Dossier

Berlin Forum on Global Cooperation

As an international player, development policy issues are of great importance to the Foundation and are considered in many topics. We devote intensive attention to them at the Berlin Forum for Global Cooperation.

The Berlin Forum on Global Cooperation continues the 20-year collaboration of the Development Policy Discussion Days between the Centre for Rural Development at Humboldt Universität (SLE) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Each year, the forum provides a critical assessment of Germany's global cooperation and questions traditional models of North-South relations.

German development cooperation is at the centre of this debate, but 'development' is no longer the only sign of enhanced cooperation: climate protection and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, raw materials and hydrogen, trade and investment, migration, humanitarian aid and the promotion of democracy are among the most important topics. Overarching issues include geopolitics and decolonisation, gender equality, human rights and women's rights.

This annual conference is intended to be a place for necessary debates on the why, what and how of German global cooperation. Each year, we will choose a current focus topic, which will then be explored in depth in several 'deep dives'.

Since 2001, the annual Development Policy Discussion Days (EPDT) have been a cooperative event between the Seminar for Rural Development of the Humboldt University of Berlin (SLE) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation (hbs).

The discussion days serve the exchange of experts from science, politics, civil society and the private sector with an interested expert audience on development policy topics. They provide participants and guests with an insight into current development policy concepts and discussions on development cooperation. On the one hand, the aim is to demonstrate the responsibility of actors from the Global North for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

On the other hand, the aim is to increasingly include the voices of people from the Global South directly or indirectly in the debate in order to make their perspective on development cooperation visible and useful for further development.