Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace · 10 11 Introduction The Federal Government...

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Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace Report on the Implementation of the Federal Government Guidelines

Transcript of Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace · 10 11 Introduction The Federal Government...

Page 1: Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace · 10 11 Introduction The Federal Government adopted the Guidelines on Prevent-ing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace

Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building PeaceReport on the Implementation of the Federal Government Guidelines

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Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building PeaceReport on the Implementation of the Federal Government Guidelines

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Foreword 6

Introduction 10

Policy priorities              An epoch-making pandemic 16

              Spanning the gap between early warning and crisis prevention 120

              The European dimension of crisis engagement 162

              Climate and security 184

50 voluntary commitments Vision statement of the Federal Government 01.        The German Government’s guiding principles for peacebuilding 14

Goals, approaches and instruments of peacebuilding02.        Mediation 26

03.        Democracy building and peace infrastructures 30

04.        Governance, fragility and conflict; the 2030 Agenda 36

05.        Sanctions 40

06.        Security sector reform 42

07.        UN reform, UN missions 45

08.        African Peace and Security Architecture 47

09.        Arms control, disarmament, mine clearance 52

10.        Small arms control 56

11.        Support of international missions 58

12.|13. Promotion of the rule of law 64

14.        Human rights, transitional justice 70

15.        Rule-of-law components of international missions 73

16.        International criminal jurisdiction 76

17         Promoting the rule of law and Resolution 1325 78

18.        Business and employment promotion in fragile states 81

19.        Concrete measures for business and employment promotion 86

20.        Administrative reforms, decentralisation 102

21.        The fight against corruption 107

22.        Strengthening tax administrations 110

Structures and partnerships for peacebuilding

23.        Early warning 116

24.        Strategic foresight 118

25.        Joint situation assessments 126

26.        Interministerial coordination 128

27.        Operation manual 132

28.        Mutual consultation 134

29.        Special Representatives, Special Envoys 137

30.        Missions abroad and task forces 140

31.        Specialists working abroad 142

32.        Capacities of local partners, remote control 147

33.        Action Plan for the Implementation of Resolution 1325 151

34.        The 2030 Agenda, Joint Programming 156

35.        Common Security and Defence Policy 160

36.        UN peacekeeping 168

37.        World Prevention Forum 170

38.        Capabilities and enabling regional partners 172

39.        Regional organisations 176

40.        Donor coordination, global causes of conflict 180

41.        Non-governmental actors, FriEnt 190

42.        Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding 192

43.        Knowledge base, learning processes, research 194

44.        Civil society organisations, business 200

45.        Monitoring, evaluation 204

46.        Joint basic and further training 209

47.        Learning platform 213

48.        Application of the Guidelines 215

50.        Exchange with the German Bundestag, communication 216

Appendix              Index of abbreviations 220

              Picture credits, links 224

              Imprint 225

Table of contents

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Voluntary commitment 49: The Federal Govern-ment will submit a report on the implementation of the Guidelines after four years and will review the Guidelines as its strategic basis for peacebuild-ing after eight years, readjusting them as needed.

Afghanistan, Mali, Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen: unfortunately, this is not an exhaustive list. Resolving conflicts is a challenging task, since the world’s crises are complex and protracted. That is why we need a compass to guide our engagement in the field of peace and stability. The Federal Government worked together with civil society and academia and with international partners to develop a compass of this kind in the form of the Policy Guidelines Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace.

In keeping with our voluntary commitment, this report contains the interim assessment that we have carried out after four years.

What we have achieved

Working at interministerial level, we have aligned even more closely the instruments and capabilities available to the Federal Government in the field of crisis engagement. We are in a better position to identify escalating conflicts and emergencies at an early stage, and we are more often able to intervene with preventive action. We carry out joint assessments of global developments and can better coordinate activities in crisis situations and conflicts.

In PeaceLab debates, we jointly explored all aspects of future crisis pre-vention – on the basis of a broad exchange of views between politics and society, theory and practice, government and opposition. Individuals active in the field of security and peace policy shared their thoughts and valuable experiences. These debates brought forth critical ideas for decisive action in crises and conflicts, and the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding played a larger role than ever before.

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What remains to be done

COVID-19 has made clear to us the repercussions that pandemics have for stability, political conflicts and violent confrontations. Working together with civil society, academia and local partners, we will investigate the interdependencies between fragility, conflict and health crises, and develop tools for future scenarios.

We must continue to promote the concept of “early warning, early action”. We can achieve a better understanding of conflicts, act earlier and prevent crises only if we have sophisticated sensors at our disposal. This applies equally to political crises, to pandemics and to the consequences of the climate crisis.

The new priorities we wish to set

The world is continuing to evolve. New topics and challenges have come to the fore since the Guidelines were adopted. We will therefore continue to readjust our compass.

Our priorities for the coming years are therefore as follows:

1 strengthening the role played by the EU as an increasingly impor-tant player in resolving crises around the world;

1 supporting efforts towards the challenging goal of bridging the gap between early warning and crisis prevention;

1 remaining mindful of interdependencies between the climate crisis and peace and security issues; and

1 reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic and how future health crises should be handled.

By means of the Guidelines and the implementation report, we are reaf-firming our present and future commitment to taking action earlier, more resolutely and more substantially with a view to preventing the escalation of conflicts and ending armed clashes. This reflects not only our particular interests, but also our international responsibilities.

Heiko Maas, Member of the German Bundestag,

Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs

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Introduction

The Federal Government adopted the Guidelines on Prevent-ing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace on 14 June  2017. In Chapter 2 (The vision statement of the Federal Government of Germany), Chapter 3 (Goals, approaches and instruments of peacebuilding) and Chapter 4 (Structures and partner-ships for peacebuilding) of these Guidelines, the Federal Government defines 50 voluntary commitments that will underpin its engagement over the period up to 2025.

This report explains the measures taken by the Federal Govern-ment during the first four years with a view to implementing these voluntary commitments. The 50 voluntary commitments are each examined separately on the basis of specific illustrative examples.

Voluntary commitment

01–50

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Voluntary commitment 01

Vision statement of the Federal Government

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policy instruments such as peacekeeping operations to be linked with peace building efforts. Germany therefore acted as an intermediary between the United Nations Security Council and the Peacebuilding Commission. This is particularly relevant with regard to transitional contexts such as Sudan, where there is a prospect of armed peacekeeping operations with a robust mandate making way for civilian international engagement in the future.

The international order is coming under increasing pressure. For this reason, Germany – working together with the EU and other partners – has embarked on initiatives to strengthen this order. The Alliance for Multilat-eralism, launched with countries including Canada, Chile, France, Ghana, Mexico and Singapore, deserves particular mention. It is aimed at enabling countries to come together in flexible formats in order to lend a voice and a forum to discuss specific aspects of multilateral cooperation. In 2021, the Federal Government will also publish a White Paper on Multilateralism outlining Germany’s role, areas of activity and priorities with regard to strengthening the international order.

Finally, Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU was used by the Federal Government as an opportunity to initiate the development of political guidelines on crisis prevention, conflict resolution and peace-building. The aim of these guidelines is to allow the EU to position itself even more effectively as an advocate of an integrated approach to peace, security and development policy. This and active cooperation in the fur-ther development of the EU’s instruments in this area (which include the European Peace Facility (EPF) and the new external financing instrument) serve as ample evidence that the Federal Government – in line with the vision statement – has made the EU a more central point of reference for Germany’s crisis engagement than was the case in the past. Furthermore, the purpose of the Strategic Compass (a foundational document of security policy that is currently at the development stage) is to ensure that the EU can be significantly strengthened as an actor in international crisis manage-ment. Crisis management is also one of NATO’s three core tasks according to its 2010 Strategic Concept.

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The Federal Government has based its practical engagement in fragile contexts and in multilateral settings on the vision statement set out in the Guidelines in relation to peace, security and development policy.

In the context of armed conflicts, the most immediate priority is often to end the physical violence. Nevertheless, in situations where this is possible and in keeping with an integrated and regionally differentiated approach, the Federal Government endeavours to promote the essential building blocks of a positive peace: political and social participation, sustainable development and the rule of law, with the protection and safe-guarding of human rights. It provides targeted support for full and equal participation by women in peace processes and protection against sexual violence in conflicts, and thus plays its part in achieving the objectives of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

As a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in 2019 and 2020, the Federal Government lobbied for traditional security

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The vision statement lays down the guid-ing principles for the Federal Government to shape its actions and instruments as well as appropriate structures and part-nerships for peacebuilding.

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POliCy PriOriTy:

An epoch-making pandemic: How coronavirus is influencing the Federal Government’s crisis engagement

The Guidelines that were published back in 2017 were prescient in noting – with reference to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014/2015 – that health risks can have a destabilising effect on entire regions and undo years of development achievements. Against this background, the Federal Government advocates on the international stage for improved management and prevention of health crises. The COVID-19 pandemic provides fresh evidence each and every day of the significance of these activities. It magnifies existing global problems, exacerbates existing crises (along economic, social and political fault lines, for example) and posing existential challenges, in particular to fragile states. Another finding that emerged from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014/2015 was that the number of people who died as a result of its socioeconomic ramifications, for example loss of work and income and the disappearance of basic social services, exceeded the number of people who died from the virus itself. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government has therefore significantly boosted its efforts to fight global health crises and their socioeconomic impacts; on 7 October 2020, it also adopted a Global Health Strategy.

In June 2020, the Federal Government published a policy paper entitled An effective international response by Germany to COViD-19, in which it set out a comprehensive and coordinated response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. Like the United Nations’ pandemic response, the policy paper focuses on action at three levels:

1 immediate pandemic management measures, 1 the humanitarian consequences and 1 the far-reaching socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Member of staff of the liberian red Cross at work in Monrovia. The worst Ebola epidemic ever has claimed many lives, particularly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

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The Federal Government has agreed on a related package of measures. In 2020, a decision was taken to mobilise aid totalling over €2.5 billion at short notice under the budget of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through its Emergency COViD-19 Support Programme; this was achieved firstly by rerouting budgetary funds, and secondly by means of additional funding granted by the German Bundestag in the second supplementary budget in 2020. In the 2021 budget, additional funding worth €1.55 billion was again made available to the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development for crisis management measures in the following areas:

1 the health sector and measures to tackle the pandemic;

1 nutrition, guaranteeing basic services, preventing catastrophic famines and maintaining food production;

1 contributing to the stabilisation of refugee and crisis regions;

1 social security and the safeguarding of jobs in global supply chains;

1 protecting companies in key sectors;

1 providing immediate aid for the direct funding of national pro-grammes in German development cooperation partner countries; and

1 strengthening international cooperation.

Many countries are still at a critical stage of pandemic management, even as vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 have already started in others. This is compounded by the risk that virus mutations might escalate the pandemic. The Federal Government will therefore continue to support a number of countries for many years to come.

In the first place, the Federal Government has advocated, since the start of the pandemic, for globally equitable access to COViD-19 vaccines.

To this end, it supports the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), a WHO-coordinated multilateral initiative, inter alia as part of the Team Europe approach. ACT-A is intended to safeguard the global supply of vaccines, therapies and diagnostics. COVAX, the ACT-A vaccine pillar, commenced distribution of vaccines in late February 2021 with the under-lying aim of making approximately two billion doses available by the end of the year. Under the COVAX programme, 5% of vaccine doses are to be reserved for developing countries with a view to supplying them to certain humanitarian target groups (i.e. high-risk individuals who are dependent on international humanitarian assistance) that are not integrated into national vaccination programmes (humanitarian buffer).

In addition, the Federal Government continues to have a keen interest in responding to the many requests for assistance in the form of medical equipment submitted to Germany since the start of the pandemic; it does so via rapid and unbureaucratic assistance, particularly in cooperation with the WHO and at EU level. Further, the Federal Government set up an Interministerial Working Group in August 2020 with a view to improving its response to requests for assistance.

Germany approved a new commitment of €1.5 billion for the multilateral ACT-A platform in 2021, thereby lending substantial financial backing to its advocacy for a multilateral response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Federal Government will also make a key contribution to improving pandemic preparedness and strengthening health systems by supporting the WHO and playing an active role in the debates on its reform, inter alia with reference to the international Health regulations. It is becoming increasingly clear in this connection that Germany’s engagement in the WHO must go hand in hand with stronger foreign, economic and devel-opment policy measures, for example joint initiatives and lobbying other member states for more generous financial support.

Beyond WHO-related processes, health policy will continue to be a factor in foreign, security and development policy owing to its underlining interdependences, underlining the interconnectedness of the 2030 Agenda

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goals. For example, the pandemic has made the One Health approach more of a focus in interministerial work on preventing and managing health crises.

One Health is a holistic approach with a preventive focus that acknowl-edges the complex interrelationships and interfaces between human, animal and environmental health. It concentrates on health protection, the preservation of biodiversity and natural resources and sustainable economic activity. On the international stage, the Federal Government is working together with France to strengthen the One Health cooperation of the Tripartite Plus organisations (WHO, FAO, OIE, UNEP). The Federal Government also attaches importance to implementation of the SDG 3 Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All, which is targeted at better coordination of the twelve international agencies that play significant roles in health, development and humanitarian responses.

More than a health crisis: ramifications of the pan-demic for the economy, society, peace and security

The COVID-19 pandemic shows just what far-reaching impacts cross-border health risks can have on economic and social systems around the world. Knock-on effects of the pandemic include a downward growth trajectory, rising levels of unemployment and poverty, and an exacerbation of food crises. Certain groups – in particular vulnerable individuals and households who are affected by multiple adverse events such as droughts and floods, locust infestations, displacement and forced migration, and/or armed conflicts – are finding it even more of a challenge to earn sufficient income to cover their living costs. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have issued warnings about rising social tensions, especially in the poorest and most fragile countries. Above all in fragile contexts, social cohesion is coming under particularly severe strain. The result of this may be the flaring up of new conflicts or the fuelling of existing ones (e.g. political protests, tensions between host communities and refugee camps). This deterioration in framework conditions caused by the pandemic is yet another factor motivating the

Federal Government to continue its involvement in international peace missions.

Gender disparities are widening, and sexualised and gender-based violence is on the rise. The future prospects for the younger generations (in particular girls) are diminishing. At the peak of the pandemic’s first wave, 90% of school pupils around the world were affected by school closures, and more than one third of schoolchildren had no access to alternative learning opportunities.

As part of its COVID-19 crisis response, the Federal Government therefore stepped up its efforts to mitigate the socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic, particularly in crisis-affected contexts, inter alia through programmes aimed at expanding the social security net and strengthening the resilience of individuals and structures. For example, transitional devel-opment assistance (a crisis management tool deployed by the Federal Minis-try for Economic Cooperation and Development) delivers multisectoral responses to the pandemic by reacting rapidly to its immediate effects while, at the same time, building sustainable structures, for example by expanding and strengthening social security systems or basic services.

Protecting and strengthening international humanitarian law and guaran-teeing humanitarian access, inter alia in the context of the COViD-19 pandemic, were key focal points of Germany’s membership of the UN Security Council. For example, it was under Germany’s Presidency that the UN Security Council backed the UN Secretary-General’s appeal for a global ceasefire by adopting Resolution 2532 (2020) on 1 July 2020. Furthermore, during a debate held on 2 July 2020 on Germany’s initiative, the UN Security Council examined, for the first time, the impacts of pandemics on crises as well as other security-related aspects of health problems, including, in particular, the humanitarian and socioeconomic implications. This debate underlined the importance of crisis prevention, not least in view of the ramifications of the pandemic.

Support for programmes aimed at preventing and managing health crises therefore plays a critical role not only in global health, but also in security, peace and development around the world – especially in fragile countries.

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After all, according to the recent Munich Security Report Special Edition on Development, Fragility and Conflict in the Era of COVID-19 (Polypan-demic), “If there is one truth that the pandemic has evinced, it is that the well-being of one nation depends on the well-being of others.” It is for this reason that Germany makes a significant contribution to the strengthening of healthcare systems worldwide, thereby improving resilience to pandem-ics and other crises.

In order to render Germany’s contribution to strengthening global healthcare systems measurable, the Federal Government introduced a new indicator into Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy. The data used as a basis for tracking this indicator originate from special evalua-tions of the corresponding budget items of the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The evaluations focus on programmes which either contribute directly to pre-venting and managing health crises or are targeted primarily at improving the relevant healthcare capacities. The programmes cover areas such as sanitation, biosecurity, One Health, vaccine infrastructure and research and development abroad and in Germany, provided that the research results and innovations also benefit countries in the Global South.

Outlook

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government called on civil society, academia, non-governmental organisations and inter-national organisations to contribute opinions to a Peacelab debate on the following issues:

1 What does a pandemic of this kind mean for governmental stability/fragile states, political conflicts and armed hostilities?

1 What conclusions can we draw in respect of foreign, security and development policy approaches to crisis prevention?

One of the opinions contributed to the debate came from the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding. A number of the suggestions that emerged from this debate fed directly into preventive policymaking, including those that related to aspects of digitisation and gender-sensitive responses to the pandemic. A number of tools at the Federal Government’s disposal, such as the Enable and Enhance Initiative or resilient and green reconstruction measures, have proven useful and flexible enough to safeguard the effectiveness and legitimacy of government action, even in the context of the pandemic; examples include the provision of support in the form of medical supplies.

Many aspects of the interactions between fragility, conflict and health crises require further investigation. The Federal Government will continue to support investigations of this kind at the interface between theory and practice, thereby refining and strengthening the early warn-ing and prevention tools that can be used in similar crisis scenarios in the future.

A medical worker in Afghanistan checking a pharmacy’s equipment.

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Voluntary commitment 02 – 22

Goals, approaches and instruments of peacebuilding

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Within the Federal Government, the Federal Foreign Office has expanded the focus on peace mediation and has attached special priority to currently supporting around 55 mediation-related projects. At the same time, Germany itself is playing an increasingly active role in supporting peace processes. In Afghanistan, the Special Representative of the Federal Government (see voluntary commitment 29) works together with a small team to support the peace negotiations with the Taliban. The Berghof Foundation ensures that the process is underpinned by an inclusive approach. The Federal Government initiated the Berlin Process in libya with a view to supporting the UN’s efforts in the ongoing negoti-ations taking place through the intra-Libyan dialogue. In addition to the above, the Federal Foreign Office is also involved in processes that entail cooperating very closely with mediation experts from civil society for the purpose of laying the groundwork for negotiations or testing out poten-tial solutions with various political camps and influential stakeholders, as has been the case in Yemen or Ukraine.

The Federal Foreign Office has established a peace mediation team as a central contact point for process consultation on methodologies, logis-tical process support (“good offices”), project management and further training. The team has developed training material on mediation in a range of different formats, which are integrated into and delivered as part of various basic and further training courses for Federal Foreign Office staff in Germany and abroad, at both operational and executive level.

As an interdisciplinary issue, the Women, Peace and Security Agenda plays a decisive role in this connection. For example, the Federal Foreign Office supports the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund. This is the first UN fund based on trilateral cooperation between member states, civil society and the UN. The purpose of the Fund is to empower women’s organisations around the world to engage in their own crisis prevention and peacebuilding efforts through their contributions to mediation and negotiation processes, and to strengthen their role and participation in the humanitarian and emergency assistance sector.

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The Federal Government is firmly com-mitted to further expanding its mediation capabilities and to intensifying its involve-ment in mediation processes in the future. This comprises the financial and planning support of mediation processes, as well as the long-term development of the UN’s and other partners’ mediation capacities, and may even involve direct participation in mediation processes. In this regard, the Federal Government’s particular focus is on inclusive dialogue processes and the equal participation of women – on the negotiat-ing end as much as on the mediating end.

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The Federal Government also cooperates with the Fund to implement the Action Network on Forced Displacement – Women as Agents of Change, which was founded in October 2020. The Network aims to provide female refugees with greater visibility and a wider audience; it campaigns for their political and economic participation and for the provision of psychosocial care to female refugees.

Under the project “Support to the African Union for the Operationalisa-tion of the African Peace and Security Architecture”, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has provided the Network of African Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation (FemWise-Africa) with support in the form of training and consultancy since 2017. Female media-tors acting under the aegis of this Network help to shape peace processes.

Since 2017, the Federal Foreign Office has also significantly stepped up its dialogue on the topic of peace mediation with implementing organisations, civil society, academia and key bilateral partners, in particular Switzerland and Norway. The Federal Government continues to provide personnel and financial support for the UN’s mediation capacities and the work of the UN Special representatives and Special Missions, and works closely with the UN on the ground. The Federal Government also supports the media-tion teams of the OSCE and the EU by seconding mediation advisers via the Centre for International Peace Operations (ZIF).

Thanks to active support from the Federal Government during Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, the EU was able to bring the revision of its Concept on Mediation to a successful conclusion. This means that it is possible, for the first time, to mandate mediation deployments by the EU under the CFSP, pursuant to Article 28 of the EU Treaty. This opportunity for high-level mediation deployments will further boost the role of the EU as an honest and credible mediator. The EU has, in this way, continued to con-solidate its reputation as a values-based and effective actor for peace on the global stage, eleven years after the adoption of its first Concept on Mediation.

Consultation with political parties that support the Government of Yemen (Berlin, July 2019).

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The Federal Government has significantly expanded its measures in the area of democracy building and political participation since 2017. For example, in the 2020 budgetary year, the Federal Foreign Office supported projects worth around €13 million, which was more than triple the amount in 2017. In 2019, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment increased the volume of projects commissioned or approved by more than one quarter (to about €428 million) compared to the average in the years prior to adoption of the Guidelines (2015-2017).

The electoral calendar has a decisive impact on engagement in the field of electoral assistance and observation. The Federal Government supports electoral processes around the world which it deems pioneering in terms

of overall political developments, at severe risk of democratic failings and/or significant in terms of regional stability. Working together with the European Platform for Democratic Elections as an implementing organ-isation, the Federal Foreign Office provides support in various areas, such as the international visibility and methodological robustness of election observation by civil society in the EU’s neighbours to the east. The Federal Government works closely together with the Bundestag administration to coordinate parliamentary aid and consultation measures. It provides support not only for electoral processes and parliaments, but also for civil society in the democratic process. The introduction of a range of different dialogue formats in Benin, for example, has built mutual trust and boosted cooperation between the state and civil society, as well as allowing mem-bers of local administrations and civil society in 25 partner communities to exchange views on specific development challenges via dialogue platforms (over 60 in number).

The Federal Government cooperates with regional organisations such as the Organization of American States in Latin America, international organi-sations and international and local non-governmental organisations. The Federal Foreign Office is increasingly supporting projects implemented by smaller local organisations, via the zivik programme of ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen – further details, see the information box on p. 33). The Federal Government is also one of the largest donors to the United Nations Democracy Fund, which supports local civil society initiatives around the world in the field of democracy building and human rights. The Federal Government also provides a significant volume of funding each year to the European Endowment for Democracy, which is an organisation founded by the EU together with Germany and other EU member states to foster pluralist democracy and human rights in the EU’s neighbouring states.

The Arab Spring took place in 2010/2011; in 2020, ten years after those events, the Federal Government carried out a comprehensive realignment of its transformation partnerships aimed at building pluralist and democratic states. Since then, the Federal Foreign Office has focused its activities on certain priority countries where democratic transformation is still a genuine possibility. Sudan has been added to this list, for example.

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The Federal Government is set on further expanding its involvement in democracy building and the support of peace infrastructures at various different levels. In this regard, it pays particular attention to the equal participation of women.

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iFA/ziViK

Through the Berlin-based zivik (civil conflict resolution) funding programme of the ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), the Federal Foreign Office provides support for international civil society projects which make an effective and sustainable contribution to democracy building around the world (in non-EU countries). The target audience includes not only German non-governmental organisations, but in particular local non-governmental organisa-tions in the respective countries. If necessary, ifa/zivik employees can support project managers in an advisory capacity, from the design and application stage through to the identification of suitable partner organisations and project execution. In 2020, ifa/zivik disbursed project funding worth around €2.2 million (up from around €1.65 million in 2017) to a total of 24 projects in the funding areas democracy building and transformation partnerships.

