Image Under Fire: West German Development Aid and the Ghana Press War, 1960–1966

During the 1960s, development aid helped West Germany project a benign image while it discouraged diplomatic recognition of East Germany. In Ghana, however, this effort clashed with the Pan-Africanist aims of President Kwame Nkrumah. Four periodicals under his control attacked West Germany as neo-colonialist, militarist, racist, latently Nazi and a danger to world peace. West German officials resented this campaign and tried to make it stop, but none of their tactics, not even vague threats to aid, worked for long. The attacks ended with Nkrumah's overthrow in early 1966, but while they lasted, they demonstrated that a small state receiving aid could use the press to invert its asymmetric political relationship with the donor.

GERMAN DEVELOPMENT POLICY: MAIN OBJECTIVES, PRINCIPLES AND STRUCTURE

The Federal Republic of Germany plays not only a leading role in the EU, but is also a global player with interests around the world. At the same time, the FRG has succeeded in establishing itself as an «honest broker» and mediator in international conflicts. Its image as a democratic state under the rule of law with a developed social system and a stable economic development model is attractive to many countries, including «developing» ones, which aspire to cooperate with Germany and are guided by its experience and recommendations. The German Development Policy is an important instrument of soft power, which is used not only for humanitarian purposes, but also to meet specific economic and political objectives. Thanks to its effective development policy, Germany manages to maintain contacts with representatives of various political elites, even if relations with the official government deteriorate. Non-governmental organizations play a major role in promoting German interests. Moreover, an outside observer might get the impression that it is these organizations that largely determine the development policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. In order to understand how this foreign policy mechanism functions, what its strengths are, and what role the state and civil society actors (NGOs, party-political foundations, charities, etc.) play in development policy, it is necessary to analyze the structure, goals and principles of German development policy. This article is devoted to this question.

International Financial Institutions Ask to Contribute to Climate Protection

The aim of this article is to show in which way international financial institutions (IFIs) can contribute to climate protection projects. The principles of IFIs’ project cycles are explained in the context of the new blending tool. The cooperation with other donors stands in the centre of EU project funding and the notion of leveraging allows to quantify the cooperative effect among different donors. The bulk of this article describes the most relevant IFIs and national development banks with an international focus: Green Climate Fund (GCF), European Investment Bank (EIB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), French Development Agency (AFD), German Development Bank (KfW), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). For all these IFIs, descriptions are provided and their main fields of actions identified. The procedure of application (the “project cycle”) is illustrated and an overview of their strategies is given. Thus, this article seeks to provide practical guidance on how to cooperate with IFIs and to direct funds into substantially valid and responsible climate projects.

The East African Community (EAC) mobile laboratory networks in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan—from project implementation to outbreak response against Dengue, Ebola, COVID-19, and epidemic-prone diseases

Background East Africa is home to 170 million people and prone to frequent outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers and various bacterial diseases. A major challenge is that epidemics mostly happen in remote areas, where infrastructure for Biosecurity Level (BSL) 3/4 laboratory capacity is not available. As samples have to be transported from the outbreak area to the National Public Health Laboratories (NPHL) in the capitals or even flown to international reference centres, diagnosis is significantly delayed and epidemics emerge. Main text The East African Community (EAC), an intergovernmental body of Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan, received 10 million € funding from the German Development Bank (KfW) to establish BSL3/4 capacity in the region. Between 2017 and 2020, the EAC in collaboration with the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine (Germany) and the Partner Countries’ Ministries of Health and their respective NPHLs, established a regional network of nine mobile BSL3/4 laboratories. These rapidly deployable laboratories allowed the region to reduce sample turn-around-time (from days to an average of 8h) at the centre of the outbreak and rapidly respond to epidemics. In the present article, the approach for implementing such a regional project is outlined and five major aspects (including recommendations) are described: (i) the overall project coordination activities through the EAC Secretariat and the Partner States, (ii) procurement of equipment, (iii) the established laboratory setup and diagnostic panels, (iv) regional training activities and capacity building of various stakeholders and (v) completed and ongoing field missions. The latter includes an EAC/WHO field simulation exercise that was conducted on the border between Tanzania and Kenya in June 2019, the support in molecular diagnosis during the Tanzanian Dengue outbreak in 2019, the participation in the Ugandan National Ebola response activities in Kisoro district along the Uganda/DRC border in Oct/Nov 2019 and the deployments of the laboratories to assist in SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics throughout the region since early 2020. Conclusions The established EAC mobile laboratory network allows accurate and timely diagnosis of BSL3/4 pathogens in all East African countries, important for individual patient management and to effectively contain the spread of epidemic-prone diseases.

