Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

When the Security Council mandated the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone to protect civilians in 1999, there was neither a clear definition of POC (protection of civilians) nor a way to account for action peacekeepers had taken to protect civilians. Over the last two decades, the UN Secretariat and peacekeeping missions in the field have developed a body of policy documents and training modules, and established practical tools and mechanisms to clarify and standardize the way POC should be implemented. In 2015, the UN policy on POC laid out three tiers of protection: protection through dialogue and engagement, provision of physical protection, and establishment of a protective environment. In October 2019, the UN Department of Peace Operations and Department of Operational Support issued a revised policy.

On November 12th, a workshop was held at IPI, bringing together representatives of the diplomatic community, including thematic experts and military and police advisors, UN Secretariat officials, members of the NGO community, and external researchers to explore ways POC has evolved and to determine which practices have been effective in carrying out POC. This meeting also addressed how UN POC policies compare with POC frameworks developed by specific countries and regional organizations.

This event was part of an international research project, “Implementing the POC Concept in UN Peacekeeping,” financed by the German Federal Ministry of Defence, and run by the Institute of Security and Global Affairs of the University of Leiden (ISGA), the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK), and the Global Governance Institute (GGI). Composed of two sessions, the meeting took place under the Chatham House rule of non-attribution.

During the first session, experts discussed the new revisions to the UN POC policy. Speakers noted that there had been no radical shifts or sweeping departures in this revision from the 2015 policy, which established the three tiers of POC, including dialogue and engagement, the provision of physical protection, and the establishment of a protective environment. However, there were a few significant changes. These included putting greater emphasis on political strategies, beyond the use of force to protect civilians. The revised policy also further defined roles and responsibilities for all components of peace operations, including military, police and civilian personnel, and included clearer accountability provisions. The other change that was noted was a larger emphasis on civilian harm mitigation.

Participants highlighted the need to clarify what POC entails for the different components of peace operations, through clearer mandate language, and to allocate resources that will match expectations. They specifically examined the current role of UN police units in peacekeeping, which goes beyond physical protection, and encompasses investigations and capacity-building to develop the country’s rule of law and justice system.  They also explored the role of civilian components in protection, ranging from the analysis of threats to early warning, casualty tracking, human rights monitoring, investigations and public reporting, and political engagement. Bridging military and political spheres, in particular, was seen as key in the comprehensive approach of POC. Intelligence capacities were also considered critical to collect information on threats and perpetrators, and building evidence to fight impunity.

Although the revised policy elevated the importance of accountability for the implementation of POC mandates, several participants underscored the persistent lack of an internal accountability and monitoring and evaluation system. At tactical levels, POC strategies are not always translated into concrete plans, and there are limited means to sanction inaction. Participants noted the need to improve the preparedness of peacekeepers and to ensure their readiness to protect civilians, including through specific criteria that should guide the selection of personnel.

In the meeting’s second session, discussants examined how member states can support POC. On the one hand, Security Council members, financial contributors, and troop- and police-contributing countries have a responsibility in making operations “fit” for the purpose of POC. This can be done through the provision of training and resources, and the adoption of the right “posture” and “commitment” in the field. On the other hand, member states can develop regional and national policy frameworks on POC.

Participants compared policy frameworks developed by the AU, NATO, and specific countries. It was noted that the African Union has guidelines on POC, and that all AU operations have a POC mandate, with the aim to ensure protection from its own operations and from third parties. Similarly to the UN, the AU doctrine of protection is based on a tiered approach, encompassing protection as part of the political process, protection from physical violence, the establishment of a protective environment, and rights-based protection. Participants mentioned the most recent developments and good practices to improve protection in the field, including the establishment of compliance and accountability frameworks, and civilian casualty tracking mechanisms.

It was noted as well that NATO has a policy for POC which was endorsed in 2016 by all its members. While NATO does not technically deploy peace operations as the UN does, experts said that the policy was drafted foreseeing times where NATO would deploy parallel missions and transition missions alongside the UN. While NATO has structural differences from the UN, NATO’s concept is based on a population-centric perspective of the crisis area, aiming at understanding the human environment. NATO also carries out POC through different thematic lenses: mitigating harm from NATO’s action and other perpetrators of violence, facilitating access to basic needs, and contributing to a safe and secure environment.

As another example, participants also examined the Swiss POC strategy, as Switzerland was the first country to have developed a national POC strategy in 2013, along with the Australian POC strategy. Building on lessons learned from different cases, discussants explored the many challenges and questions that should be considered by any country seeking to develop a national POC framework. One challenge is to define the scope of the protection strategy, its establishment as a defense or whole-of-government strategy, and its application to military operations, stabilization operations, or UN peace operations. Another issue to take into consideration is the use of the POC strategy as a working tool, a communication tool, for bilateral or multilateral engagement, and for policy or operational purposes. Speakers suggested the inclusion of specific POC action in diplomatic fora, beyond operational considerations for field operations.

Experts recognized that the development of national POC strategies is a nascent policy field, and that few countries have started to implement national policies on the subject. Several participants questioned how the UN, EU, NATO, AU, and national concepts should align, and recognized the lack of a common international concept of protection. They emphasized that there is no one-size-fits-all for POC national policies, but that it is important to establish clear lines of responsibility and authority. It is also vital, they said, to identify champions to serve as POC advocates in specific countries, and for the policies to engage many stakeholders of the government, legislative branches and civil society

Discussants raised points on what should be included in national protection strategies from a humanitarian standpoint. Necessary for an effective policy, they argued, were including protection for civilian property, understanding and including the work of humanitarian actors for protection, using clearer definitions of the term “civilian,” and creating action plans on counter-terrorism operations, as well as thinking about the impact of urban warfare, and the protection and dissemination of civilian data, particularly during cyber operations.

Namie Di Razza moderated the workshop and the second session, and Robin Shroeder moderated the first session.

