Among the main activities related to development cooperation in the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt are development information activities, education and publicity work, as well as the support of non-governmental development organisations (NGOs) including corresponding network structures, practiceoriented education and training of foreign specialists, as well as supporting measures for humanitarian aid.
The co-ordination of the development cooperation of Saxony-Anhalt is held by the Ministry of Economy, Science and Digitalisation (Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Digitalisierung). The main development cooperation activities are rooted in the Development
Policy Guidelines, which were compiled by more than 70 development organisations, groups and associations and then adopted by the state government of Saxony-Anhalt in 2000.
Development NGOs are supported as responsible entities for measures promoting development education and information activities, educational and publicity work and support of Fair Trade in Germany as well as for projects in developing and emerging countries. Target groups are kindergartens, schools, teachers and educators. The promotion of development-related education measures in Saxony-Anhalt aims at strengthening the civil society’s understanding of and commitment to „One-World“ problems.
Besides promoting awarenessraising, the project „ Fair Saxony-Anhalt - Sustainable Procurement“ (Faires Sachsen-Anhalt - nachhaltige Beschaffung) also provided companies and administrations with necessary information about the sustainable procurement of goods. Forums for employees have been organised as well.
Apart from NGOs, the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt also closely cooperates with the GIZ GmbH (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) in many projects.
The projects supported abroad by Saxony-Anhalt aim directly at sustainable improvements of the population’s living conditions in developing and emerging countries. The guiding principle for these measures is the concept of „help for self-help“.