Crises and the role of Development Cooperation

Crises and violent conflicts are among the most fundamental development-policy problems. A large proportion of violent conflicts take place in developing and transition countries. Within a short time, they destroy the results achieved through many years of development policy investment. The contribution that Development Cooperation can make to the prevention, reduction and resolution of violent conflict has been the subject of intensive discussion since the beginning of the nineties. Since 11 September 2001, meeting these challenges has taken on even greater urgency.

Crisis prevention and conflict transformation in Germany

The most important approaches within the policy of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in relation to this topic can be summarised as follows:

• The development of crises and conflicts must be recorded systematically; these developments should be taken into account in the country strategies and country working groups.
• The selection of priority countries should also be included in the recording of conflicts, which will provide pointers as to how development cooperation with these countries can better eliminate the structural causes of conflict.
• Both government and non-governmental Development Cooperation organisations are urged to undertake a systematic review of their range of instruments and to strengthen these with regard to their peace-policy objectives. In this respect, the Civil Peace Service was established as a separate instrument within the sphere of responsibility of BMZ.

The Federal Foreign Office has also launched a number of new initiatives in crisis prevention, for example by 

• founding the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF)
• upgrading personnel for international OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and UN missions
• providing funds for civil society actors in conflict regions
• initiating the Action Plan "Civil Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Peace-Building".

 In the medium term, the aim is to integrate German institutions to a greater degree into the international networks operating in the field of crisis prevention and conflict transformation and to make an active contribution to improving these. This is the task of FriEnt, the Working Group on Development and Peace. FriEnt consists of eight governmental and non-governmental organisations and networks that exchange experience and are members of international networks.

For more information:

• Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF)
  www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/de/aamt/job/...
• Federal Foreign Office
  http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/...
• Working Group on Development and Peace (FriEnt)
  http://www.frient.de
• Institute for Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa)
  Project "Civil Conflict Resolution" (zivik)
  http://cms.ifa.de/en/foerderprogramme/zivik/