Open Day in BMZ with Maria Flachsbarth, Parliamentary State Secretary. Photo: Thomas Trutschel/photothek.de
On the third weekend of August, the German Federal Government for the 21st time invited the public to its traditional Open Day in Berlin. As in previous years, the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) followed the invitation by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to present itself on 17 and 18 August to the Berlin audience and to seek the dialogue with countless guests. The weekend was once again themed around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Picking up on this important topic, DIE used the opportunity to showcase – among other things – its work on SDG 16 “Peace, Justice and strong Institutions”. Guests could learn about DIE’s research on state fragility, inclusive governance, peace and democracy from the experts Michael Roll and Charles Martin-Shields – members of DIE’s research programme Transformation of Political (Dis-)order.
Open day in BMZ: Martin Jäger , Charles Martin-Shields. Photo: Xander Heinl/photothek.de
Other popular topics of conversation with the audience in Berlin were DIE’s Postgraduate Training Programme for Development Cooperation and the Bonn Alliance for Sustainability Research, a regional network in Bonn to further strengthen research in the field of sustainable development and global change.
Despite intermittent rainy weather, both days featured several thousand attendees. We were especially delighted to welcome BMZ’s leadership, represented by state secretaries Maria Flachsbarth and Martin Jäger, who also serves as Chair of DIE’s Board of Trustees, at our booth.