Content
Background
Promoting Education – A Priority Area of German Development Policy
Promoting education is a priority area of German development policy. In its work in the education sector, Germany is guided by the internationally agreed objectives.
Since the early 1990s, primary education has therefore played a key role in Germany's cooperation with partner countries. This includes non-school youth and adult education aimed at promoting literacy skills. Germany is one of the few donors actively contributing to the primary education sector as well as to the development of vocational training and higher education. Germany has acquired many years of experience in this context and can provide competent and comprehensive support to the partner countries in their education reforms. Germany is the second biggest aid donor in the education sector after France.
In the German strategy for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals "realising human rights" is one of ten priority areas of action. It includes the right to education and the ending of discrimination against women. A further priority area of action – "boosting the economy and enhancing the active participation of the poor" – also involves the promotion of education.
The Development Policy Action Plan on Human Rights published by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) refers to the promotion of education as an important step in the fight against the structural causes of poverty and social exclusion. In its Development Policy White Paper, the German government has also explicitly committed itself to achieving the MDGs and the objectives adopted at the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar. Primary, secondary, vocational and higher education, along with gender equality, are emphasised as being important areas of German development cooperation.
In 2007, Germany invested one billion euros in promoting the education sector – 15 per cent of the total budget available for bilateral development cooperation. The promotion of primary education was one priority area, in which a total of 62.1 million euros was invested.
