Reshaping Decentralised Development Co-operation in Germany
German federal states and municipalities have engaged in decentralised development co-operation (DDC) since the 1950s. Germany provides over half of total official development assistance (ODA) in the world that is channelled as DDC. However, most of this support remains within German borders. To incentivise further international partnerships, the federal government has established dedicated programmes and financial support schemes for states and municipalities. This report presents key data on the DDC landscape in Germany and offers guidance on how to strengthen its role in enabling peer-to-peer learning and improve collaboration between German states and municipalities. It also showcases how to further raise awareness about the mutual benefits of DDC partnerships, including through better ODA data reporting and a harmonised approach to monitoring and evaluating its results across levels of government.
Decentralised development co‑operation policies, strategies and programmes in Germany
Since the 1950s, decentralised development co-operation (DDC) has gained increasing importance for German development co-operation. German local and regional governments provide the highest levels of official development assistance (ODA) in absolute terms compared to other members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee. Most states and municipalities focus their DDC on technical co-operation, advisory services and peer-to-peer learning as well as networking, mainly in the policy areas of education, environment and health. The DDC model at the state level in Germany is in many cases strongly based on the funding of civil society organisations (CSOs), which can limit the return on investment due to the lack of direct interaction. Municipalities often have long-standing partnerships with subnational governments in developing countries in place.
- Click to access:
-
Click to download PDF - 1.15MBPDF