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Development information
Cooperation with the Länder and municipalities in the field of education
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) regards the federal states, or Länder, and the municipalities as important players in providing development information and education.
Some of the Länder have been quick to take their cue from the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development and have designed their own action plans. Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have joined forces and founded the "Northern German Alliance in Support of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development" (NUN).
Moreover, the Länder, which are responsible in Germany for education, regard development issues as an important topic for the school curriculum, and offer course plans and materials on the subject as well as further training for teachers. In order to mainstream the topic of sustainable development and the importance of the Millennium Development Goals in school curricula, the BMZ, in cooperation with the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder, developed the "guidelines for learning about global development" in 2007. In addition, some Länder support local and regional networks of non-governmental organisations involved in development education. Then there are the Regional Centres for Political Education in each Land, which also offer the public relevant material and host events on development issues.
The municipalities, which constitute the lowest political and administrative level, are particularly well suited to raise people’s awareness of topics relating to sustainable, environmentally sound development. There are more than 260 partnerships with municipalities in developing countries, which make a significant contribution to German development policy. By engaging in direct contact with community representatives, social institutions and civil society, they do more than merely passing on local government know-how. They provide the people in Germany with an opportunity to learn more about problems in developing countries, thus increasing their acceptance for development cooperation.
A central instrument used by the German government to support development work at local level is the Service Agency Communities in One World (Servicestelle Kommunen in der Einen Welt –SKEW). It provides information and advisory, networking and qualification services, for example on North-South town twinning programmes, fair procurement and community-level development cooperation.
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