The newly formed House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundestag) has now distributed the tasks. What will development cooperation look like in the coming years? What new actions are needed in the fight against global hunger? Here are the answers of parliamentary group representatives.
Jan Rübel is author at Zeitenspiegel Reportagen, a columnist at Yahoo and writes for national newspapers and magazines. He studied History and Middle Eastern Studies.
The target level is set. 2030 is supposed to be the year of ‘Zero Hunger’, but right now it seems rather unattainable. More and more people around the world are starving. Climate change and numerous military conflicts are complicating the situation. The One World – No Hunger initiative (SEWOH) has successfully implemented many projects since 2014 that buck this trend – over several decades, global hunger has also been noticeably reduced. So what needs to be done to get closer to reaching the target?
Germany has taken on a lot of the development cooperation responsibility in recent years. It is unlikely to change under the new federal government formed by the traffic light coalition parties: SPD, FDP, Green Party. But what is the current status? What else needs to be done? The One World – No Hunger initiative asked politicians from the new Bundestag for updates.
Mixed Feelings
‘We can look back on some past achievements in the development cooperation, for example, the new Supply Chain Sourcing Obligations Act’, says Sanae Abdi. The new development policy spokesperson of the SPD parliamentary group adds: ‘The Supply Chain Act must be implemented consistently and readjusted as needed– for example, in terms of company size. Accordingly, we will also advocate to implement it at the EU level.’
Deborah Düring paints an even bigger picture. ‘Poverty and hunger are also the result of social inequalities and conflicts’, says the new development policy spokesperson of the Green parliamentary group.
Even with good development cooperation, we must address the global structures: trade, supply chains, adding value to exports by processing raw materials locally.
Volkmar Klein of the CDU sees mixed results. ‘The direction taken in recent years was right on target – with the mix of humanitarian aid, multilateral programmes and the goal of self-sustaining development’, says the Spokesperson of the Union Parliamentary Group on Economic Cooperation and Development. ‘We have achieved a lot, but considering the overall numbers of globally starving people, we cannot be satisfied.’
The FDP is setting targets for implementation:
Development cooperation can be more efficient and more stringent.
The approach of the traffic light coalition to coordinate Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds more closely at the federal level is a first step in this direction’, says Christoph Hoffmann (Vice Chairman of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development and Chairman of the Economic Cooperation and Development Task Force of the FDP Parliamentary Group) with regard to ODA. ‘Development cooperation will be much more significant than before. For example, the climate crisis will not be decided here, but rather in developing countries. The ‘green lung’ there must be preserved – through ongoing development. These regions should be compensated for keeping their hands off oil and coal.’
Cornelia Möhring, on the other hand, is full of praise and blame. The Left Parliamentary Group member of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development writes: It was the right decision to increase the budget significantly in recent years, even if it is still too low considering the global crises and above all climate change.
Unfortunately, long-term financing is not secured for many projects. Another problem arises from which projects the money goes to and which interests are being pursued. For example, in recent years, more and more money has been put into projects that are repressive refugee prevention at their core, for example by reinforcing borders and arming security guards.’
Markus Frohnmaier, spokesperson for economic cooperation and development of the AfD parliamentary group, comes to a fundamentally different conclusion: 'The development aid policy with the watering can has failed colossally. It has not improved the lives of people in developing countries, but has nurtured political corruption and wasted German development money,' he writes. 'Under the development minister of the previous government, Dr. Gerd Müller, the development budget was roughly doubled between 2014 and 2021. This has brought nothing. The failure of development aid policy over the past 20 years is best illustrated by the case of Afghanistan.'
The differences between the parliamentary groups are bigger when it comes to the question of what should be done against global hunger. ‘We need to focus even more on self-sustaining development, on creating education and jobs’, says Klein of the Union Parliamentary Group. ‘It will become more important that production is reliable and that opportunities arise to sell energy to Europe.’ Klein has a differentiated view of last year’s UN summit on food systems: ‘The Food Systems Summit was not a waste of time, but it certainly did not create an initial spark. There are already plenty of bilateral and multilateral activities.'
FDP’s Hoffmann sees things similarly: ‘The UN Food Systems Summit is an example of how parallel structures are set up when things aren’t going well. It’s been done before.’ Hoffmann confirms that the sustainable development goals will remain in place.
However, it’s important to initiate more investments than handouts. We need more measurable results.
Therefore, I really want to hear the opinion of our partners in the developing countries, so that we not only rely on domestic political arguments, but also receive feedback from people in the affected areas. This will also enable us to adapt our measures as needed.’ Hoffmann identifies crisis prevention as a key focus. ‘Some developments you just see coming your way.’
SPD’s Abdi also focuses her priorities on ecology: ‘The necessary focus of development cooperation will be on the sustainable design of global supply chains, food security and global climate protection’, she says. ‘Chemical pesticides are critical issues for ecological and social reasons. They create interdependencies for smallholders. We will deal with that issue.’ According to her, the SPD will campaign for socially and environmentally compatible agriculture everywhere. ‘Climate and environmental damage should not be caused elsewhere.’
The Green Party’s Düring takes this approach of agroecology. ‘The Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung [BMZ – Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development] has already taken up the cause of agroecology’, she says. ‘But it needs more implementation and awareness.’ Düring is particularly zeroing in on climate protection.
The climate crisis must be central to all policies in all areas.
Stopping it is not only the task of the Ministry of the Environment.’ There is now an urgent need for structural interdepartmental policy work, ‘especially on debt, trade agreements and agricultural policy’.
Möhring formulates her approach from the opposition more generally and to the point: ‘In order to support countries sustainably and in the long term in supplying their own population, free trade agreements must be suspended, if they make it impossible for countries to build up their own economies. Moreover, agriculture itself must be transformed into a sustainable mode of production, for example by promoting agroecology. The influence of large agricultural corporations must be pushed back.’
Frohnmaier of the AfD is moving in the opposite direction. ‘I advocate a fundamental change of direction in development aid policy,’ he writes. ‘Development aid must be coherent with Germany's foreign and foreign economic policy and strictly aligned with German interests. Against this backdrop, the focus is on warding off undesirable and illegal migration and thus reducing faulty incentives, repatriating illegal migrants, improving Germany's economic cooperation with developing and emerging countries, and opening up markets and resources.’
Learning from past mistakes, targeting inequities and a focus on climate protection and ecology: these are the emerging focus areas of the surveyed parliamentary groups – sometimes with a fair amount of overlap.
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