New BMZ stra­tegy "De­vel­op­ment for Peace and Security" published

01.03.2013 Berlin – The Federal Ministry for Economic Co­op­er­a­tion and De­vel­op­ment today presented a new de­vel­op­ment strategy for fragile and conflict-ridden states.

The new strategy is entitled "De­vel­op­ment for Peace and Security: De­vel­op­ment Policy in the Context of Conflict, Fragility and Violence". It replaces the Cross-Sectoral Strategy on Crisis Prevention, Conflict Management and Peace-Building from 2005.

The new strategy addresses new developments in the field of peace and security, in particular the interactions between conflict, fragility and violence in different forms. The provisions of the strategy are binding on the German institutions responsible for official de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion. For Germany's civil society organisations it is intended as a guideline.

Commenting on the new strategy, German De­vel­op­ment Minister Dirk Niebel said: "More than half of our partner countries are af­fected by conflict, fragility and violence. The situation facing the people living in these countries is even more dramatic than the situation in other de­vel­op­ing countries: these people are more than twice as likely to be under­nour­ished and more than three times as many children in such countries do not go to school. In these countries more than anywhere else it is ex­treme­ly im­por­tant that we not only ask ourselves what German de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion is doing but also how we are carrying out our projects. The strategy lists concrete principles for action: for example, formulating realistic goals in order to avoid too high expectations, taking better account of the risks entailed and concentrating on concrete needs in terms of peace and security in the partner country."

Taking as a starting point the Inter­ministerial Guidelines published just a few months ago, which aim to ensure that all German ministries pursue a co­her­ent policy towards fragile states, the new BMZ strategy describes how de­vel­op­ment policy can con­trib­ute as part of an overall approach within the frame­work of foreign and security policy towards promoting peaceful state and social structures in Germany's partner countries. There are already numerous good examples: among the activities being supported by the BMZ are the re­con­struc­tion of social and economic infra­struc­ture in the Demo­crat­ic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia in a way that boosts em­ploy­ment and thus makes a concrete con­tri­bu­tion towards building peace.

It is also important in the context of conflict, fragility and violence to make use of a variety of different instruments that fit together well in order to enhance the effectiveness of our response. German de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion has a whole range of tried and tested instruments at its disposal in such situations.