North-South Bridges Foundation
| North-South Bridges Foundation | |
|---|---|
|
|
| legal form | Foundation, endowment |
| founding | 1994 |
| Seat | Berlin ( ⊙ ) |
| purpose | Promotion of development cooperation based on partnership and solidarity as well as strengthening public awareness of its necessity. |
| Chair | Reinhard Hermle |
| sales | 4,614,162 euros (2018) |
| Employees | 6 (2017) |
| Website | www.nord-sued-bruecken.de |
The North-South Bridges Foundation is a Berlin-based private and non-profit foundation . The foundation promotes civil society engagement in the new federal states in the area of development cooperation as well as in development education and public relations work . According to its own information, it is politically independent.
aims
With its work, the foundation wants to contribute to a fairer world and "fight" the causes of poverty. Approaches of lived solidarity should be promoted and processes of self-determined development in Africa, Latin America and Asia supported. At home, the foundation's goal is to raise public awareness of the need for development cooperation.
The foundation is committed to the principle of a plurality of approaches and approaches in development cooperation , equal rights for men and women, the prohibition of racial discrimination , compliance with human rights and support for emancipatory approaches and movements.
Strategies and actions
The foundation supports domestic and international development projects by East German non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through grants as well as advisory and training offers. The aim is the further development and structural improvement of the framework conditions for development work in East Germany. For this purpose, funds for projects and personnel positions are made available.
It also promotes the participation of East German non-governmental organizations in the “ weltwärts ” volunteer service . A service point located in the office provides information, advice, qualification and accompanying offers for potential sending organizations and supports their networking.
The foundation supports development policy lobbying and represents the interests of East German NGOs vis-à-vis the federal government and the East German states. The foundation also advocates fairer framework conditions in the field of economic, foreign and security policy towards the state and business. She plans and designs her own domestic projects, such as technical discussions on development policy issues, and participates in development and peace policy campaigns.
financing
All offers and activities of the foundation are financed from the income of the foundation capital in the amount of € 16.9 million and grants from public donors such as the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development . The foundation capital is invested according to ethical and ecological criteria . Up to 2007, the foundation had funded 1,650 individual projects with around € 11 million.
history
The foundation was established on February 21, 1994 on the initiative of the development policy round table of the Solidarity Service International (SODI) in its function as legal successor to the Solidarity Committee of the GDR . The establishment was preceded by a judicial settlement between the SODI, the Treuhand and the Independent Commission to review the assets of the parties and mass organizations of the GDR , in which it was agreed that SODI would bring 30 million DM into a newly established foundation. On February 21, 1994, the foundation was approved by the Berlin foundation supervisory authority with a right to the transfer of securities in the amount of DM 32,613,000 as of November 30, 1992 (nominal DM 30 million).
A large part of the foundation's capital comes from the "solidarity contributions" of the citizens of the GDR . The collected contributions and donations supported the GDR's international development aid and were administered by the Solidarity Committee. After German reunification , the development policy round table agreed that the solidarity contributions paid should benefit the development NGOs from the new federal states.
Since October 2004, the foundation has managed the funding for development projects of Berlin NGOs of the State of Berlin as part of a loan.
structure
The foundation consists of the foundation board, the foundation board and the office with a full-time managing director and is subject to the foundation supervision of the state of Berlin.
Cooperations
The North-South Bridges Foundation works with the Association of Development Policy of German Non-Governmental Organizations (Venro) eV , attac eV, the Federal Association of German Foundations and the working group "Learning and Helping overseas" (AKLHÜ) eV. In addition, there is a cooperation with the state network of Berlin Development Policy Advice (BER) eV and with the informal network for charities.
literature
- Manfred Belle: The development policy round table in the GDR and in unified Germany . Egelsbach; Frankfurt (Main); St. Peter Port: Hänsel-Hohenhausen, 1996, ISBN 3-8267-1115-7
Web links
- North-South Bridges Foundation
- 25 years of the North-South Bridges Foundation - 25 years of solidarity project funding for East German associations. In: Foundation North-South Bridges. 2019(brochure for the 25th year of foundation).
Individual evidence
- ↑ statutes of the foundation. In: www.nord-sued-bruecken.de. Retrieved December 24, 2015 .
- ↑ Imprint. In: www.nord-sued-bruecken.de. Retrieved December 26, 2015 .
- ^ Foundation North-South Bridges | Partner. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .