weltwärts

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The weltwärts logo

weltwärts is the development volunteer service of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development . The learning service is aimed at people between the ages of 18 and 28. From the start of the program in 2008 to 2017, over 30,000 volunteers took part. The north-south exchange and joint intercultural and global learning are the focus. In contrast to a specialist service, weltwärts does not require any specialist knowledge in the areas of application. Since 2013, the exchange has been bilateral, in both north-south and south-north directions . Weltwärts has been organized as a joint effort by the state and civil society since 2012. The administrative coordination of the program is on behalf of the BMZ at Engagement Global gGmbH .

Weltwärts stays

Duration

Service in developing countries can last anywhere from six to 24 months. During the project stay, working together, everyday learning from one another and cultural exchange should be the focus.

requirements

The program is aimed at all 18 to 28 year olds. For volunteers with a disability or impairment, the age limit is 35 years. A secondary or secondary school diploma with completed vocational training or comparable experience is required, alternatively the technical college entrance qualification or the Abitur. Volunteers must have German citizenship or a permanent right of residence. In addition, interest in development policy topics as well as other cultures and living conditions in developing countries is expected.

procedure

Interested parties apply to one of the German sending organizations recognized by the program for a service in a recognized development project. The organization applies for funding from the BMZ . The preparation phase is intended to enable a partially independent preparation for the project. In addition, at least twelve orientation and preparation days are mandatory for the volunteers.

During the project stay, an instruction should be given by the partner organization or previous weltwärts volunteers. Mentors support you with questions or difficulties in the project and beyond. An intermediate seminar is also planned. After completing the project, weltwärts participants are invited to attend a follow-up seminar to share their experiences with others and discuss development policy perspectives.

return

After the voluntary service, various Engagement Global programs offer funding opportunities for volunteers' commitment to development, for example the “Development Education Funding Program” (FEB) and the “Action Group Program” (AGP). The WinD program for returnees and support from the weltwärts return fund will expire at the end of 2017.

Framework

Areas

Voluntary services with weltwärts are active in the areas of education, health, agriculture, economic development, emergency and transitional aid, environmental protection, water, human rights, democracy promotion, youth employment, sport and food security.

financing

Each participant is funded by the BMZ with up to 680 euros per month plus funding for quality work and funding for health care costs, but not more than 75 percent of the total costs. The sending organization must bear any costs that are not otherwise financed. As a rule, the sending organization therefore asks for a donation from the volunteers to finance the service. The volunteers set up a group of supporters (donors) in order to involve German civil society in their commitment. The costs incurred for a voluntary service include travel, educational support, insurance coverage, meals and pocket money of usually 100 euros. The sending organization or the receiving organization on site ensures that accommodation is free of charge and appropriate to the local conditions. The seminars before, during and after the stay are also covered by the funding amount.

The BMZ currently has an annual amount of around 40 million euros for weltwärts (as of 2017).

Insurance coverage

Participants are insured during a volunteer stay. As demands on the insurance cover which will be completed by the sending organization, specify the weltwärts funding guidelines that an international health insurance , a liability insurance and accident insurance must be included.

South-north component

Since 2013, young people from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe have also been able to do a voluntary service with weltwärts in Germany. This will be done through the south-north component of the program. The component should lead to more equality in the program and contribute to the fact that weltwärts consistently fulfills its claim as a development policy learning and exchange service.

Criticism and evaluation

From the beginning there was an intensive discussion about the question of what young people who hardly have any professional skills can bring to development projects. Clearly critical statements speak of weltwärts as a “nice entertainment program for people who want to hang out abroad for a year” or call the weltwärts service “organized misery tourism under a selfless label”.

Some of them ask pointedly whether it is a question of “ego trips into misery”, others point out that support for projects is very possible here and that increased commitment can be expected after the young people return. To a large extent it obviously depends on the preparation and support of the weltwärts volunteers. The Berlin political scientist Claudia von Braunmühl said literally: "How can 18-year-old white-nosed people with return ticket help in developing countries?" They allow young Germans this "organized adventure", but "there is no lack of unqualified hands anywhere".

Differentiated scientific research results on the topic are now available. Among other things, it deals with questions of motivation, preparation and support from the point of view of the interviewed volunteers and the educational effects of the development volunteer service. An evaluation by the German Evaluation Institute for Development Cooperation (DEval) from 2017 examines, among other things, the extent to which volunteers change through participation in the north-south component of weltwärts, whether these changes persist and how they affect German society (for example through commitment or the exchange in the private environment). The evaluation results show, among other things, that the volunteers learn in particular with reference to their country of assignment (acquisition of knowledge about the country of assignment and its lingua franca; development of more positive attitudes, ability to change perspective and empathy towards people from the country of assignment). Some of these learning experiences are passed on to parents and friends. In addition, weltwärts returnees are more involved in development policy.

