organisation headquartered in Berlin. It was founded in 1959, when the German federal government started its rearmament again, ten years after the ending of world war two. Weltfriedensdienst commit itself to reconciliation work in countries that had been victims of German fascism and in believe that there is only a way to peace with less weapons in the world. In the 1960s, WFD started to focus also on countries of the South. Since 1971, WFD has been one of six development services approved by the German federal government. Trained development and peace workers have been supporting grassroots initiatives in Africa, Latin America and Palestine.

Focal points of the collaboration with partners in the South are the advancement of women, professional training, environment protection and resource conservation, as well as civil peace service. In terms of collaboration, one of WFD's main concerns is to develop a sense of partnership with grassroots initiatives and NGOs.

In Germany, WFD raises awareness of problems in the South and helps to overcome prejudices by promoting several projects and by concentrating on development policy-related work in the areas of lobbying, education and public relations. The peaceXchange project that was running in Germany is one example of WFD's EU awareness work. It was designed to raise awareness of ways of achieving non-violent conflict resolution that have been developed in countries of the South. This three-year project, in collaboration with Austrian, Czech and Polish partners, mainly addressed young people. Currently WFD starts a new EU and also EU supported project "Global Generation" in collaboration with Hungarian and Austrian partners. This time it will take place not only in Germany, but also in the other project countries. In Germany, Weltfriedensdienst also focus on promoting partnership projects. A total of 60 partnerships support projects in Africa, Latin America and Palestine through various campaigns. Further advancement of WFD's work would not be possible without the dedicated volunteers, as members and partners of WFD who are on the board, work on the advisory committees of individual projects and in various project teams. Passive members, who cannot work actively for the association, but wish to support WFD financially, are also welcome and needed. Without their financial support many projects were not possible.

WFD promotes development policy-related campaigns and is part of a greater network. Accordingly, WFD is a member of VENRO, AGDF, AKLHÜ, Action against AIDS Germany, BER e.V. and Attac Deutschland.