In addition to free elections, there must also be scope for open cooperation with civil society. At the same time, the Federal Foreign Office is aligning its new transformation partnerships more closely with topics that are of decisive importance for strengthening fledgling transformation processes and where short-term support can deliver an immediate impact until long-term structural measures can be implemented. The transformation partnership has now been renamed “Ta’ziz” (an Arabic word meaning consolidation or strengthening) with the underlying aim of rendering this regeneration externally visible while, at the same time, emphasising the partner-like nature of the relationship. In keeping with this concept, the name of this new partnership means “partnership for consolidating democracy” in English     .

The Federal Government also continues to provide contributions and project funding in support of the International Institute for Democracy and Elec-toral Assistance (IDEA), an intergovernmental organisation. IDEA describes itself as a think and do-tank, and offers country- and region-specific support and consultation on topics such as elections and constitutional processes, as well as publishing a Global State of Democracy report every two years.

Projects by non-governmental actors account for over 75% of German development cooperation relating to democracy building, civil society and political participation; measures by the political foundations dominate in this respect. The Federal Government also promotes free and independent media, for example via the Deutsche Welle Akademie and reporters Without Borders, particularly in the following areas:

1 basic and further vocational training for journalists;

1 an improved political, legal and economic environment for media professionals;

1 access to information and greater social participation; and

1 improved media skills among young people and disadvantaged groups.

In authoritarian and post-conflict states, German development cooperation focuses, in particular, on forces for reform operating within civil society or state structures at sub-national level, but also on dialogue processes between state and civil society. Support for networking between parlia-ments in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine represents a further field of Germany’s development cooperation.

German development cooperation also supported the establishment of an Electoral Advisory Council within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The Electoral Advisory Council is an independent body which assesses the state of democratisation in the region, in particular evaluating electoral processes in the SADC member states.( الشراكة من أجل تعزيز الديمقراطية )

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One of the priorities of the Federal Government’s Action Plan for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda is comprehensive, equal and mean-ingful participation by women in peace processes. As part of democracy building and the establishment of peace structures, the Federal Govern-ment therefore endeavours to broaden women’s participation in political processes at various levels. This takes place in a targeted fashion in certain countries, such as Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq, but also via the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) of the African Union and UN Women (see information boxes), the international organisation Action Network on Forced Displacement – Women as Agents of Change for female refugees, or the German-Latin American Women’s Network (UNIDAS). More detailed information can be found in the implementation report on the Action Plan for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

AFriCAN WOMEN lEADErS NETWOrK

The African Women Leaders Network was founded by the African Union and UN Women with Germany’s support in 2017. Through it, Germany promotes the participation and leadership of women in the transformation process on the African continent, inter alia in peace and security processes. The network has grown to include around 3000 members from politics, business and civil society, including female Young Leaders and women from rural areas. Germany supports the Africa-wide network as well as a number of the AWLN’s national offices.

PArTiCiPATiON OF WOMEN iN PEACE PrOCESSES iN irAq, liByA, SyriA AND yEMEN

Working in partnership with UN Women, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development supports the participation of women in peace processes in the Middle East, with a special focus on Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Syria. The project builds not only women’s expertise and negotiating skills but also men’s skills and willingness to cooperate, with a view to ensuring that women can assume their proper place at the negotiating table. In addition, women are given practical support to enable their participation in political discussions, for example the ceasefire negotiations in Yemen or the peace talks in Libya. One research component involved systematically processing the experiences that emerged from a total of 30 peace processes and harnessing them as a basis for negotiations in the Middle East.

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This link between good governance and peacebuilding is reflected in implementation practice on the ground, for example in bilateral develop-ment cooperation and transitional development assistance, both of which strengthen the resilience of affected people and local structures in fragile contexts and are intended to trigger processes of transformation towards peaceful, effective and inclusive societal and state structures.

The Federal Government supports free and independent reporting and unrestricted access to information as a contribution to a culture of peace and as a bulwark against violence on the internet, disinformation and hate speech.

In 2019, the support provided by Germany in the form of state-funded development cooperation alone allowed over four million people around the world to participate directly in local, regional or national political consensus-building or decision-making processes, and over 120 million people to benefit from improved government administration services.

In July 2019, the Federal Government fulfilled the mandate set out in the Guidelines by adopting three strategies on promoting the rule of law, security sector reform and transitional justice (see voluntary com-mitments 6, 13 and 14). All three strategies stress the interconnections between governance, fragility and conflict. For example, the strategy for promoting the rule of law highlights core governance elements such as judicial reforms, access to justice, separation of powers and the promotion of gender equality, and makes provision for these tools to be used in a targeted fashion to achieve stabilisation and conflict resolution.

Furthermore, in a strategic realignment carried out in 2019 as part of “BMZ 2030”, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment amalgamated the topics of Good governance and Peacebuilding and crisis prevention under the heading of Peace and social cohesion, one of its five core topics. Group work with representatives of public administrations in Yemen at local level.

04

The Federal Government will also forge even closer links between the issues of governance, fragility and conflict, and systematically support the capabilities of governments to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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GOVErNANCE, FrAGiliTy AND CONFliCT

In Colombia, cooperation centres around implementing the peace process. Germany’s contribution to the implementation of the 2016 peace deal encompasses support not only for the peace institutions at national level, but also for implementing efforts in rural areas particularly affected by violence and poverty, and for interdiscipli-nary academic support via the German Colombian Peace Institute in Bogotá (CAPAZ).

In Honduras, a country impacted by the widespread prevalence of social violence and criminality and frequent failures to investigate human rights violations, German development cooperation has sup-ported structural reforms, for example rule-of-law reforms, thereby strengthening democratic and peaceful consolidation.

In Guatemala, a citizen security programme furthers the implementa-tion of SDG 16 by implementing tried-and-tested approaches for pre-venting violence, fostering dialogue, resolving conflicts and increasing transparency in partner communities and government departments.

In South Africa, German development cooperation helps provin-cial and regional governments to implement integrated violence prevention initiatives. Capacity building processes for local security functions at community level can serve as models for other provinces. Other development cooperation efforts carried out in parallel by Germany target the nexus of violence prevention and good govern-ance by strengthening local administrations. Since 2019, Germany has supported its South African partners in their work on an inte-grated national crime and violence prevention strategy and a national gender-based violence prevention strategy. The Civilian Secretariat for Police is currently carrying out large-scale public consultations. Community safety issues are an area of growing focus in the field of integrated urban development planning.

In Yemen, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment supports various processes through transitional development assistance; one of these is the implementation of participative and transparent procedures at local level through the involvement not only of existing public administrations in selected governorates and dis-tricts, but also of local non-governmental organisations and the local population. This empowers local actors and the vulnerable population to participate in relevant decisions.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has supported a total of 34 measures under the 2030 Implementation Initi-ative since 2016, aimed at implementing the 2030 Agenda in the fields of sustainability governance, funding and monitoring. This programme has been launched in 28 partner countries and three regional organi-sations so far. In Pakistan, the programme has helped to raise aware-ness among private-sector actors of the importance of implementing the Goals, and to trigger targeted investments. In Guatemala, the programme boosts the institutional capacities of planning authorities and the government departments they advise.

Training local non-governmental organisations and the local population in Yemen.

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The Federal Government has actively lobbied for the effective implementa-tion of sanctions.

As a member of all of the regional and thematic working groups of the Council of the European Union working in the field of sanctions, it is involved at EU level in efforts to push forward the imposition of new sanctions. The EU has elaborated new geographical sanctions regimes for Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mali and Turkey as a basis for responding not only to human rights violations and the suppression of democracy and the rule of law, but also to illegal activities. The EU has also developed three new horizontal sanctions regimes. It can now impose sanctions on any country in the world in response to the following:

05

Both in the United Nations and the European Union, the Federal Govern-ment will continue to make sure that sanctions are effectively implemented and stay in line with the requirements of proportionality and rule of law.

1 the use of chemical weapons, 1 cyber-attacks and 1 the most serious human rights violations.

The EU has imposed numerous targeted sanctions on individuals and entities, for example in Syria, Libya, Belarus and (currently) the Russian Federation.

At UN level, during its membership of the UN Security Council in 2019/2020, and in particular as Chair of the Sanctions Committees on North Korea and libya, the Federal Government actively lobbied for the effective implementation of sanctions against these countries. The Federal Government played a leading role in negotiations on Security Council Res-olution 2467 (2019), which was adopted by the Security Council under Ger-many’s Presidency on 23 April 2019. Among other things, this Resolution calls for sanctions to be used more effectively to combat sexual violence in armed conflicts. The Federal Government also played an active role within the Counter-Terrorism Committees of the UN Security Council in imposing sanctions against terrorists and terrorist organisations. In doing so, the Federal Government paid particular attention to compliance with rule-of-law principles and advocated expanding and strengthening the system of ombudspersons in these Committees.

The Federal Government was actively involved in regular reviews of sanc-tions regimes and lists, thereby contributing to fulfilment of the necessary requirements in respect of proportionality and the rule of law.

In the case of the sanctions adopted by both the EU and the UN Security Council, the Federal Government attached importance to the need to take fuller account of humanitarian exemptions with a view to guaranteeing effective action in the context of humanitarian crises.

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The Federal Government has significantly expanded its engagement in international support for security sector reforms. Under the Enable and Enhance initiative alone, the Federal Government made available a total of €195 million in 2020, compared to €100 million in 2016. In 2018, the Federal Foreign Office set up a new Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Rule of Law Unit, and forged closer links with academia; in the SSR Hub in cooperation with the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, two researchers are working both in academia and in the Federal Foreign Office (for further operational details of the transfer hub, see voluntary commitment 43). Formats of this kind make it easier for researchers to identify the problems faced in practice, and to tailor their findings in a more precise and targeted manner to the Federal Government’s operational needs.

The Federal Government has set up a working group on interministerial SSR strategy development and significantly stepped up its expert dialogue with civil society, particularly through the PeaceLab blog. This exchange of views has provided an important foundation for the current Interministerial Strategy for Security Sector Reform. The Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace at Director-General level adopted the strategy on 2 July 2019. Following the adoption of this strategy, the Federal Government merged the previous working group, together with the working groups on development of the strategy for promoting the rule of law and the strategy for transitional justice, into a single working group covering all three strategies (see the information box on p. 69).

The Federal Government has enshrined in this strategy the objectives of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and incorporates into its programmes gender-sensitive perspectives on security and the unique security concerns of women and girls. The prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and efforts to deal with its consequences play a crucial role in Germany’s approach to education and training in the area of security sector reform. Within the scope of the assistance provided to the AU to expand the African Peace and Security Architecture, for example, a

06

The Federal Government will continue to cultivate its involvement in the secu-rity sector and is planning to appoint a working group for drafting an inter-ministerial SSR strategy. In terms of implementing the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 5), greater and more active attention will be paid to the special concerns and interests of women and girls.

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The Federal Government provides political and financial support for the UN’s reform efforts and has lobbied for a more effective design of Peace Operations during its membership of the Security Council, within the Main Committee of the General Assembly entrusted with responsibilities for budgetary matters, and in mission areas.

To this end, the Federal Government supports implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative. Germany has visibly taken on responsibility and offers targeted support in the following A4P areas:

1 political solutions, 1 sustaining peace, 1 training and capacity building, as well as 1 women, peace, security (focus on women in peace operations).

training package is being developed on (among other things) the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflicts.

in line with the mandate set out in the Guidelines and the integrated approach, the Federal Government frequently coordinates its involvement in the area of SSr on an interministerial basis. The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Defence implement the military equipment aid programme, whereas the police equipment aid programme is jointly implemented by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community. The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Defence hold joint responsibility for the Federal Government’s Enable and Enhance Initiative, which encompasses analysis, project planning, monitoring and evaluation.

SExUAl AND GENDEr-BASED ViOlENCE

A workshop on sexual and gender-based violence with the civilian component of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and the AU helped to promote cooperation between the AU and MNJTF on the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. The first UN/AU police training course on combating sexual and gender-based violence for police officers from the members of the East African Standby Force, held in the Humanitarian Peace Support School in Nairobi (Kenya), ended on 2 February 2018.

07

The Federal Government is also support-ing the United Nations’ reform efforts aimed at making the peacekeeping system and the special political missions even more effective.

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As one of the largest extrabudgetary donors, Germany promotes innovative projects by the UN Secretariat and thus supports the reform and develop-ment of peacekeeping.

The Federal Government is committed to enhancing the efficiency of the UNiFil mission. To this end, it submits relevant proposals in connection with mandate negotiations and the UN Secretariat’s assigned task of pro-ducing a strategic review, and endorses suitable proposals made by others. In addition, the Federal Government engages in joint work and coordina-tion with the UN Secretariat regarding the operational implementation of the recommendations emerging from the strategic review.

Since 2019, the Federal Government has provided € one million per year in funding for initiatives of the United Nations Police Division’s Standing Police Capacity. This Police Capacity uses these funds to contribute its expertise in support of United Nations peacekeeping missions, thereby helping to strengthen the national security sector of the respective host country. To a limited extent, these funds are also used to support capacity building in countries with no active UN mission, typically in close coopera-tion with and coordinated by the respective UN Country Team.

The Federal Government has also enshrined this objective in its strate-gic policy documents relating to Africa, in particular the updated and expanded version of the Federal Government’s Africa Policy Guidelines published in 2019. These Guidelines contain the following undertakings:

“We are supporting the further development of an African peace and security architecture. The AU has established effective structures to promote peace and security on the African continent in recent years. These structures are intended to be able to execute their civil, police and military tasks auton-omously and in a financially independent manner in the very near future. Funding of African-led peace missions must be placed on a more sustaina-ble and secure footing outside the scope of development financing and with greater contributions coming from Africa in the medium term. We want to play a constructive role in discussions on greater support by the UN in UN bodies, taking the considerable financial contributions made by European countries into account.”

In its Africa Strategy of March 2020, the EU also sets itself the goal of further developing the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) (Proposed Action 6 – Partner with Africa to adapt and deepen the EU’s support to

08

The Federal Government will continue to promote the development of African peace and security structures.

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African peace efforts through a more structured and strategic cooperation […]). Germany proactively supports work towards this goal.

The Federal Government supports the AU’s Peace and Security Department as a means of delivering on its stated intentions in this area. This engage-ment forms an overall focus of cooperation with the AU, with the Federal Government having made a total of €167 million available to date. In this connection, particular emphasis is placed on the advancement of women (and the AU’s contribution to implementing UN Resolution 1325) and young people (see also voluntary commitment 6) in the area of peace and security.

The Federal Government focuses its support on the following priorities:

1 Within the scope of development cooperation, the Federal Govern-ment supports structural crisis prevention and early warning and strengthens the civilian component of military deployments, peace consolidation, post-conflict reconstruction measures and mediation activities.

1 The Federal Government supports various organisations, includ-ing the AU Mediation Support Unit, the Panel of the Wise and the Secretariat of FemWise, an initiative aimed at building a network of female mediators. One of the functions performed by these insti-tutions or networks is to mediate between conflicting parties. The Federal Government has supported the AU and its collaborative efforts with the Lake Chad Basin Commission to develop, publicise and implement the Regional Stabilisation Strategy for the Lake Chad Basin region.

1 The support targeted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooper-ation and Development at APSA is complemented by its support for the institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University. This Institute provides experts and leaders from the AU,

subregional institutions and African governments with training on peace and security issues and creates unique formats for individu-als from various African countries with backgrounds in diplomacy, the security agencies and academia to engage in dialogue with one another.

1 The Federal Government also supports the Tana High-level Forum on Security in Africa, which is the leading pan-African security con-ference.

1 Since 2019, the African Union Border Programme – brought into being in 2008 by the Federal Government and the AU with the aim of facilitating demarcation efforts and cross-border cooperation – has also been supported by the EU. This means that additional countries in Central Africa can now be supported under the Programme, which has a considerable preventive impact.

1 Since 2009, the African Police Programme has helped to build the institutional and human resources capacities of national and regional police institutions in (post-)conflict and fragile African countries. A mechanism for promoting cross-border police cooperation between countries in Africa (AFRIPOL) is currently being established.

1 Working together with the Bonn International Centre for Conversion, the Federal Government has developed a pan-African programme for small arms control; working together with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), it has helped to launch a media campaign aimed at furthering the AU’s Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2020 initiative.

1 Germany has helped the AU to establish a roster of civilian experts for the African Standby Force (ASF), working closely together with Africa’s Regional Economic Commissions and Regional Mechanisms. The roster already includes around 350 civilian experts; the aim is to expand it to around 1850.

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1 It funds the AU’s support initiative for security sector reform in Gambia, thereby strengthening the AU’s stabilisation capabilities.

1 The Federal Government supports the African Women leaders Network, which is a project coordinated jointly by the African Union and UN Women with the aim of strengthening women’s role as leaders in the transformation of Africa, particularly in the areas of peace, security and governance. The network now has over 1000 members from the worlds of politics, business and civil society, including young leaders and women from rural areas, with a further 2000 belonging to the initiative’s 25 national sections.

Other important starting points include greater support for binding compliance guidelines in respect of AU-led peace missions (the first regional frameworks are already available, e.g. for the G5 Sahel) and the participation of civilian experts in peacekeeping operations.

In the context of the G5 Sahel, the Federal Government is involved in international cooperation fora (the Coalition for the Sahel, P3S and the Sahel Alliance) with a view to improving the coordination of bilateral involvement at implementation level, both with and for the respective partners. The Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel (P3S) was initiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. They announced it at the G7 Summit in Biarritz in August 2019 together with the then Chair of the G5 Sahel, President of Burkina Faso Marc Roch Kaboré. It will be an integral part of the Coalition for the Sahel and will focus on “building the national capacities of the armed forces” and the “return of the State”.

Germany is already extensively engaged in the Sahel region and will continue to lend its active support to the Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel. In its efforts to enable and enhance foreign armed forces, the Federal Government pays close attention to the links between advice, training measures and equipment. Civilian stabilisation measures are intended to increase the partner governments’ ability to act as well as

their credibility, and to reduce the radius of operations and the recruitment base of armed groups.

The Federal Government also works together with the Economic Commu-nity of West African States (ECOWAS) with a view to building its capac-ities for fighting organised crime. For example, the Federal Government supports the ECOWAS Commission in its efforts to improve cross-border cooperation on investigating and prosecuting illegal trafficking in humans, drugs and firearms.

in addition, since 2019, the Federal Government (with Algeria) has co-chaired the Capacity-Building in the West Africa region Working Group of the Global Counterterrorism Forum. The purpose of this Forum is to facilitate a comprehensive exchange of views on security-related topics such as the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighters, countering terrorist financing and organised crime, border security and cross-border secu-rity cooperation and, based on the progress made in these areas, capacity building in the region with UNODC as an implementation partner.

Promoting regional cooperation through the border programme of the Economic Community of Central African States.

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During its membership of the UN Security Council in 2019/2020, the Federal Government put issues relating to nuclear disarmament back on the Security Council agenda for the first time in many years. As part of these efforts, it convened two meetings – in April 2019 and February 2020 – on the topic of strengthening the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It will work together with future European members of the UN Security Council to secure the permanent inclusion on its agenda of issues relating to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. The Federal Government will also lobby all nuclear-weapon states to implement the proposals on advancing nuclear disarmament which were adopted by the foreign ministers belonging to the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament at a meeting held in Berlin in 2020. Germany’s export controls are also specifically designed to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Building on the outcomes of the first two international expert conferences on Capturing Technology. Rethinking Arms Control in March 2019 (in Berlin) and in November 2020 (in a virtual format), the Federal Government will continue to analyse the security policy impacts of the development and use of new technologies, and help to mitigate any risks and develop an appropriate arms control architecture. At the 2020 conference, the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany initiated a strategic EU process on the responsible military use of new technologies.

As part of this process, the Federal Government – under the heading of the Missile Dialogue initiative – has established an international network of experts and a platform for dialogue that tackles the manifold risks of new missile technologies and proliferation trends, and that is intended to serve as a foundation for new and realistic arms control policy approaches in the field of carrier systems.

Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, at the Missile Dialogue Initiative conference (Berlin, 18 October 2019).

09

The Federal Government will also inten-sify its arms control and disarmament measures, and will specifically expand its mine and ordnance clearance pro-grammes in stabilisation contexts.

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Efforts to prepare for the return of refugees and internally Displaced Persons (iDPs) often involve mine and ordnance clearance measures, which can help to strengthen the legitimacy of the authorities in charge, thereby promoting stabilisation in the final stages of an armed conflict. These measures also facilitate humanitarian access to affected groups and prevent further suffering on the part of the population. The Federal Government promoted the disposal of explosive ordnance by international organisations in Iraq, for example, as well as capacity building within the national agencies responsible for mine disposal in the country.

The Federal Government supports humanitarian mine and ordnance clearance in ten priority countries, including Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine. It also supports mine clearance operations in acute emergency situations, for example where people are returning to mined areas or moving around within mined areas in countries such as Libya or Yemen. This has allowed refugees and IDPs to return to their home regions and start reconstruction efforts.

In Nigeria, the Federal Government supports organisations such as UNMAS, which is the UN agency tasked with strengthening and training local authorities so that they can dispose of explosive ordnance themselves.

One of the organisations Germany supports on mine clearance is the non-governmental organisation The HALO Trust, here in Afghanistan.

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Since January 2020, the Federal Government has chaired the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Problems Arising from the Accumulation of Conventional Ammunition Stockpiles in Surplus. The stated purpose of this group is to lay the foundation for a new multilateral agreement on the topic, the aim of which will be to overcome the challenges of unplanned explosions in ammunition stockpiles and of ammunition being redirected to unauthorised recipients.

The Federal Government is also in favour of a comprehensive regional approach to curbing illicit trafficking in small arms and ammunition. The report of the UN Secretary-General on small arms control (UN Document A/75/78 of 14 April 2020, paragraph 70, p. 14) highlights, in particular, the Franco-German initiative for a “road map for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans by 2024”.

The Federal Government provides funding for similar programmes by the African Union and ECOWAS which are intended to curb the illicit prolifer-ation and improper storage of small arms and their ammunition. It also provides financial and technical assistance and political backing for small

arms control processes at regional level in the Caribbean and at national level in Ukraine.

The Federal Government further supports the supra-regional Gender Equality Network for Small Arms Control. Within this network, experts from the regions most affected by armed violence (the Western Balkans, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America/the Caribbean) work to ensure that women can participate better in small arms controls.

In 2020, the Federal Foreign Office provided €19 million in support for small arms control projects in fragile contexts around the world, in par-ticular in West and East Africa, the Sahel region and Mozambique, Latin America, the OSCE area, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in the context of UN missions. These projects once again promote the equal participation of women.

in the area of export controls, the Federal Government imposed a categorical ban on exports of small arms to third countries (i.e. coun-tries which are not members of the EU or NATO or NATO-equivalent countries) in the updated 2019 version of the Political Principles. This is intended to reduce the risk that German-produced arms of this kind might be used in armed conflicts.

10

The Federal Government will work towards enhanced small arms control.

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Secondments by the Centre for International Peace Operations

The Federal Government supports international missions through the secondment of German experts to peace and election observation missions. The number of secondments to both mission types has risen steadily since 2017 (reference dates: 31 December 2017, 31 December 2018, 31 December 2019 and 31 December 2020).

In 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that almost no short-term election observers were deployed. Comparisons between the number of secondments to election observation missions in 2020 and in previous years are therefore possible only to a limited extent in view of the restric-tions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given the rising demand for secondments, federally funded expenditure by the Centre for International Peace Operations has also grown steadily since its activities as a sending organisation were first included in the federal budget in July 2017:

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

02017 2018 2019 2020

39 60 58

35

35

152157132

121

200

292

374

Secondments by the Centre for International Peace Operations

Long-term secondees Long-term election observers

Short-term election observers

11

The Federal Government aims at the enduring and qualified support of international missions.