The Fulfillment of Nationwide Interests of Post-War Germany in the Dimension of ‘Chancellor Democracy’

Summing up the modern course of events regarding political leadership in Germany and on the basis of activities of eight chancellors, the author contends the following: The decisive factor in ascension to the political Olympus is the affiliation with either of the two parties, the SPD or the CDU/CSU union, with the nominee’s leadership qualities and political acumen playing an essential role. Even if these conditions are met, the contender’s choice of situation and time where these qualities would be sought after is quite important. It was the political developments of a certain historical era that became an imperative for some politicians to take the reins of power and use them to the full extent. Indeed, at turning points in the history of the Federal Republic, the most crucial decisions were prepared at the German Chancellery and made unilaterally by the chancellor. The author of the article emphasises that chance cannot be ruled out. To become a successful leader in Germany, the much-needed person must be in the right place at the right time. Proof of that is the example of German federal chancellors. The political landscape, democratic footing, and well-structured state and political set-up have enabled only two political parties, the CDU/CSU and the SPD, to nominate from their ranks those who could become national leaders of their historical epoch. The basis of ‘chancellor democracy’ as a system of state and political power has never impeded but enabled such ascension for outstanding personalities. Quite a few of them have become some sort of fathers of the nation. Able leadership that has benefited national interests and fitted into the plane of German development prospects has defined the personal success of both political figures and public officials of national scope. Keywords: Federal Republic of Germany, federal chancellor, political landscape, SPD, CDU/CSU.

Religion und Entwicklungszusammenarbeit

‘Development’ is controversial—as both a concept and a practice. Can religious actors open up alternative approaches to change or make development cooperation more efficient? In view of the promotion of values-based development in German development policy, this volume shows what and who ‘religious actors’ are and what contribution they should or want to make to development. Authors from politics, development practice and academia discuss the objectives, forms and problems of values-based development and present how religion-based organisations in Europe and Africa function. The exchange between the different perspectives contributes to a better understanding of the field in which religion and development overlap. With contributions by Michael Bauer, Hansjörg Dilger, Erwin Eder, Nabiela Farouq, Mohammad Härter, Christoph Hoffmann, Sabrina Khan, Sebastian Müller, Michael Plesch, Paula Schrode and Eva Spies.

МОДЕЛЬ БІЗНЕСУ НІМЕЦЬКОГО БАНКУ РОЗВИТКУ KFW

An analysis of the German development bank’s business model indicates that KfW does not compete with commercial banks that are partners for it. That is, his business is based on the fundamental principle of subsidiarity. Thus, the National Development Bank helps to eliminate the shortcomings of the market mechanism, and among the priorities is the support of small and medium-sized businesses. Despite the global nature of its activities, 84% of the bank’s operations account for the national economy, and a significant part of international projects is aimed primarily at supporting the economic interests of the national producer. With very few exceptions, such as municipal financing, KfW does not interact with the client directly, but supports intermediary banks and assumes risks by offering financing that would not be available or at least not provided in the absence of such a development bank. conditions. KfW loans complement banks’ loan offers and make possible projects that would not have been implemented without this contribution. The example of Germany makes it clear what exactly should be an acceptable national development bank for Ukraine: such an institution has clear mandates, well managed to perform its functions, to achieve maximum impact on development, not profit, but providing a sufficient profit margin for investment attractiveness, coverage possible losses and expansion of operations. Such an institution is able to ensure the independence of national economic policy. (industrial, investment, infrastructure and financial inclusion). The key challenge is the ability of the national development bank to work effectively with private financial institutions and investors, regional and multilateral

