Development cooperation in Germany

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The development cooperation of Germany is the activities of the German states abroad for socio-economic development and general raising of the standard of living in the target regions, also known as development aid.

East German development cooperation up to reunification

In the period from 1973 to 1990 development cooperation amounted to 30.6 billion GDR marks. 298,600 people from developing countries received vocational training in the GDR, while 28,100 experts - doctors, teachers, engineers - worked as development workers in developing countries. The GDR used 0.66% of its gross national product for development aid. The GDR Solidarity Committee was responsible for coordinating these activities .

West / German development cooperation

On November 14, 1961, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation was founded in Bonn .

Previously, responsibility for development cooperation in the Federal Republic lay with various existing ministries and departments. In 1952, the contribution to development cooperation consisted of a financial contribution to the “Extended Assistance Program of the United Nations” and in 1956 a first fund of 50 million DM for development cooperation.

Walter Scheel ( FDP ) was appointed the first Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation by the Federal President at the suggestion of the then Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer ( CDU ). One of his first tasks was to bundle development cooperation measures and to align the Federal Ministry as such.

Together with the establishment of the ministry, the bodies responsible for personal development services were established and recognized by the state . Only the Christian Specialists International (CFI) were founded and recognized much later.

At first, development cooperation was exposed to constant attacks from the right. They would be bottomless barrels and a waste of taxpayers' money. But important suggestions also came from the developing countries themselves and quickly led to appropriate reforms, such as reduced conditions for aid loans.

At the end of the 1960s, the church and the revolutionary students of " 1968 " demanded more effective and intensified development cooperation. The radical wing among the "68ers", on the other hand, fundamentally attacked development cooperation. It serves to perpetuate "neocolonial exploitation" and must be "smashed". Erhard Eppler ( SPD ), fourth development minister from 1968 to 1974, tried to meet the moderate demands in some cases quite successfully and was able to prevail over the departments of other ministries, as in 1972 on the question of responsibility for the allocation of development aid. After the oil crisis in 1973/74, an increase in the budget for development cooperation that had already been decided on, and thus one of Eppler's main projects, was cut. He resigned in July 1974 in protest. This step marked the end of the fundamental social liberal reform efforts in the area of ​​development policy.

From the mid-1970s onwards, the role of women in development cooperation became an increasingly important issue. In the further course, a rethink began. So they gave up stipulating fixed goals for the partner countries. At the same time there was a growing awareness that development in poorer countries also depends on changes in industrialized countries. From 1998 to 2009 Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul ( SPD ), from 2009 to 2013 Dirk Niebel ( FDP ) headed the Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation. It has been headed by Gerd Müller ( CSU ) since 2013 . The budget for German development aid has not increased sufficiently in recent years to be able to meet international agreements such as the MDGs or the G8's Gleneagles consensus on time. The percentage of GDP, the so-called Official Development Assistance -Quote, has risen continuously in recent years, in 2018 to 0.61%. The internationally agreed target of a rate of 0.7% continues to be missed in Germany.

Carrier (selection)

Financial cooperation

The financial cooperation (FC) is the granting of loans at more favorable than the market conditions or from grants.

Personal cooperation

The personal cooperation includes the posting of development workers

Technical cooperation

The technical cooperation consists of the provision of experts, material and training of workers.

The Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the German Development Service (DED) and the educational organization InWEnt signed a merger agreement in Berlin in December 2010, which will merge them into the new German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). On January 1, 2011, GTZ was merged into this new company.

literature

On West German development cooperation
On East German development cooperation

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heat, Siegfried Bock, Ingrid Muth, Hermann Schwiesau (eds.): Alternative German foreign policy? GDR foreign policy in the rearview mirror (II). LIT-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9278-6 , page number is missing.
  2. ↑ a b History of the BMZ
  3. ↑ Institute for Contemporary History ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ifz-muenchen.de
  4. ↑ https://www2.compareyourcountry.org/oda?cr=oecd&lg=en

Web links