Policy Updates

On December 17, 2024, the German political parties published their election programs ahead of the February 2025 elections, showing clear differences in their proposals for development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.

The two remaining parties of the governing coalition, the left-leaning SPD and the Greens, both embraced independent development cooperation, led by a strong, independent BMZ.

The center-right opposition party CDU/CSU, by contrast, proposed bringing development cooperation, led by the BMZ, and humanitarian assistance, led by the AA, together. The liberal FPD originally put forth the proposal to merge the BMZ and the AA.

The SPD and Greens emphasized Agenda 2030 and multilateralism as guiding principles and highlighted their continued commitment to 0.7% ODA/GNI. The Greens also proposed leveraging additional funding for climate goals. The CDU/CSU and FPD made no such commitments.

All parties, but the CDU/CSU in particular, stressed a shift to align development with German interests. The CDU/CSU noted its ambition to gear development towards migration management, with criteria intended to stem irregular migration flows. The party also sought to link development to geopolitical and security goals, as well as economic aims and the promotion of international trade.

The SPD and Greens noted their desire to maintain Germany's feminist foreign and development policy, and listed their commitments for global health, climate, and agriculture. The CDU/CSU and FPD did not specifically mention policy aims for health, climate and agriculture, but stated that they will focus on women's rights as part of development policy.

On December 11, 2024, German Development Minister Svenja Schulze presented the 17 ^th Development Policy Report, which highlighted key priorities of German development policy under Schulze, including feminist development policy, global partnership and multilateral cooperation.

Schulze emphasized progress in integrating gender equality across development projects, stating that German development policy is more female-focused, multilateral and based on partnership than before. Accordingly, the report noted that the share of projects addressing gender equality increased from 66% in 2022 to over 91% in 2024.

The report also highlighted Germany's leadership in reforming the World Bank, including increasing its lending capacity, and aligning it with climate, and poverty reduction goals. Also outlined was the enhanced partnership approach with African countries through the German-Africa strategy and activities to establish vaccine and pharmaceutical production in Africa.

On June 1, 2024, German Development Minister Svenja Schulze emphasized the crucial role of religious communities in development policy during her speech addressing challenges in gender equality within religious institutions at the Katholikentag in Erfurt.

Schulze acknowledged that religious organizations, due to their widespread presence, are key partners in addressing global issues such as hunger, climate change, and biodiversity. She praised the contributions of church-based aid organizations like Misereor, missio, and Brot für die Welt in improving lives through development projects.

Schulze highlighted the ethical dimension of globalization, stressing that effective development requires joint efforts beyond financial considerations. She noted that religious groups were instrumental in advocating for the recently passed EU supply chain law, which aims to ensure human rights and environmental standards in production processes.

Schulze acknowledged ongoing challenges and the need for progress in gender equality, particularly within the Catholic Church, and stressed the importance of feminist development policy. She noted her belief that inclusive projects involving women tend to be more successful and sustainable, reinforcing the need for continued advocacy for gender equality in all sectors.

The discussion underscored the intersection of faith and development, demonstrating that collaborative efforts with religious communities are essential for achieving sustainable development goals.

On May 30, 2024, a UN survey showed that 85% of women worldwide are committed to advancing their rights and representation in government, despite global challenges to women's rights revealed that a significant majority of women are committed to promoting their rights and participation in government.

Conducted by the WeTheWomen campaign, the UN Office for Partnerships, and John Zogby Strategies, the survey included over 25,000 women from 185 countries.

Additional results revealed that 60% of women believe female representation in leadership will improve over the next decade. More than two-thirds emphasized the need for increased female participation in leadership roles at both national and global levels.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed highlighted the importance of women's involvement in decision-making to achieve sustainable development goals. German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, co-initiator of the campaign, praised the overwhelming global participation and called for continued efforts to advance gender equality.

The survey also found widespread optimism about future living conditions, with 57% of women expecting improvements in the next five years. However, significant concerns remain about climate change, economic insecurity, and gender inequalities, with many women expecting the impacts of these issues to affect their health and safety.

Overall, the findings underscored the need for stronger international cooperation and effective multilateral action to address these global challenges and support women's rights and representation worldwide.

On May 23-25, 2024, the G7 Ministers of Finance met at a summit in Stresa, Italy, where the ministers voiced support for contributions to the IDA, WHO, Gavi, and the Global Fund in the resulting communiqué.

The G7 ministers supported efforts towards a successful 21^st replenishment of the IDA by the end of 2024 through an ambitious policy and financing package. Notably, they did not give a concrete signal that the critical US$100 billion threshold requested by the World Bank will be crossed, nor any indication of the US$120 billion expected by African leaders.

The ministers reaffirmed their dedication to strengthening the governance and finance of the global health architecture and voiced support for refinancing processes of several GHIs, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the WHO, and the Global Fund, and expressed support for the Pandemic Fund. The communiqué called on the donor community to coordinate efforts and increase investments in global health in line with their capacities to ensure sustainable funding and maximize the impact of available resources.

