D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 5, September/October 2002, p. 3)

What role do North-South policies play in the election campaign? After September 11, much was said by German politicians about the need to go to the root causes of terrorism in the world. These were seen in the growing poverty, exclusion and marginalisation of large sections of the population in areas of the world which had little hope in benefiting from the ongoing process of globalisation. The answer to terrorism, therefore, was not only military repression through a global anti-terror coalition led by the United States, but also more efforts in the fight against poverty and for human rights, human dignity, democracy and participation in developing countries. A year after the horrifying attacks on the World Trade Center, much of the shock seems to have subsided without having left a lasting impact on German attitudes towards development policy. At least, judging by media attention to the subject, development policy is no issue in this year’s election campaign.

This is the one side of the story. Surprisingly, there is another side of the coin which tells a more positive story. Opinion polls show that two thirds of all Germans are in favour of development assistance. When it comes to private donations for organisations doing humanitarian, relief or development work in Third World countries, Germans are among the most generous in the world. Countless action groups and NGOs at the local, regional, national or international level, sponsored by churches, political parties, trade unions, or municipalities, engage themselves in voluntary activities to assist developing countries or act as advocacy agents to raise funds and influence official policies. Development and environmental NGOs which often have overlapping and mutually reinforcing goals are among the most vocal and visible parts of civil society in Germany. In election times they try to put pressure on party candidates to pay more attention to North-South policies.

Why then, if there is so much public engagement, does development policy play such a marginal role in the campaign? A look at the election platforms of the competing parties offers the explanation: there are just too few differences between them which could provide stuff for a lively controversy. For instance, all parties propose to raise the level of official development assistance (ODA) in steps to meet the internationally agreed goal of 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product. In 2001, Germany’s ODA reached only a miserly 0.27 per cent of GNP. All parties also speak of the necessity to grant developing countries better access to markets in industrial countries and to lower agricultural subsidies which distort world markets. And all parties want to promote peace, democracy, good governance and social justice in the world.

Of course, there are differences on detail. FDP and parts of CDU/CSU want to merge the development ministry with the Foreign Office to increase coherence and efficiency in international relations - an issue of interest only to a small constituency of insiders among the ‘development community’. The FDP as the traditional liberal party in Germany advocates the expansion of free trade, more public-private partnerships and official trade promotion while opposing more regulatory instruments like social and environmental standards in trade and currency transaction taxes (Tobin tax) as demanded by the Greens and parts of the SPD. The PDS proposes a ‘Marshall-Plan for Development’ funded by cuts in military spending. But with all these differences on detail, one can say that no matter parties will rule in Germany, development policy will not change fundamentally from what prevailed under previous governments.

For Germany’s partners in the world, this may be reassuring - or disappointing - depending on the expectations held by them. One fact is already certain: election platforms and campaign promises are one thing, what is actually being done is something else. The budgetary problems faced by Germany due also to the reunification process will not disappear overnight. And vested interests, for instance of farmers, will continue to put obstacles in the way of a rapid dismantling of protectionism in the North. The fight against poverty worldwide will remain an uphill task for any new government elected on September 22.