The Innovation Council – providing "stimulus for new ideas"

In October 2011, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) launched the Advi­sory Coun­cil on In­no­va­tion. The Coun­cil's job is to sup­port the Ministry in its efforts to bring fresh thinking to de­vel­op­ment policy and to de­vel­op viable ideas on how to meet the chal­lenges of the 21st century.

"Stimulus for new ideas" – this is what the Ministry is expecting its new advisory council to deliver. The BMZ sees itself as an organisation engaged in ongoing learning, which is why it is especially interested in innovative ideas.

Council members come from a wide variety of backgrounds in public life: civil society, business, the academic community, politics, cul­ture and the media. This hetero­geneous mix of members should ensure that the Coun­cil does indeed develop new approaches and con­siders the challenges ahead from different angles.

"The BMZ is catching up on its spring cleaning and is updating its methods and strategies. With the help of the Advisory Council on Innovation, we will be taking development policy more into main­stream society. We shall break with old patterns of thinking and instead think 'outside the box', as they say, and ven­ture beyond the beaten track," explained State Secretary Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz.

The diverse backgrounds of the Innovation Council's members reflect a wide variety of groups in society, thereby forging a link between these groups and the BMZ.

Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel and his State Secretary Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz launched the newly established Advisory Council on Innovation in Berlin on 18 October 2011.