Our Gigantic Zoo

This book examines the troubled relationship between Europe’s greatest wildlife conservationist, the former Frankfurt Zoo director and Oscar-winning documentarian Bernhard Grzimek, and the landscape he saw as a “gigantic zoo” for the earth’s last great mammals: the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It analyzes the fissures that emerged between Grzimek and his son Michael’s self-appointed quest to save the Serengeti from modernization and “overpopulation” and the rights of rural Africans and their livestock to inhabit the landscape on their own terms during the era of decolonization around 1960. Grzimek is beloved in Germany as an animal whisperer. He rebuilt the Frankfurt Zoo from a bombed-out shell and sensitized a generation of young people to environmental issues on his long-running television program, A Place for Animals. Yet his advocacy abroad exposed the danger of thinking locally and acting globally. The Grzimeks projected European anxieties about war, Americanization, race, and environmental destruction onto Africa, sidestepping the uncomfortable imperialist legacies of exploitation that had endangered animals in the first place. After independence, Bernhard tried to make wildlife pay for Tanzania by promoting package tours from Europe and soliciting West German development aid for national parks. These efforts created an important alliance between Grzimek, West German diplomats, and Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere. Grzimek’s conservation priorities soon clashed against Nyerere’s nationalist ones, as a more self-assertive Tanzania resented failed promises and incessant meddling. The Africanization of the national park system in the early 1970s ended the Grzimek quest: the fate of the Serengeti lay in Nyerere’s hands, not Grzimek’s.

EPS-SIF Energy Summer School 2019: Concluding remarks

This paper is based on the last talk of the summer school. The intention of the talk was not to repeat any highlights of the school, rather to place the energy issue in a wider frame of global issues like global warming and the global responses to this threat. Therefore, I tried to compile —where possible— new data which inform the audience on the present stage of the energy transition toward carbon-free technologies and some expected future trends. The largest hopes for a successful transformation are connected to renewable energy forms. This field is discussed here mostly from a system point of view whereas I resort heavily to examples from Germany. The most obvious reason is that I am familiar with the German development and have access to the most relevant data. On the other hand, the German experience is of importance for other highly industrialised economies and its development affects other countries because of its central location.

The Establishment of IIT Madras. German Cold War Development Assistance and Engineering Education in India — Das IIT Madras. Deutsche Entwicklungshilfe und indische Ingenieurausbildung im Kalten Krieg

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras was established between 1959 and 1974 with assistance of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was the largest West German enterprise in the field of technical education abroad. The support consisted of German experts for teaching and in setting up laboratories and workshops. In this article, I argue that the engagement of the Federal Republic at IIT Madras must be understood primarily as a political project. The Federal Republic saw itself in direct competition with the Soviet Union, but also with the USA and the UK, which in turn supported the establishment of the IITs in Bombay, Kanpur and Delhi. While West Germany’s engagement had initially been motivated by influencing India’s position on divided post-war Germany, this changed towards the end of the 1960s to the vested interest of German policymakers in long-term scientific and technical cooperation. The German assistance was reoriented, from workshop-based engineering education to setting up a technological research university. Planning and policy were guided by political premises, to which the educational and scientific aspects were subordinate, and German staff was controlled and restricted in its scientific freedom. The German faculty saw themselves confronted with implementing a project which had been politically predefined as a successful Indo-German collaboration, by establishing meaningful research and engineering training. As a case study, the article contributes to the important history of aid in technical educational as part of Westas well as East German development aid during the Cold War, which so far has received little if any attention among historians.