Download the meeting agenda>>

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From left: Major General Francis Ofori, Commandant of KAIPTC; Mona Juul, Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN; Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under Secretary General for UN Peacekeeping; Jake Sherman, Director of IPI’s Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations; Martha Pobee, Permanent Representative of Ghana to the UN; and Dame Karen Pierce, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the UN

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From left: Major General Francis Ofori, Commandant of KAIPTC; Mona Juul, Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN; Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under Secretary General for UN Peacekeeping; Jake Sherman, Director of IPI’s Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations; Martha Pobee, Permanent Representative of Ghana to the UN; and Dame Karen Pierce, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the UN

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), in collaboration with the Permanent Missions of Ghana, the United Kingdom, and Norway, co-hosted a half-day conference on the theme “Peacekeeping in Africa: Fostering Partnership and Synergies.” IPI and Wilton Park were partners for the conference, which took place in the ECOSOC Chamber of United Nations Headquarters in New York on November 12th.

Director of IPI’s Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, Jake Sherman, chaired and moderated the opening session with Dame Karen Pierce, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the UN, Mona Juul, Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN, Martha Pobee, Permanent Representative of Ghana to the UN, Major General Francis Ofori, Commandant of KAIPTC, and Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping.

The conference focused on cooperation among partners in peacekeeping operations, as well as the shared commitment to address the challenges facing peacekeeping, focusing on the African Continent. Speakers presented policy recommendations in support of current peacekeeping challenges including: reinforcing UN-Africa peace and security partnerships, ensuring the long-term impact of peacekeeping missions, and increasing cooperation with African regional and sub-regional security frameworks.

The event brought together member states, the African Union, African Regional Economic Communities, think tanks, and other international partners.

Watch full event video here on UN Web TV>>

Colombias fredsaftale fra 2016 udløste Nobels Fredspris. I de seneste år er det imidlertid gået den forkerte vej, og perioden op til og også efter det nylige lokalvalg var præget af vold og trusler. I Danmark har man dog ikke rigtig opdaget det; vi er nemlig tilsyneladende ikke særlig optaget af menneskerettigheder i landet, men har mere øje for eksportmulighederne

Bonn, 11.11.2019. Alleine in der EU geben öffentliche Einrichtungen jährlich 2 Billionen Euro für Beschaffungen aus. Der öffentliche Einkauf ist somit ein starker Hebel zur Umsetzung von Nachhaltigkeitszielen. Seit einigen Jahren finden Nachhaltigkeitskriterien immer öfter Einzug in Gesetze und Verordnungen für die öffentliche Beschaffung. Bereits 2014 wurden sie europaweit in der aktuellen EU Vergaberichtlinie (2014/24/EU) verankert und seitdem in die nationalen Gesetzgebungen der Mitgliedsstaaten übertragen. In der Praxis öffentlicher Ausschreibungen stellt die Integration von Nachhaltigkeitskriterien bislang aber eher die Ausnahme als die Regel dar. Rechtliche Regelungen, egal ob freiwillig oder verpflichtend, bedürfen einer „Übersetzung“ in die Praxis. Ein Paradigmenwechsel für diese Übersetzung zeichnet sich auf internationaler Ebene aktuell ab. Dies konnte auch auf dem zweiten Dialogforum zu Nachhaltiger Öffentlicher Beschaffung beobachtet werden. Ende Oktober kamen dazu in Bonn deutsche, europäische, lateinamerikanische und afrikanische Expertinnen und Experten für öffentliche Beschaffung zusammen. Sie diskutierten die Umsetzung einer nachhaltigen öffentlichen Beschaffung, zum Beispiel durch die Einbindung von Nachhaltigkeitskriterien in elektronische Vergabeverfahren und die generelle Nutzung von Nachhaltigkeitsstandards. Denn wenn es keinen einfachen Lehrbuchansatz gibt, sind Erfahrungsaustausch und gemeinsames Lernen die wichtigsten Werkzeuge, um Veränderungen zu bewirken. Zusätzlich zu einer guten rechtlichen Grundlage braucht es Change-Management Ansätze, mehr Personal und konkrete Beratung in der Umsetzung. Gerade bei einer stark dezentral organisierten öffentlichen Beschaffung wie in Deutschland brauchen beispielsweise kommunale Vergabestellen mehr Unterstützung von außen. Es bestehen bereits Beratungs- und Hilfsangebote wie die Kompetenzstelle für Nachhaltige Beschaffung sowie die Servicestelle Kommunen in der Einen Welt. Um die über 11.000 Kommunen zu erreichen, müssen neben dem Bund die Länder endlich ihrer Verantwortung nachkommen, ebenfalls Angebote zur Verfügung zu stellen. Hierbei lohnt sich ein Blick in die Niederlande. Dort hat die zentrale Beratungseinrichtung PIANOo erfolgreich nachhaltige Beschaffung in den gerade einmal 355 Gemeinden angeregt und berät und unterstützt diese mit mehr als 30 Stellen. Auch in vielen Ländern Afrikas, wie Ghana und Südafrika, finden regelmäßig Weiterbildungskampagnen für Beschaffungsverantwortliche statt, die auch vermehrt das Thema Nachhaltigkeit einbeziehen. Bedarfsträger, die die eingekauften Produkte nachfragen und nutzen, und Beschaffungsstellen müssen durch Weiterbildungsangebote und neue Strukturen in die Lage versetzt werden, nachhaltige Beschaffungskriterien zu entwickeln und anzuwenden. Dies zeigen Beispiele von Bremen und Berlin über Rotterdam bis Tshwane in Südafrika. Nachhaltigkeitsziele mit dem Markt zu kommunizieren kann recht aufwendig sein. In sogenannten Bieterdialogen können Vergabestellen ihre Vorstellungen mit potentiellen Bietern diskutieren. Die Organisation solcher Bieterdialoge erfordert gute Vorbereitung und eine breite Öffentlichkeitsarbeit. Gerade afrikanische Praktikerinnen und Praktiker sorgen sich wegen des vermeintlichen Korruptionsrisikos bei einem intensiveren Austausch mit Unternehmen. Ein offener Austausch mit dem Markt ist jedoch nicht nur eine Möglichkeit zur Stärkung nachhaltiger Beschaffung. Sie kann die Transparenz des Vergabeverfahrens sogar zusätzlich erhöhen. Mit der Digitalisierung der Beschaffung werden zurzeit viele Erwartungen verknüpft. Neben der Steigerung von Effektivität und Transparenz kann die elektronische Vergabe auch genutzt werden, um Nachhaltigkeitsziele einzubinden. So verwenden die Städte Mainz und der Bundesstaat Sao Paulo elektronische Kataloge, um die Bedarfsträger auf ökologischere und fairere Alternativen in bestehenden Rahmenverträgen aufmerksam zu machen. Neue Verfahren sorgen aber nicht allein für eine bessere Integration von Nachhaltigkeitskriterien in die öffentliche Beschaffung. Entscheidend für die nachhaltigere Ausrichtung von Beschaffungsinstrumenten ist es, das Thema Nachhaltigkeit von Beginn an als integralen Bestandteil mitzudenken. Für das nötige Umdenken brauchen die Beschaffungsstellen die entsprechende Unterstützung. Wir erleben gerade eine Trendwende in der öffentlichen Beschaffung. Die langfristige und strategische Planung in der Vergabe wird gestärkt und professionalisiert. Zudem werden neue Verfahren, wie Bieterdialoge und digitale Prozesse, eingeführt und erprobt. Diese eignen sich auch dazu, soziale und ökologische Nachhaltigkeit verstärkt im öffentlichen Einkauf zu integrieren. Auf dem Weg dahin gilt es, die nötigen Mittel für diese Wandlungsprozesse zur Verfügung zu stellen. Dies wird sich durch gesteigerte Effizienz und langfristigere Planung auszahlen und ermöglicht auch den nationalen wie internationalen Austausch zwischen Verwaltungen. Diese sich abzeichnende Trendwende ist kein Automatismus – sie muss begleitet und geformt werden.

