Foundation partnership with Africa

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Foundation Partnership with Africa eV
legal form registered association
founding 2009
founder Katja Boehler
main emphasis Intercultural and civil society dialogue and exchange between the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Germany
Chair Katja Böhler (CEO)
Richard Mbaya Nawezi (Deputy CEO)
Holger Emke (Member of the Executive Board)
Employees 6-7
Website www.german-african-partnership.org

The Partnership with Africa Foundation, based in Potsdam, promotes intercultural dialogue between the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Germany, civil society engagement and sustainable partnership between actors in Germany and Africa. It would like to contribute to a differentiated perception of the realities of life in the African countries and Germany and is actively directed against racism and xenophobia.

history

founding

The organization was founded on the initiative of the lawyer Katja Böhler in 2009. From 2001 she worked as a freelancer for the Federal Agency for Civic Education and coordinated the bpb's Africa focus "Focus Africa: Africome 2004-2006" from 2004 to 2006 .

Africa Initiative

In 2009, Dirk Niebel ( FDP ) became Federal Development Minister . He started an "Africa Initiative" and delegated it to the public relations department of his ministry. Niebel's State Secretary Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz (FDP) made Holger Ehmke head of public relations. Ehmke and Köhler had already worked together at the Federal Agency for Political Education. Emke is also on the board of the Partnership with Africa Foundation.

In August 2012, the organization received a grant of around 893,000 euros from the BMZ. A little later, it was also awarded the contract to carry out the "Africa Initiative" with a volume of over 8 million euros. According to Spiegel, the campaign's newspaper advertisements alone cost 40,000 euros.

When Minister Gerd Müller ( CSU ) took over the development ministry in 2013, a new focus on Africa was initiated together with the African Union ; With the German African Youth Initiative (DAJ) at Engagement Global , a new support program was created in-house.

After 2013

In 2014 the association opened the "Brandenburger Kultur- und Weinkontor" in cooperation. While the shop is in the front building, the association worked in the offices behind.

Review: child of the "System Niebel"

The internal auditing of the BMZ and the media addressed the close ties between the association and Dirk Niebel's ministry. The association was the main recipient of the "Africa Initiative" to which the taz wrote that it "primarily served political companions".

In October 2013, an expert opinion by the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers confirmed that the association was unable to "guarantee proper financial processing of the grant" due to a lack of bookkeeping and controlling. In response to a media inquiry, the ministry said that there were no concerns about the content, after all, the employees had plenty of experience. "In this respect, there are no risks associated with funding," a BMZ spokesman sums up at the time.

The internal audit department of the ministry took a closer look at the case in 2014 and came to the conclusion: “In the present case, a large amount was given to a grant recipient who was inexperienced in the development-policy project landscape and who had no own funds and only very few members . "The examiners noted the responsibility:" First donation at the request of the manager, nonetheless illegal. "

Ute Koczy , development policy spokeswoman for Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, criticized in 2013 that there were already numerous GIZ and KfW programs with the aim of changing the image of Africa and "creating unnecessary multi-million dollar double structures" instead of "strengthening existing local initiatives" .

The process led to a small inquiry in February 2013 in the Bundestag from MPs Ute Koczy , Kerstin Müller , Thilo Hoppe and other MPs and the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group on the work of the Partnership with Africa Foundation and the use of federal funds by them.

organization

The association finances itself on a project basis and employs its staff depending on the length of the projects. Between 20 and 25 people were employed during the Africa initiative. The SPA currently has an office manager, three scientific employees and interns to carry out their projects and administrative staff. The chairman of the board is Katja Böhler, her deputy is Richard Mbaya Nawezi. Other members of the board are Veronicah Kibati and Steffen Heinemann.

activities

Together with the Federal Agency for Political Education and the Office of the Federal President, the chairwoman of the association developed the "Go Africa ... Go Germany ..." program, a scholarship program for students and young graduates and professionals from Germany and all regions of Africa. The five-week exchange program was initiated by the former Federal President Horst Köhler as part of his partnership with Africa. Böhler was a scholarship holder in his program.

Germans and people from African countries developed the "Toolkit" with tools for better and easier implementation of partnership-based cooperation projects. The contents of the box are information on inexpensive communication options and tools for setting up and organizing joint projects.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foundation Partnership with Africa e. V. Accessed February 1, 2017 .
  2. ^ Association and board. Retrieved February 1, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Holger Catenhusen: Muslim in the wine shop . In: Potsdam's latest news . March 19, 2016 ( pnn.de [accessed February 1, 2017]).
  4. ↑ a b c Julia Maria Amberger: Dirk Niebel's “Africa Initiative”: millions of dollars incorrectly accounted for . In: the daily newspaper . ( taz.de [accessed February 1, 2017]).
  5. ^ The DAJ - DAJ - German-African Youth Initiative. Retrieved February 1, 2017 .
  6. ^ Andreas Maisch: Nepotism: One politician's hand washes the other . In: fr-online.de . ( fr.de [accessed February 1, 2017]).
  7. ↑ Small question from MPs Ute Koczy, Kerstin Müller (Cologne), Thilo Hoppe, other MPs and the Alliance 90 / THE GREENS parliamentary group - printed matter 17/12292 - Africa Initiative
  8. ↑ BBE: single view. Retrieved February 1, 2017 .