Following the summit, the C7 pointed out the G7's lack of ambition and financial commitment to international development, including climate adaptation. International civil society organizations criticized the lack of any reference to allocating SDRs to global solidarity.

On May 21, 2024, the BMZ and German Development Minister Svenja Schulze introduced updated guidelines for sustainable textile procurement, aiming to incorporate more rigorous ecological and social criteria.

Germany's new guidelines emphasized ecological and social criteria for public textile purchases, aiming to set a global standard for responsible procurement across various public sectors and aims to enhance responsible purchasing practices. The new standards are meant to ensure that textiles are produced without child labor or environmental damage.

The guidelines, developed by the BMZ in coordination with other ministries, are intended for use by all federal authorities and administrations. The updated guidelines offer practical advice on embedding human rights due diligence in public procurement, mirroring requirements in the private sector under Germany’s Supply Chain Act. The guidelines also introduce stricter ecological requirements, benefiting the predominantly female workforce in the textile industry.

The German government stated that it aims to leverage its significant purchasing power to promote global social and environmental standards by committing to procure at least 50% of all textiles according to these guidelines by 2026.

On May 14-15, 2024, the C7 summit was held at the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, organized by the Italian Civil Society Coalition that led, coordinated, and moderated the C7 2024 process.

Approximately 400 global representatives took part in the event, as well as international decision-makers, including FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, Italian G7 sherpa Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, Cardinal, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Pope’s envoy for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict Matteo Maria Zuppi, and Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign Marina Ponti.

The official C7 communiqué that listed the international civil society recommendation to the G7’s Leaders around seven key issues was released at the event, which included:

• Economic justice and transformation;
• Climate, energy transformation, and environmental justice;
• Global health;
• Principled humanitarian assistance;
• Peace, common security, and nuclear disarmament;
• Human mobility and migration; and
• Food justice and food systems transformation.

On October, 16, 2023, the BMZ co-hosted the GFF replenishment round as part of WHS 2023 in Berlin and raised a total of US$445 million based on a goal of $800 million, of which Germany pledged EUR25 million (US$26 million).

German Development Minister Svenja Schulze highlighted that the GFF is a key partner in advancing women's rights, MNCH, and SRHR. She committed to continuing the campaign to advocate for sufficient financing for GFF.

The GFF's flagship Deliver the Future initiative had a stated goal to raise US$800 million to improve the health and rights of 250 million women and children. The campaign for additional financing for the GFF started in June 2023, when a post-pandemic funding gap for women's health, MNCH, and SRHR first became apparent. The pledging event fell US$355 million short of its goal, raising concerns about the initiative's ability to meet its support and development targets. Further investment towards the goal is expected in 2024.

Germany's contribution amounted to EUR25 million (US$26 million), in line with previous annual commitments since 2020. Critics from the DSW, Global Citizen, Save the Children Deutschland and World Vision Deutschland previously advocated strongly for a German commitment of EUR100 million (US$106 million) to the GFF, asserting that a small contribution would hurt Germany's reputation as co-host.

On July 12, 2023, the BMZ presented its position paper on strengthening regional cooperation with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The position paper outlined three primary goals:

1. Ensuring a fair transition to a climate-neutral economy by promoting renewable energy, particularly through climate and development partnerships, creating employment and education opportunities, and ensuring social protection;
2. Fostering good governance, peace, and democracy, particularly through supporting human rights protection, combating corruption, promoting governance standards, countering armed conflicts, and supporting refugees and internally displaced persons; and
3. Implementing a feminist development policy by promoting access to rights, resources, and economic participation, particularly for women, girls, LGBTQ+ persons, and marginalized groups such as indigenous communities, as well as strengthening feminist initiatives in politics and civil society.

Specifically, the paper described cooperation with six partner countries:

• Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia were listed as bilateral partner countries with whom the BMZ pursues long-term development goals; and
• Brazil, Mexico, and Peru were classified as Global Partners, with whom the BMZ seeks to develop joint solutions to global challenges such as the climate crisis.

The paper also described more general BMZ collaboration with all countries in the region on regional, global, and multilateral projects, as well as non-governmental development cooperation initiatives.

On July 10, 2023, German development minister Svenja Schulze took over the Presidency of the Sahel Alliance from Spain.

Schulze outlined three priorities for her presidency:

1. Creating paths out of the crisis by offering more education, training, and employment;
2. Making societies more resilient through social protection and long-term solutions for food security that go beyond emergency relief; and
3. Recovering areas that the government has lost control over and providing people with basic services.
   
   Schulze emphasized the empowerment of girls and women, who are often main income-earners and can significantly impact regional development.
   
   With over EUR28 billion (US$31 billion) in support for initiatives, the Sahel Alliance is the region's biggest alliance of international supporters.