Dawud Ansari, who works at the Energy, Transportation, Environment Department department, has successfully defended his dissertation at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The dissertation with the title "Numerical models for emerging energy and resource issues: Examples from tight oil, global energy, and rural electrification" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Klaus Eisenack (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Franziska Holz (DIW Berlin).

We congratulate Dawud on his success and wish him all the best for his future career.

What can we learn from the maritime domain?

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IPI held a policy forum on November 7th on the evolution of the strategic partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, with a specific focus on how they undertake conflict prevention and crisis management efforts. Organized with the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the African Union Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, and the Training for Peace Programme, the forum also served to launch a research report on the subject produced jointly by IPI and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Co-authored by IPI Policy Analyst Daniel Forti and ISS Researcher Priyal Singh, the report looks at the partnership at the member state level in the UN Security Council and AU Peace and Security Council, as well as at the operational level between various UN and AU entities. It also assesses the partnership across several thematic issues, including the AU’s Silencing the Guns initiative;  mediation; women, peace, and security; electoral support; peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction and development, and youth, peace, and security. The report offers six recommendations for the UN, the AU and their member states to strengthen the partnership.

Bintou Keita, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, UN Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, identified the reasons why conflict keeps reemerging across Africa as “exclusion, marginalization, and discrimination” and said the most effective response was through partnerships. She noted approvingly that at the political and policy making level, the word that most recurred was “joint” as in “joint visit, joint communiques that is becoming more common.”

Jerry Matthews Matjila, the Permanent Representative of South Africa to the UN, and Odd-Inge Kvalheim, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Norway, made opening remarks, with Ambassador Kvalheim praising the report as “a valuable tool for understanding the relationship between the UN and AU to guide their efforts and also to point out where support from others is needed” and Ambassador Matjila talking about the October 2019 South African presidency of the Security Council during which the three African members of the Council (A3)—South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, and the Côte d’ Ivoire—acted in concert and coordination. “The A3 in 10 months had 13 common statements, you never had that before,” he said. “The A3 became like something you have to cross on African issues. Why? Because they were united.” Reflecting this assertiveness, South Africa hosted the 13th Joint Annual Consultative visit between the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council during its Council presidency.

Underscoring the need for effective partnership between the UN and the AU, Mr. Forti noted that the report’s focus comes at a time “when conflict prevention is a priority for both organizations, but neither has the political, financial, and operational tools to prevent conflicts or manage crises on their own.” He said while the two councils are increasingly interdependent, they are defined by “an overriding tension” because their relationship is “fundamentally unequal in terms of powers, authority, resources, and political status.”

Describing the complementary strengths of the UN and AU in conflict prevention and crisis management, he said, “The AU often has more legitimacy to engage national actors, including governments, and can therefore access more political entry points to engage on a crisis before or when it emerges. With its global mandate for international peace and security and its diverse field presences, the UN has more operational and logistical capabilities and a larger, more predictable budget. These comparative advantages can color how day-to-day interactions unfold.”

Mr. Forti said these dynamics can also force the two institutions into what he called “a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, the UN may defer to the AU because of its push for political ownership and leadership while on the other hand, the AU may defer to the UN due to its greater resources, capacities, and in-country presences.”

Like the relationship between the two councils, the partnership between the UN Secretariat and AU Commission remains a “work in progress, but has grown considerably in recent years” Mr. Forti said. There are important formal mechanisms for engagements, but “in reality, the UN and AU depends just as much on day-to-day collaboration, both in headquarters and in the field.”

Mr. Singh highlighted three of the thematic areas that are priorities for the partnership. The AU’s Silencing the Guns initiative aims to end all wars by 2020, and has become a beacon for the two organizations in guiding their conflict prevention efforts. The two organizations work closely on the varied mediation efforts in Africa through a range of political and policy instruments. However, “the UN-AU partnership must account for the heterogeneous nature of the various political institutions involved in mediation, as well as these various mandates, capacities, and comparative advantages,” he said.

The women, peace and security (WPS) agenda is potentially another fruitful entry point for joint UN-AU action, but Mr. Singh counseled care in applying it properly.  “While opportunities for more impactful UN-AU engagements on the WPS agenda are plentiful, the challenge again, however, is how well these engagements are coordinated and managed to ensure collective, coherent, strategies and responses to advance this critical agenda,” he said.

Fatima Kyari Mohammed, the AU’s Permanent Observer to the UN, commended the increasing UN-AU collaboration and the growing institutionalization of the partnership, but said there was still more to be done to put it into action effectively. “Implementation is what really matters,” she said. “Post-adoption is where the work starts.”

Elaborating on key points in the report, Ms. Mohammed said it was critical to ensure that cooperation proceeds in a “systematic, protocoled, predictable” manner, that council-to-council cooperation go beyond the annual meeting of the two bodies, and that joint analysis is followed up by joint action.