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German police officers in international police missions

The total number of police officers seconded by Germany to international police missions of the UN, the EU and the OSCE, as well as to the bilateral German Police Project Team (GPPT) in Afghanistan, was 241 in 2018, 206 in 2019 and 175 in 2020. The provisions of the coalition agreement state that this involvement is to be stepped up. Nevertheless, Germany’s participation in international police missions is following a downward trajectory. Reasons for this include the downsizing and termination of missions (and the associated reduction in personnel needs), more stringent requirement profiles, an increasing demand for French language skills and (at present) the COVID-19 pandemic. The German Bundestag is presented with a report – in the form of an annual briefing by the Federal Government agreed upon by the Federal Ministry of the Interior,

Verena Neundter, an officer from the regional police force in the German region of Hesse, seconded to MINUSMA.

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

1.5

12.6

17.819.7

Budget of the Centre for International Peace Operations in € million

26.2

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Number of Bundeswehr members involved in international missions (cumulative total of all soldiers within one year)

25000

23000

21000

19000

17000

15000

13000

11000

9000

7000

5000

2017 2018 2019 2020

1619016870

15468

12916

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

2018 2019 2020

241

206 175

Number of German police officers in international police missions

63

Deployments and personnel secondments by the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW)

The THW was repeatedly involved in international deployments under the aegis of the UN and the EU over the reporting period. Most recently, the Federal Government sent the THW’s Rapid Deployment Unit Search and Rescue Abroad to Lebanon in August 2020 following the catastrophic

Involvement by the Bundeswehr in mandated missions

The Bundeswehr was involved in a large number of mandated missions by the EU, NATO and the UN over the reporting period. Specifically, the num-ber of Bundeswehr members assigned to missions was as follows:

Building and Community and the Federal Foreign Office – on Germany’s involvement in the deployment of police officers in international police missions. On 1 February 2021, 85 German police officers were assigned to missions of the EU, the UN and the GPPT.

Beyond this involvement, two additional police officers are assigned to the UN mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and, until 31 January 2021, the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) as heads of the respective police compo-nents. One police officer is assigned to the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability of the EEAS. Two police officers lead European Union missions (EUAM Iraq and EUCAP Sahel Niger).

explosion in Beirut. In 2019/2020, the THW helped IOM to make refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina ready for winter. In spring 2019, the Federal Government sent the THW’s Rapid Deployment Unit Water Sup-ply Abroad to Mozambique, where it constructed a drinking water puri-fication plant in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. All of these deployments were integrated into the international coordination structures of the EU and the UN. In addition, the THW frequently sends experts it has trained specially for this purpose to assist with coordination efforts on the ground.

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The Federal Foreign Office set up a new unit for Security Sector Reform (SSr) and rule of law Promotion, the aim of which is the conceptual development of the relevant topics, the launching of projects in these areas and the monitoring of their implementation. in the area of promoting the rule of law, the Federal Foreign Office relies on the expertise of the rSF Hub, which is a cooperation project set up jointly with Freie Universi-tät Berlin that promotes the transfer of knowledge between theory and practice and organises regular exchanges of views in different formats (for further details of the operating principle of this Hub, see voluntary commitment 43). Thanks to this conceptual strengthening of its rule-of-law promotion activities, the Federal Foreign Office manages project work much more closely throughout all of its phases, from contextual analysis and project design and monitoring through to the subsequent evaluations. At the same time, academic support by the RSF Hub ensures that the Federal Foreign Office can continually refine its impact assumptions. In the context of crisis prevention, stabilisation and peacebuilding, the priorities in the area of promoting the rule of law are as follows:

1 state building, in particular advice on constitutional drafting;

1 strengthening rules-based prosecution;

1 supporting the justice system as an institution for the peaceful settlement of disputes; and

1 promoting access to justice and protecting human rights.

Over recent years, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection has expanded the scope of its projects aimed at promoting the rule of law, particularly in Africa. The Federal Government uses joint declarations as a political means of underpinning this cooperation; such declarations were signed with Tunisia in 2017 and Senegal in 2020, for example. The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection provided €6.8 million in support for rule-of-law projects in 2020 (compared to €5.8 million in 2017). These projects are implemented by the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation, with a focus on strengthening the integrity

Work in this area started with the development of a strategy for promoting the rule of law by an interministerial working group involving academia, civil society and international partners during a debate hosted by the Peacelab blog. The Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace at Director-General level approved this strategy on 2 July 2019. In it, the Federal Government defined a shared understanding of the term “promoting the rule of law”, set itself goals and described the main operational principles and the instruments at its disposal for achiev-ing these goals (see the information box on the Working Group on Promot-ing the Rule of Law, SSR and Transitional Justice on p. 69).

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The Federal Government will enhance its focus on the promotion and system-atic demand for rule of law; especially with an eye to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 16). The Federal Government has therefore decided to launch a working group for drafting an interministerial strategy for promoting the rule of law.

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of justice, promoting the advancement of women in and by the justice system and improving the position of prisoners.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development increased the volume of newly commissioned or approved rule-of-law projects by around two fifths (to approximately €40 million) in 2019 compared to the average for the period prior to adoption of the Guidelines (2015-2017). Projects by non-governmental actors, in particular measures by the political foundations, accounted for the bulk of this figure. Among other things, projects under the heading of bilateral state development cooperation help to improve the legal framework for access to justice, in particular for women and girls. Regional priorities for bilateral state devel-opment cooperation in the field of rule-of-law promotion include South-East Europe/the Caucasus and Asia, followed by Africa. Projects supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development include the following, aimed at safeguarding and improving procedural rights:

1 providing legal counsel to inmates of prisons in Bangladesh, with a particular focus on women;

1 empowering vulnerable groups in Zambia to take advantage of legal defence avenues; and

1 German development cooperation efforts in Afghanistan, in part-nership with the Afghan Government, to improve access to justice for the local population, especially women.

At the international level, the Federal Government promotes judicial integrity, or in other words the capacity of judicial systems or individual members of the judiciary to oppose corruption. The core values of inde-pendence, impartiality, personal integrity, propriety, equality, competence and diligence must be fully respected in this connection. Integrity, inde-pendence and impartiality of the judiciary are essential prerequisites for the establishment of an effective and functional judicial system, and therefore for a state under the rule of law.

The Federal Government consequently supports various organisations in this field, including the Judicial Integrity Group (JIG), which is a consor-tium of senior judges chaired by Professor Mellinghoff, former President of the Federal Fiscal Court. Since 2018, exchanges of views between leading African judges and international law experts have taken place at several conferences organised by the JIG with Germany’s support. In addition, the Federal Government has created a new instrument – the Judicial Integrity Scan – to assess judicial integrity in partner countries. This instrument was used for the first time in 2019 together with the Caribbean Court of Justice.

In 2019, Germany joined the SDG 16 Pathfinders group, whose aim is to highlight ways in which the international community can achieve SDG 16. In furtherance of this aim, the Federal Government provides support for the Pathfinders Grand Challenge on SDG 16.1.

In Bangladesh, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment supports particularly vulnerable individuals within the criminal justice system. Particular emphasis is placed on women, who remain severely disadvantaged in terms of access to justice. In spite of the low

Female prisoners receiving legal information in Bangladesh.

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proportion of female prisoners (4%), they are the target group for over 20% of the project’s components.

Rehabilitation programmes or addiction counselling have been deliv-ered to 17,117 female prisoners since 2017. Women with children and expectant mothers are prioritised and given special support.

With a view to facilitating post-release reintegration into society, 2478 female prisoners completed practical training during their period of detention so that they could take up skilled employment following their release. Another pillar of the project involves advising the Government of Bangladesh on the new Prisons Act that is currently being drafted, with the aim of ensuring that the post-release reintegration approach is also enshrined in this Act. The final draft of the new Act is now available; it contains special provisions on female prisoners which are based on the corresponding UN principles.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the project provided newly released female prisoners with emergency packages containing food and hygiene products, with a view to smoothing their transition to freedom following their release. The provision of legal advice via emergency tele-phone hotlines was also expanded in order to respond to the increased risk of domestic violence.

A project in zambia promotes fair and efficient access to justice. The project, which is funded jointly by the EU and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, supports criminal law reform, promotes coordination between actors within the justice system and boosts the provision of legal advice and judicial representation by state and civil society players. In 2019, for example, legal assistance was provided to a total of 18,920 individuals who could not otherwise have afforded it, including over 1300 children and young people. In 2020, it was possible to settle 1522 of the disputes out of court through mediation.

WOrKiNG GrOUP ON PrOMOTiNG THE rUlE OF lAW, SSR AND TRANSITIONAl JUSTICE

The Federal Government committed itself in the Guidelines to devel-oping interministerial strategies for the following:

1 rule of law promotion, 1 security sector reform and 1 transitional justice.

On 2 July 2019, the Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, Resolv-ing Conflicts, Building Peace at Director-General level approved the three strategies (developed by thematic interministerial working groups).

The federal ministries also decided to merge all three working groups into a single new Working Group on Promoting the Rule of Law, SSR and Transitional Justice (known under the German abbreviation “AG RSV”). This new Working Group has set itself the task of strength-ening the strategies for interministerial cooperation. The group is co-chaired by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry of Defence are also members. The Working Group pursues the goal of significantly strengthening synergies between contextual analysis, strategy devel-opment, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. For example, it has initiated an interministerial evaluation of the support provided to the Peacekeeping Training Centres EMP and KAIPTC (see volun-tary commitment 15) and developed a national SSR curriculum (see voluntary commitment 47). In addition, the Working Group launched an exchange of views in 2020 regarding a study on the rule of law in Tunisia commissioned by the Federal Foreign Office, as a basis for further concerted action through bilateral cooperation.

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The Federal Government is committed to the universality of human rights, due process and the rule of law. it views human rights policy as a unifying responsibility common to all areas of policymaking, both in Germany and abroad. The UN Security Council has examined the significance of human rights in the context of UN peace operations as part of an Open Debate chaired by the Federal Minister of Defence.

Comprehensive information on the Federal Government’s engagement for human rights can be found in its Human Rights Report; the 14th edition of this report was adopted by the Federal Cabinet on 2 December 2020. It contains the Action Plan for Human Rights 2021/2022, which outlines the Federal Government’s future priorities. This report by the Federal Govern-ment is available on the website of the Federal Foreign Office (see link p. 224).

On 2 July 2019, the Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, resolving Conflicts, Building Peace at Director-General level adopted the intermin-

isterial strategy for transitional justice (see the information box on the Working Group on Promoting the Rule of Law, SSR and Transitional Justice on p. 69). According to this strategy, the Federal Government advocates a comprehensive understanding of confronting past injustices. It is based on the universality, inalienability and indivisibility of human rights and, in addition to violations of civil and political rights, also considers violations of economic, social and cultural rights. A centre of competence (Transitional Justice Hub) is to be set up with the future aim of concentrating knowledge, providing access to advice and improving global learning; it will bring together representatives of academia, politics and civil society. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development draws on experiences gathered by the Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt, see voluntary commitment 41) in this connection.

According to the strategy, the Federal Government aims to sustainably support peace and reconciliation processes and to strengthen human rights in the area of transitional justice. Key operational principles include context-specific action and a participative and partner-oriented approach. The Federal Government relies on synergies between judicial and non-judicial approaches in this connection. Engagement in part-ner countries is to be guided by conflict-sensitive, trauma-sensitive and gender-sensitive approaches, and take into account multiple discrimina-tion (intersectionality). The Civil Peace Service is also involved in this area in connection with projects that empower local partners on the ground to set up and implement processes of this kind.

The Federal Foreign Office supports transitional justice approaches in relation to specific projects, for example in cooperation with the intergov-ernmental organisation International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), with the aim of promoting social cohesion and understanding between communities and supporting authorities in their handling of matters relating to missing persons. The Federal Government is preparing to join the ICMP in the first six months of 2021. The stated goal of ICMP is to address the issue of people who have gone missing as a result of armed conflict, human rights abuses or natural disasters.

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The Federal Government will continue its involvement for the protection and promo-tion of human rights and develop an inter-ministerial strategy for transitional justice in a separate working group.

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Under the Enable and Enhance Initiative, the Federal Government sup-ports the Standing Police Capacity and Justice and Corrections Standing Capacity within the United Nations Department of Peace Operations, and promotes the training of security forces for deployments in UN and AU peace missions at the training centres École de Maintien de la Paix (EMP) and Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC). The training courses incorporate sections on the rule of law and the impor-tance of respecting, protecting and promoting human rights.

The Federal Government also supports the work of specific UN missions. For example, with Germany’s support, the UN founded a Financial investi-gation Unit within the investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/iSil in iraq (UNiTAD), which tracks the

Human rights are a guiding principle of German development policy. The Federal Government has fleshed out this principle by means of the strategy paper on human rights published in 2011 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the human rights-based approach, and continues to align its action on development policy matters consistently with Germany’s human rights obligations at national and international level. The human rights-based approach applies on a mandatory basis to governmental implementing organisations involved with Germany’s development policy, and serves as guidance for civil soci-ety. Since the entry into force of the strategy paper on human rights, this approach has promoted a shift in perspective on the strategic alignment of cooperation projects which is still ongoing: state partners become duty-bearers, and vulnerable target groups become rights-holders. This dual approach promotes not only the enshrining of human rights as a cross-cutting theme in all sectors, but also specific human rights projects. The global project “Food and Nutrition Security and Enhanced Resil-ience” by GIZ serves as an example of this principle of mainstreaming by safeguarding the right to food, in particular for marginalised groups and individuals such as women and children.

Another project in Uganda which exemplifies this approach is aimed at promoting human rights by strengthening governance and civil society. The Ugandan Government has integrated the human rights-based approach into its national development plan. In cooperation with the Human Rights Commission, the project has supported access to legal counsel and information, both on the ground in remote areas and also via a telephone hotline. In addition, this support has allowed the Commission to handle a greater number of complaints and implement more anti-dis-crimination measures with the police.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development identified “Human rights, gender equality and inclusion” as a criterion for quality in the course of its “BMZ 2030” reform process. Work is currently ongoing on the precise definition of this criterion.

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The Federal Government also seeks to further expand German involvement in the rule-of-law components of inter-national missions, notably missions of the EU and UN.

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financial flows of Da’esh/ISIL as a basis for identifying its external financing sources and illegal transactions involving natural resources and cultural heritage.

in the Civilian CSDP Compact, which was adopted by the EU foreign ministers on 19 November 2018, the EU member states gave the political go-ahead for investments in additional civilian capabilities. One of the goals pursued in this connection is ensuring that a greater number of civilians are ready for deployment, and the funding that is available provides the framework for potential secondments. The Federal Government has developed a National Implementation Plan (which was updated in 2020) with a view to ensuring implementation of the Compact (see voluntary commitment 35).

Germany participates in the rule-of-law components of international mis-sions also through of supporting and seconding civilian experts. At present (as of 31 December 2020), one German national is seconded to the UN mis-

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sion UNITAD. In addition, eight seconded German nationals support the EULEX Kosovo mission, and three work in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, which are internationally staffed but belong to Kosovo’s judicial system; they commenced their work in 2016, with the goal of investigating crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under Kosovo law that were commenced or committed in Kosovo between January 1998 and December 2000.

In the context of OSCE missions, the Federal Government seconds rule-of-law and democracy-building experts to missions in the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Central Asia. It also provides financial support for a range of different projects intended to implement related OSCE principles and guidelines in these countries. Developments since 2016 in this connection are as follows:

OSCE observers document weapons near the village of Zolotoye, Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine.

Number of individuals seconded to OSCE missions (on 31 December of each year)

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

02016 2017 2018 2019 2020

7472

52

6563

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As part of a flexible Alliance against Impunity, since autumn 2019, the Federal Government has advocated for perpetrators of the most serious crimes under international criminal law to be brought to justice. This Alliance lends a voice to the call for criminal responsibility and is aimed at joining together efforts to defend and strengthen the international criminal justice system. This includes support for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which is a key element in the prosecution of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity at international level. Since 2019, the Federal Government has been particularly active in the ongoing reform process aimed at strengthening the International Criminal Court.

Other international and hybrid courts set up to try criminal cases in a range of specific situations are further components of the international criminal justice system. The Alliance against Impunity also promotes the project of an international convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity, and is further dedicated to the support of

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The Federal Government will continue its efforts for a broader recognition and strengthening of international criminal jurisdiction, specifically of the Inter-national Criminal Court (ICC).

international mechanisms which collect evidence for subsequent criminal prosecution by domestic authorities or international courts. To date, the mechanisms have focused on crimes committed in Syria and Myanmar, and by Da’esh/ISIL in Iraq.

Auditorium at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

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In its promotion of the rule of law, the Federal Government will also take due account of the goals of Resolution 1325 and its follow-up resolutions on women, peace and security.

The Federal Government follows a gender-sensitive approach in various areas, including promotion of the rule of law; and in doing so, makes a significant contribution to furthering the goals of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

Accordingly, women play an important role in promoting the rule of law. The Federal Government supports rule-of-law reform processes that involve civil society actors, thereby integrating women’s groups into decision-making processes. The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund plays a crucial role in this regard (see voluntary commitment 2). Germany is now one of the largest donors to this United Nations trust fund, which provides support to civil society organisations at local level in empower-ing women to play an active role in peace processes.

The Federal Government, implementing organisations and project part-ners also pay particular attention to ensuring that non-discriminatory

access to justice is possible in fragile contexts, and that gender-specific needs and rights receive their due role within the programmes. Training programmes for security institutions and the judiciary are based on international standards and sensitise specifically in the area of sexual and gender-based violence.

Within the scope of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development lobbies for fundamental reinforcement of the justice sector in partner countries, and for efforts to combat the impunity of the perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence. As part of its development cooperation efforts in Colombia, Germany provides advice, under the project “Support for peacebuilding in Colombia” (ProPaz I, term 2017-2021), to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the Special Unit for the Search of Persons Deemed as Missing and the Truth Commission on the development of uniform guidelines regarding the handling of sexual and gender-based violence. Overall, the project has helped to make the work of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace more comprehensible and accessible for the general population, as well as training staff and developing and deploying practices for collec-tive reparation processes.

Since 2018, transitional development assistance by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has supported advisory net-works in iraq for women who have experienced gender-based violence in accommodation for refugees and host communities. The project operates at a number of different levels; it qualifies, strengthens and interlinks advi-sory structures at local, civil society and state level, and combines this with preventive social work. Over 200 experts received supervision, and over 850 employees of health and education institutions have taken part in aware-ness-raising training sessions on sexual and gender-based violence.

The Baden-Württemberg Police Training Institute offers specific courses on Peace, Women, Security on Combating Sexual and Gender-Based Vio-lence as part of the preparation of police officers for international peace missions. These courses are open not only to police officers from Germany or abroad, but also to civilians. In 2019, a total of eight German police

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officers belonging to international missions (EU and UN), 28 police officers from abroad and nine civilians took part in these courses at the police training institute in Baden-Württemberg.

German policewoman seconded to the bilateral police project in Afghanistan.

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The Federal Government is striving to expand its measures for business develop-ment and employment promotion and for social protection in fragile states, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Particular attention will be given to Africa and the host countries of refugees.

Promoting non-discriminatory employment strengthens state legitimacy and effectiveness and helps to restore social cohesion. Employment measures in fragile contexts are aimed at overcoming inequality by target-ing special support at vulnerable groups. Provided that the Do No Harm principle is followed, positive effects – particularly in the short term – can be achieved by measures of this kind, for example cash-for-work programmes. They can help to minimise the use of negative coping mechanisms by vulnerable groups as a response to adversity, for example child labour to boost a family’s income.

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The Federal Government links these short-term measures with continuing education programmes, support for cooperatives and small businesses and long-term structural reforms, for example of employment markets or social systems, thereby improving long-term employment prospects.

In 2019, over 65,000 people found employment in countries with acute potential for escalation as a result solely of support provided under the heading of technical development cooperation; in addition, working conditions improved for over 300,000 people and incomes increased for over 1.3 million people.

Transitional development assistance makes use of social security and employment promotion measures to strengthen the resilience of vulner-able people and local institutions. Examples include the following:

1 In Somalia, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development provides support in various forms, including training and business start-up assistance for Internally Displaced Persons and young people from host communities. Improved infrastruc-tures, early warning systems and environmental protection also help to ensure that pastoralists can secure their basic needs in spite of recurrent droughts.

1 In the Sahel region, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development supports the social security programmes oper-ated by the World Bank, UNICEF and the World Food Programme aimed at mitigating the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic as a pillar of the fight against poverty. These programmes strengthen the crisis resilience of especially disadvan-taged groups and promote the expansion of social security systems. Cash transfers to particularly vulnerable groups play a crucial role: up to 1.8 million people (in Mali, Mauritania and the Niger) are to benefit from short-term payments and supplementary social services. The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Programme, which

is executed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development together with the World Bank, is intended to reach a further 1.4 million people in need in the Sahel region.

1 In Middle Eastern countries particularly affected by displacement, the Partnership for Prospects in the Middle East, which forms part of the Special Initiative on Displacement, promotes a large number of short-term employment opportunities; since 2018, these have increasingly included medium- to long-term employment options. With the aim of creating new prospects for individuals affected by flight and displacement in Syria’s neighbours and helping to stabilise host communities, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development facilitated over 260,000 short-term jobs for Syrian refugees and persons in need in host communities between 2017 and 2019 under these programmes. In 2019, over 584,000 Syrian children were able to attend school as a result of the funding of teachers’ salaries, and medium- and long-term prospects were also created for an additional 11,270  individuals in 2019 through vocational training and support for business start-ups.

For individuals affected by displacement, basic and further training pro-grammes serve as a foundation for achieving independence and integration, as well as providing them with future prospects and promoting social cohe-sion. This is why a high proportion of all the programmes funded under the Special Initiative on Displacement also incorporate business development and employment promotion components.

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SOCiAl SECUriTy AND EMPlOyMENT PrOMOTiON FOr rEFUGEES AND iNTErNAlly DiSPlACED PErSONS

1 improved career prospects for young people in Darfur: In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur in the Sudan, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development supports an expanded roll-out of vocational qualifications for refugees and vulnerable persons from the region, with a focus on adapting training and qualification provision to the needs of the local employment mar-ket. This results in the creation of new jobs, which is particularly important for the younger people who make up a large propor-tion of the population.

1 in iraq, the Federal Government provides support in the form of short- to medium-term employment opportunities for refugees, internally Displaced Persons and host communities. The work involves removing debris and helping to rebuild homes or local infrastructures. These short-term and medium-term measures are linked to longer-term projects: the Federal Government supports Iraq in the implementation of longer-term economic reforms and private-sector diversification. The aim is to provide small and medium-sized enterprises with the ability to access credit more easily and hire staff quicker thanks to more efficient working practices on the part of the competent authorities.

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Wirtschaft und Entwicklung), which provides companies with initial advice and referrals on the topic of business and human rights.

The Federal Government has adopted an Implementing Act for the EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation (for further information, see p. 97 below).

Trade barriers such as complex customs rules and opaque, time-consuming customs procedures are a problem faced by many developing and emerg-ing countries as well. High transaction costs make it harder for domestic businesses to access global markets. The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement was concluded in 2013 for the purpose of improving cross-border trade in goods, and finally entered into force in 2017. Its aim is to streamline customs processes as a means of making cross-border trade less costly and time-consuming. Accelerating customs processes makes it possible for companies – both those in developing countries and those in Germany – to do business more quickly and with less red tape. This can bring down the price of essential goods.

In 2015, Germany, together with other industrialised countries and eco-nomic partners, acted to implement the WTO Agreement by founding a Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation; one year later, the German Alliance for Trade Facilitation was also founded. Both are set up as multi-actor partnerships.

1 In addition to Germany, the Global Alliance is supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as by over 20 international companies (including DHL, BASF, Maersk, Walmart, Fiat and Chrysler). The World Economic Forum, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Centre for International Private Enterprise and GIZ are responsible for implementing the Alliance at operational level. The Global Alliance is currently running projects in various countries, including Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.

1 In addition to the Federal Government and GIZ, around seven associations and around 20 companies are involved in the

... Forging new alliances with the German business sector and with international partners, e.g. under the multi-stakeholder partnership Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation.

