Aid

Development cooperation (also referred to as development aid) is the joint effort of industrialized countries and developing countries to permanently and sustainably reduce global differences in socio-economic development and general living conditions. The basic principle of cooperation is "help for self-help" as opposed to mere emergency aid in crisis situations.

State international development aid

In 1961, the term development aid first came into being when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), based in Paris, was founded on 30 September 1961. Its task was to coordinate what was then known as development aid internationally and to coordinate it better with one another.

Until then, the only aid was in the form of loans for the colonies that had been granted independence, with the hope that they would develop an economic dynamic similar to that of the Marshall Plan in Europe after the Second World War.

The establishment of the OECD led to the creation of development ministries in numerous countries. The foundation was preceded by a wave of African states that were released into independence (decolonisation).

Government development cooperation

Official development cooperation (DC) can be subdivided into:

Multilateral development cooperation

In the context of multilateral development cooperation, some industrialized countries make payments to supranational associations and organizations that administer these funds and disburse them to developing countries under a wide variety of programs. Multilateral donors include the World Bank Group, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the United Nations and its specialized agencies, such as the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations World Food Programme.

Bilateral development cooperation

In bilateral development cooperation, industrialised countries support their partner countries in the form of financial, technical and personnel cooperation; this aid is governed by bilateral agreements between the donor and recipient countries. The OECD's Development Assistance Committee is the most important body of bilateral donors. It is made up of 22 industrialised nations and the European Union, which submit a report on their "Official Development Assistance" every three years.

Contributions to bilateral development cooperation can also be initiatives for economic or cultural education networks. Examples from the German-speaking countries are the BMBF's International Science Years for changing partner countries or the ASEA-UNINET between Austria and East Asia.

United Nations Development Cooperation

At the beginning of the 1960s, the idea of a "Green Revolution" prevailed in development cooperation. It was only necessary to provide agriculture with modern production methods in order to ensure the feeding of the world's population. Agricultural production was increased. However, dependencies in agriculture grew, and knowledge of traditional farming methods was often lost.

In 1964, the Group of 77 was founded to represent the interests of 131 developing countries.

In 1965, the United Nations Development Programme came into being. Since 1970, it has coordinated the programmes and activities of the United Nations. In its annually published "Human Development Report", the Development Programme (UNDP) presents a comprehensive analysis of social developments in the world.

In 1970, the United Nations formulated the goal that industrialized countries should spend 0.7% of their gross national income or gross national product on official development assistance. To date, only a few countries (e.g. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) have achieved this target.

In a long-term process, the United Nations began to formulate a global Agenda 21 for worldwide sustainable change in the 1980s on the initiative of Gro Harlem Brundtland, then Chair of the Commission on Environment and Development, which led to a complete reassessment of environmental and development problems and whose implementation continues to the present day.

Supports (selection)

• International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
• United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV)

European development cooperation

→ For the development cooperation of individual countries, see Germany's development cooperation, which in the case of public agencies includes Technical Cooperation and Financial Cooperation, French Development Cooperation, Austrian Development Cooperation and Swiss Development Cooperation.

European DC began in 1963 with the Yaoundé Agreements, which provided for the establishment of a free trade area and the dismantling of trade barriers between the then European Economic Community and its former colonies. Following the accession of Great Britain to the European Economic Community in 1973, the group of developing countries expanded, as did the nature of development cooperation. From 1975 onwards, the projects were regularly continued as the Lomé Conventions at intervals of five and ten years respectively. From 2000 onwards, the Lomé Conventions were replaced by the Cotonou Agreement, which has a longer duration - a total of twenty years with a review of the terms of the agreement every five years - and whose development cooperation is more closely linked to the fulfilment of good governance criteria.

In 1992, the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) was created to provide faster and more flexible humanitarian aid in disasters and emergencies. ECHO works with more than 200 partners who have signed a Framework Partnership Agreement with the EU Commission.

Since 2001, the EuropeAid Cooperation Office has been the central agency for the practical implementation of European development policy. EuropeAid manages the programmes and projects in all developing countries. EuropeAid is therefore chaired by the EU Commissioner for External Relations and managed by the Commissioner for Development.

Supports (selection)

• EuropeAid - Coordination of all European development policies
• ECHO - European Community Humanitarian Office
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
• European Investment Bank (EIB)
• European Development Fund (EDF)

Development cooperation of non-governmental organisations

Important actors in the field of development cooperation are the non-governmental organisations (NGOs). They work in very different thematic areas. Many NGOs are largely financed by donations, but also receive government grants. Some are mainly politically active in order to achieve a change in laws both in the industrialised countries and in the countries in which they work.

NGOs, which are also active in developing countries either through their own structures or through local cooperation partners, attach importance in their development cooperation today to enabling people in developing countries to "help themselves". This means, however, that the people who are to be helped must be involved in all planned measures right from the start of a project. The people in the project areas have a leading role to play, starting with the needs assessment and continuing through the project design. Most NGOs today see themselves as partners of the people in developing countries.