Citing the UN Charter’s Chapter VIII governing regional arrangements, she asked, “How can we strike a balance between the role of the Security Council in the maintenance of peace and security and the ability of the AU to develop its own capacity and take its own action? We have yet to find a clear answer.”

In closing remarks, Gustavo de Carvalho, Senior Researcher at the ISS, highlighted the importance to the African continent of multilateral institutions like the AU and the UN. “We are in a moment in which it is almost a cliché to say that multilateralism is at stake,” he said. “Many countries mention the idea of being small countries because together they can have more impact. This is why it is important to strengthen these two multilateral institutions.”

IPI Senior Fellow Sarah Taylor moderated the discussion.

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Just weeks after the committee named Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as the 2019 laureate IPI hosted Asle Toje, a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, for a conversation about the prize.

Introducing Dr. Toje at the November 6th event, IPI Vice President Adam Lupel recalled that when he spoke at IPI for the first time last year, he said that “it is no exaggeration to say that the Nobel Peace Prize is the most prestigious prize in the world.” Mr. Lupel remarked, “It must also be added that to be on the committee is itself quite a prestigious honor.” Dr. Toje is the youngest member of the five person Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is chosen by the Norwegian parliament.

Dr. Toje began his remarks with a brief background of Alfred Nobel’s life and how he earned the considerable fortune that led him to write what Dr. Toje called “one of the world’s most famous wills and testaments,” therein instituting prizes in physics, physiology, chemistry, literature, and peace.

According to Dr. Nobel’s will, which both Dr. Lupel and Dr. Toje cited in their discussion, the prize for peace is to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”

Dr. Toje explained that since the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, there has been an ongoing debate about how to interpret the relatively brief and broadly general language in the criteria for the peace prize. While Alfred Nobel could not have conceived of the relevance of climate change or human rights in his lifetime, Dr. Toje explained that the Nobel Committee has adopted a “dynamic interpretation” to account for the importance of modern day issues.

The committee’s interpretation and application of Dr. Nobel’s will and testament is evident in the way that the selection of laureates has reflected contemporary priorities over the past century. Dr. Toje pointed out that after the first World War, the selection of winners centered around the League of Nations. Then, after World War II, “no issue was given more focus than nuclear disarmament.” More recently, the committee has focused on such issues as women’s rights, human rights, and climate change.

Regarding those who claim to have been nominated for the prize, Dr. Toje said that while the committee “will not speak against” such claims, the list of nominees remains confidential for 50 years, and the committee is bound to secrecy until lists are released. Still, he explained that every year, the committee receives questions from people claiming to have been nominated, asking if there is a diploma or a consolation prize. “Sadly,” Dr. Toje explained, “ we don’t we don’t give any runner-up medals.”

When asked about the relevance and diversity of the prize winners, Dr. Toje explained that the committee tries not to judge “different actors by different standards.” He elaborated, saying, “There is a tendency, at least in Europe, to be a bit cavalier about developments in Africa.” To Dr. Toje, this indicates that “we need to check development in Africa and in the Middle East,” where many of the world’s conflicts exist, and “if that means that we just have to really read up on the politics and the religious affairs of countries that we know little about before we start the process, so be it.”

Dr. Toje also addressed the relevance of international institutions in the future of promoting peace, admitting, “We’re facing a global challenge unlike anything we have seen in the past.” He believes that there is still a great deal of work to be done, and stated “I do believe that the United Nations will have a core role to play in this.” Though power balances and dynamics are shifting around the world, Dr. Toje pointed out that the UN has successfully overcome such challenges in the past and will continue to do so in the future. “I do believe that international institutions and multilateral cooperation is the path forward.”

Though much of the discussion focused on the history of the prize, Dr. Lupel asked Dr. Toje to place himself in the future, posing the question “When you look back on the Nobel Peace Prizes of this period, what do you hope to see?” Dr. Toje said he would hope that the Nobel Committee continues to “take its job seriously.” He continued, “We have this opportunity, once a year, to shine the light of global attention at one single issue, so we must choose carefully.”

In answering questions about the impact of the prize, Dr. Toje said the Nobel Peace Prize is always controversial. “There are always some people who feel that this laureate was the wrong one,” he admitted, highlighting that when Kailash Satyarthi was named a laureate in 2014, his award was not well-received within his own Brahmin community. Sharing further examples of controversial laureates, Dr. Toje remarked that Barack Obama’s award remains “deeply controversial,” and that while the selections of Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa received criticism at the time, they are looked back on as “among sort of the stellar moments of the Nobel Peace Prize.”

However, Dr. Toje added, “Once the announcement has been made, we realize it lives its own life,” alluding to the intensity of public reactions. “If the Nobel Peace Prize didn’t spark outrage and strong emotions, well, we wouldn’t be living up to our reputation.”

Zusammenfassung:

Studie vergleicht Entwicklung der Lebensbedingungen seit der Wiedervereinigung – Neue Länder haben aufgeholt, liegen aber weiterhin zurück – Ländliche Prägung Ostdeutschlands und ungünstige Bevölkerungsstruktur sind wichtige Ursachen, die auch einige westdeutsche Regionen belasten – Regional differenzierte Stadt-Land-Vergleiche scheinen daher künftig angebrachter als pauschale Ost-West-Vergleiche

30 Jahre nach dem Mauerfall ergibt sich mit Blick auf das Ziel, in Ost- und Westdeutschland gleichwertige Lebensverhältnisse zu schaffen, eine gemischte Bilanz. Auf der einen Seite haben sich die beiden Landesteile einander angeglichen: So ist die Arbeitslosigkeit in den neuen Ländern im Vergleich zu den Nachwendejahren deutlich gesunken, auch bei der Wirtschaftskraft holte der Osten auf. Wanderungssalden sind inzwischen ausgeglichen, Lebenserwartung und Lebenszufriedenheit liegen heute deutlich höher als noch vor drei Jahrzehnten. Auf der anderen Seite hinken die neuen Länder im Vergleich zu den alten in vielen Bereichen weiterhin hinterher, nicht nur bei der wirtschaftlichen Leistungsfähigkeit: Die Bevölkerung ist infolge von Abwanderung und sinkenden Geburtenraten nach der Wiedervereinigung älter als im Westen, der Anteil der Niedriglohnbeschäftigen und auch die Arbeitslosenquote höher.