In December 2016, with a view to implementation in Germany of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Federal Government adopted the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights 2016-2020 (NAP). In the NAP, the Federal Government expresses its expectation that all businesses will exercise human rights due diligence in their trade relations. The Federal Government offers support to companies within this frame-work. it has set up special National Action Plan networks at some of its diplomatic missions. They promote the exchange of information between German businesses and experts in the host country, and foster dialogue on the topic of business and human rights with the host government. Twenty diplomatic missions are already trialling this concept.

In October 2017, the Federal Government also set up an NAP Helpdesk within the Agency for Business and Economic Development (Agentur für

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The Federal Government’s measures for business development and employment will include:

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German Alliance for Trade Facilitation. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development belong jointly to the steering group. The German Alliance implements projects in Indonesia, Thailand, Ukraine, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Moldova, Morocco and Brazil.

Ensuring that the private sector contributes its know-how on trade and customs processes is of decisive importance for implementing the WTO Agreement in developing countries. The Alliances are continually evolving, and it is planned that, in keeping with the Guidelines, other business partners will join them in future.

... Developing innovative solutions with the private financial and insurance sectors.

The Federal Government has put the topic of financial services for refu-gees on the international agenda, for example at G20 level, and initiated a roadmap on this topic in December 2019. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development also supports a better environ-ment for the provision of financial services to refugees (including research projects in Jordan and Kenya and capacity building among regulatory authorities; see the information box on the financial inclusion of refugees).

German development cooperation supports partner countries wishing to build resilient financial systems, and one way of providing such support is to expand cooperation with the private sector, the financial sector, regu-latory authorities and political decision-makers. This includes innovative solutions in the fields of digital financial services, climate risk insurance and adequate risk management.

in Jordan, German development cooperation, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Jordan and local fintechs, promotes the expansion of digital solutions, in particular mobile financial services, with a view to facilitating access to financial services for all population groups, including

rOADMAP TO THE FiNANCiAl iNClUSiON OF rEFUGEES

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment put the topic of the financial inclusion of refugees on the international agenda for the first time in 2017 as part of Germany’s G20 Presidency. This resulted in closer dialogue between govern-ments, the finance sector, humanitarian organisations, donors, standard-setting bodies and academia, in particular in the context of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion; the key findings that emerged from this dialogue are reflected in a jointly adopted roadmap. An alliance of ten international partners from various sectors and governments published this roadmap at the first Global Refugee Forum held in Geneva in December 2019. The long-term goal is to incorporate its recommendations and results into national policies and measures, thereby putting into practice the commitments of the Global Compact on Refugees.

MOBilE FiNANCiAl SErViCES

The term “mobile financial services” covers a broad spectrum of financial services provided via mobile telephone. Mobile tele-phone-based money transfers save time and money and allow for increased geographical flexibility. They serve as a means of providing even poor and rural populations with access to finan-cial services; for example, mobile wallets are a straightforward, cheap and secure way for individuals to receive social payments or money from friends and family, and transfers are also possible. This increases the transparency of payment flows, which is a vital foundation for combating corruption.

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refugees, and improving remittances. The level of demand for and use of digital financial services rose during the present crisis in Jordan, and they thus proved a resilient tool (see the information box on p. 89).

German development cooperation strengthens Arab Central Banks through the initiative Financial Inclusion in the Arab Region. Modern policies, rules and approaches that take account of the latest developments in terms of technological progress in the financial sector increasingly play an impor-tant role for secure digital financial systems that allow citizens to earn a living and companies to provide employment:

1 Arab financial and monetary authorities have developed recom-mendations for the digital transformation of the financial sector; these recommendations were adopted in September 2020.

1 Sixteen countries in the region have developed strategies for the digital transformation of financial sectors.

1 A regional virtual hackathon has been organised with a view to promoting innovative fintech solutions.

... Establishing incentive-based reform partnerships for accelerated sustainable development.

... Increasing its support for private sector efforts to develop sustainable supply chains and production capacities, in alignment with environmental and social standards.

Sustainable supply chains make an important contribution to stabilising households and private companies in fragile contexts. integration into international supply chains makes it easier to earn an income and secure employment. Environmental and social standards play a major role in this

connection, but it is particularly important to help the local private sector to comply with these standards, for example through the corresponding technological and financial capacities, innovation potential, skill build-ing and market information. The relevant interventions are therefore important starting points for German development policy when it comes to building or ensuring the survival of supply chains in fragile contexts. They make a vital contribution to sustainable business and employment promotion.

Over recent years, there has been a steady rise in the requirements to be met by businesses in terms of human rights compliance along their global supply and value creation chains. The adoption of the NAP on Business and Human Rights was a clear signal by the Federal Government that it expects businesses to step up in this area. Compliance with human rights due diligence requirements is an ongoing and long-term process that looks different for every business and that raises a great many practical questions. In implementation of the coalition agreement, the Federal Government is currently drafting an act on corporate due diligence along supply chains. The aim of the act is to ensure that businesses based in Germany that employ a certain number of people are obliged to shoulder more fully their responsibilities as regards compliance with internationally recognised human rights along supply chains, through implementation of the core elements of human rights due diligence. It will stipulate what businesses need to do in order to comply with their human rights due diligence obligations, and the precise scope of their duty to act.

The Federal Government initiates sectoral dialogues with a view to improving the human rights situation along global supply and value creation chains. The underlying goal of these dialogues is to provide guid-ance to businesses in sectors facing particular human rights challenges and to support them in implementing the human rights due diligence requirements set out in the NAP. They help businesses to work together to identify operational implementation problems and to develop possible solutions. The outcomes of this process include recommended courses of action and best practice examples, which are tried and tested in practice and serve as a source of guidance. Since early 2020, businesses, industry

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associations, civil society and trade unions have been working together successfully on an ambitious realisation of the NAP in business practice through sectoral dialogue with the German automotive industry.

Under the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, which was set up as a multi-actor partnership, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development supports businesses to comply with their corporate due diligence obligations both in-house and along the entire supply chain. The Partnership provides its members with comprehensive information on this topic and also serves as a platform for exchanges of experience and discussions. Its initiatives facilitate joint involvement with the aim of improving social and ecological production conditions on the ground. Since 2019, the government-run certification label “Green Button” has been awarded to textiles that have been produced in line with certain social and ecological criteria. It is not only production con-ditions for the specific product that are examined under the Green Button scheme; instead, the entire company is assessed on its compliance with corporate due diligence obligations along the supply chain.

The funding streams under the Emergency COVID 19 Support Pro-gramme put in place by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development included support for ILO activities aimed at stabilising the textiles sector in seven countries hit particularly hard by the COVID 19 pandemic, thereby mitigating the consequences for employees.

.. Giving particular support to the economic activities of women.

Women and girls encounter particular challenges in contexts of fragility and displacement. Changes in circumstances and environments brought about by displacement or armed conflicts increase the risks and vulner-abilities faced by women and girls. Health and psychosocial care services are vitally important, but so too is business development, which Germany promotes in various partner countries under the heading of development policy:

1 In lebanon, for example, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has been helping, since 2019 by means of transitional development assistance, to improve the livelihoods of rural communities and Syrian refugees with a view to reducing social tensions. A key goal of the project is to ensure women’s participation and acceptance in economic life. Women

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are therefore treated as equal participants in training courses on agriculture-related topics, allowing them to build their knowledge of the steps involved in further processing and marketing agricul-tural products. They are also given exclusive support if they wish to set up small agricultural enterprises, which enhances their employment opportunities.

1 The focuses of German development cooperation in iraq include empowering women to play their due role in economic policy processes and supporting them if they wish to start a business.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development also be-longs to the multilateral Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, which mobilises finance for female entrepreneurs in countries around the world, for example Yemen and Mali.

... Expanding employment promotion in crisis countries and in the host countries of refugees.

Economic development, investment and reconstruction play key role in the stabilisation of fragile states, structure-building measures and peacebuilding efforts in (post-)conflict situations. Income an employ-ment are important peace dividends for local populations and (former) warring factions. In this context, promoting the private sector is an active contribution to a much-needed public-private dialogue that builds peace. Efforts in this area create economic pros-pects and strengthen society’s trust in government institutions.

Displacement situations are often long-lasting in nature, and can mean that entire generations grow up without economic prospects. Targeting economic development measures at forcibly displaced persons and host communities allows the individuals affected to build new livelihoods, as well as fostering their long-term independence and playing a key role in the socioeconomic integration of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.

In acute crisis situations, there is a need for rapid and flexible instruments which at the same time – through longer-term measures – contribute to lasting stabilisation and promote the establishment of structures. In 2016, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development therefore launched the Partnership for Prospects in the Middle East as part of the Special Initiative “Tackling the Root Causes of Displacement, (Re)integrating Refugees” (for further details, see voluntary commitment 18).

Transitional development assistance is a tool to overcome crises that mainstreams sustainable income and employment promotion measures across all fields of policy. In Bangladesh, for example, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development funds access to vocational training for young people affected by the Rohingya crisis, both inside and outside the refugee camps. The programme also incorporates ongoing post-training support and psychosocial care. Girls and women provided with training in this way are able to access the labour market and become more financially independent.

Alongside these employment-related measures, programmes aimed at strengthening the private sector for the future and equipping people with the right skills play a vital role in facilitating the long-term avail-ability of jobs. German development cooperation provides its partners around the world with support in this area; for example, it boosts the competitiveness of businesses in Turkey by enabling dialogue between the public and private sectors. The Federal Ministry for Economic Coopera-tion and Development also ensures that the implementation of practical vocational training builds on the experience and expertise of businesses and economic organisations. As part of the programme of vocational training partnerships launched by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2010, German business associations and trade chambers cooperate with similar chambers and vocational training institutions in the host countries. In recent years, Germany has initiated development cooperation projects under the vocational training partner-ship programme that are specially aimed at refugees or crisis countries

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... Stepping up its support for measures for climate change adaptation and promoting and pushing cli-mate risk insurance initiatives such as InsuResilience

The Global Partnership for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (InsuResilience Global Partnership) was launched at the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, on 14 November 2017. The aim of this Partnership is to boost the resilience to climate risks of the poorest and most vulnerable population groups in developing countries. Special emphasis is placed on climate and disaster risk finance and, in particular, insurance, with a view to enabling governments and households to respond more rapidly and in a more targeted manner to extreme weather events and natural disasters, thereby minimising potential cost implications.

The InsuResilience Global Partnership currently has over 90 member partners around the world. Together with the other partners that endorsed its “Vision 2025”, Germany undertook to provide insurance coverage to 500 million poor and vulnerable people against extreme weather events by 2025. A total of 22 programmes in 101 countries encompassing 218 projects that further the aims of the Partnership are already running or in the process of being set up. The Federal Ministry for Economic Coopera-tion and Development has already provided around €670 million for the implementation of risk finance and insurance solutions; Parliamentary State Secretary Maria Flachsbarth co-chairs the Partnership’s High-Level Consultative Group.

Increasing resource scarcity and the consequences of climate change impose additional challenges on private-sector undertakings in fragile contexts. Climate-resilient societies and economic systems are better placed to deal with political fragility and conflicts; in the absence of this resilience, there is a risk of mutually reinforcing dynamics. Germany therefore promotes the climate change adaptation capacities not only of countries but also of private-sector undertakings through development cooperation. For example, since 2015, German development cooperation has adhered to the Climate Expert approach, which involves empowering

businesses to identify and implement individual climate change adaptation measures.

Both of these approaches make an important contribution to protecting people and stabilising private-sector undertakings in fragile contexts. This is vitally important to prevent the mutual aggravation of increasing climate risks and political fragility.

... Making the funding of conflicts from mining reve-nues more difficult, e.g. through an active commit-ment to compulsory EU regulations on the import of natural resources, as part of international processes like the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for the certification of “conflict-free” diamonds, or by transparency initiatives such as the Extractive Indus-tries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

On 6 November 2019, the Federal Government adopted an Implementing Act for the EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation of 17 May 2017. Among other provisions, this Act appoints the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources as the national supervisory authority responsible for the effective and uniform application of the EU Regulation. The Federal Institute’s tasks include ensuring that German importers of “conflict minerals” that fall within the scope of the EU Regulation (tantalum, tung-sten, tin, their ores and gold) comply with due diligence obligations along their supply chains. From a development policy perspective, the Federal Government supports implementation of the EU regulation through bilat-eral projects in the Democratic republic of the Congo, a regional project in the Great lakes region and membership of the European Partnership for responsible Minerals a multi-stakeholder initiative.

Development cooperation efforts have also included monitoring the Kimberley Process in the producing countries themselves with a view to

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curbing more effectively the illegal smuggling of conflict diamonds. The Federal Government, in cooperation with the EU, supports the networking of national and local actors belonging to the Mano River Union and capacity building within its supervisory authorities.

The Federal Government supports implementation of the EITI Standard at both national and international level; the aim of this Standard is to improve transparency and accountability in the extractives sector. Between July 2019 and December 2020, Germany chaired one of the three European sub-con-stituencies of EITI supporting countries.

... Helping the poorest, least developed countries (LDCs) to double their share in total world exports by 2020 (SDG 17 of the 2030 Agenda); to do this, the Federal Government will in particular step up its contributions to a Multi-Donor Trust Fund organised as part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which supports the trade policy and trade projects of LDCs (Enhanced Integrated Framework), and assist the implementation of the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements with developing countries with accompanying develop-ment-policy measures.

Improving the opportunities for developing and emerging countries to engage in trade is a vital component of global sustainable development. The least developed countries in particular continue to face major challenges in terms of integrating into global value creation chains, and have limited ability to access the opportunities provided by international trade. The Enhanced integrated Framework (EiF) is dedicated to helping these least developed countries to overcome trade barriers and become more inte-grated in the international trade system. The EIF is a multi-donor partner-ship set up in 2007 for the purpose of supporting least developed countries

(around 50 in number) in their external trade policy and with trade-related investments. This also includes – based on a case-by-case examination – the promotion of exports from certain industries in LDCs. Entities represented within the EIF include voluntary donor countries, the LDCs themselves and multilateral trade institutions. The EIF is housed within the WTO in Geneva. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development provides an average of €1.3 million in funding to the EIF each year. Germany cooperates with other donor countries on matters relating to the steering of the EIF.

The European Commission has negotiated Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with a view to regulating trade relations between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. Through trade-based development cooperation, the Federal Government helps countries to leverage the potential of EPAs at the level of implementation and use: at supra-regional level, Germany currently provides €4.5 million in support for the implementation and monitoring of EPAs over the 2020-2023 period. A participative monitoring system with civil society involve-ment allows the ACP states to control implementation of the EPAs proactively, with the ultimate aim of contributing to sustainable develop-ment. This makes it possible to maximise positive impacts, identify risks at

ENHANCED iNTEGrATED FrAMEWOrK (EiF)

The EIF is a multi-donor partnership set up in 2007 for the purpose of supporting least developed countries (around 50 in number) in their external trade policy and with trade-related investments. This also includes – based on a case-by-case examination – the promo-tion of exports from certain industries in LDCs. Entities represented within the EIF include voluntary donor countries, the LDCs them-selves and multilateral trade institutions. The EIF is housed within the WTO in Geneva.

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an early stage and ensure that the protective tools introduced by the EPAs for the African partner countries (the temporary imposition of customs duties, for example) can be used in a timely manner.

At regional level, the Federal Government advises the regional organisa-tions on ways of deepening the economic integration process. At national level, the Federal Government supports, among other things, the estab-lishment of agricultural value chains and the elimination of technical trade barriers.

EMPlOyMENT PrOMOTiON iN CriSiS COUNTriES

The vocational training partnership launched in 2019 between the Training and Development Centres of the Bavarian Employers’ Associations (bfz) and the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST) involves local businesses in the training and inte-gration of young people, including Syrian refugees.

Under the TAMEB project, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has been supporting a German/Turkish partnership for the vocational training of refugees since early 2016. TAMEB focuses on practical and theoretical training leading to vocational qualifications, as well as language courses and courses on social integration. Over the period up to October 2020, TAMEB had provided language training to over 5300 Syrians (up to A2 level in Turkish) and made it possible for over 2500 Syrians to attend integration courses. More than 3600 individuals have attended vocational training courses organised by TAMEB and been awarded a certificate that meets the standards set by Turkey; almost 40% were women. Although all government-run educational establishments in Turkey were closed in early 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, TAMEB was able to transition its training courses from in-person to online teaching in a very short space of time. This meant that it was possible for project participants to continue attending the training courses throughout the pandemic, despite the challenging circumstances.

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The Federal Government has committed itself to the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies in keeping with Goal 16 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which includes the building of accountable, effective and inclusive institutions and structures. A functioning administration, particularly in towns and municipalities, is a crucial component of a state that is capable of acting. It guarantees access to information and services for both citizens and businesses. Needs can be better identified and met at the local level, and successful municipal structures make a key contribu-tion to social cohesion. Promoting administrative reforms and decentrali-sation is therefore a hallmark of German development cooperation.

Germany’s expertise in this area is internationally esteemed and in demand. Among other things, it involves helping institutions to improve their use of digital technologies with a view to making administrative procedures more inclusive, more efficient and more transparent (e-governance). For exam-ple, Ghana’s Government has taken action in this area to improve its land

registry system, and introduced new software with the goal of improving revenue management, municipal planning and the budgetary process.

In the interests of stabilisation in the Sahel region, the Federal Government stepped up its engagement there over the period between 2017 and 2020 compared to the period between 2013 and 2016 (programmes in Maurita-nia, Mali, Burkina Faso, the Niger and Chad). Since 2018, it has focused its support on strengthening the resilience of state structures and municipal-ities so that they can provide basic services on a non-discriminatory basis, with the aim of building (or restoring) trust in the state. As part of the Sahel Alliance, the Federal Government leads the Working Group on Decentral-isation and Basic Services, thereby helping to coordinate donor contribu-tions. Priority topics in this area include the following:

1 training for local mandate holders, 1 greater provision of basic services by local authorities, and 1 fiscal decentralisation.

Under Germany’s leadership, the Working Group has worked on policy messages as a vital foundation for dialogue with the G5 Sahel, allowing members of the Sahel Alliance to coordinate demands and support for core political reforms vis-à-vis the G5.

Together with Switzerland, Germany funds the informal donor network DeLoG (Development Partners Network on Decentralisation and Local Governance), which coordinates the interventions of 43 bilateral and mul-tilateral donors and development partners in the field of decentralisation and local governance. Among other things, the DeLoG network organises specially designed learning events in different formats for member and partner organisations involved in decentralisation efforts.

The Federal Government also supports administrative reforms, decentrali-sation and local governance through the promotion of the rule of law in the areas of crisis prevention, stabilisation and peacebuilding. As a result, measures in this area are targeted primarily at resolving internal conflicts over power and resource sharing and at establishing and strengthen-

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The Federal Government is striving to further expand administrative reforms, decentralisation, local governance and the fight against corruption in line with implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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With a view to ensuring that corruption does not pay, and in keeping with Sub-Goal 16.4 of the SDGs, Germany helps its partner countries to combat illicit financial flows. This allows these countries to improve compliance with key international standards, such as the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Since 2017, the Federal Government has increased the volume of funding earmarked for a dedicated global project on the combating of illicit financial flows from €6.7 to 9.5 million, and expanded the scope of this project from three to eight partner countries.

ing legitimate state institutions that enjoy the warranted trust of the population. Priorities include decentralisation and federalisation in countries where there is still a need to breathe life into new or reformed constitutions. For example, workshops on decentralisation models currently play an important role in the ongoing provision of advice on constitutional drafting in the Sudan.

Fighting corruption (Sub-Goal 16.5) is a central pillar of the implementa-tion of SDG 16, and a cross-cutting issue for the 2030 Agenda as a whole. Corruption not only undermines the effectiveness of state institutions, but is also a central driver of conflict in fragile countries. Germany there-fore campaigns for anti-corruption policies on the international stage, for example within the OECD, the G20, the Council of Europe (Group of States against Corruption) and the UN. Germany also supports the imple-mentation in partner countries of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, and of the UN Convention against Corruption.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of explicit anti-corruption projects. For example, the Federal Government supports the local anti-corruption authority in Côte d’ivoire by funding the project

“Good Governance for More Investment and Employment”. The Federal Government (via UNODC) assists five African partner countries with their efforts to implement the UN Convention against Corruption. Together with the OAS, the Federal Government supports the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras; together with the UN, it supports the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala.

2030 iMPlEMENTATiON iNiTiATiVE

The 2030 Implementation Initiative has helped Mexico to imple-ment the 2030 Agenda as a collective national multi-level process. At the Mexican Government’s request, the Federal Government has also supported the development of a sustainability strategy in this connection. In addition, Oaxaca (one of Mexico’s federal states) has successfully aligned its local development plans and tax mechanisms with 2030 Agenda and introduced binding review procedures.

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COMBATiNG COrrUPTiON iN CôTE D’iVOirE:

Since 2020, the Federal Government has supported a holistic approach to increasing the transparency of governance structures in Côte d’Ivoire, which brings together different stakeholders in the fight against corruption. The goals are as follows:

1 providing systematic protection for anonymous informants and whistleblowers;

1 building the capacities of investigating authorities in respect of financial matters;

1 strengthening the audit court (Cour des Comptes); and

1 making public procurement more transparent, while at the same time paying more attention to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises and also providing them with training on competition law.

Combating and preventing corruption are two key goals of German devel-opment cooperation. The fight against corruption is a basic prerequisite for fair resource sharing and for peaceful and legitimate conflict resolution mechanisms within societies. Efforts to prevent and combat corruption are therefore incorporated into active crisis prevention and peacebuilding. In view of this fact, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development organised an international conference in November 2019 on corruption in fragile states, with the aim of debating and further developing practical experiences and potential solutions with relevant stakeholders.

The Federal Government is involved in international organisations and fora and plays a decisive role in shaping the anti-corruption agenda at the level of the G20, the UN and the OECD. For example, it is a member of the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group and feeds Germany’s position into the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption.

integrity of the judiciary and police is a vital prerequisite for a functioning state and for building the population’s trust in its institutions.

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The Federal Government is committed to reinforcing its involvement in the fight against corruption, especially with regard to the aspect of prevention.

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The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development therefore supports inter-agency investigative approaches to combating economic crimes, for example through the global project on the combating of illicit financial flows in partner countries.

Efforts to combat and prevent corruption accordingly fulfil an important role in implementing the Marshall Plan with Africa. Audit courts have a key part to play in detecting and preventing corruption; Germany supports these courts under the heading of development cooperation, for example in Uganda and (via a regional project) in Latin America.

Via bilateral and multilateral projects (e.g. with UNODC), the Federal Govern-ment supports national institutions tasked with preventing or combating corruption in partner countries. The irz plays an important role in this connection. On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, it organises training sessions on a wide range of subjects for government-based legal practitioners, such as ministries of justice, special public prosecutors’ offices or anti-corruption courts, as well as seminars with local anti-corruption authorities. Overall, the Federal Government provides support of this kind in the field of combating and preventing corruption to over 25 partner countries, including Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Colombia, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Mali, Moldova, Monte-negro, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Peru, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

In order to mount an effective fight against corruption and other crimes associated with illicit cross-border financial flows, the Federal Government – together with the OECD – also supports regular exchanges between criminal law practitioners from OECD and non-OECD countries at international and regional level. Meetings of this kind take place in regional formats (e.g. the Asia-Pacific Law Enforcement Practitioners Network) or in a supra-regional format (as the Global Network of Law Enforcement Practitioners).

The equitable participation of different social groups in political processes fosters peaceful conflict resolution. For example, civil society actors have

an important role to play in demanding transparency and accountability. Germany therefore works closely together with organisations such as Transparency international (Ti), the world’s largest civil society anti-cor-ruption organisation. The Federal Government has supported a number of initiatives by Transparency International, including (since 2018) its efforts to monitor and demand implementation of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption in eleven African countries. Under Transparency International’s Journalists for Transparency initiative, it sup-ports young journalists reporting on corruption, thereby bolstering media and civil society and helping young people to participate in social processes.

The Federal Government provides support via the Alliance for Integrity, which has now moved into a new phase of action; since 2018, with a view to increasing the transparency and integrity of the economic system, it has in this way promoted collective measures by relevant stakeholders from the private and public sectors and from civil society.

