Islam is an important part of Africa’s culture. Half of all Africans are Moslems and in the Sahel and the countries of eastern Africa in particular, Islam forms the socio-cultural context for development cooperation. People’s opinions, behaviour and development goals are shaped by values, standards and regulations legitimised by Islam. In addition, groups within Islamic institutions and figures of respect are often regarded by the inhabitants as authorities who guide the direction actions should take, and are trusted by the local people. The sustainability and effectiveness of development cooperation are largely determined by how closely these key persons are involved and by adapting development projects to the cultural and social values.

Since 2003 the multi-country advisory project “Islam and Development Cooperation in Africa” has elaborated approaches for development cooperation in the context of Islamic societies in Africa. To this end, themes within German-African development cooperation and the strategies for implementing them have been investigated to find out how well they relate to Islamic values and social structures, and strategies have been developed for integrating these aspects. The objective was to translate the hitherto virtually unrecognised potentials in Islamic values and structures into sustainable development that was based on partnership and reached a large proportion of the population, and to avoid resistance to development arising from cultural contradictions. The advisory project informed and advised members of staff and projects about these topics both in Germany and abroad.

Downloads

• Conference documentation
  „Entwicklungspartnerschaft mit dem Islam. Neue Wege der deutsch-afrikanischen Zusammenarbeit zur Nutzung bisher kaum erkannter Potenziale“  29 September 2004, GIZ (former GTZ) Berlin
  Entwicklungspartnerschaft_mit_dem_Islam.pdf, 0.27 MB (German)
• Conference
  „Potenziale islamischer Gesellschaftsstrukturen für die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit" 13 November in Eschborn
  Potenziale_islamischer_Gesellschaftsstrukturen.pdf, 0.89 MB (German)