Zusammenfassung:

Aktuelle Studie untersucht, wie gerecht Erwerbseinkommen in Deutschland im Vergleich zum europäischen Durchschnitt empfunden werden – Mehrheit in Deutschland und Europa bewertet niedrige Einkommen als ungerechterweise zu niedrig – Das eigene Bruttoeinkommen wird in Deutschland häufiger als gerecht bewertet als im europäischen Mittel – Befragte in Deutschland stimmen häufiger dem Leistungsprinzip zu als der europäische Schnitt

Die Einkommensungleichheit ist in vielen europäischen Ländern nach wie vor sehr groß und hat gerade in Deutschland in den letzten Jahren noch zugenommen. Doch Ungleichheit muss nicht per se ungerecht sein. Mit der Ende Oktober veröffentlichten 9. Welle des European Social Survey (ESS) liegen zum ersten Mal europaweite, repräsentative Daten vor, die es erlauben Gerechtigkeitseinstellungen und die Unterscheidung in gerechte und ungerechte Ungleichheiten in Europa umfassend und vergleichend zu beleuchten.

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Diverse police forces that reflect the populations they serve are better prepared to carry out mandates for the prevention, detection and investigation of crime, the protection of persons and property, and the maintenance of public order and safety. As an illustration of that, in United Nations peace operations, women police have been challenging traditional gender roles and embodying a new model for independence, equality, and economic success.

On November 5th, IPI, in partnership with the Government of Canada, Peace Is Loud, and the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions in the UN Department of Peace Operations, hosted a discussion on experiences of women UN police (UNPOL) officers and how they contribute to implementing the women, peace, and security agenda.

The event began with a clip from the 2015 film A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers, which follows three women UNPOL officers in an all-female police unit deployed from Bangladesh to Haiti as UN peacekeepers for one year.

Geeta Gandbhir, the film’s director, showcased the experience of being on patrol with women, and the civilian response to seeing female police in place of male officers. Where people would often “hide” in their camps from the male troops, women and children came outside and followed the women through the camp, sometimes reaching to hold their hands. The women had “immediate rapport” with the community, she said. “This showed us how critical it was to have women on the ground.”

And the experience also had a positive effect on the women officers, she said, adding that it was a “powerful moment” seeing the women “transform.” The women in this unit came from patriarchal and fairly traditional families and had never enjoyed the independence and freedom of movement they suddenly encountered. Ms. Gandbhir said that one of the Bangladeshi police women told her, “We women go from our father’s house to our husband’s house.” In addition, women had mostly been assigned to desk jobs, and there was no opportunity for them to get field experience. “Some had never been on a plane,” emphasized Ms. Gandbhir, so “for them to travel to Haiti on this mission, alone, was an incredible act of bravery.”

These women also earned new financial security, Ms. Gandbhir explained, making on mission three times what women made in Bangladesh. And because they were able to pay for their children’s education, many women were willing to do additional tours, to be able to support their extended families as well.

Once the women returned home, they became a symbol of hope and emulation. One woman’s five-year-old son “told us that he wanted to be a big shot police officer, like his mother,” said Ms. Gandbhir. “To hear that statement alone told me that what the women were doing was smashing patriarchy and bringing equity and equality in both places where they existed—at home and abroad.”

Currently, of the 9,353 police personnel serving in 23 UN peace operations, 1,420 are women police officers. Luis Carrilho, a UN Police Adviser in Haiti who was featured in the documentary, told the IPI audience that gender parity was a “top priority” for UNPOL, and spoke about the UN’s efforts to make the police recruitment process more accessible. “Our strategy has goals in a very measured way,” said Mr. Carrilho. Regardless of whether the police troops were men or women, he reported, “The priority is always for us to fulfill the mission on the ground.”

Mr. Carrilho enumerated four initiatives that aimed to increase women’s participation in UN policing. The first, he said, was putting in place female role models, and gave the example of the female police peacekeeper of the year award. The next was creating a female senior police leadership roster which countries could draw on to place women in key positions. Third, he said, was developing a senior female police commanders course to better prepare female police to hold positions at the highest level. Finally, he added, was increasing the number of women involved in the selection process for peacekeeping.

Paula Dionne, Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, emphasized how “it is not enough to simply increase the number of females deployed. Rather, it is crucial to place them in key positions where the true value of what they do in conflict-torn states and countries can be realized.”

Policing and gender considerations have significantly changed in the past few decades, Ms. Dionne continued, citing her 33 years of experience. When she started, Ms. Dionne said, she had to wear a different uniform from the men and was “expected to take on pink jobs, as opposed to the tougher jobs.” Women, she said, had to “break down the barrier to our right to be part of specialized teams which were usually filled by males.”

Ms. Dionne concluded that “we have certainly come a long way in recognizing the value female police officers bring to peace and security, but there is more that can be done.” Necessary, for example, were “including a feminine voice in recruitment posters, a ‘she’ alongside the ‘he,’” attitude, which would entail adding photos of female officers to the material, and including female presenters at training sessions, which, “while seemingly small, goes a long way in encouraging female participation.”

Nirupam Dev Nath, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN, said that the film “speaks volumes of the rewarding experiences” that, he said, “have long-term impact, not only in the host countries our women police officers serve in, but also globally, and back to their own country.”

Mr. Dev Nath pointed to the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, and how that was the first year that individual police officers from Bangladesh were sent to East Timor. Ten years later in 2010, the all-female police unit was sent to Haiti. Right now, he added, out of 700 police officers who are serving under the UN umbrella, almost 24 percent of them are women, which he hailed as a significant accomplishment.

The biggest challenges to deploying women peacekeepers, Mr. Dev Nath said, ranged from pre-deployment training down to including the family members in the decision making. In fact, he added, women’s participation in peacekeeping was felt deeply by the community; he called it an “inclusive journey” that bore “real fruit.”

Unaisi Vuniwaqa, Police Commissioner for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), spoke on challenges to recruiting women for peacekeeping police, from her own experience. Access to opportunity, Ms. Vuniwaqa said, is “very key.” Prior experience, she argued, “will greatly help them when they come into the mission to be able to deliver at the highest level, whether it’s police commissioner or deputy police commissioner.” Without such exposure, said Ms. Vuniwaqa, it would limit being able to come into the mission and getting the opportunity to serve at a higher level. Additionally, she said, what was needed was more confidence in leaders who recruit and deploy police women, so that women are able to take on equal responsibility before they embark on the mission.