literature

  • Jürgen Deile, Claudia von Braunmühl: Does “weltwärts” make sense in terms of development policy? The voluntary service is well received, but it is not without controversy . In: Welt-Sichten , issue 2/2010.
  • Hannah Gritschke: Motives for acquiring skills in the voluntary service weltwärts . In: Hannah Gritschke, Christiane Metzner, Bernd Overwien: Recognize, evaluate, (fair) action. Acquiring skills in global change . Kassel 2011, pp. 318–342, see ( online , PDF).
  • Diana Grundmann, Bernd Overwien (ed.): Accompanying weltwärts pedagogically. Experiences from working with volunteers and suggestions from the symposium in Bonn (April 18-20, 2011) . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2011, ISBN 978-3-86219-199-4 ( online , PDF, 1.5 MB).
  • Benjamin Haas: Ambivalence of reciprocity - forms of reciprocity of weltwärts volunteer service as reflected in postcolonial theory. Kölnerwissenschaftsverlag, Cologne 2012.
  • Hannah-Maria Kühn: Something is developing there! : individual learning processes in the development volunteer service “weltwärts” in Benin. Cologne 2015.
  • JT Polak, K. Guffler, L. Scheinert: weltwärts volunteers and their commitment in Germany , German Evaluation Institute for Development Cooperation (DEval), Bonn 2017.
  • JT Polak, L. Scheinert, K. Guffler, M. Bruder: works weltwärts? How volunteers change and contribute to development policy learning in Germany, German Evaluation Institute for Development Cooperation (DEval), DEval Policy Brief 3/2018, Bonn 2018.
  • Katharina Schleich: Global learning in development volunteer service weltwärts . In: Hannah Gritschke, Christiane Metzner, Bernd Overwien: Recognize, evaluate, (fair) action. Competence acquisition in global change . Kassel 2011, pp. 342–367, see ( online , PDF).
  • Brigitte Schwinge: Inverted Worlds: About the reversal of the relationships between give and take. The weltwärts volunteer service as self-treatment in cultural contact between Germany and South Africa. Bonn 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ weltwärts: program. Retrieved September 1, 2017
  2. ^ Sabine Seifert: Cameroonians in voluntary service: Among Germans. International exchange takes place almost exclusively in a north-south direction. A teacher came from Cameroon to work for an NGO in Berlin. www.taz.de, August 12, 2016, accessed on August 12, 2016 : "In 2013, the BMZ launched the" South-North component "in order to counter the criticism of the one-sided approach."
  3. ↑ weltwärts: What is required? Retrieved September 1, 2017 .
  4. ↑ WinD: BMZ discontinues WinD program! Retrieved September 20, 2017
  5. ↑ weltwärts: What does it cost? Retrieved September 18, 2017 .
  6. ^ Federal Ministry of Finance: Federal Budget. Retrieved October 24, 2017 .
  7. ^ Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development: weltwärts - the development volunteer service. Retrieved September 18, 2017 .
  8. ↑ weltwärts: offer south-north components. Retrieved September 1, 2017 .
  9. ↑ a b c Christiane Oelrich: Young volunteers: As a blonde punk girl in Indonesia . In: Spiegel-Online , August 7, 2010, accessed October 12, 2011.
  10. ↑ Florian Töpfl: Ego trips into misery. Thousands of young people go to developing countries to volunteer every year. But who are they actually of use? Mostly yourself . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin , issue 19/2008.
  11. ↑ Cf. Jürgen Deile, Claudia von Braunmühl: Does “weltwärts” make sense in terms of development policy? The voluntary service is well received, but it is not without controversy . In: Welt-Sichten , issue 2/2010.
  12. ↑ Cf. Diana Grundmann, Bernd Overwien (Ed.): Weltwärts pedagogically accompanying. Experiences from working with volunteers and suggestions from the symposium in Bonn (April 18-20, 2011) . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2011, ISBN 978-3-86219-199-4 ( online , PDF, 1.5 MB).
  13. ↑ Cf. Spiegel-Online: Young volunteers: Heimwärts instead of weltwärts ( [1] ).
  14. ↑ Jörn Fischer: Peppermints vs. Gummy bears or the educational effects of international voluntary services . In: International Youth Work Forum 2011 - 2012 . Bonn 2012, p. 54-66 .
  15. ^ Benjamin Haas: International voluntary services as global political learning locations. Empirical knowledge, current developments and future challenges using the example of the weltwärts program . In: Journal for political education 2/2014, vol. 4 . 2014, p. 36-44 .
  16. ↑ JT Polak, K. Guffler, L. Scheinert: weltwärts volunteers and their commitment in Germany . Ed .: German Evaluation Institute for Development Cooperation. Bonn 2017 ( deval.org [PDF]).
  17. ↑ JT Polak, L. Scheinert, K. Guffler, M. Bruder: Works weltwärts? How volunteers change and contribute to development policy learning in Germany . Ed .: German Evaluation Institute for Development Cooperation. DEval Policy Brief, No. 3/2018 . Bonn 2018 ( deval.org [PDF]).