Kategorie: Event

The development of the United Nations (UN) is historically intertwined with that of many countries belonging to the “Global South“ and their concerns. How can today’s relation between the UN Development System and South-South Cooperation be best described, and how has it been changing due to greater economic power and more intense cooperation within the “Global South”?

During a panel discussion co-organised by the International Studies Association and UN Academic Impact at the United Nations in New York on 25 April 2019, these questions were discussed also against the background of the outcome of the recent BAPA- plus-40 conference on South-South Cooperation. Silke Weinlich (DIE) und Paulo Esteves (BRICS Policy center and part of the Managing Global Governance Network) deplored the weak multilateralisation of South-South cooperation and called for updating South-South cooperation guidelines to better take into account the principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The long lasting and intensive cooperation of French and German development politics dates back to the signature of the Élysée treaty in 1963. The treaty of Aachen, which was signed in January 2019, is designed to strengthen this cooperation and enhance joint opportunities to achieve global sustainable development – both regarding the cooperation with bilateral partners in the global South as well as within supranational and multilateral fora like EU, UN, G7 or G20.

During a workshop in Berlin, organized jointly with the French Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales/Institut d’études politiques de Paris (IDDRI), on 5 April 2019, recent research regarding Franco-German development cooperation was discussed. The considered topics reached from the national institutional settings over bilateral cooperation to the coordination at the EU and the multilateral level. Findings were illustrated by concrete examples (Sahel Alliance, climate change mitigation, populisms, cooperation with the partner countries India and Morocco). About 40 experts from the French and German ministries, the implementing agencies, civil society as well as international organizations discussed the research results and provided important input for further analyses as well as political debates. The workshop closed with a policy round table including the CEO of the French development bank (AFD) and representatives of BMZ, the French foreign ministry as well as KfW, who provided an outlook on the future of French-German cooperation.

DIE and its partner, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), were involved in two sessions of the Climate and SDGs Synergy Conference. The conference was organised by UN DESA and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC) and took place from 1-3 April in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In the capacity building session, Gabriela Iacobuta (DIE) presented findings from the NDC-SDG Connections, a data visualisation that analyses and compares how climate actions formulated in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) corresponds to each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Presentations of relevant tools were followed by discussions with policy makers on the role of such tools in capacity building for the implementation of the climate and sustainable development agendas.

Dr. Hannah Janetschek (DIE) organised and moderated a session on the just transition towards low-carbon societies and leaving no one behind (LNOB). This session featured researchers, policy makers, civil society and indigenous people who identified key areas of concern, presented existing tools and good practices, and suggested future avenues. The challenges of coal-rich countries to ensure a just transition for workers in the coal sector were presented for South Africa (Prabhat Uphadyaya, WWF) and Germany (Frederik Moch, German Trade Union). Moreover, human rights were discussed.

On 9 April 2019 the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) and the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) jointly organised the expert roundtable „Digital Trade, WTO Reform, and Trade and Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth” in Tokyo. The roundtable took place on the eve of the second session of the G20 Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG). Its aim was to present T20 Task Force policy advices to the delegates of the G20 Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG) and to discuss the topics of digital trade, WTO reform, and trade and investment. The majority of TIWG delegates attended the roundtable, which serves as a platform for discussion on major topics of the Japan’s G20 presidency in the fields of trade and investments immediate before the official TIWG meeting. As part of the roundtable the Policy Briefs of T20 Task Force Trade, Investment and Globalization were presented to the chair of TIWG. Financial expert Axel Berger of the DIE is one of the co-chairs of the T20 Task Force on Trade, Investment and Globalization.

On 9 April 2019, Brot für die Welt, Misereor and SDSN Germany organised a panel discussion with the candidates for the forthcoming European elections Katarina Barley (SPD), Ska Keller (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Daniel Caspary (CDU), Özlem Demirel (Die Linke) and Till Mansmann (FDP) which took place in the French Peace Church in Berlin. The panelists intensively discussed three topics: Peace, justice and preservation of creation. The debate was marked by a shared belief in the European project, but the candidates had different views on how to deal with these complex challenges. Christine Hackenesch, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), introduced to the third topic for SDSN Germany. She highlighted the role of Europe for sustainable development and a social-ecological transformation.