MArSHAll PlAN WiTH AFriCA:

In early 2017, the Marshall Plan with Africa marked a sea change in development cooperation between Germany and Africa. Ever since, this comprehensive strategy has served as a conceptual framework for the Africa policy of the Federal Ministry for Economic Coopera-tion and Development. The focus is on a new model of cooperation between equal partners under which government funding serves as a catalyst for private-sector investments, thereby instigating sustainable, inclusive and self-supporting economic development. The reform partnerships launched in 2017 and 2019 with particularly reform-minded countries represent a core pillar of Marshall Plan imple-mentation, with the goal of improving the structural framework for private-sector involvement so as to create new jobs and raise income levels. Reform partnerships are based on the presumption that the partner governments will input their own resources, and take these governments’ own individual development agendas as a starting point.

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The Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) was founded in 2015 during the UN’s Third International Conference on Financing for Development. The ATi aims to promote increased and more efficient domestic revenue mobilisation (DrM) through the establishment of fair, transparent and effective tax systems. Under this initiative, Germany (a founding member) and around 20 other donors have undertaken to double the support they provide in the field of domestic revenue mobilisation to a total of €430 million.

Germany provided support worth €28.6 million (commitment volume) for DRM-related measures in 2015. The preliminary figures for 2019 show an increase in commitments by Germany to €57 million.

While donors have undertaken to double their support in the field of DRM, partner countries have, in turn, committed themselves to mobilis-ing more domestic revenues.

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As a member of the Addis Tax Initiative, the Federal Government has committed to doubling its contribution to strengthening tax administrations by 2020.

70.00

60.00

50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00

10.00

0.002015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Addis Tax Initiative: commitments in € million

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Participants in the ATI/ITC Tax and Development conference in Berlin, 2019.

The ATI currently has 45 member countries. A further 16 organisations support it, including the OECD, the IMF, regional tax networks, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UN. The International Tax Compact launched by the Federal Government in 2009 acts as the ATI’s Secretariat.

Over the years since it was set up, the ATi has evolved into an active multi-stakeholder platform and an internationally recognised name. It provides a forum for recipient and donor countries to meet as partners and drive forward domestic revenue mobilisation for sustainable development.

With a view to building on its success and tackling new challenges, the ATI has decided to extend the voluntary commitment beyond 2020 and to realign its strategy. Closer links to the 2030 Agenda will be a core aim of this future strategy.

In November 2020, the ATI members agreed a new five-year mandate for the ATI based on four obligations. The partner countries have committed to enhance DRM (Commitment 1), while the donor countries have, for their part, committed to maintain the level of DRM support agreed in 2015 (Commitment 2). In addition, all signatories have jointly committed to apply coherent policies (Commitment 3) and to enhance transparency and accountability (Commitment 4) in tax and revenue matters.

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Voluntary commitment 23 – 50

Structures and partnerships for peacebuilding

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The Horizon Scanning Working Group met for the first time on 21 Septem-ber 2018; it replaced the previous interministerial meetings on the topic of early warning at Head of Division level. The Working Group is chaired by the Federal Foreign Office, with further members including the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment, as well as the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Intelligence Service. The Horizon Scanning Working Group identifies, analyses and pri-oritises potential crises around the world at an early stage. The members of the Horizon Scanning Working Group engage their respective analytical (quantitative and qualitative) resources to this end. The results, which are aligned and evaluated at interministerial level and include recommenda-tions for action, are presented to the Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace at Director-General level.

In the area of early warning, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Defence utilise not only the expertise of the regional or thematic devisions, but also data-based quantitative early warning tools within the scope of the PREVIEW and Early Crisis Detection – IT Support

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The Federal Government of Germany is committed to further fine-tuning and synchronising its early warning instru-ments.

(iT U KFE) projects. (Since the Federal Ministry of Defence project is still at the execution stage, only test results are currently available.) A pool of publicly accessible data sources is supplemented by the Federal Ministry of Defence with evaluated sources, and the programmes provide analyt-ical backup in the form of forecasts, visualisations, maps and interactive applications (e.g. dashboards). The Centre of Excellence for Early Warning (Kompetenzzentrum Krisenfrüherkennung), which the Federal Ministry of Defence launched on 1 October 2020 in the form of a university-based research institute as part of a pilot project within its area of operations, contributes to the further development of IT-based early warning on the basis of scientific methods. The Federal Foreign Office is also involved in this area. In addition, PREVIEW pursues the long-term task of supply-ing different federal ministries with products and services in the field of early warning and information management relating to external policy activities.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development observes and analyses the situation and crisis-related developments in the partner countries covered by German development cooperation. In addition, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment ensures that findings from its own analytical tools (which have a global reach) feed into interministerial early warning processes, which it regularly enhances according to political need; these include the annual, country-specific and qualitative Escalation Potential Analysis (ESKA), the political and economic analyses and the process for assessment of the governance situation in partner countries that takes place within the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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With a view to ensuring horizontal coordination of strategic foresight at operational level within the Federal Government, the Federal Chancellery also launched the interministerial Group on Strategic Foresight in early 2020. All of the federal ministries are involved in this Interministerial Group, which serves as a forum for both methodological and procedural discussions and for substantive debates on future topics at interministerial level.

The Federal Government works closely together with bilateral and multilateral partners on selected analytical projects, and is involved in strategic foresight, early warning and conflict analysis networks. The Federal Government drives forward early warning, early action processes at EU level, especially in the context of the EU Conflict Early Warning System and via the Early Warning/Early Action Forum. In 2019, Germany was the first EU member state to assume the role of “member state in the lead” for early warning analysis in a country-specific context, and carried out a strategy process at EU level. The outcome was a specific prevention strategy in keeping with the tenets of the integrated approach.

At NATO level, the Federal Government lobbies for a stepping up of strategic foresight and early warning, inter alia as part of the reflection process to strengthen NATO’s political dimension initiated by the Federal Government.

in addition, a Centre of Excellence for Strategic Foresight will be set up before the end of this year within the Federal Academy for Security Policy, with the goal of improving interministerial foresight in the future.

interministerial strategic processes based on strategic foresight methods as well as conflict and actor analysis have helped to strengthen the Federal Government’s strategic and operative capabilities. In particular, the Federal Government can use stabilisation and crisis prevention tools in a more pre-cise and targeted manner on this basis. The Federal Foreign Office’s needs-based prospective analyses and strategic formats for the development of specific courses of action play an important role in this connection. In early summer 2020, for example, in order to gain a better understanding of the potential impacts of the COVID 19 crisis on the development of the situa-tion in various countries in the MENA region and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Federal Foreign Office carried out a comprehensive scenario analysis that serves as an important point of reference for crisis prevention in this area.

The Strategy and Foresight Network, which was launched by the Federal Ministry of Defence in 2016, regularly brings together representatives of government, academia and business to debate future-oriented topics of relevance for security policy, thereby helping to improve the Federal Government’s strategy and foresight capabilities.

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The Federal Government will employ methods of strategic forecasting and strive for close international cooperation in early warning and fragility analysis.

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POliCy PriOriTy:

Better understanding conflicts and creating opportunities for early action: Spanning the gap between early warning and crisis prevention

Identifying better ways for the Federal Government to detect future crises at an early stage, and using these findings as a basis for spanning the gap between early warning and effective crisis prevention, is an important goal pursued by the Guidelines. At international level, this synergistic relationship is commonly referred to using the phrase “early warning, early action”. Both warning and action are vital important if crisis prevention is to succeed.

The window of time for crisis prevention is limited, however. Early warning systems do not produce accurate predictions of the precise date when a crisis will occur or of its intensity. Nevertheless, they can produce useful ideas and put topics, regions or countries on the agenda that might previously have flown under the political radar. They can create oppor-tunities for action and identify starting points for crisis prevention. The Federal Government has developed this approach to early warning since 2017, and enshrined it in interministerial procedures. The “early warning, early action” principle is now a permanent feature of foreign, security and development policy.

The Federal Foreign Office has introduced the PrEViEW tool, for example, which supplies key initial pointers in the field of early warning, and a com-parable assistance system is currently being developed within the Federal Ministry of Defence under the name Early Crisis Detection – IT Support. A centre of excellence controlled at ministerial level by the Federal Ministry of Defence is responsible for the coordinated scientific advancement of these digital tools and the building of methodological skills in the area of quantitative crisis and conflict research. The data- and AI-based prediction models of PREVIEW generate quarterly lists of countries with increased

crisis potential; these lists are evaluated and categorised by experienced conflict researchers and data scientists. Interministerial reports from units in Germany and the missions abroad help to build up an overall picture. These suggestions are validated by the regional divisions responsible for specific countries: they assess the plausibility of the stated potential for crisis, Germany’s interests and any starting points for crisis prevention measures. This approach means that innovative early warning methods can be complemented by the know-how and evaluations supplied by the divisions responsible for specific countries or thematic areas and the missions abroad.

The PrEViEW Portal is the starting point for all PREVIEW applications. It covers a wide product portfolio in the fields of data, artificial intelligence and analytics.

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The main questions examined as part of an early warning analysis of this kind by the Horizon Scanning Working Group, coordinated at interministerial level, are as follows:

1 What is the nature of the crisis potential? Which causes or reasons have been identified?

1 To what extent are Germany’s interests affected?

1 What are the crucial drivers of conflict, and which resilience factors can be identified?

1 What is the likelihood that the conflict will escalate in the immediate future (over the next 24 months)?

1 What are the entry points for Germany’s foreign, security and development policy, and what are the possible courses of action by the Federal Government with a view to crisis prevention or crisis management?

The Horizon Scanning Working Group presents the results to the interministerial Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, resolving Conflicts, Building Peace at Director-General level. The Coordinating Group can then decide on potential courses of action and assign tasks to the regional or thematic divisions in the ministries.

The process for spanning the gap between early warning and crisis prevention developed under the aegis of the Coordinating Group goes far beyond previous early warning approaches: the modified procedure combines sensors, analysis, expertise, Germany’s interests and courses of action aimed at crisis prevention or mitigation, all at interministerial level.

Following the evaluation and amendment of its existing early warning tools in 2018, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development now uses the Escalation Potential Analysis produced on an annual basis by the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) to ensure the early identification of potentially violent tensions in countries that fall within the scope of German development cooperation. This helps Germany to apply a preventive and peacebuilding approach to the planning and orientation of development cooperation. The findings that emerge from this collaboration between academia and federal ministries are reflected in the implementa-tion of political guidelines: in partner countries where an increased or acute potential for escalation has been identified, the organisations responsible for implementing German development cooperation are obliged to carry out a Peace and Conflict Assessment and submit annual reports on changes in the conflict structure and any adjustments that need to be made to pro-grammes as a result.

Both early warning measures and measures spanning the gap between early warning and crisis prevention are as a matter of principle intermin-isterial tasks. The relevant working group (the Horizon Scanning Working Group) meets quarterly to discuss such matters, and is chaired by the Federal Foreign Office. On the basis of their own findings, the federal ministries involved – which apart from the Federal Foreign Office include the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Intelligence Service – can propose topics and countries which, in their opinion, hold the greatest potential for imminent crises or the exacerbation of existing armed conflicts. The Horizon Scanning Working Group prioritises the proposals and decides on which potential crises the federal ministries should together draw up an in-depth early warning analysis and set out potential courses of action with a view to crisis prevention.

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The goal is still to improve the coherence of foreign, security and develop-ment policy and to act “earlier, more resolutely and more substantially” as a means of helping to curb the violent escalation of political conflicts.

Federal Foreign Office staff use the instruments of the PREVIEW Portal to help them detect crises earlier and more efficiently.

What remains to be done?

Every occasion when the gap between early warning and crisis prevention is successfully spanned serves as a fresh opportunity for the Federal Govern-ment to refine its sensors and its analytical capabilities. By reconciling the results of data- and AI-based early warning analyses against the expertise held by government ministries and by exchanging information with aca-demia, the methods and instruments can be refined on a continuous basis.

The Federal Government will continue its efforts to ensure that the “early warning, early action” principle takes root within ministries and diplo-matic missions alike, to communicate it transparently and to highlight the opportunities for preventive policymaking in this connection. Monitoring the courses of action that have been decided on and their implementa-tion is also crucially important in this connection. One thing is certain: the relevance of early warnings must be measurable against visible results. In an ideal scenario, this would involve the peaceful resolution of the conflict situation identified at the early warning stage.

The Federal Government plans to speak out more strongly in favour of linking national early warning systems with the corresponding processes in EU member states and partner countries and at the EU level. The Federal Government is also keen to step up its dialogue at OSCE and NATO level in the fields of early action and crisis prevention. Our ultimate goal is a coher-ent, results-driven and internationally coordinated early warning approach that helps us to understand conflicts better, act earlier and prevent crises.

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Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Intelligence Service are involved. This situational analysis report includes findings and outputs from PREVIEW (for further details of PREVIEW, see voluntary commitment 23).

The Federal Government set up a corresponding Horizon Scanning Working Group in September 2018 (see voluntary commitment 23); on an approximately quarterly basis, this group examines crisis-related develop-ments that are of interest from Germany’s perspective. Based on the crisis potential of specific countries, regions or issues, the Horizon Scanning Working Group can initiate interministerial analyses. The aim in this con-nection is to identify possible entry points for crisis prevention measures. These analyses and the potential courses of action that have been identi-fied are then discussed by the Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflict, Building Peace at Director-General level.

Since November 2019, the Federal Government Situational Analysis Centre (Foreign and Security Policy) has also produced a daily situational anal-ysis report covering foreign and security policy developments, conflicts and potential crises; the target audience is the ministerial/State Secretary level of several federal ministries. Alongside the Federal Foreign Office, the

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In addition, the Federal Government will promote joint situation assessments on potential crises, even on issues exceeding the narrow framework of foreign, develop-ment, and security policy.

Member of the PrEViEW team drawing up products that feed into joint situation overviews.

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The Federal Government has strengthened its coordination of Germany’s engagement in fragile contexts. This has involved upgrading the status of existing bodies and setting up new bodies and mechanisms:

1 The interministerial round Table for Civilian Crisis Prevention coordinates implementation of the Guidelines. It is the first point of contact for the Federal Government’s Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding. Members include the Federal Foreign Office (chair), the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Build-ing and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Federal Chancellery.

1 With a view to maintaining a practice-based, interministerial exchange of information on the topics of rule-of-law promotion, security sector reform, transitional justice and reconciliation, the Federal Government merged the three existing strategy-specific working groups into a single horizontal working group: in January 2020, the Working Group on Promoting the rule of law, Security Sector reform and Transitional Justice was set up (see the informa-tion box on p. 69).

1 The Horizon Scanning Working Group that was set up in September 2018 identifies, analyses and prioritises potential crises in countries and regions around the world at an early stage, in line with the definition set out in the Guidelines, as well as spanning the gap to crisis prevention. Members include the Federal Foreign Office (chair), the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Intelligence Service (see voluntary commitment 23).

1 The Working Group on Communications regarding the Policy Guidelines on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace, which was set up in December 2018, has developed a concept for interministerial communications with the public on crisis engagement, and coordinates specific communication activities by the federal ministries on this topic. Members include the Federal Foreign Office (chair), the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government and the Federal Chancellery. The Federal Government’s Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding and the Federal Agency for Civic Education are permanent guests of this Working Group (see voluntary commitment 50).

1 The Task forces for country-specific or region-specific contexts serve joint situation assessments and coordinate the respective engagement of the federal ministries in particularly relevant fragile contexts. Members include the Federal Foreign Office (chair), the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Intelligence Service and other interested federal ministries, depend-ing on the context. At present, task forces are active on the following regions and countries: Anti-IS/Iraq/Syria, the Lake Chad region, Libya, Sahel, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

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The Federal Government will also review and revise its existing mechanisms of interministerial coordination.

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1 Interministerial coordination also takes place on a regular basis in respect of Afghanistan and Mali (including at State Secretary level) and in respect of the situation in Ukraine.

1 The Federal Government has also created an innovative, intermin-isterial and integrated structure in the form of the Sahel Task Force, based in the Federal Foreign Office, within which employees of the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry for Economic Coopera-tion and Development, the Federal Ministry of Defence and various directorates-general within the Federal Foreign Office can work together as part of a matrix structure.

1 The interministerial round Table for Africa meets at Director-Gen-eral or State Secretary level, the chair alternating between the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

1 The Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace at Director-General level focuses, in particular, on the results of the Horizon Scanning Working Group, takes decisions on proposed courses of action, and may provide input at operational level in the form of ideas for action with a view to crisis prevention. This Group is also entitled to make suggestions and commission enquiries in relation to other aspects of crisis engagement. Members include the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Ministry for Economic Coop-eration and Development. Other federal ministries may be asked to participate depending on the topic. The position of chair is rotated between the members.

The horizontal Working Group known in German as “AG RSV” was set up in January 2020 and brings together the interministerial strategies for promoting the rule of law, for supporting security sector reform and for supporting efforts to come to terms with the past and reconciliation (transitional justice).

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The Operations Manual adopted on 2 July 2019 by the Coordinating Group on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace at Direc-tor-General level illustrates the huge diversity of tried-and-tested formats and procedures for interministerial cooperation in fragile contexts.

These include interministerial early warning systems, joint (needs) assess-ments and various rounds of formal and informal discussions at all levels, from operational through to State Secretary. In the case of Afghanistan, computerised records of funded projects and their outputs are main-tained at interministerial level. The Operations Manual also highlights in summary form the opportunities for interministerial coordination via multilateral channels, which include coordinated financial support of international funds and facilities, cooperation at important international conferences and government negotiations, and action aligned to interna-tionally agreed targets.

The Operations Manual also outlines interministerial cooperation in the area of monitoring and evaluation and interministerial basic and further training. Its provisions are essentially based on interministerial strategic processes, of a kind similar to those put in place by the Federal Govern-ment for the Sahel region in 2020/2021, for example.

All of the formats and procedures presented are embedded within estab-lished international norms and quality standards for fragile contexts, such as the Do No Harm principle, which acknowledges that any intervention in a crisis context can influence that context and produce unintended negative effects. For example, if a project strengthens or weakens one particular group against another without careful consideration, this could at worst prolong or exacerbate the conflict. With the Do No Harm prin-ciple, possible interactions between the conflict context and the interven-tion are examined very closely in order to prevent or at least dampen any unintended negative effects and achieve genuine peacebuilding outcomes.

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The Federal Government will standardise tried and tested methods and procedures as well as the implementation of its prin-ciples of action in crisis contexts such as the Do No Harm principle in an intermin-isterial Operation Manual on best practice and work to ensure that all departments of the Federal Government will systemati-cally apply international quality standards in their analysis and planning tools.

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Germany’s overall engagement in fragile contexts has grown steadily in recent years. Since the bulk of project-based work in fragile contexts is funded by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Concept for improved Joint Analysis and Joined-Up Planning was agreed on by these two federal ministries in May 2019 as a new foundation for coordination between them. The Concept, which was published by the Federal Foreign Office in April 2020 as a circular instruction, outlines in detail new procedural steps for the timely and comprehensive involvement of the respective parties, and goes far beyond the procedures provided for in the Joint Rules of Procedure of the Federal Ministries:

1 It provides for the exchange of analyses and the joint commission-ing of further analyses if both federal ministries deem this necessary.

1 Annual strategic planning meetings are to take place on this basis, where the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Eco-nomic Cooperation and Development determine a joint framework and collective outcomes for their respective engagement.

1 Against this backdrop, both ministries supply comments over the course of the year on plans or preparatory documents for the projects that the other is planning to fund or commission. These comments are taken into account by the original ministry during the further project planning stages.

The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Coop-eration and Development are initially applying this new procedure to project-based engagement in Afghanistan, Cameroon, Chad, the Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, the Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, the Sudan, Syria and Yemen and with the African Union.

In May 2020, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Eco-nomic Cooperation and Development presented the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag with an implementing report on the Concept.

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Federal ministries will strive for prompt and comprehensive mutual consulta-tion, thereby ensuring that the specialist expertise of the other federal ministries will be included in their planning. In these efforts, they are making sure that their measures are compatible with the approaches and programmes of German development policy, and with the imple-mentation of the 2030 Agenda. When planning such measures, the involvement of the Federal Foreign Office ensures that these measures are in line with the basic tenets of German foreign policy.

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The Federal Court of Auditors has audited implementation of the Concept to date and issued recommendations for its further development.

The Concept for improved Joint Analysis and Joint-up Planning is also a decisive step towards implementation of the recommendations issued by the OECD Development Assistance Committee on the humanitarian-de-velopment-peace nexus (triple nexus). These recommendations, which Germany helped to draft as co-chair of the OECD’s International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF, a network of the Development Assis-tance Committee), are widely regarded as a standard-setting benchmark for the closer interlinking of international engagement in fragile contexts.

With a view to guiding measures by other federal ministries in fragile contexts, the Operations Manual published in 2019 highlights the formats and procedures that have proven useful as part of the shared involvement in project planning (see voluntary commitment 27).

The involvement of the Federal Foreign Office in all external action by other federal ministries remains mandatory, with the aim of ensuring that any such action is consistent with the basic principles of German foreign policy.

In October 2017, the Federal Foreign Office appointed its first ever Special representative for the Sahel, who serves as the external face of Germany’s engagement in the Sahel region. In particular, this involves regular visits to the Sahel region, attendance at Sahel conferences and the cultivation of contacts, in particular with France and the EU Special Representative for the Sahel. The Federal Foreign Office Special Repre-sentative for the Sahel also assists with the coordination of Germany’s involvement in various projects in the Sahel region. Particular emphasis should be placed on the Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel (P3S) and its priorities “building the capacities of the armed forces in the region” and “supporting the return of the State”; this Partnership was initiated by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron and endorsed in August 2019 at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, as well as later by the EU and the G5 Sahel states.

A regional focus is placed on the G5 Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and the Niger, as well as the other countries that also play an important role in the Sahel area through G5-relevant Sahel initia-tives (such as Cameroon and Nigeria).

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The Federal Government will use Special Representatives and Special Envoys to strengthen high-level diplomatic crisis engagement.

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Through its dialogue with the European External Action Service on the strengthening of the CFSP, the Federal Government also lobbies for the tool of Special representatives or Special Envoys to be brought back into wider use at EU level. The Federal Government supported the appointment of Miroslav Lajčak as EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues in April 2020, for example. The Federal Government also supports the review of the EU Special Representatives planned by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

The Federal Foreign Office set up the Sahel Arbeitsstab by means of an organisational decree dated 11 September 2019. The Head of the Arbeitsstab, Gordon Kricke, was simultaneously assigned the role of Special Representa-tive for the Sahel.

By appointing a Special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Federal Government actively supports and plays an internationally promi-nent role in the political conflict resolution process in Afghanistan. Since 2017, the position has been held by Ambassador Markus Potzel, who is also Federal Foreign Office Director for South Asia. He coordinates Germany’s engagement with the region, with a focus on regular contacts and coordi-nation between the federal ministries involved in Afghanistan, in particular the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; he also participates in the quarterly round-table discus-sions held by the State Secretaries on Afghanistan and Mali.

The Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan cultivates contacts and exchange with Afghanistan’s Government and other political stake-holders in the country; he also supports the intra-Afghan peace process both through measures that he initiates himself and through events organised to promote dialogue between members of the warring factions (for example the intra-Afghan dialogue talks in July 2019 in Doha, Qatar). He works closely together with the national Special Representatives of other countries, in particular Norway, the United Kingdom, the USA, Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran. When putting forward Germany’s position during meetings in multilateral and special regional configurations, he supports approaches to action in Afghanistan that promote stabilisation, conflict resolution and transformation.

The Special Representative is a member of the Host Country Support Group, which is a group of five countries supporting the Afghan peace negotiations launched in September 2020 in Doha, Qatar; he is also a member (and sometimes chair) of the International Contact Group for Afghanistan, and is involved in the Friends of the Chair support group. The Special representative for the Sahel, Gordon Kricke, in conversation with the President

of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Kaboré. The meeting took place during the ECOWAS special summit on terrorism held in Burkina Faso on 13 and 14 September 2019.

