Welthungerhilfe and terre des hommes Germany have published their annual report "On the reality of German development policy".
Kompass 2025: Development Policy Recommendations For The Federal Government
Welthungerhilfe and terre des hommes Germany draw up development policy recommendations for the German government. This year's Kompass calls on it to uphold its development commitments, strengthen local partnerships and drive sustainable reforms – for a world without hunger.
“Kompass 2025” outlines the following five priority areas for Germany’s development policy. The recommendations highlight where a strategic realignment is urgently needed – and what steps the Federal Government must take to fulfill its global responsibilities.
1. Implement Reforms Consistently and Effectively
- The Federal Government should turn current global challenges into an opportunity to realign and enhance the efficiency of international cooperation. Such reform must be developed jointly with countries of the Global South to create sustainable solutions for a more just world free from hunger and poverty.
- Germany’s leading role in realizing the right to food should be consistently upheld, and development cooperation should place a stronger emphasis on food security and rural development.
- Germany should leverage its position as one of the largest donor countries to make a substantial contribution to reforming the humanitarian system – particularly by actively shaping the “Humanitarian Reset” and consistently implementing the “Grand Bargain.” The Federal Government should ensure that all humanitarian actors – including local and national actors who must play a key role in a future system – are meaningfully engaged.
- To strengthen public acceptance and the political relevance of development cooperation, its potential, goals, and values – as well as its limitations – must be communicated transparently.
2. Link Interests and Human Rights
- Development cooperation focused on economic development and resource security can and must overcome hunger, poverty, and inequality. The Federal Government should ensure that human rights – particularly the right to adequate food – are upheld worldwide in the context of resource extraction and economic investment. Supply chain and due diligence laws are effective instruments for this.
- The development policy priorities and strategies of partner countries must form the foundation of cooperation. Local initiatives to combat poverty and hunger are a key pillar of sustainable economic development and must be strategically supported.
3. Mitigate the Impacts of Crises and Conflicts
- Germany must uphold consistent respect of international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles, in addition to access to aid and the protection of civilians in wars and conflicts. It must also work to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon.
- The Federal Government should strengthen its commitment to addressing structural causes of conflict in order to reduce the growing need for humanitarian assistance. This requires coherent implementation of strategies for civilian conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and peace education – such as the guidelines on civilian conflict prevention outlined in the National Security Strategy.
- Local and international non-governmental organizations play a central role in conflict prevention – for instance, by mediating between conflict parties, building capacities for peaceful conflict resolution, and involving marginalized groups in decision-making processes – and should therefore receive targeted support.
- The Federal Government should launch, together with partner countries, a comprehensive international initiative to protect the rights of children and youth in armed conflicts. Objectives include:
- Strengthening the humanitarian protection of children, for example through the implementation of the “Safe Schools Declaration” to protect educational institutions in armed conflicts;
- Increasing investment in education during crises and in peace education;
- Creating vocational perspectives for young people in fragile contexts;
- Involving children and youth in peacebuilding efforts;
- Combating impunity for violations of children's rights.
4. Strengthen the Agendas of the G20 and the AU
- The Federal Government should promote the G20 to align its goals with the indicators of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and establish transparency and accountability mechanisms.
- International initiatives on food security must avoid creating parallel structures. The Federal Government should work to ensure that the Global Alliance for Food Security and Poverty (GAHP) and the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub operate in a coordinated manner and that the central role of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is strengthened. Moreover, it should advocate for sufficient civil society and farmer organization participation in the GAHP, enabling direct influence on policy instruments.
- BMZ and BMELH should align their support for the African Union’s CAADP Kampala Agenda with the right to food. At the same time, civil society on the ground must be empowered to accompany the implementation of the agenda and hold governments accountable.
- Germany should, together with other donors, encourage African governments to invest at least 10 percent of their budgets in agriculture and rural development. Public and private investments should be in line with the CFS-RAI Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems.
5. Secure Development Financing and Honor Commitments
- The Federal Government must clearly commit to the 0.7 percent target for Official Development Assistance and enshrine it bindingly in the federal budget – including the promised 0.2 percent for countries particularly affected by hunger and poverty (LDCs).
- In light of rising humanitarian needs and declining international funding commitments, Germany must not reduce but rather increase additional funds for humanitarian aid.
- In conflict contexts, the Federal Government should work with other donors to ensure not only sufficient funding for peacebuilding but also a balanced distribution of funds among humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peacebuilding.
- In fragile contexts, increased investment in climate adaptation, resilience-building and anticipatory humanitarian approaches is necessary. Funding for these must be significantly increased and reliably secured.
- Cuts to key funding instruments such as the budget line “Crisis Management and Reconstruction, Infrastructure” (KWI) and the special initiative “Transformation of Agricultural and Food Systems” (SI AGER) must be reversed.
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