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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
As Cancún approaches: Bundestag debate and new NGO campaign
Ahead of the Cancún world trade talks: lots of issues still unsettled
BMZ budget 2004
Basic education
GTZ's annual report: income growth
India plans
Interview with Jürgen Wilhelm:
40 years of DED: "Our work will become more political"
KfW annual report: lending commitments reduced
Lesotho: Lahmeyer found guilty of corruption
Cooperation with Namibia
8-9/2003
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[ Interview with Jürgen Wilhelm ]
40 years of DED: "Our work will become more political"
The German Development Service (DED) was established forty years ago, on June 24, 1963. Since then, it has despatched some 13,000 development aid workers to more than 50 countries. What has it achieved? And what are the tasks for the future? Questions to DED Director General Jürgen Wilhelm.
Mr Wilhelm, how have the conditions for development workers changed in the last forty years?
Generally for the better. The situation in many developing countries, of course, is marked by crises, conflicts and catastrophes. But there are also successes: better trained partners, better qualified organisations and serious efforts to introduce democracy in countries where I would have thought it impossible twenty years ago.
What does that mean for the qualifications development workers need to bring to the job?
Many of our partners today are much better qualified than in the past, so the requirements development workers have to meet are also higher. More professional experience is required, so workers today are significantly older than in the 1960s and '70s. Also the kind of aid has changed: today, development cooperation is more about advice than about technical support.
Is it easier or harder than in the past to be a development worker today?
Generally speaking, it's a bit easier because conditions on the ground have improved. In partner countries today, we normally have a very experienced team and an infrastructure, our offices, for example...
So workers don't operate alone as much as they did 30 years ago...
No, lone operators are a rare breed at DED today. There are coordinators, there is support from the field director and there is cooperation with other German and international organisations. What makes development work harder today is the fact that we operate much more often in conflict zones – in places like Rwanda, for example, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Palestine.
Can the development cooperation community – not just DED – be satisfied with what it has achieved in the last 40 years?
Of course not. The gulf between the developing countries and the industrialised nations has widened, economic dependence has changed but it still exists. That does not mean DED and other development cooperation organisations have not done good work. Generally speaking, though, we'd like to see much bigger changes at political and global economic level so that partner countries have a better chance of making headway on their own. In the past, it was said that the point of development policy is to make itself superfluous. That is still true today, but we have a long way to go yet.
In view of world economic conditions, can development cooperation be anything more than a drop in the ocean?
I think it is more than that. A favourable dollar exchange rate can sometimes do move more for a country than 30 development workers in 30 years. But if there are no teachers, no economic policy advisors, even the best exchange rate imaginable won't make any difference.
What will be the most important challenges and tasks for DED in the decade ahead?
We will become more political and play a greater role at local level in the democratisation process in partner countries. As a result, it is possible we could come into conflict with governments more frequently than in the past – if, for example, they think we are supporting a 'wrong' mayor or NGO. So we need to embrace the maxim "Do no harm" and make sure we don't do more harm than good. There are more political pot-holes along that road but there is no alternative route; we have to go down it.
Questions by Tillmann Elliesen
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