Ms. Vuniwaqa shared her personal experience of persisting in finding a place. “I had to try about three or four times to be able to get into the professional position in the police division,” she said. “I continued to look at myself in every attempt that I made and how best I could be able to package my CV and my experiences.”

Ms. Vuniwaqa attributed her ultimate success to a course benefiting female officers for UNPOL. This course, she said, helped her to prepare for further interviews that she was able to get through. As a result, she tried to replicate this course for recruitment in the South Sudan mission, “to assist our female officers to prepare the forms that they’re supposed to submit to a police division before they can then be listed for the interview.”

One of the telling stories from women police in her mission, concluded Ms. Vuniwaqa, was how they recently appointed two female officers for the position of POC coordinators. They are in charge of this protection of a civilian site in South Sudan that has about 30,000+ IDPs. “And since we put in these two female officers, they have been doing a great job,” she said. And “of course,” she added, “they can do just as well as their male counterparts.”

Trump foretrækker ’New Europe’

Trump foretrækker ’New Europe’

Dr. Annika Schnücker, who graduated in 2018, is receiving this year's Ernst-Reuter-Preis for Outstanding Young Scientists at Freie Universität, Berlin.

She is being honored for her dissertation "Model Selection Methods for Panel Vector Autoregressive Models," which is selected as one of the 5 most outstanding dissertations of 2018 at Freie Universität, Berlin.

Georg Weizsäcker, Dean of the Graduate Center, and Helmut Lütklepohl, first supervisor of the dissertation, congratulate her earning this distinguished award.

Das Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts über Leistungskürzungen bei BezieherInnen von Arbeitslosengeld II kommentiert Jürgen Schupp, Vize-Direktor des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels am Deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin), wie folgt:

Das heutige Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts (BVerfG) zur Rechtmäßigkeit von Sanktionen ist durchaus wegweisend. Ab morgen besteht für viele betroffene Langzeitarbeitslose Rechtssicherheit darüber, dass ihnen einerseits Mitwirkungspflichten zur Überwindung der eigenen Bedürftigkeit auferlegt werden dürfen, andererseits aber im Falle der Verletzung dieser Verpflichtungen die Leistungen um maximal 30 Prozent gekürzt werden können. Das Urteil stärkt die Rechte der Leistungsberechtigten zudem dadurch, dass das Jobcenter künftig vor finanziellen Sanktionierungen stets die Verhältnismäßigkeit dieser Maßnahme überprüfen muss. Das BVerfG hat heute aber auch festgestellt, dass die Wirksamkeit dieser Leistungsminderung bisher nicht hinreichend erforscht sei. Neben der Sanktionsbeschränkung und -prüfung stärken diese offenkundigen Zweifel an einer vermeintlichen „Alternativlosigkeit“ zu Sanktionen die Grundrechte betroffener Langzeitarbeitslose. Mit welchen Methoden man eine solche Wirksamkeit von sozialpolitischen Maßnahmen wissenschaftlich erforschen kann, haben die diesjährig ausgezeichneten Wirtschaftsnobelpreisträger eindrucksvoll unter Beweis gestellt. Anhand wissenschaftlich begleiteter Feldexperimente mit einer von Maßnahmen betroffenen Gruppe sowie einer Kontrollgruppe könnte man innerhalb weniger Jahre die Wirksamkeit von Sanktionierungen, aber genauso auch die Wirksamkeit von vollkommener Sanktionsfreiheit – oder bedingungsloser Gewährung von Geldleistungen – empirisch ermitteln. Das Gericht stellt in seiner Begründung fest, dass je länger eine gesetzliche Regelung in Kraft ist, der Gesetzgeber umso stärker in der Pflicht ist, die Wirkung und Angemessenheit konkret zu belegen. Deshalb Mut zu Experimenten!

Panel 1 Video: 
Panel 2 Video: 
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United Nations peace operations often operate in complex theaters where a wide array of actors are also deployed by specific member states or regional organizations to effectively address peace and security challenges, and on November 4th, IPI and the French Ministry of Armed Forces held a policy forum to explore peacekeeping partnerships.

The event featured two panel discussions and launched two IPI publications, Partners and Competitors: Forces Operating in Parallel to UN Peace Operations by IPI Senior Fellow Alexandra Novosseloff and Lisa Sharland, Head of the International Program  of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), and Lessons for “Partnership Peacekeeping” from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) by Paul D. Williams, Professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Jake Sherman, Director of IPI’s Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, opened the morning-long discussion by noting that six UN operations are now fielded in partnerships with regional, subregional, and other non-UN forces, and he suggested this pattern presaged upcoming deployments. “Regional and subregional bodies are increasingly authorized by the UN Security Council to take on roles for which the UN peacekeeping forces are ill-suited,” he said. “Parallel forces will be an essential aspect of planning and deploying all UN peacekeeping in the future.”

Laure Bansept of France’s Ministry of the Armies said there had been around 40 such coalition deployments since the end of the Cold War and that they were “helpful in situations where the UN lacks the capacity or skills to work in certain sensitive contexts” and allowed the UN to “focus on its mandates.” Referencing France’s support for African-led peace operations, she said these partnerships proved essential “when humanitarian situations rapidly deteriorate and threaten the stability of a region, and no other organization can address it as immediately.”

IPI Research Fellow Namie Di Razza said that regional organizations “offer what UN peace operations don’t have—they have different entry points and different resources and capacities.” Citing her experience researching the case of Mali, she warned, however, that while all actors pursue the same objective in different ways, they also risk “confusion, conflation with peacekeeping operations, and duplication.” She suggested there should be “a clear division between forces.”

Ms. Sharland listed three “rationales” for deploying parallel forces:

• Where there is a humanitarian imperative, and immediate action is necessary, they can respond more rapidly and robustly than a UN force.
• Since parallel forces can be more advanced militarily, they can overcome reservations about the capability of UN peace operations.
• They can serve national interests and intervene to protect their own nationals.

She also listed four “classifications” of parallel forces:  military stabilization, crisis response, insurance or deterrence, and capacity building, and three different types of actors: bilateral, multinational, and regional organizations.  “No two parallel forces are the same,” she said, “so while we can draw some broad lessons, we must be conscious of each unique context.”