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The involvement of the missions abroad in meetings of the task forces has now become routine in many cases. An assessment of the political and security situation on the ground serves as a fundamental basis for further analytical consideration of the host country and the planning of Germany’s engagement.

Assessments by the missions abroad also play a decisive role when discussing and commenting on project plans and when examining the consistency of activities envisaged by other federal ministries with the basic principles of German foreign policy (see voluntary commit-ment 28).

During the 2020 budget process, the German Bundestag approved a total of 30 additional posts for the diplomatic missions in Africa, inter alia in response to the ever-growing remit of these missions as network hubs for Germany’s engagement.

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The Federal Government will more closely interlink the work of the diplo-matic missions with the interministerial task forces and strengthen their role as network hubs of Germany’s engagement on the ground.

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Since the reform of the Secondment Act in July 2017, the Centre for Inter-national Peace Operations has acted as employer of all secondees. With this reform, the Federal Government has improved social security and remu-neration for secondees and made secondments a more attractive prospect. Since the reform, secondees sign standard employment contracts, are paid salaries based on the Collective Agreement for the Public Service plus expatriate allowances, and benefit from comprehensive insurance coverage (unemployment, pension, accident, nursing care and healthcare). This signif-icant step forward has been a major factor in making the Centre for inter-national Peace Operations a more attractive employer, and in encouraging people to view a secondment as a valuable rung on their career ladder. In addition, the Federal Foreign Office and the Centre for International Peace Operations signed a security concept in July 2020. In accordance with the concept, and with the assistance of the host organisation, the Centre for International Peace Operations and the Federal Foreign Office assess the security risks and the measures taken by the host organisation to mitigate these risks. The secondment is decided upon on this basis. The concept stip-ulates that responsibility for the security of secondees is shared between the host organisation, the Centre for International Peace Operations, the Federal Foreign Office and the secondees themselves.

Support for secondees by the Centre for international Peace Operations now also encompasses psychosocial support before, during and after the deployment:

1 The Centre for International Peace Operations delivers training and onboarding meetings to secondees prior to their departure to ensure that they are mentally prepared for their deployment.

1 During the deployment, online counselling can be accessed via the “On the Move Online” portal (see link p. 224), which specialises in the delivery of psychological support to German nationals working abroad. In the event of a crisis, psychosocial first aid is provided by the crisis intervention team of the Working Group on International Police Missions.

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The Federal Government will continu-ously review the framework conditions for specialists working abroad, to ensure their secure and sustainable work even under the most arduous of working conditions. The Federal Government is committed, in collaboration with imple-menting organisations, to advancing appropriate standards and procedures for professional security management. This also includes psychosocial support.

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1 If follow-up support is required, the Centre for International Peace Operations uses the services of the Bundeswehr clinics, in particu-lar the Centre for Military Mental Health (Psychotrauma Centre) at the Bundeswehr Hospital in Berlin. In addition, the Centre for International Peace Operations serves as a point of contact for secondees after their return from missions, and provides any support required.

By taking these steps, the Federal Government and the Centre for Interna-tional Peace Operations have rendered the prospect of working as a civil-ian expert on challenging and often dangerous missions a more attractive one, thereby making it easier to recruit specialists.

A somewhat different system exists for the provision of support to police officers deployed on international missions. Prior to deployment in mission areas, members of the Federal and Länder police forces complete a mission-specific preparation seminar; following the deployment, they attend a debriefing seminar aimed at easing the process of reintegration into their home and work lives following their return from the deploy-ment location. One of the goals pursued in this connection is to identify any problems such as specific incidents or stressful events as a basis for their assimilation by the individual police officer, and the Federal Gov-ernment and the Länder attach a great deal of importance to providing professional support of this kind. Attacks, threats or serious accidents may provoke stress reactions requiring a special type of support. To this end, the Federal Government/Länder Working Group on international Police Missions has set up a crisis intervention team made up of around 30 doctors, police officers with past experience of missions, pastoral work-ers, social scientists and psychologists from both the Federal Government and the Länder.

The Federal Government can convene a crisis intervention team of this kind on an ad-hoc basis and deploy it rapidly. This ensures that the Federal Government can deliver emergency psychosocial support and help police officers to process particularly stressful events and their impacts as effec-tively as possible. Depending on the specific circumstances, the team can

be deployed at the mission location, at the police officer’s place of residence or at another suitable location.

The Federal Agency for Technical relief (THW) security concept has also undergone continuous refinements. A key milestone in this connection was the revision of the Security Guidelines in 2019; the revised Guidelines take into account the challenges faced in crisis and disaster contexts and ensure that individuals deployed by the THW are prepared and protected as effec-tively as possible. They encompass basic information on security as well as specific recommendations for conduct during deployments. Psychosocial support for deployed individuals has also been improved; peer concepts, specially trained deployment debriefing teams and professional support services have been designed to complement each other and allow an even more tailored response.

Within the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Bundeswehr, morale, wel-fare and recreation measures are an integral part of “leadership develop-ment and civic education” (Innere Führung), and represent a crucial task for superiors at all levels. The main purpose of providing morale, welfare and recreation measures is to maintain, increase and, where applicable, restore the readiness of Bundeswehr personnel for routine duties, deploy-ments, missions and standby commitments to provide compensation for the stresses of service. The target audience for morale, welfare and recrea-tion measures mainly includes active Bundeswehr personnel and their fam-ily members or other people close to them, as well as former Bundeswehr personnel, reservists, veterans and surviving dependants.

The goal of psychosocial support is to make it easier for individuals to get arranged and familiar with the unique nature and stresses of service in the Bundeswehr. Provision in this area is handled by the Bundeswehr Social Service, the Bundeswehr Psychological Service, the Bundeswehr Medical Corps and the Chaplain Service. The future Central Guideline on the “Maintenance and Improvement of Mental Fitness” will significantly enhance the perception of these services by personnel in action and give guidance for superiors. A crucial factor in this respect is that these comprehensive services and their specific measures should not be accessed

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Strengthening the capacities of local partner organisations and struc-tures is a major goal pursued by the Federal Government in fragile contexts. it is in these very contexts that capacity building can serve as a crucial tool in overcoming state fragility (contested state power/inade-quate services/lack of legitimacy).

In 2019 alone, German development cooperation projects allowed 4.6 mil-lion people around the world to participate directly in local, regional or national political consensus-building or decision-making processes, and 121.9 million people to benefit from improved government administra-tion services:

1 In Pakistan, for example, Germany is helping the local administra-tion to make its planning and decision-making processes better and more inclusive for citizens. Different groups within the population are able to make their concerns heard directly, alert the authorities to the specific circumstances of their local area, set priorities and propose solutions. This makes it possible to ensure

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The Federal Government will strengthen the capacities of local partners and struc-tures, and, where necessary, refine the methods for the “remote control” of its measures.

merely just before or during the period of stress; instead, the maintenance or improvement of mental fitness should be regarded as an ongoing process that starts early and continues in the long term. The post-deploy-ment debriefing seminars and rehabilitation stays have already proved very successful, and will be supplemented in future by additional support measures such as pre-deployment briefing seminars or family recuperation holidays and a greater involvement of family members and other close friends (e.g. through the Family Support Organisation).

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development sup-ports the state implementing organisations and the non-governmental organisations funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in their task of guaranteeing the security of develop-ment cooperation personnel deployed abroad and their families. Although the primary duty of care for their employees, including the provision of psychosocial support, rests with the sending organisations as employers, the Crisis Management Commissioner of the Federal Ministry for Eco-nomic Cooperation and Development plays an important role in coordina-tion and communication efforts, particularly vis-à-vis the Federal Govern-ment’s Crisis Response Centre.

Future staff of peace missions are being prepared for the dangers they might face in the field. Participants have the opportunity to explore how they respond to various dangerous situa-tions, to analyse their reactions and to test the limits of their own resilience under pressure.

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forces. These organisations implement projects aimed at improv-ing living conditions and reinforcing social cohesion in bilateral and multilateral formats (such as the Syria Recovery Trust Fund), with the aim of strengthening the role of civilian stakeholders and networks and stabilising the situation for the local population in conflict areas without legitimate and/or adequately functioning state institutions.

1 yemen can be cited as a further example: the Federal Government’s engagement in this country is aimed at keeping public services – such as local water companies and healthcare institutions, as well as the education system – running for the local population even during an armed conflict. These services come under enormous pressure as a result of the armed conflict and the resulting disastrous economic situation, but they play a crucial role, particularly in inclusive con-sultation and conflict resolution mechanisms.

in these and other contexts of violence, effective procedures for the “remote control” of measures are a fundamental prerequisite for implemen-tation, since the opportunities for German personnel to be present on the ground are very limited:

1 In Syria, this has involved the independent monitoring of project risks by third parties (third-party monitoring) since 2017. This system is operated by the Federal Foreign Office, but the findings from it are also made available to other federal ministries, thereby allowing the Federal Government to remain active in the high-risk areas of the country.

1 In Afghanistan, the over 1000 Afghan employees facilitate the “remote control” of development cooperation measures. Local partner institutions also play a crucial role in the meaningful implementation of projects and the ability to carry out progress reviews.

that the government budget earmarked for local development is spent in a manner that reflects the population’s needs.

1 In Burkina Faso, the Federal Government supports an integrated border management approach which curbs smuggling and human trafficking at the same time as helping to build and strengthen rela-tionships of trust between the security forces, the administration and the local population. In border regions hit particularly hard by violence, strengthening security forces is just as important as meet-ing the needs of the local civilian population, not least with a view to stemming the influence of terrorist and criminal groups.

The Civil Peace Service (zFD) is a special development policy instru-ment for strengthening the capacities of local civil society partners and structures. It is a programme for preventing violence and building peace in fragile contexts, and sends civilian peace workers to civil society partner organisations (with an increase of 18% in the number of secondees since 2017). The Civil Peace Service is led by nine German peace and develop-ment organisations, and is funded from the budget of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as well as by local partner organisations. Owing to the diversity of its supporting structures and their access to communities in partner countries, the Civil Peace Service is able to strengthen the capacities of local partner organisations, thereby achiev-ing broad social participation in peace processes.

Within the scope of transitional development assistance, the Federal Government is also engaged in contexts where there is virtually no legit-imate state presence in order to strengthen the crisis resilience of vulner-able persons and local structures and to build conflict resolution capacities at local level using crisis prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding measures:

1 in the areas outside the military control of the Syrian regime in north-west and north-east Syria, for example, the Federal Govern-ment supports civil society organisations that have distanced themselves from the regime and act independently of military

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Through the zivik funding programme of ifa (institut für Auslandsbez-iehungen), the Federal Foreign Office has established links with a large number of local and often very small organisations around the world, not only to provide them with funding, but also to offer them advice and networking opportunities. The programme has proved particularly suc-cessful in the context of the transformation partnerships in North African and Middle Eastern countries (now known as the “Ta’ziz” partnership, see voluntary commitment 3) and democratisation assistance, and has made a significant contribution to the strengthening of local stakeholders.

Via the PATRIP Foundation (initiated by the Federal Foreign Office), the Federal Government funds projects in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan and between Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as in West Africa, with a view to supporting conflict resolution and social cohesion at local level. The projects in Afghanistan promote cross-bor-der exchanges between the residents of the border regions and improve living conditions on the ground. The planned future engagement of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in PATRIP Afghanistan will allow the Foundation to implement projects in non-bor-der regions. The focus of the projects in West Africa is on the stabilisation of particularly vulnerable communities in areas close to borders and the prevention of extremist violence in West Africa and the Sahel region.

The Federal Government advocates for lasting increases in the proportion of female professional specialists deployed abroad. The implementation record produced in connection with the National Action Plan on the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 for the period 2017-2020 shows that the Federal Government has met its obligations with regard to the secondment of civilian experts; 152 German nationals (including 59 women) are currently seconded via the Centre for Interna-tional Peace Operations. This means that women account for 39% of the total at present (as of 31 December 2020).

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The Federal Government will pursue an active, gender-equal human resources policy for the deployment of professional specialists abroad, and will develop target group-specific solutions to that effect. To that end, it will implement the second Action Plan for the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (2017-2020).

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Overview of current secondments

OrGANiSATiON WOMEN MEN TOTAl

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)

28 (44%) 35 63

European Union (EU) 28 (37%) 48 76

Council of Europe 1 (50%) 1. 2

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

1 (20%) 4 5

United Nations (UN) 0 (0%) 3 3

Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia of the Organization of American States (MAPP/OAS)

0 (0%) 1. 1.

Others (Albanian OSCE Chair-manship/Vienna)

1 (50%) 1. 2

Total 59 (39%) 93 152

Changes in the proportion of women in Bundeswehr deployments

Germany succeeded in increasing the proportion of female German soldiers sent on mandated deployments by the Bundeswehr to 8.5% in 2020 compared to 8% in the previous year. As of 31 December 2020, the proportion for both EU and UN-led missions was 11%; the proportion for NATO missions remained unchanged from the previous year at 8%. There was a particularly large increase in the case of the UN-led missions (from 7% to 11%), whereas the proportion of women in EU-led missions dropped from 13% to 11%, in particular as a result of the higher proportion of seagoing units. However, the proportion increased from 15% to 20% in the case of the land-based EUTM Mali.

German police officers in international deployments

OrGANiSATiON/DEPlOyMENT WOMEN MEN TOTAl

EU 6 (13%) 41 47

GPPT 3 (12%) 22 25

UN 3 (23%) 10 13

Total 12 (14%) 73 85

A German secondee (Peacekeeper of the Year 2019) working for the EU in the Niger.

With regard to the deployment of German police officers, Germany succeeded in 2020 in increasing the proportion of women in EU-led missions from 13% to 17% compared to the previous year, and in UN-led missions from 26% to 30%. As of 1 February 2021, the proportion of women in EU-led missions was 13% and the proportion in UN-led missions was 23%, while the proportion for the bilateral police project in Afghanistan (GPPT) remained unchanged at 12%. As of 1 February 2021, female police officers accounted for 14% of the total number of police officers seconded abroad.

As of 31 December 2020 As of 1 February 2021

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CONTiNGENTS (2020) WOMEN* MEN* TOTAl*

ATALANTA 17 (8%) 199 216

Counter DAESH 92 (8%) 1,133 1,225

DEU A MINUSMA 0 (0%) 28 28

Enhanced Forward Presence 96 (5%) 1,832 1,928

EUTM Mali 49 (14%) 296 345

KFOR 25 (12%) 181 206

MINURSO 0 (0%) 5 5

MINUSMA 241 (9%) 2,587 2,828

NATO’s Deployment in the Aegean Sea

115 (12%) 838 953

Resolute Support 372 (9%) 3,687 4,059

IRINI 45 (8%) 527 572

UNMHA 0 (0%) 1. 1.

UNAMID 0 (0%) 2 2

UNIFIL 39 (7%) 496 535

UNMISS 1 (8%) 12 13

Total 1,092 (8.5%) 11,824 12,916

The corresponding figures for 2019 and 2020 for Bundeswehr personnel in mandated missions are as follows:

CONTiNGENTS (2019) WOMEN* MEN* TOTAl*

ATALANTA 33 (11%) 270 303

Counter DAESH 170 (7%) 2,238 2,408

DEU A MINUSMA 2 (5%) 35 37

Enhanced Forward Presence 123 (5%) 2,156 2,279

EU NAVFOR MED OP SOPHIA 23 (11%) 179 202

EUTM Mali 116 (15%) 662 778

KFOR 25 (9%) 265 290

MINURSO 0 (0%) 10 10

MINUSMA 273 (7%) 3,591 3,864

NATO’s Deployment in the Aegean Sea

55 (8%) 640 695

Resolute Support 359 (9%) 3,615 3,974

UNMHA 0 (0%) 1. 1.

UNAMID 1 (11%) 8 9

UNIFIL 57 (10%) 504 561

UNMISS 0 (0%) 27 27

Total 1,237 (8%) 14,201 15,438

*Aggregate number of all soldiers within one year *Aggregate number of all soldiers within one year

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German foreign, security and development policy pursues the vision of sustainable peace laid out in the 2030 Agenda, and supports the UN’s Sustaining Peace Agenda. Particular importance is attached to preventing the outbreak, continuation or resurgence of armed conflicts (precedence of prevention), which calls for a wide range of tools for promoting peace.

Key findings regarding effective crisis prevention approaches and tools are laid out in Pathways for Peace 2018, a joint study by the UN and the World Bank. This study underlines the political will to protect fragile states better and more effectively against the outbreak of armed conflicts, and to work on the structural causes of fragility. Its recommendations for action serve as an important reference framework for effective crisis pre-vention in the multilateral system, and are compatible with the Federal Government’s approaches in the Guidelines. The Federal Government contributed its own expertise during the drafting of the study through the organisation of several consultations.

The Federal Government helped to draft the new World Bank Group Strategy for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence, and played a key role in ensuring that this group of topics was identified as a strategic priority by the organisation. The Strategy is intended to make the World Bank Group’s fight against the causes and consequences of fragility more effective, to improve the resilience of fragile states, to step up the mobi-lisation of private-sector engagement in fragile states and to support the development of markets.

In summer 2020, the World Bank published a regional application of the Strategy in the form of the report “Building for Peace: Reconstruction for Security, Sustainable Peace, and Equity in the Middle East and North Africa”. The Federal Government contributed a significant part of the funding for this report, the aim of which was to develop a new recon-struction paradigm combining physical and social reconstruction so as to give due consideration to the enormous social and political upheavals in this region.

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The Federal Government is wholehearted-ly committed to the ambitious implemen-tation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, both at national and global level. It will remain steadfast in its efforts to strengthen international capabilities for crisis prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding, and it will work towards improved coordination. To do this, it will strive for a closer linkage of relevant mechanisms of the European Union and its member states, using existing approa-ches such as Joint Programming.

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in January 2018, Germany took over the chair of the donor network of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (international Network on Conflict and Fragility, INCAF), the central international platform for development approaches in fragile contexts. Together with the United Kingdom and the INCAF Secretariat, Germany played a crucial role in drafting the recommendation on the humanitarian/development/peace nexus. This recommendation of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, which was adopted in February 2019, establishes an interna-tional understanding of central concepts and principles underpinning the implementation of this nexus. They include the need for improved coordination of all relevant stakeholders in fragile contexts with a view to addressing increased humanitarian requirements, taking preventive action to forestall the violent escalation of conflicts and promoting the termination of armed conflicts.

The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Coop-eration and Development work together to strengthen the link between humanitarian assistance and transitional development assistance, through the joint mandating of German non-governmental organisa-tions; this is known as the chapeau approach. Using various measures, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development implement one project each (in the fields of humanitar-ian assistance and transitional development assistance respectively) on the basis of the collective outcomes defined using this approach.

lebanon is one example of a country where this type of target-driven and geographical cooperation has been implemented jointly. Medico Inter-national and Amel, its local partner, are able to provide essential basic health services to refugees and host communities in the corresponding project regions within the parallel project structure established as part of the chapeau approach to the humanitarian intervention; at the same time, resilience-building services (including a broadening of activities in the field of reproductive health and family planning) complement the humanitarian measures, meaning that additional important services can be offered to vulnerable persons.

Alongside these efforts, transitional development assistance promotes medium-term measures such as improved resources for and the expan-sion of healthcare centres in rural areas. Projects implemented in keeping with the chapeau approach therefore not only respond to acute human-itarian needs in order to guarantee lifesaving medical care for people on the ground, but at the same time endeavour to play a role in improving the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

Germany used its Presidency of the Council of the EU as an opportunity to initiate the development of political guidelines at EU level on prevent-ing crises, resolving conflicts and building peace, with a view to strength-ening the EU’s long-term crisis preparedness. The aim of these guidelines is to promote a shared understanding of prevention, peacebuilding and conflict resolution within the EU and to strengthen application of the integrated approach by all relevant stakeholders in the field of external action (see the policy priority: The European dimension of crisis engage-ment,  p. 162).

Also during Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, the EU continued negotiations on the amendments to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism proposed by the European Commission. Germany’s aim is to improve and increase the flexibility of the Civil Protection Mechanism so that countries applying for support can be provided with practical assis-tance in the form of direct operational contributions from EU member and participating states, while contributions are also made in parallel to a supra-national response system.

The Federal Government supports Joint Programming as a central approach for coherent and coordinated action. It is currently imple-mented in over half of the potential partner countries, including fragile states.

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The Federal Government prioritises efforts to strengthen the CSDP through the implementation of the Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy (2016). Important frameworks for closer coop-eration in the EU on security policy in the military and civilian sectors were defined with the establishment of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) in November 2017 and the adoption of the Civilian CSDP Compact in November 2018. The European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management, which opened in Berlin in September 2020, also contributes to the further development of the civilian capabilities of the EU and its member states through the provision of tailored advice.

Development of the Strategic Compass commenced with the Council Conclusions on Security and Defence adopted on 17 June 2020. As a funda-mental document of security policy, the Strategic Compass is intended to provide clear guidelines for action that clarify and implement the Global Strategy in the area of security and defence, thereby further increasing the EU’s strategic and operative capabilities. As a first step, an intelligence-based threat analysis, the first of its kind at EU level, was carried out. This will serve as a point of reference and basis for discussion by the member states

with a view to developing and coordinating the content of the Strategic Compass from 2021 onwards.

Another of the Federal Government’s achievements during Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU was the political consensus reached in the negotiations on the European Peace Facility. This new funding instrument pools spending in the field of security and defence policy, and will allow the EU, for the first time, to provide its partners with comprehensive support to assume responsibility for their own security. The intended aim of the relevant measures is to build peace, security and stability in the respective region as part of the integrated approach.

The strengthening of cooperation between the EU and NATO, while upholding the principle of complementary cooperation – in the area of military mobility, for example – remains a top political priority for both organisations.

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The Federal Government is working for the advancement of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) within the EU.

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POliCy PriOriTy:

The European dimension of crisis engagement

“Despite the great challenges the European Union is facing, it is fast becom-ing a crucial protagonist in states affected by crises and conflicts. The Federal Government is particularly keen to expand the number of member states engaged in peace and security. At the same time, it is imperative to enhance the EU’s capabilities for coordinating, analysing and planning the relevant measures.” (Guidelines, p. 126.)

The crisis of multilateralism, recent developments in transatlantic rela-tions, the continuing rise in the incidence of fragility and crises around the world and the COVID-19 pandemic – these trends and developments highlight the need for an even stronger joint and integrated approach to external action by the EU and its 27 member states. The European Union and its member states deploy large amounts of resources on building peace, security and development opportunities in fragile contexts. One of the EU’s hallmarks is the interplay and coordinated use of a range of dif-ferent instruments as part of a values-based approach. It has at its disposal a unique array of diplomatic, humanitarian, peacebuilding, security and development policy tools for crisis engagement. If Europe is to play the role of a strong actor capable of taking action on the global political stage in the field of crisis engagement– a role that its citizens wish it to play – the EU must continue its efforts to ensure that these tools are used in a more targeted and therefore more strategic manner.

On the basis of the Global Strategy adopted in 2016, the EU has, in recent years, further developed and expanded its extensive range of foreign and security policy tools to include innovative approaches with a view to fleshing out the Integrated Approach, for example by means of improved joint analytical and planning capabilities. The Federal Government has supported this process and also contributed to its conceptual framework:

1 Germany is working with the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to further develop the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and to bolster the EU’s overall resilience and capability to act in civilian and military domains. Germany is heavily involved in the ongoing CSDP missions and operations, which play a decisive role in promoting stability in the European neighbour-hood regions affected by crisis. During Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Federal Government argued strongly in favour of further promoting the coherence of all EU defence initiatives (in particular the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) as a framework for action), creating the necessary response structures, fully implementing the Civilian CSDP Compact and strengthen-ing the civilian and military leadership and planning structures in Brussels for executive CSDP missions. The opening of the European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management in Berlin in September 2020 was a major step forward in this respect.

Opening of the European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Managementin Berlin on 14 September 2020.

