Svenja Schulze is surrounded by willing. They wander to the 300 doctors, most of them from Syria. They want to help with the reconstruction of the Syrian health system. Everyone lives and work in Germany, everyone now wants to tackle. In exceptional cases, nobody asks the question of the meaning.
Wednesday morning, the development minister of the SPD asked in the Humboldt Carré in Berlin. After almost 14 years of civil war in Syria, a German-Syrian clinic partnership is now to help to get hospitals and medical practices back on track, through further training, medical apparatus, a stable power supply. In Germany alone, 6,000 doctors live with a Syrian passport. You don't want to do without them here, says Schulze – but nobody can help better with medical reconstruction than you. Here she meets “hope, confidence and commitment,” says the minister at the start of the conference. “That is good at times when so much commitment is destroyed.”
“The best instrument to work on peace, democracy and human security in the world.”
Probably true. The blow was only a week ago that US President Donald Trump has transferred to international development cooperation. If he pulls the clear cut with the US Aid Authority USAID, 40 percent of global development aid is eliminated. For millions of people, this can mean death, for many other bitter poverty, aid organizations warn. Trump have not been able to impress such warnings so far.
But also in Germany there were better times for development cooperation. “Unfortunately, she does not play a role in the election campaign, with all the global questions that all people concern,” says Åsa Månsson, managing director of Venro, the umbrella organization of development organizations. “And it is the best instrument that Germany has to work on peace, democracy and human security in the world.” Instead, the AfD considers German development policy to be “failed” and wants to collect the funds. The FDP is flirting with the merging of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development, the alliance Sahra Wagenknecht saves the topic almost completely. The topic is not far ahead in any program anyway. Development policy is difficult on the defensive, and Donald Trump still gives her critics food.
This is still largely passing the Europeans – although right -wing populists rule in some European capitals. On Tuesday, the EU's development minister came together in Warsaw, and it was also about the USA. However, nobody questioned your own commitment, it said after the meeting. At most, there were warnings not to go to court too hard with Washington. The EU countries are aware that the retreat of the United States is tearing a gap “in which China and Russia could now also come into being,” says German Secretary of State Jochen Flasbarth. “It is all the more important that the team Europe cooperates even more closely and also increasingly works politically.” The development in Syria in particular shows “what opportunities global commitment to peace and security offers”.
“Conflicts break out much more often when people have no perspective.”
Development experts also indicate this. In keeping with the Munich Security Conference, the organization One, which is devoted to combating extreme poverty, draws attention to a study by the International Monetary Fund, which came out shortly before Christmas, but without much echo. Accordingly, a dollar that is invested in the prevention of conflicts could save up to $ 103 in fragile states in so -called conflict costs – be it losses in human life or destruction of all kinds.
The monetary fund takes these investments far, they go beyond classic development aid and, for example, also affect strengthening state institutions and economic growth in which many participate. But from the point of view of one-head Stephan Exo-Kreifer there is also an appeal not to let up in help. “Conflicts break out much more often when people have no perspective,” he says. Anyone who takes security policy seriously that “investments in development are not alms, but an expression of common sense”.
Common sense now also enables clinic partnerships with Syria. At the end of January, when the Bundestag dismantled migration policy, there was still a majority for the project in the budget committee. With 15 million euros, this aid is well financed.