Her co-author, Dr. Novosseloff, addressed some of the challenges these parallel force partnerships pose. “UN and parallel forces may have different motivations and goals, and this impacts the way they work on the ground and also their effectiveness,” she said. “The lack of mutual understanding and communication at the strategic level can be more damaging than we think. The divisions of labor that should be at the heart of the deployments are not clear enough.”

She said that central to these concerns was “the impartiality of UN peace operations and how partners can work with non-UN forces that may have different objectives. It impacts the perception of local populations so the impartiality of the UN will be at stake.” Such a lack of distinction, she said, could be exploited by “those seeking to undermine the peace or the process by going after the UN.” And potential mission overlap raised the danger of UN forces being “dragged into situations for which they are not equipped.” Airing these objections, Dr. Novosseloff said, should not be seen as minimizing the positive elements of parallel deployments, “such as additional niche capacities, military robustness, and political support. But the various stakeholders have to make stronger efforts to make them less of competitors and more genuine partners.”

The report makes a series of specific recommendations, but in general, Dr. Nosovoleff concluded, it represented a “plea for a stronger cooperation between all stakeholders involved in crisis management because all the money spent comes from the same pockets, and there needs to be a greater accountability.”

Col. Richard Decombe, Defense Mission of the Permanent Mission of France to the UN, said that while there remained room for improvement in how parallel forces operate, “it’s already an achievement.” Detailing the work of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), he explained how a coordinating forum involving five different partners (MINUSMA, Barkhane, G5 Sahel Joint Force, Malian Armed Forces, and EU training mission) met every two months. “What is in place is quite good, in terms of coordination and communication so the partners are at least informed on what the others are doing,” he said. What they can do better, he said, was having a stronger focus on building up the capacity of local security forces.

Naomi Miyashita, Senior Political Affairs Officer, UN Department of Peace Operations, said that parallel forces were of great value to the UN, which typically confronts situations with a dense web of competing regional and international interests and no clear path to a comprehensive political solution. “Parallel operations shape the space that others have for alternative approaches,” she said.

Self-criticism was essential, she added. “We must be constantly asking ourselves what the progression of the conflict has been and be constantly critically evaluating whether our interventions are having the desired effect and whether stability in itself is a good enough long term objective. We need to be clear about where we add value and where we have strength and comparative advantage. For the UN, it’s its political role, support for political processes and ability to protect civilians.”

The second panel of the morning provided an opportunity to discuss Paul D. William’s IPI report on Lessons for “Partnership Peacekeeping” from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The report describes AMISOM as the AU’s “longest, largest, most expensive and deadliest” peace operation and says that for the UN it is “the most profound experiment not only with providing logistical support in a war zone, but also with partnering on the political front.” Dr. Williams described AMISOM as “probably the most complicated model for any modern peace operation we’ve ever seen,” a model, he said, that “evolved in response to a series of crises and in an ad hoc manner.” As a consequence, he said, the AMISOM model is “not one that screams out for replication, but there are a lot positive things we can draw from it.”

Since AMISOM reflected “the primacy of politics”, the fraught state of politics in Somalia, a country with no state authority for decades, has prevented the mission from becoming effective, he said. “AMISOM has been unable to deliver a peace dividend because the Somali government did not come in behind it and support it.”

In Dr. Williams’ account, AMISOM was less nimble than its principle adversary, the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, and the conflict became “cat and mouse”, with the government regularly “displacing” al-Shabab but “not destroying its capabilities.” The result was starkly counter-productive, he said. “Extending state authority and consolidating it in a place where the central government is not universally accepted as legitimate is not peacebuilding, it’s actually conflict-provoking.”

AMISOM has also failed to stabilize the polarized society, attract local support, shape an exit strategy, or design what kind of government structure it should leave behind, he said. “At a fundamental level, there are real limits to what a peace operation can achieve when the local actors do not want to see the issue reconciled and resolved. Until the parties in Somalia reconcile, AMISOM will be stuck holding the line and not generating the means for its successful exit.”

Rick Martin, Director of the Division for Special Activities in the UN Department of Operational Support, acknowledged that the situation in which AMISOM is working is “very complex.” But he said there were lessons to be learned, principally that “a partnership of the sort we have in Somalia needs to start at the strategic level—it has to be built on planning, as a contingency for further cooperation, and focus on building capacities between the two organizations. ”He agreed with Dr. Williams that the AMISOM model should not be replicated but conceded that “something similar is likely to evolve again in the future.”

Alhaji Sarjoh Bah, Chief Advisor on Peace, Security, and Governance, AU Permanent Mission to the UN, said that the UN mission in Somalia compared favorably to the UN mission in Afghanistan. It illustrated, he said, the particular challenges that Africa presented. “The AU talks about peace operations, not peacekeeping. Peacekeeping is driven by consent, impartiality, but our peace operations range from peacekeeping to open warfare and counter insurgency. When we went into Somalia, there was a clearly identifiable enemy, so in the views of al-Shabab, we were ‘legitimate targets.’ We haven’t been deterred by the absence of peace to keep. We have gone in, created peace, and then maintained the peace, as in Somalia and Liberia.”

Among the lessons he said were learned from the mission in Somalia were that from the outset, there has to be a “political strategy” and “planning” for a subsequent “multi-dimensional phase,” and neighboring states must be “involved and committed.”

Chloé Marnay-Baszanger, Chief of the Peace Mission Section of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), said that “we are witnessing a reconfiguration of how the international community responds to conflict, and Somalia has been a good example of how to think through our processes. If the UN is not the primary vehicle for leading international intervention, then how can we make sure that human rights are still a priority in crisis response?”

She said that Somalia presented a distinct problem because there was no Protection of Civilians (POC) mandate to AMISOM. In its absence, she said, “what we managed to do through the human rights due diligence policy, we managed to strike a conversation about how we reduce the likeliness of violence against civilians in the context of complex violence.” She said that the most important lesson that the Somalia and the G5 Sahel experiences taught was “going forward, we put mechanisms in place so that from the beginning, we don’t have to course-correct.”

Dr. Di Razza moderated the first discussion on parallel forces, and Mr. Sherman the second on lessons from AMISOM.

