Kategorie: Event

Sixteen Researchers from four continents contributed to a whole-day symposium organised by DIE’s Middle East and North Africa team at this year’s DAVO conference.

DAVO – the German Middle East Studies Association – brings together several hundred people each year – this year on 3-5 October in Hamburg. And DIE presented itself as a centre of research on the evolvement of the social contracts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Ishac Diwan (Harvard University) gave a lecture on the effects of insecurity on political values in the MENA, Erin McCandless (New School in New York) on the building of new social contracts in conflict-affected countries, DIE guest researcher Laryssa Chomiak (Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis) on the new social contract in Tunisia, Zafiris Tzannatos (Lebanese Center for Policy Studies) on the misinterpreations of the youth bulge in MENA countries and Wael Khatib (Jordan) on the social contract in Jordan.

DIE researchers presented the social contract concept, the rationalisation of social transfer spending in the MENA, the rural social contract and reconstruction, nation building and development co-operation in conflict-affected MENA countries. Other researchers focused on Dubai, Sudan and education in Egypt.

What opportunities do audio-visual media and digital social media campaigns offer to sensitise the public to global problems and inform them about development policy approaches to combat them? This was the theme of the „Global Day“ on 15 October 2019 at this year’s Film Festival Cologne, to which Engagement Global, the Film Festival Cologne, MISEREOR, the German UNESCO Commission, the Deutsche Welle Academy and the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) had invited. Actors from Germany and Africa presented strategies, current projects and best practice cases. Two films were presented in the evening:

The Italo-Western „Bacurau“ takes a look into the future. The inhabitants of Bacurau are cut off from the water supply. However, not only the lack of water but also fascist politicians are a problem for the people. Mr. Kleber Mendonça Filho from Brazil deals with the topic of right-wing populism in his home country.

The documentary „We Exist“ tells the story of everyday life on the run. Director Lucian Segura refrains from using an explanatory narrative text. For minutes, the camera shows the face of a singing girl without any comment. A child singing about the loss of her mother who had been lost on the run. The 45-minute film combines music from countries in the Middle East and Africa with snapshots from everyday life in a refugee camp.

Director Lucian Segura will show his film „We Exist“ during a film tour until 30 November 2019 in eleven towns in Germany. In discussions after the film screenings, Segura wants to reflect and discuss about the film with the audience. The film tour is part of the programme ”Development Education in Germany” (EBD).

Dialogue-Forum on Sustainable Public Procurement for Strategic Policy Goals will be consolidated as Strategic Knowledge Platform

From 28 until 30 October 2019, a dialogue forum took place at DIE in Bonn within the framework of the project „Municipalities Promoting and Shaping Sustainable Value Creation (MUPASS) – Public Procurement for Fair and Sustainable Production“. It was the third of its kind, for the second year in a row, the event brought together municipal procurement practitioners from Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Public procurement can become a powerful lever for sustainable and inclusive economies: at least 10% to 20% of the gross domestic product of most countries is generated by public demand. In many countries, municipalities stand for a large part of this demand. The MUPASS project therefore targets in particular municipal actors.

Last year’s dialogue forums have shown how actors from different world regions can benefit from an international exchange on sustainable and strategic procurement. Together with our project partner, the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW), this year’s forum intensified and consolidated this dialogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY1FQMMhvOU&feature=youtu.be

The Forum had two main objectives: First, it seeked to exchange knowledge and experience on topics related to strategic and sustainable public procurement. For this purpose, appropriate instruments and framework conditions were examined. Topics included e-procurement, state support structures, purchasing groups across municipalities and the use of sustainability standards. The second main objective of the forum was to give participants the opportunity to exchange with each other. The associated get-togethers at the working and at middle management levels facilitated future exchange and networking. In order to be able to support this in the future, the MUPASS project team is currently working on setting up a flanking virtual dialogue platform.

A case study on the implementation of sustainable public procurement in Costa Rica can be found here.