“More cooperation, not less”

The world is facing multiple and diverse chal­lenges that know no boundaries and are impacting the lives of millions of people. To tackle them, we need to engage in international cooperation, share knowledge and jointly promote sustainable and just solutions. As a driver of change, civil society has a key role to play – worldwide.

Forming part of a global civil society spanning nearly 90 countries, “Brot für die Welt” (Bread for the World) works with more than 1,500 partner organisations to empower disadvantaged people to lastingly improve their lives. In collaboration with them, the relief agency is committed to bringing about global change and fighting hunger, poverty and the impacts of climate change. We speak out in favour of a just world.

However, for months now development cooper­ation has been the target of public criticism in a way it has never been before. Legitimate discussions about priority setting or how to assess the impact of specific measures have been replaced by sweeping vilification. At its heart, this appears to be an attempt by right-wing populists to portray global solidarity as naive and damaging for Germany. For decades people have generally agreed that active development policy is an important part of Ger­many’s responsibility in the world; this consensus is now being undermined to some extent in a polit­ical climate fuelled by election campaigning. This is short-sighted and wrong.

What we need is more cooperation, not less. This is certainly true when it comes to climate policy: every tonne of carbon emissions that can be cut anywhere in the world will benefit the planet’s climate in general. It also applies to food policy: if we sell our subsidised surplus food at low prices in countries of the Global South, we will hinder their development and their ability to feed their populations without relying on imports – which is essential to ensure their crisis resilience. We also need more cooperation to make the world a safer place: good development cooperation helps prevent conflicts and safeguard peace.

Education and science play a central role in this. They form an essential basis for informed analysis, knowledge creation and political decision-making. We need interdisciplinary research that ­considers ecological, social and economic dimensions in ­order to develop holistic solutions to global ­challenges. Academic exchange at the ­international level can help plug knowledge gaps and develop best practice models that can be adapted to local requirements. It is important in this context for the dialogue to take into account and involve stakeholders from the Global South, indigenous perspectives and local communities.

Another vital role is played by civil society as a driver of change. And yet the scope for civil society to take action is becoming ever smaller worldwide: today, only two percent of the world’s population live in states with unrestricted freedoms of assembly, expression and the press or with unrestricted access to the internet. Development cooperation is an important means of countering further erosion of these key freedoms, as it supports the establishment and preservation of democratic structures and an active civil society.

Time and again, our partners display considerable courage when they take action despite adverse circumstances to help people on the ground. In so doing, they sow seeds of hope for a better future. It is conveying this message of hope and insisting on this hope against all odds that characterises the work of “Brot für die Welt”. This talk of hope by no means disguises the reality; rather it demands an astute analysis of the political situations and the injustices that surround us.

“A commitment to justice, global solidarity and mutual respect is driven by hope, and it is also driven by a courage rooted in the ­desire to take action – and in some cases also in anger.”

Young people are particularly receptive to such analyses and are also the ones who will have to live longest with the consequences of political decisions. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and social injustices will hit them particularly hard in the coming decades. They therefore have a le­gitimate interest in actively helping to shape their own future. And many of them have the courage to express their views, which in many cases are innovative, creative and unfettered by the entrenched mindsets of older generations, and fight for them. Movements such as “Fridays for Future” have shown that young people have an enormous capacity for mobilisation and can significantly influence the political discourse. Their ability to act in global networks and utilise innovative communication strategies makes it clear that they have a key role to play in society’s transformation.

We at “Brot für die Welt” are happy to receive impetus from “Brot für die Welt Jugend” (Bread for the World Youth), from our Future Board – young activists from various countries who accompany our work – as well as from young people doing voluntary service and from scholarship holders.

A commitment to justice, global solidarity and mutual respect is driven by hope, and it is also ­driven by a courage rooted in the desire to take action – and in some cases also in anger. We must use this, as well as scientific knowledge and ethical principles, to keep a dialogue going in our ­society and worldwide. Such dialogue is indispensable in these times of growing political, economic and ­social uncertainty and in view of the numerous challenges we are facing. —

Dr Dagmar Pruin is president of the Protestant relief agency “Brot für die Welt” and the “Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe”, the hu­manitarian assistance agency of the Protestant Churches in Germany. “Brot für die Welt” aims to overcome poverty, maintain the integrity of creation, realise human rights and establish just societies that are capable of living in peace. Pruin campaigns against anti-Semitism and until 2020 was managing director of the “Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste” (Action Reconciliation Service for Peace). From 2007 until 2020 she ran Germany Close Up, a youth encounter programme she founded that is now adminis­tered by the DAAD. A Protestant theologian, Pruin studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1993/1994 on a one-year DAAD schol­arship granted within the framework of an International Study and Training Partnership. In 2006 a DAAD funding enabled her to conduct research at the then American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, now renamed the American-German Institute, in Washington.