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Sustainable Futures

Kategorie: Event

  • A new social contract for Morocco? DIE and GIZ discuss the potential contribution of development cooperation

    Together with GIZ’s Governance Cluster in Morocco, Annabelle Houdret (DIE) organized a workshop in Rabat on 22 February . She introduced the concept of a new social contract and showed how it can be used as a tool for analysis and planning in development cooperation. Prof. Kamal ElMesbahi, a Moroccan economist (Transparency Maroc), then analyzed Morocco’s main governance problems and potential windows of opportunity for development cooperation. On the basis of these presentations, the GIZ staff members discussed how their work could better contribute to support the Moroccan society and government in negotiating a new, more inclusive social contract.

    Since 2015, DIE’s regional research team explores the concept of a new social contract within its project ‘Stability and Development for the Middle East and North Africa’. In addition to their scientific work, they also support BMZ and its implementing agencies in using this approach for strategic planning and in project implementation.

  • Expert conference on the role of the G20 in climate and sustainability policy

    Photo: People at the ConferenceOn 20 March 2019, experts from policy and academia met in Berlin to discuss how to strengthen the role of the G20 as a supporter of an ambitious climate and sustainability policy. The expert conference „Fit for purpose? Revitalizing climate and sustainability issues in the G20 process“ was organized by DIE together with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES, Tokyo), the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC, Berlin) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). The conference was part of the T20 process during the Japanese G20 presidency and provided a platform for trustful exchanges between representatives of various G20 work streams and T20 Task Forces.

    The G20 has shown in recent years that it can strengthen multilateral sustainability and climate policy. This became clear, for example, in the preparation of the Paris Climate Agreement 2015 and the adoption of the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development during the Chinese G20 presidency in 2016. In the context of current political blockades, the experts emphasized the need to develop concrete and practical initiatives that can drive both the sustainability and climate agenda. Sustainable infrastructure is a recent example that is also high on the agenda of the Japanese G20 presidency. The role of non-state actors was also highlighted. The participants in the conference emphasized the role of the T20 not only as a source of policy ideas, but also as an actor that can hold the G20 accountable for the continuous implementation of G20 resolutions. For the T20 to fulfill this role, however, it needs to rethink and stabilize its own work structures. There was widespread support among the participants to meet regularly in this format for an expert conference in the coming years.

  • Conference Report: Better Funding – Stronger multilateralism? Arming multilateral development organizations for the Agenda 2030

    Conference Report: Better Funding – Stronger multilateralism? Arming multilateral development organizations for the Agenda 2030

    Photo: Gruppe von Experten
    Jennifer Topping (Executive Director, UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office), Henrik Hammargren (Executive Director, Dag Hammarsköld Foundation), Silke Weinlich & Max-Otto Baumann (DIE)

    How can the UN development system and multilateral development banks best be supported to play to their strengths in implementing the 2030 Agenda? Earmarking funds for specific purposes to multilateral organisations ha become increasingly important, yet this practice carries risks in terms of effectiveness and multilateralism. In order to draw lessons from recent analyses on the funding of the multilateral development system and political processes such as the UN funding compact and to identify further avenues for reform, DIE co-organised an expert workshop together with the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation on 19 and 20 March in Bonn. Around 40 experts, representatives from international organisations (including UN country representatives participating in a UNSSC course) and donor bureaucracies discussed what member states and international organisations can do to curb negative effectives of earmarking, strengthen multilateralism, and tailor earmarked funding arrangements to the demands of the 2030 Agenda for an integrated support at scale.