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1 The EU has reorganised EEAS structures and increased its staff num-bers in recent years. After setting up the PRISM Division (Prevention of Conflict, Rule of Law/Security Sector Reform, Integrated Approach, Stabilisation and Mediation) within the office of the Deputy Secre-tary-General for CSDP and Crisis Response, in 2019 it set up the Inte-grated Approach for Security and Peace Directorate (ISP). The Federal Government has supported these efforts with 14 secondments since 2017, with postings including the Secretariat of the Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel within the EEAS as well as EU delegations. In addition, the head of the mediation team seconded by the Federal Government is an experienced female expert, which not only underlines the importance of mediation within the EEAS, but also increases the visibility of women leaders in the field of crisis engagement.

1 The EU has operationalised Article 28 TEU for first stabilisation actions under the CFSP. This means that the EU now has a tool at its disposal that allows it to mount a response based on political considerations and flexibility, even in fragile contexts. Since 2018, the EU has made use of this option to support monitoring of the arms embargo against Yemen, in close cooperation with the UN.

1 Early detection of imminent crises is a vital prerequisite for success-ful prevention. Since 2017, the Early Warning/Early Action Forum (a Dutch/German initiative) has supported the EU’s early warning system and strengthened member state involvement. In 2019, for the first time, Germany – in the context of the EU’s early warning system – independently carried out a structured process from early warning through to crisis prevention options for a country at risk of crisis. The Federal Government will continue to step up its coopera-tion with the EU in the field of early warning.

1 During its Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2020, Germany – in collaboration with Finland and Croatia (the previous Presidencies), and jointly with the EEAS – pushed ahead with revision of the EU’s Concept on Mediation. The Concept refers

to mediation as a central CFSP tool, thereby strengthening its political dimension (Track I mediation). The EU wishes to increase its use of mediation as a tool, inter alia as part of stabilisation actions under Article 28 TEU. The Council adopted conclusions to this effect in November, including a reaffirmation of its commit-ment to the EU’s political involvement in mediation. The Council intends to revert to the topic of mediation on a regular basis.

1 The Team Europe approach was conceived as a global response to the COViD-19 pandemic; it has since expanded beyond the context of COVID-19 aid and become an emblem to the wider world of joint action of the EU member states and institutions. In keeping with this approach, the EU must continue to take pragmatic, flexible and forward-looking action in order to counter accusations of excessive red tape and a lack of coordination, and in order to respond appropriately to crises and other challenges.

1 The Neighbourhood, Development and international Cooperation instrument (NDICI), which is the EU’s new external financing instrument, opens up many prospects for improved achievement of external action goals through the more strategic deployment of all available resources and funding opportunities. It combines ten previous instruments, including the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the European Development Fund and the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace. An emphasis will continue to be placed on long-term and predictable programmes, but the NDICI goes further by offering more flexibility; in particular, more funding is available for crisis engagement, including the interfaces of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. Conflict analyses will be used to tailor the EU’s external action even more accurately than before.

1 From 2021, the European Peace Facility (EPF) will serve as an additional EU instrument for combining the financing of security and defence policy tasks. It replaces the Athena mechanism and

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continues the previous African Peace Facility. A key priority under the EPF will be helping states and regional organisations around the world to assume responsibility for their own security, and particular emphasis is placed on security forces serving in fragile contexts. As a result, the EPF makes a sustainable contribution to peace and sta-bility, and helps to protect the civilian population. At the same time, a holistic understanding of security sector reforms is to be promot-ed, following the model of Germany’s interministerial strategy for security sector reform.

The Federal Government has initiated two strategic processes intended to complement each other in continuing the ambitious implementation of the Global Strategy:

1 A fundamental document of security policy – the Strategic Compass – will be available at EU level by spring 2022. Drawing on the EU’s extensive toolbox in the field of security and defence, it is intended to help strengthen Europe’s operative capabilities, and is an important milestone on the way to ensuring that the comprehensive “European sovereignty” envisaged by the Federal Government becomes reality in the field of security and defence as well. Operating at a level below that of the Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy, the Strategic Compass is intended to set out specific tenets that define the alignment and level of ambition of European security policy. For the first time, the member states will therefore have access to a strategic reference document negotiated at Council level on the future shape of European security policy. The Strategic Compass is also intended to help develop the interfaces that have been lacking to date between the Common Security and Defence Policy and topics such as resilience, hybrid threats, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The production of an intelligence-based threat analysis at EU level formed the basis for the launch of the Strategic Compass during Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Strategic Compass is also intended to help strengthen the European pillar within NATO and intensify cooperation between the EU and NATO.

1 European guidelines are to further spell out the political, civilian and preventive aspects of the EU’s global crisis engagement. In implementation of the EU’s Global Strategy, the document intended to provide decision-makers in Brussels, in EU delegations around the world and in the capital cities of the EU member states with guidance on specific questions – How exactly do I design a policy on crisis prevention, stabilisation and peacebuilding? Which tools do I have at my disposal, and how can I deploy them most effectively? Which tools need further work? – and will therefore implement the EU’s Integrated Approach in greater depth. At the same time, it is intended to enhance the European dimension of the humanitari-an-development-peace nexus. The ultimate goal is an EU capable of rapid and agile deployment of its instruments, for example as a basis for translating early warnings even more effectively into crisis prevention, of building strong structures for cooperation between the institutions and of working together closely and without red tape in fragile contexts with other multilateral actors such as the UN and the World Bank.

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The Federal Government supports mission-specific initiatives as well as the Executive Office of the Secretary-General and the United Nations Secretariat

1 In early 2019, the Federal Government, together with the United Nations, organised a High-Level Peacekeeping Retreat in Berlin; at this workshop, representatives from the United Nations Secretariat and the field discussed exactly how peace operations should be reformed.

1 It was decided that this workshop – attended by leaders from UN peace operations and the United Nations Secretariat – should become a fixture on the calendar; it will take place annually in Germany.

1 The Federal Government currently contributes personnel and resources to nine peace operations (peacekeeping and special political missions).

1 The Federal Government supports the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative launched by the UN Secretary-General in March 2018. Germany has assumed prominent responsibility and is specifically engaged in the A4P areas of political solutions, sustaining peace, training and capacity building, and women, peace and security.

1 Germany and the United Kingdom co-sponsored negotiations within the Security Council on the establishment of a new political mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS). Further to the adoption on 2 December 2020 of a decision on police involvement in this mission, Germany will play a decisive role in an area that is increasingly coming to the forefront of the United Nations’ peace work – the transition away from robust peacekeeping (including the deployment of military forces and formed police units) and towards civilian peacebuilding (including support for capacity building of national authorities through the deployment of police officers and rule-of-law experts).

1 Since September 2020, Germany has provided additional high-value capabilities in the field of Reconnaissance for the protection of civil-ians under the Force Adaptation Plan for MINUSMA, the largest UN mission.

1 In addition to the deployment of personnel in UN peace missions, the Federal Government also makes available special capabili-ties as support services. For example, the THW – acting on behalf of the Federal Government – supports the UN peace missions in the establishment of communications infrastructures and digital monitoring tools.

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The Federal Government is supporting the reform efforts within the United Nations, and is ready and willing to take on more responsibility for peacekeeping by helping to modernise it and make it more efficient.

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Global networking on early warning and crisis prevention approaches is a key concern of the Federal Government. At many of the United Nations Security Council meetings attended by the Federal Government in its capacity as a non-permanent member, it was able to emphasise the importance of crisis prevention aspects, in particular with a view to the interdependencies between the climate crisis on the one hand and peace and security on the other, the role of women in conflict resolution or issues relating to small arms control.

At EU level, the Federal Government – acting together with the Neth-erlands – launched the informal EU Early Warning/Early Action Forum with a view to promoting a well-founded expert debate between inter-ested EU member states and the EU institutions on early warning issues and on bridging the gap between early warning and crisis prevention.

Through the Stabilisation Leaders Forum, which brings together foreign ministries involved in the field of stabilisation, the Federal Government has lobbied for the establishment of a working group on early warning with a view to identifying best practices and lessons learned in this area. The possibility of organising a World Prevention Forum is still being examined together with other interested partners, in particular the United Nations.

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Germany supports the organisation of a World Prevention Forum.

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The Federal Government is involved in crisis prevention and crisis man-agement deployments organised by NATO, the United Nations and the EU’s military and civilian CSDP missions.

Since the adoption of the Guidelines, the Bundeswehr has made contribu-tions to stabilisation or peacekeeping on the ground as part of NATO-led missions in Afghanistan (Resolute Support), iraq (NATO Mission Iraq) and Kosovo (KFOR, NATO Advisory and Liaison Team), in particular through the provision of advice and training to national security forces. In Afghani-stan, the Federal Government also supports capacity building of the Afghan defence forces through an annual contribution of up to €80 million to the Afghan National Army Trust Fund. Through its participation in the NATO Maritime Security Operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean, the Bundeswehr supports Maritime Situational Awareness and security capacity building as well as Maritime Counter Terrorism. As part of NATO’s activ-ities in the Aegean Sea, the Federal Government contributes to maritime

surveillance and to the coordination of search and rescue services in the context of displacement and migration.

Germany is also involved in the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh in a military and civilian capacity. As part of Operation inherent resolve, the Bundeswehr contributes to the fight against Daesh and to the capacity building of the Iraqi armed forces. These efforts complement Germany’s engagement in the NATO Mission Iraq and the civilian EU Advisory Mis-sion (EUAM) Iraq, which is currently led by a German federal police officer.

Within the scope of Germany’s engagement in all eleven civilian CSDP missions in the EU neighbourhood, Africa and the Middle East, the Federal Government helps the partner countries to build rule-of-law structures and reform the security sector. The aim is to guarantee lasting stability. The CSDP missions provide strategic advice to governments and build capacities in the police and other security agencies with a view to enabling them to monitor borders and fight organised crime or terrorism in accordance with the rule of law. The Bundeswehr is also involved in mil-itary missions and operations under the CSDP to secure the sea routes off the coast of Somalia (EUNAVFOR ATALANTA), implement the UN arms embargo against Libya (EUNAVFOR MED Irini) and train Mali’s armed forces (EUTM Mali).

in the Civilian CSDP Compact, which was adopted by the EU foreign ministers on 19 November 2018, the EU member states gave the political go-ahead for investment in existing and additional civilian capabilities. One goal is to provide management capacities for a broader range of secu-rity challenges, for example in the fields of anti-terrorism, hybrid threats or maritime security. The Federal Government has developed a National Implementation Plan (NIP) for this purpose, which identifies certain areas for improvement such as internal processes for staff recruitment, career progression and follow-up support, as well as the availability of specialised skills. As a potential source of inspiration for other member states, the NIP also describes existing structures such as the close national coordination established between the police, the military and civilian experts as part of a comprehensive training concept, and the Centre for International

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The Federal Government will keep capabilities ready for participating in the whole spectrum of NATO and/or EU missions, and for helping regional part-ners to improve their own capabilities.

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and Jordan (“Arabian Leopard”; since 15 October 2018), with the measures carried out upon invitation by the respective country. “Gazelle” is to be continued under the umbrella of EUTM Mali as an important contribu-tion by Germany to CSDP engagement in the Sahel.

Peace Operations (ZIF), which, on the basis of the Secondment Act, acts as an employer and central service provider for civilian experts. The Federal Government makes a crucial national contribution to implementation of the Compact by providing substantial funding for the European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management, which opened in Berlin in Sep-tember 2020. As a practice-oriented service provider, this Centre will advise its members (already numbering 19 EU member states), the EEAS and the NATO International Staff on further developments in the field of civilian crisis management.

With the establishment of the European Peace Facility, which was a priority of Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU; for the first time in his-tory, the EU has an instrument at its disposal for building the capabilities of its partners’ armed forces through training, advice and equipment.

Since it was initiated in 2016, over 400 projects with a total funding volume of around €500 million have been implemented under the Federal Govern-ment’s Enable and Enhance initiative, which supports states and regional organisations in fragile contexts during all conflict phases and empowers them to assume responsibility for their own security. Evaluations of selected projects have confirmed their high level of relevance and target achievement and their efficient implementation; this also includes projects implemented in the context of NATO and UN engagement. The Enable and Enhance Initiative allows the Federal Government to support the military, the police, disaster risk reduction and control structures for security insti-tutions.

As part of NATO’s Defence and related Security Capacity Building (DCB) initiative, the Federal Government also supports efforts to build capaci-ties and empower regional partners to assume responsibility for their own security.

This is currently supplemented by three military support missions of the Bundeswehr special operation forces, implemented for the purpose of ena-bling and enhancing selected special forces of partner countries in the Niger (“Gazelle”; since 31 May 2018), Tunisia (“Fennek”; since 4 December 2016)

lieutenant Colonel Alexander S. discusses plans with his Afghan partners during the Resolute Support mission in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on 3 April 2019.

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Organization of American States (OAS)

The Federal Government supports the Organization of American States in its efforts to build peace and stability and to strengthen democracy in Latin America. It has provided funding for special missions, and representatives of the Federal Government have taken part in election observation missions.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is the most influential regional organisation in the Indo-Pacific, and cooperation between the ten ASEAN members has a considerable impact on business, trade and connectivity. Due to its central location and its economic heft, ASEAN plays an important role for security, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Federal Government has a keen interest in strengthening ASEAN’s capacity for action (ASEAN centrality), inter alia as the central pillar of a pro-cess of confidence building and multilaterally structured cooperation that goes beyond Southeast Asia to include China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Russia, India and Australia, among others.

Germany has been an ASEAN Development Partner since 2016, and the Federal Government plays a role in strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat within the scope of this partnership. Effective cooperation also takes place in the fields of environment and climate change, regional economic integration, rules-based free trade, connectivity and maritime safety. To date, Germany has provided a total volume of €131 million in funding for 33 projects under the current list of priorities for 2018 to 2022, making it one of ASEAN’s largest bilateral donors.

With a view to further empowering ASEAN to make its own contributions to peace and security, the Federal Government supports the following:

1 the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) in the field of capacity building;

1 the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and Rule of Law in relation to its project to strengthen the United Nations Conven-tion on the Law of the Sea and the rules-based order; and

1 adelphi in relation to its joint project with ASEAN on strengthening urban climate resilience.

In 2020, Germany acceded to the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, thereby acknowledging ASEAN’s code of conduct with its basic principles of peaceful conflict resolution and dialogue. The Federal Government regards this step as a basis for deeper security policy engagement with ASEAN and the ASEAN-based supra-regional security architecture, both nationally and at EU level.

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The Federal Government will support regional organisations all over the world enabling them to make their own contri-butions towards safeguarding peace and security.

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The Federal Government strongly advocated for the upgrading of EU-ASEAN relations to a Strategic Partnership; this was approved by the EU-ASEAN foreign ministers at their meeting on 1 December 2020.

There are other regional institutions in the Indo-Pacific (alongside ASEAN and its security policy dialogue mechanisms) that act as key partners for the Federal Government and the EU in terms of strengthening multilateral cooperation. Although these institutional partners have different focuses, they pursue the shared goal of improving the integration of the Indo-Pacific region and strengthening its networks.

The importance of strengthening regional institutions in the Indo-Pacific is enshrined as a key concern in the Policy guidelines for the Indo-Pacific adopted by the Federal Government in September 2020.

For further details on the African Union and ECOWAS, see voluntary commitment 8.

ASEAN COOrDiNATiNG CENTrE FOr HUMANiTAriAN ASSiSTANCE

Since the displacement of over 700,000 Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, the Federal Government has helped support the refugees and address the causes and consequences of the humanitarian crisis in both countries with measures to counter growing radicalisation and extremism. At the same time, the Federal Government is working bilaterally and through the EU to strengthen the structures of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management in Jakarta, which is playing a significant role alongside the UN organisations in the repatriation of the Rohingya.

With her signature, the Director of the AHA Centre, Adelina Kamal, launches the AHA4ASEAN project.

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Since 2017, the Federal Government has lobbied harder for a intensifying cooperation, in particular with the EU’s institutions and member states. But effective cooperation is also dependent on collaboration with other major donor countries and international organisations.

The EU’s Joint Programming exercises represent a major tool for donor coordination in the field of development cooperation (see voluntary com-mitment 34), and the Federal Government attaches a great deal of impor-tance to them, since they serve as a basis for joint analyses and strategies and the joint implementation of actions. The EU member states most heavily involved in Joint Programming processes are Germany and France, not least because they both work together with a large number of cooperation part-ners. The status of Joint Programming will be further enhanced under the EU’s future Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation

Instrument (NDICI); although Joint Programming has, to date, focused on the coordination of development cooperation, in future it will expand to encompass all programmable NDICI areas.

Existing donor coordination processes were reviewed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as part of the

“BMZ 2030” reform process, with greater priority being placed on donor coordination and Joint Programming.

During Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2020, the Fed-eral Government set itself the goal of promoting action by the community of donors and Joint Programming with a view to further improving donor coordination, inter alia as a foundation for jointly resolving global causes of conflict.

The COViD-19 pandemic is exacerbating existing fragilities and fracture lines (for further information on this topic, see the policy priority: An epoch-making pandemic: How coronavirus is influencing the Federal Government’s crisis engagement, p. 16). In 2020, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development therefore made a significant contribution (€2.7 billion) to the EU support package for developing countries, aimed at managing the consequences of COVID-19. Further assistance is planned for 2021. The EU and its member states are coordi-nating their relief efforts – including those in the field of development coordination – under the motto Team Europe. The Federal Government has leveraged this shift in attitude towards EU coordination by initiating the application of the Team Europe concept not just to action on COVID-19 but also to other areas of international cooperation, at both national level and in global EU concerns.

The Federal Government is committed to the resolution of other global causes of conflict: while a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, during Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, and in smaller fora, such as the OECD’s International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF), of which it has served as co-chair since January 2018.

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In conjunction with other donors, the Federal Government will work towards better donor coordination, and will endeavour to play an active role in the resolution of global causes of conflict.

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The Federal Government is making use of its time as iNCAF co-chair to position Germany’s contribution to crisis prevention, conflict resolution, stabilisation and peacebuilding internationally, thereby strengthening effective and coherent development approaches in countries affected by conflict and fragility, for example. Ways of achieving this goal include the adoption of standards and principles, exchanges of best practices, and recently also the issuing of joint opinions by INCAF members (for example the collective response to the UN/World Bank report Pathways for Peace or the joint position on the Global Refugee Forum held in December 2019). The most recent success story is the drafting and adoption of an OECD DAC recommendation on improved cooperation between actors in the fields of humanitarian assistance, development cooperation and peacebuilding, which has already been signed by numerous OECD member countries, the EU and multilateral institutions such as UNICEF, UNDP and WFP.

Via the INCAF Secretariat, the Federal Government also funds the OECD States of Fragility reports, which investigate the level and composition of financial flows in fragile contexts, identify related trends and provide an overview of key topics and countries that may be a cause for concern in the future. The aim of these reports is to supply a data-based and analytical foundation for more effective donor policies on fragile states.

For further information on this topic, see also the Policy priority: Climate and security, p. 184.

Image:

A member of staff of the aid organisation humedica checks pallets with aid supplies for regions in the West African country of Liberia hit by Ebola.

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POliCy PriOriTy:

Climate and security

In the Guidelines, the Federal Government says: “... the ever-increasing effects of climate change [...] pose huge challenges to our policy of peace-building”. This link has become more noticeable than ever since 2017. in many fragile contexts, the effects of climate change exacerbate the situa-tion. The commonly used forecasting models suggest that extreme weather events such as droughts or flooding will probably become more frequent and more intensive. At the same time, increased fragility or armed conflicts lessen, in particular, a society’s resilience and adaptability in the face of climate change impact and therefore act as climate risk multipliers. This poses a threat to the peaceful balancing of interests within a society (also with regard to the distribution of scarce resources), endangers sustainable development in affected states, and increases the risk of humanitarian disasters.

Since 2017, the Federal Government has therefore developed an integrated approach which views climate change in all its aspects as an environmen-tal, development and security problem in equal measure. The competent ministries maintain an intensive dialogue on climate and security and regularly coordinate their activities. This includes close cooperation in the fields of early warning, crisis prevention, stabilisation and peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and development cooperation.

The Federal Government put climate and security centre stage during Germany’s membership of the United Nations Security Council in 2019/2020. Today the vast majority of United Nations member states recog-nise that human-induced climate change is at once an environmental phenomenon and a key security threat of the 21st century. In places where climate change poses a threat to people’s livelihoods, the international community needs to take action before political conflicts (over resources, for instance) escalate into violence.

The Security Council must also be capable of taking action in this context. That is why the Federal Government is committed to

1 improving the sources of information available to the UN Security Council by means of better, adapted reporting, early warning systems and risk analyses;

1 advocating for others also to expand the capacities of the United Nations both at headquarters and in the field through voluntary contributions;

1 developing concrete options for action for the UN Security Council, for example in the field of mediation.

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One of the highlights of Germany’s term on the Security Council was the high-level debate on the effects of climate change on global stability and security chaired by Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on 24 July 2020. He called for the appointment of a Special representative on Climate and Security and announced the creation of an Informal Expert Group of the Security Council on climate and security. The Informal Expert Group met for the first time in November 2020 under the co-chairmanship of Germany and the Niger.

To promote these aims and ensure coordination among like-minded states, the Federal Government joined with the island state of Nauru back in August 2018 to initiate the Group of Friends on Climate and Security, which currently has 54 members. Together with these countries, Germany has driven forward the United Nations’ capacities to systemati-cally consider climate security risks in its analyses and reports. As part of a pilot project, the Federal Foreign Office is funding the United Nations Environment Programme’s very first environmental security adviser, who is supporting the UN mission in Somalia, a country particularly broadly affected by climate change.

Moreover, as one of four main donors, Germany is supporting the Climate Security Mechanism, a new unit established jointly in New York on the ini-tiative of Sweden in 2018 by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, UNDP and UNEP. This mechanism, based in the Secretariat, acts as an interface for climate and security in the UN system and ensures, among other things, that the effects of climate change on stability and security are reflected in reports by the UN Secretary-General in a structured manner.

In addition, the Federal Government supports the United Nations’ ability to take preventive measures to counter climate-induced risks of conflict on the ground. Germany is one of the biggest donors to the UN Peace-building Fund, an important instrument enabling the United Nations to respond quickly and with flexibility to political crises and longer-term peacebuilding needs.

In order to improve the analytical foundations for decision-makers worldwide, the Federal Foreign Office has prompted the elaboration of a comprehensive report on forecasting climate security risks. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the think tank adelphi are heading an international scientific consortium which will produce the report Weathering risk: A Climate and Security risk and Foresight Assessment by 2023. In 2019, together with PIK and adelphi, the Federal Foreign Office further established a high-level international conference format on climate and security, the Berlin Climate and Security Confer-ence. Every year it brings together all relevant stakeholders from politics, the scientific community and civil society to discuss specific, preventive options to tackle climate-induced security risks at an early stage.

Since 2017, the climate and security issue has been an increasing focus of the Federal Government’s bilateral engagement for crisis prevention and stabilisation as well. For example, the Federal Foreign Office has supported dialogue and mediation measures in Somalia, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and in northern Mali designed to help find local solutions to climate- and weather-induced conflicts over resources.

Within the scope of international processes, e.g. on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement or the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Federal Government is committed to a more strategic understanding of the climate and security nexus as a key issue for the future of sustainable development. To reflect this, the BMZ 2030 reform strategy for more effective and more efficient German development cooperation identifies “Responsibility for our planet – climate and energy” and “Peaceful and inclusive societies” as core areas for prioritisation in development policy.

The link between a high risk of climate and natural disasters and fragile statehood was also highlighted in the study Disaster risk reduction in conflict contexts – An agenda for action commissioned by the BMZ from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in 2019.

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In October 2020, under the auspices of the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, a plenary session of the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector, set up by the European Commission in 2015, was held in Berlin. The Consultation Forum, which brings together experts from the Defence Ministries of the 27 EU member states, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland, enables synergies between national armed forces with regard to renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. The aim is to integrate the defence and security sector completely into EU energy legislation. The countries involved have set ambitious goals for the years ahead. In addition, sustainable develop-ment and climate change mitigation have been fixed as clear priorities of the second phase of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) between 2021 and 2025, following an initiative by Germany and the other partici-pating member states. Within NATO, too, the Federal Government is committed to upscaling the focus on the security implications of climate change.