Bonn, 04.11.2019. Mit der Agenda 2030 für nachhaltige Entwicklung wurde „Entwicklung“ zu einer globalen Angelegenheit. Wenn es um klima- und sozialgerechte Lebensweisen geht, sind auch die Länder des Nordens Entwicklungsländer. Dieser neue Blick auf globale nachhaltige Entwicklung erfordert neue Herangehensweisen. Immer wieder wird gefordert, Denksilos zu verlassen, um so den komplexen Herausforderungen der Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung (SDGs) gerecht zu werden. Als Mittel der Wahl für lösungsorientierte Wissenschaft gilt die transdisziplinäre und transnationale Kooperation auf Augenhöhe. Partner aus dem globalen Norden und Süden, aus Politik, Wirtschaft, Zivilgesellschaft und Wissenschaft sollen gemeinsam an wissensbasierten Lösungen arbeiten. Zwischen der Vision einer partnerschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit und deren konkreten Umsetzung klafft jedoch eine Lücke. Bestehende Kooperationen sind oft durch Ungleichheiten und Machtgefälle geprägt, zum Beispiel, wenn Forschende aus dem Norden die Forschungsfrage für ein Nachhaltigkeitsproblem des globalen Südens definieren, Daten interpretieren und den vermeintlich richtigen Lösungsansatz vorgeben, während Partner aus dem Süden bloße Datenlieferanten sind. Warum ist dies auch 2019 immer noch so? Zusammenarbeit ist anstrengend! Es ist herausfordernd, das Wissen aller beteiligten Akteure gleichermaßen wertzuschätzen. Alte Wissenshierarchien und traditionelle Rollenverteilungen müssen neu definiert werden, denn nur so kann der globale Norden auch vom globalen Süden lernen. Für Partner aus dem globalen Norden bedeutet das, alte Denkmuster und Privilegien zugunsten einer gleichberechtigten Partnerschaft aufzugeben – auch wenn die Finanzierung noch oft aus dem globalen Norden stammt. Und dennoch: Zusammenarbeit ist der Mühe wert, nicht nur weil SDG 17 die sektoren- und grenzübergreifende Kooperation als Instrument zur Lösung globaler Herausforderungen hervorhebt. Die Wertschätzung unterschiedlicher Wissensformen, ob aus globalem Süden oder Norden, ob aus dem gesellschaftlichen Alltag, der politischen Praxis oder der Wissenschaft, ist auch eine Frage des gegenseitigen Respekts. Zusammenarbeit erfordert deshalb, sich mit verschiedenen Sichtweisen auseinanderzusetzen, um jenseits aller Differenzen das verbindende menschliche Element zu finden. Indem wir gemeinsame grenzüberschreitende Werte formulieren und verhandeln, können wir auch gegenwärtigen Trends wie Nationalismus, Polarisierung und wachsender gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheit entgegentreten. Eine Grundvoraussetzung der grenzüberschreitenden Kooperation ist ein gemeinsamer Wertehorizont. Diesen scheint es auch zu geben. Der kanadische Philosoph Charles Taylor argumentiert, dass das Moralische jedem Menschen inne ist. Und in der Tat teilen Menschen in verschiedenen Weltregionen die Vision eines guten Lebens für alle. Aus Lateinamerika stammt das Konzept des „buen vivir“, das auf Lebensphilosophien indigener Völker basiert. Das südasiatische Königreich Bhutan setzt mit dem Bruttonationalglück dem Bruttonationaleinkommen einen ganzheitlichen Bezugsrahmen entgegen. Die UN-Menschenrechtscharta von 1948 oder die Agenda 21 von 1992 sind Ausdruck global geteilter grundlegender Werte. In Zeiten des Klimawandels und des Raubbaus an den natürlichen Ressourcen bedeutet dies auch, innerhalb der planetaren Grenzen zu leben. Für die Forschung, Ausbildung und Politikberatung des Deutschen Instituts für Entwicklungspolitik ist deshalb das „globale Gemeinwohl“ ein Leitbild. Was können wir tun, um faire Kooperation Wirklichkeit werden zu lassen? Auf der individuellen Ebene heißt es, an sich selbst zu arbeiten und Vorurteile gegenüber anderen Wissensformen und Denkmustern abzubauen. In der Zusammenarbeit bedarf es einer gegenseitigen Offenheit: Wissen sollte auch vom globalen Süden in den Norden fließen. Im Managing Global Governance (MGG) Netzwerk fördern wir dies und diskutieren zum Beispiel über die Chancen und Risiken der Digitalisierung für nachhaltige Entwicklung – sowohl in Deutschland als auch in den Partnerländern. In unseren Wissensnetzwerken müssen wir uns immer wieder auf gemeinsame Werte und Problemdefinitionen besinnen. Auch wenn es trivial klingt: Gemeinsame Antworten und Lösungsansätze findet man nur, wenn man auch eine gemeinsame Frage stellt und ein Wir-Gefühl herrscht. Im MGG-Netzwerk arbeiten wir daher nicht nur zu konkreten Problemen, sondern auch an einer gemeinsamen Netzwerkidentität, um unsere gemeinsame Basis zu festigen. Auf struktureller Ebene ist es wichtig, Plattformen, Projekte und Netzwerke über Legislaturperioden von Regierungen hinaus zu finanzieren, um so nachhaltigen Austausch und intensive Wissenszusammenarbeit zu ermöglichen. Es gibt noch zu wenig Forschung zu den Auswirkungen von Netzwerken mit Transformationsanspruch: Wie gestalten wir die Kooperation so, dass sie sich positiv auf nachhaltige Entwicklungspfade auswirkt? Wie tragen an Netzwerken beteiligte Individuen zu weiterem institutionellem Wandel bei? Wir brauchen aber auch mehr Forschung zur Praxis der Zusammenarbeit: Wie gelingt respektvolle Wissenskooperation ganz konkret? Welche Methoden helfen uns, nachhaltiges Wissen auszutauschen und zu kultivieren? Dieses Handlungswissen müssen wir auch anderen Akteuren zugänglich machen, um die Skepsis an Zusammenarbeit zu nehmen. Denn Kooperation lohnt sich. Eine Kolumne anlässlich des DIE-Panels zu transnationaler Wissenskooperation im Rahmen der 19th Global Development Conference.