At an event in Karlsruhe attended by representatives from politics, the church and the legal profession, Dr Dieter Heidtmann, General Secretary of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS), strongly criticised the planned cuts to development cooperation in the German government’s draft budget. 

Heidtmann criticised the increasing narrowing of development policy to focus solely on Germany’s own interests.

Instead, Heidtmann argued that what is needed is a development policy that prioritises the common good of all.“The so-called ‘win-win’ strategies of German development policy still, in many cases, follow a colonial-style development model in which one partner knows what is good for the other’s development.”

The EMS General Secretary calls instead for a strengthening of international organisations and greater commitment from the German government to restoring international legal frameworks. “It serves German interests best if we invest in systems of equal, international cooperation that focus not only on the well-being of our own nation, but on that of the entire global community.”