Linking German and European policy capacities
Humanitarian needs have increased by a factor of almost 20 since 2000. The humanitarian system is increasingly overstretched by challenges such as protracted large-scale conflicts, the protection of humanitarian spaces and international humanitarian law as well as the impact of climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. In parallel, a comprehensive reform debate was initiated with the World Humanitarian Summit 2016 and the Grand Bargain workstreams.
However, European public actors, and in particular actors seeking to address the above-mentioned challenges, struggle to reform and innovate humanitarian action, to influence relevant debates and to engage in international agenda-setting due to limited institutional capacities. This also holds true for the German government, although its financial commitment has increased by about 2000% since 2010 alone, making Germany the world’s second largest humanitarian donor. German and most European civilian actors also face substantial limitations in their policy capacities and European humanitarian think tanks cooperate only to a limited extent.
Identifying complementarities and leveraging synergies between these actors is an approach to jointly overcome these limitations and challenges. The project pursues this approach by creating space for dialogue and a network beyond silos, so that German and selected European actors can define common priorities and strategies to further develop humanitarian assistance and protect the humanitarian space.
Contact: Sonja Hövelmann & Ralf Südhoff
Linking German and European Policy Capacities is part of the project “Strengthening Programme and Policy Relevant Capacities of Humanitarian Actors in Germany” (SPreAD), funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
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