The Federal Government will cooperate closely with the UN and work with its EU partners to further develop its range of instruments in the field of climate and security and give partners even more targeted support in tackling climate security risks.

The ODI presented the report at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction ministerial session in Geneva in 2019. The nexus is also reflected in the UN Secretary-General’s 2019 report on disaster risk reduction, in which the interface between climate-induced disasters and security was addressed for the first time.

By providing funding for relevant programmes, such as the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the Federal Government supports consistent consideration of the fragility-conflict-climate nexus in World Bank country programmes and strategic documents.

The Federal Government is working with partner countries and multi-lateral organisations to help enhance climate adaptation and resilience, particularly in the least developed countries – through development cooperation, the International Climate Initiative (ICI), financial contri-butions to the Adaptation Fund, the Special Climate Change Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund, the Strategic Climate Fund or the Global Environment Facility. In 2019, 41% of Germany's climate financing from the budget went to adaptation of measures (€1.78 billion).

Germany is also furthering the adaptation agenda via multilateral partner-ships and initiatives, for example the insuresilience Global Partnership for climate and disaster risk finance and insurance, launched in 2017, and the Global initiative on Disaster risk Management to enhance disaster resilience. Furthermore, the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, as patron and commission-er respectively of the Global Commission on Adaptation, established in 2018, are committed to anchoring adaptation issues more firmly on the international agenda. The work of the Global Commission on Adaptation culminated with the Climate Adaptation Summit on 25 January 2021, but is being continued by the Global Centre on Adaptation, hosted by the Netherlands, and other bodies. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooper-ation and Development is providing an initial €2.5 million to support the African Adaptation Initiative via the Centre’s new regional office in Africa. This initiative is Africa's central political initiative on climate adaptation.

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The Federal Government uses the contributions of the Working Group on Peace and Development as a basis for the provision of advice, networking, cross-sectoral dialogue processes and engagement with empirical knowledge. The focus in this connection is on strengthening and further developing approaches and strategies that prevent violence and build peace, particularly when designing and implementing the three interministerial strategies for promoting the rule of law, security sector reform and transitional justice.

Building on the experience of FriEnt members and a global network of partners, the Federal Government has made effective use of this Working Group’s contributions for a number of different purposes, including active

cooperation under the umbrella of the PeaceLab. FriEnt has worked together with the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) to moderate and support activity on the PeaceLab blog in the field of transitional justice. It has also actively supported the interministerial debate on security sector reforms (SSR); for example, it organised joint expert discussions on SSR processes in Tunisia and Nigeria.

The Federal Government successfully lobbied for the Working Group’s expertise also to be used as a basis for work by the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding. FriEnt is represented on the Advisory Board and has held workshops and panel discussions at the joint annual conference.

As an alliance of civil society and state actors, the Working Group plays an important role in dialogue and the exchange of information. The Federal Government provides funding for FriEnt’s work and supports cooperation within the scope of the Working Group.

Non-governmental organisations play a particularly relevant role in implementing the transitional development assistance goals of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Their work focuses primarily on local actors, which means that they can also reach target groups in fragile contexts. What is more, many non-govern-mental organisations pursue a dual mandate, since they operate not only in the humanitarian sector, but also in the field of development. Provided that due consideration is given to the differing mandates and principles, this can facilitate implementation of the humanitarian-devel-opment-peace nexus.

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The Federal Government will intensify its cooperation with non-governmental actors in the area of peacebuilding, increase its use of existing platforms like FriEnt (Working Group on Peace and Development), and further expand its network.

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The Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding remains the most important link between civil society and the Federal Government in the area of crisis prevention, conflict resolution and peace-building. When appointing the current members of the Advisory Board, the Federal Government endeavoured to achieve a gender balance and to ensure that each member came from a background that relates to affinities with the Federal Government’s crisis engagement.

The new Advisory Board has adopted an ambitious working plan; since 2019, it has worked on topics including gender, peace and security, policy coherence for peace, public communications on crisis prevention and cli-mate change as a security risk. The Advisory Board organised major annual conferences in 2019 (in person) and 2020 (virtually), in each case with over 250 people attending. The debates at these conferences supplied relevant impulses and ideas for the practical work carried out by the federal minis-tries. This applies, in particular, to the three interministerial strategies for promoting the rule of law, security sector reform and transitional justice,

which the Advisory Board commented on at the draft stage and debated in public during the annual conference. The annual conferences have served as an opportunity to present the Federal Government’s conceptual approaches and its practical engagement in certain countries to the inter-ested public.

The Federal Government has involved the Advisory Board in its work on a number of occasions, for example during the PeaceLab debate in January 2019 with Federal President Steinmeier in Addis Ababa, or in respect of specific conceptual issues such as implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

The Advisory Board meets every three months with the Interministerial Round Table for Civilian Crisis Prevention to discuss specific topics and to plan and set priorities for the Advisory Board’s work. The Advisory Board publishes its opinions and studies; in 2020, these included an opinion on the question of what COViD-19 means for the Federal Government’s crisis engagement, and a study on the coherence of Germany’s Africa policy from a peace policy perspective. By organising workshops on topics such as communications and security sector reform and by publishing studies, the Advisory Board ensures that the Federal Government’s actions are subject to ongoing constructive criticism.

Since October 2020, the Advisory Board has had access to administrative and substantive support from a coordinator based within ifa/zivik and funded by the Federal Foreign Office (see the information box on the zivik programme of ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) on p. 33).

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As the central interface to non-govern-mental actors, the Federal Government will further consolidate and strengthen the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention.

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On 3 September 2020, the Federal Ministry of Education and research published a funding call on “Strengthening and developing peace and conflict research”. Building on the recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities, a particular goal in this connection is to contribute to closer interregional, international and interdisciplinary networking in the research field. Research associations in the form of

“networks of excellence” and regional “centres” are to be funded:

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The Federal Government will place special emphasis on improving the knowledge base for involvement in fragile contexts and for shared learning processes. To that end, it will support the systematic promotion of regional studies and of peace, security and conflict research, and will support innovative transfer formats to better incorporate the results obtained in the Federal Government’s work.

1 Networks of excellence involve cooperation between smaller, regionally dispersed actors with similar research priorities, carrying out joint research on forward-looking issues in the field of peace and conflict research. A further aim is for the networks of excellence to position themselves as knowledge transfer actors and to develop consultancy and information services for the world of politics and society.

1 The regional centres are consortia of universities and non-univer-sity research institutions that carry out joint research and transfer projects as a means of building lasting cooperation structures and achieving international visibility with a clearly characterised profile. The centres also have the task of strengthening interdisciplinarity and methodological pluralism in the research field and, as bridge-heads, of fostering its internationalisation.

From mid-2021 onwards, the different research networks are to be funded for a period of four years, with the option of extending this period by an additional two years.

As part of its project funding activities, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research also supports the German Foundation for Peace research (Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung) in its funding efforts, which are of major significance for the research field. Among other things, the availability of funding over the period 2021 to 2025 will mean that the Foundation is able to finance several calls for proposals under its thematic funding line.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research also continues to pro-vide funding for regional studies. The relevant funding call was published on 10 October 2019; the projects will be launched in spring 2021, with a three-year term that can optionally be extended by a further three years.

A second funding phase for the Centre for Global Cooperation research at the University of Duisburg-Essen on the topic “Political culture of world society: Opportunities for global cooperation in the 21st century” started back on 1 February 2018. The Centre compiles knowledge on the cognitive,

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cultural and institutional mechanisms of global cooperation. The research findings on structures and dynamics that either foster or hinder coopera-tion may help to improve the conditions for legitimate and solution-ori-ented global cooperation, taking into account cultural diversity in a global society.

Since April 2020, a Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb has also been in operation in Tunis, Tunisia (coordinated by the Philipps University of Marburg). The focus of its research is on socioeconomic dis-parities and future models in the MENA region.

A number of Maria Sibylla Merian Centres have already transitioned into a six-year main phase; this includes the Centres in Guadalajara, Mexico (since March 2019, coordinated by Bielefeld University), São Paolo, Brazil (since April 2020, coordinated by Freie Universität Berlin) and Accra, Ghana (since September 2020, coordinated by the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg). They carry out research into crisis resolution, social inequality and forms of co-existence as well as sustainable governance.

The Federal Foreign Office supports peace and conflict research by German institutions as a major source of ideas and advice for Germany’s foreign and security policy, including its cybersecurity policy. Project cooperation with various relevant institutes provides a good illustration of this approach:

1 The Federal Foreign Office is providing €4 million in funding over the period 2019 to 2022 for the “Arms Control and Emerging Technologies: Research and Transfer Project” at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH), for example. The project is split into four thematic research areas: (1) arms control of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction; (2) emerging technologies and preventive arms control; (3) conventional arms control; and (4) future issues of the European peace and security order. The cross-cutting project “Transfer of Knowledge to Politics and Civil Society” ensures that the research results obtained by IFSH will feed into the debate at policy and civil society level.

1 The German Bundestag has also allocated budgetary resources allow-ing the Federal Foreign Office to fund the German Foundation for Peace research. This made it possible to increase the Foundation’s endowment capital, from which projects in the field of peace and conflict research are funded.

1 The Federal Foreign Office has developed a hub model based on two principles: the first is that the researchers involved should work specifically on the development of crisis prevention, stabilisation and peacebuilding projects; and the second is that they should be linked to a particular research institute. This puts them in a position to assess the questions at stake and the political realities as a basis for gauging the Federal Government’s interest in the findings, transfer-ring the outcomes of this assessment to a research context and initiat-ing the corresponding research and investigations; conversely, they can also translate research findings into a usable format for work at ministerial level. Hub structures have been established on a number of different topics, including peace mediation (with the European University Viadrina), rule-of-law promotion (with Freie Universität Berlin) and security sector reform (with the institute for Peace research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg).

1 The Federal Foreign Office works together with the EU-LISTCO project on the topic of limited statehood, which investigates crisis engagement by the foreign ministries of Germany, France, Italy and the European External Action Service on a comparative basis.

On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment, the Peace research institute Frankfurt (Member of the leibniz Association) produced a study entitled “Peace and Development 2020 – An Analysis of recent Experiences and Findings” in autumn 2019. This study contains an up-to-date analysis of current developments, experiences and challenges, based on international scientific expertise. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has used this study as a basis for identifying causal relationships and recommendations for action under the heading of development cooperation in contexts shaped by violence and

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conflict. The systematic classification of scientific debates and findings is important in this connection, since it raises the profile of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as an actor in the field of peace policy, and makes it possible to align instruments in crisis contexts more effectively with long-term peacebuilding goals.

The Federal Government has expanded its cooperation with the Bonn international Centre for Conversion. This research institute is respon-sible for the website Ruestungsexport.info (see link p. 224), which con-tains detailed reports on a selection of countries that receive German arms exports, and also produces both regional and thematic reports that provide the Federal Government and the specialist public with up-to-date information on security, armament and developments in selected German arms export destination countries.

Since 2001, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment has used the Escalation Potential Analysis when working with fragile countries affected by conflict and violence. The aim of this tool is to identify longer-term trends and crisis potentials and to establish a basis for decisions regarding preventive action through development coopera-tion methods. To this end, experts on the relevant countries from the German Institute for Global and Area Studies analyse structural conflict factors, conflict-escalating processes, conflict management strategies and the current phase of the conflict. They examine all partner countries of German development cooperation, as well as a selected number of additional countries. The measured outcomes from the Escalation Potential Analysis serve as a crucial foundation for binding requirements, which might include a mandatory peace and conflict analysis for all projects.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development regards early warning as an exemplary model of successful cooperation between research and policy, since it allows research findings to feed directly into political practice. External inputs raise the quality bar for policymaking; at the same time, an opportunity is provided to demonstrate the direct practical relevance of research.

in order to ensure that the available evidence can be accessed when designing transitional development assistence measures and in order to strengthen lesson learning from evaluation, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, together with the international non-governmental organisation 3ie, which advocates for evidence-based development strategies and programmes, has carried out a systematic review with regard to the strengthening of social cohesion in fragile contexts, the results of which have implications for sustainable resilience building, crisis prevention and peacebuilding. The systematic review is based on an evidence gap map on the topic of peaceful co-existence produced in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Coopera-tion and Development, the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) and 3ie. This evidence gap map highlights not only existing and tried-and-tested approaches to resilience building and peacebuilding, but also – and in particular – shortcomings in approaches and implementation. It can therefore be regarded as a reference point for the evidence-based programming of interventions in the area of peace and fragility.

In addition, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment is planning a further systematic review in cooperation with 3ie, on the topic of Women as agents of change in developing peaceful and inclusive societies. This systematic review takes as its starting point the premise that women can play a key role both in creating a peace-enabling environment and in strengthening resilience in fragile contexts, and also as active participants in peace efforts. The report is scheduled for completion in 2021.

In its study “Polypandemic”, published in November 2020 and commis-sioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment, the Munich Security Conference outlines the challenges facing fragile states and regions in particular as a result of the COViD 19 pan-demic, and at the same time provides impetus for the further development of German, European and global development and security policy (see link p. 224).

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The need for civil society, NGOs and human rights defenders to be allowed to operate freely is one of the core priorities of the Federal Government’s lobbying activities within the United Nations Human Rights Council and other UN bodies, the EU foreign policy and numerous bilateral discus-sions. The Federal Foreign Office’s regional human rights seminars, which take place once or twice a year under the leadership of Dr Kofler, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance at the Federal Foreign Office, provide highly effective assistance to human rights defenders in their work and help them to build informal networks.

The Federal Government funds many projects around the world by and for human rights defenders, aimed at protecting these individuals and at the global realisation of human rights.

With a view to protecting human rights defenders, the Federal Government also funds the Elisabeth Selbert Initiative, a programme which provides threatened human rights defenders with various forms of support, includ-ing temporary relocation to Germany for their protection. The Martin Roth Initiative and the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, both of which are funded by the Federal Government, also offer protection to at-risk artists or culture professionals or researchers.

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The Federal Government is committed to assuring a free and unhindered environment for the activities of civil society organisations and foundations in host countries, and to better integrating business companies in its non-governmental network of actors.

Syrian microbiologist Dr Nedal Said was one of the first Philipp Schwartz Initiative fellows. Having fled to Germany via Turkey, he has embarked on his fellowship at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig.

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as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Examples include projects aimed at securing legal rights or providing legal assistance or training at creating legal precedents (development of law), at raising awareness of citizens’ rights and obligations, and involving national or international advocacy work and networking.

The central church agencies also support projects highlighting the impacts of domestic (German and European) policies on human rights in donor countries, and advocate for a coherent human rights policy for everyone and across all policy areas.

In implementation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, the Federal Government has established networks to help private economic actors to implement human rights standards abroad (see volun-tary commitment 19).

The Federal Government also supports the Global Initiative to Address and Prevent Criminalization and Impunity against Indigenous Peoples, aimed in particular at protecting indigenous human rights defenders.

In situations where civil society actors cannot operate freely, the Federal Government also funds projects aimed at providing them with targeted support, inter alia through its governmental and non-governmental development cooperation activities. Examples include strengthening the role of non-governmental organisations in political lobbying work and the law-making procedure in Laos, or closer networking between non-govern-mental organisations in Uganda. The Federal Government further supports national human rights commissions, for example in Egypt and Maurita-nia, which are able to act as mediators and to lobby for more freedom to operate on the part of civil society actors. In many countries, the Federal Government also supports processes of dialogue between state and civil society with a view to building mutual trust and cooperation.

Project work also encompasses the funding of political foundations which act as indispensable partners for the Federal Government’s engagement worldwide. With a view to maintaining or strengthening the capacity of political foundations to operate freely, the Federal Government engages in discussions with various actors and provides political support for address-ing status issues.

At multilateral level, Germany plays an active role within the OECD DAC Community of Practice on Civil Society in the development of new recom-mendations or guidance by the OECD DAC on a civil society-enabling environment.

The promotion and securing of democratic structures and the creation of an independent and strong civil society are key concerns not only for political foundations, but also for the central church agencies involved in development assistance. The projects implemented by the churches and their partners on the ground follow a rights-based approach, and are aimed primarily at ensuring respect, protection and safeguarding of internation-ally enshrined human rights; this includes both civic and political rights

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The ministries involved have taken a joint approach to the monitoring and evaluation of their engagement in crisis prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. For example, in 2019, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development initiated an interministerial strategic evaluation of their engagement in iraq for the first time; this evaluation is scheduled for completion in mid-2021, and it

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The Federal Government advocates systematic, impact-oriented monitoring, and the corresponding evaluation of its involvement in crisis prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. By strength-ening exchange on best practices, the federal ministries aims to apply, in each case, the highest quality standards of the federal ministries and implementing partners involved, and to develop inter-ministerial procedures.

will be possible to use the experience gained as a basis for the drafting of interministerial rules of procedure for joint evaluations. Further interminis-terial evaluations took place at programme level.

The Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development have instigated regular inter-ministerial meetings for the purpose of exchanging information on issues relating to evaluation in the field of ODA. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has set up a Development Tracker Afghanistan for the specific purpose of interministerial monitoring in relation to Afghanistan; it takes the form of a web-based database of all the ministries’ ODA-eligible measures in Afghanistan, with information on the project name and objective, funding (donor(s), co-financing), partner organ-isations and federal ministries, project term, locations and results achieved. The Development Tracker Afghanistan is updated and maintained on an ongoing basis. The Operations Manual published in July 2019 provides for the strengthening of interministerial monitoring approaches.

Alongside these interministerial efforts, the federal ministries have also taken individual measures within their respective remits.

Following the establishment of Directorate-General S and the associated increase in projects within the Federal Foreign Office’s area of operations, an evaluation unit was set up within this Directorate-General in 2017; this unit is responsible for managing external evaluations. It also provides advice on management of objectives and impact monitoring, and is in charge of the expansion, systematisation and conceptual development of evalua-tion activities within the Federal Foreign Office. This includes the creation and implementation of a framework concept for evaluation, incorporat-ing, among other things, voluntary undertakings to carry out a minimum number of strategic and programme evaluations within the Federal Foreign Office’s different funding areas.

An initial strategic evaluation (of the transformation partnerships) and a number of programme evaluations have since been completed by the

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Federal Foreign Office. Project evaluations also took place under the dele-gated responsibility of the implementing organisations.

The Federal Foreign Office has also stepped up networking efforts with actors from academia and evaluation units in Germany and abroad, particularly those within the foreign ministries of other countries (espe-cially in its role as co-chair of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Working Group of the Stabilisation Leaders Forum), the UN subsidiary organisations and specialised agencies, implementing and intermediary organisations and political foundations.

Staff members in other budget-administering divisions in Directo-rate-General S are also assigned monitoring and evaluation tasks. Special monitoring mechanisms have been developed in the area of peace media-tion and are now refined on an ongoing basis, with a view to improving yet further the quality of dialogue and mediation processes while avoiding any detrimental impact on these sensitive undertakings.

The competent units in other funding areas have also continuously enhanced and systematised the project monitoring processes required under the Federal Budget Code, and the findings obtained in this way feed into these and new measures.

A differentiated evaluation system is implemented within the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development:

1 The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is responsible for specifying guidelines and principles.

1 The implementing organisations carry out project evaluations.

1 The German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) carries out independent strategic evaluations.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has maintained and further developed this existing and time-tested modular

evaluation system. Among other things, it takes due account of the stand-ards and procedures of the harmonisation process for the execution of central project evaluations by the implementing organisations, as well as provisions of DEval’s Articles of Association aimed at further expanding and strengthening the organisation’s autonomy.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development played a successful role in the reform of the OECD DAC evaluation criteria; in September 2020, it revised its guidance on the handling of these evaluation criteria in evaluations of German development cooperation.

DEval has already carried out or is carrying out three strategic evaluations in the area of fragility (see also link p. 224) (1) “Effectiveness of develop-ment cooperation in dealing with conflict-induced forced migration crises using the example of the Partnership for Prospects Initiative in the Middle East”;  (2) “Supporting gender equality in post-conflict contexts” and  (3)  “Development cooperation in fragile contexts”. A summary report on the thematic focus area “Fragile states, crisis prevention and peacebuild-ing” is also planned.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development also supports improved integration of impact and assessment approaches into transitional development assistance, and pilots rigorous impact assessments, inter alia in cooperation with UNICEF and WFP in relation to joint multisec-toral UN resilience programmes in the Sahel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, as well as in relation to a programme implemented via GIZ in Nigeria. Among other things, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development uses these findings for ongoing and future programmes in fragile contexts.

An “International Police Relations” Section was established within the German Police University pursuant to a decision adopted by the Bundestag in 2016 on “Strengthening and expanding German involvement in terms of the deployment of police officers in international peace missions”. The purpose of this Section is not only to alert prospective leaders to the signifi-cance of international cooperation, but also to carry out analytical research

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The Federal Government is committed to promoting joint basic and further training, and to tailoring its relevant programmes even better to the challenging tasks in crisis countries.

1 Since 2013, in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Foreign Office has organised an annual three-day seminar entitled “Interministerial action in fragile contexts” for junior staff from the various federal ministries, at the Foreign Service Academy (over 100 participants in 2019). Pandemic-related constraints meant that this event could not be held in 2020.

1 Junior staff from the Federal Foreign Office (attachés/attachées) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community meet once each year at the Federal Academy for Security Policy to attend a seminar on security policy issues (including

“Interministerial action in fragile contexts”) and interministerial discussions on the respective training events.

into past and present missions with a view to drawing conclusions about any areas where improvements are necessary or possible. It belongs to the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network and takes part in the study assessing the effectiveness of the UN mission in the Central African Republic. The German Police University is involved in the ex-ante evalua-tion of the Federal Government’s training and equipment programme for foreign police forces over the period 2021-2024 in Tunisia.

All Bundeswehr deployments abroad are subject to ongoing assessments and adjustments. As part of this process, the Federal Ministry of Defence takes into account the outcomes of reviews of mandated Bundeswehr deployments abroad carried out at NATO, EU and UN level. Relevant conclusions from the reviews carried out by the sponsoring organisations are regularly included in the mandate texts and explanatory statements. Any adjustments required in terms of numbers, capabilities and mandate are incorporated into the mandating process.

The Federal Ministry of Defence also systematically assesses its medium-term and long-term preventive engagement, including military training assistance, advice and contacts with non-NATO and non-EU countries. Military training assistance is subject to an annual assessment that covers not only security and military policy considerations, but also factors relat-ing to use by partners. This assessment is the basis for military equipment assistance in subsequent years.

As the unit responsible for managing deployments, the Bundeswehr Oper-ations Command ensures at operational leadership level that deployments can be rapidly adapted to changing security and military policy needs. In the event that developments and progress in deployment areas call for adjustments in respect of leadership and deployment principles or resources, equipment, training, personnel, infrastructure and organisation, ranging right through to suggestions for the further development of the Bundeswehr’s capability profile, the competent Bundeswehr bodies draw up proposals for improvements.

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1 The Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Police work closely together in security seminars and on emergency preparedness.

1 The Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Foreign Office organise behavioural training sessions at foreign postings with an increased security risk.

1 A one-week induction briefing is organised on an annual basis within the Federal Foreign Office for desk officers for development coopera-tion who will shortly depart for their post up at diplomatic missions.

1 If they are being posted to crisis countries, the Peace and Security Division within the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development offers individual, half-day or whole-day coaching sessions, which focus in particular on the comprehensive approach. In an increasing number of cases, staff members from the Federal Foreign Office are also invited. All of these coaching sessions took place virtually in 2020.

1 The Federal Foreign Office offers courses to prospective military attachés at German missions abroad with a view to achieving the greatest possible level of coherence in external action.

1 Greater emphasis was placed on the topic of “sustainable develop-ment” when reforming the training provision for the higher interme-diate Foreign Service.

1 The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development sends one of its managers to attend the interministerial “German Capstone Course” organised annually at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College.

1 Information is shared on a regular basis between the National General/ Admiral Staff Officer course and the attaché training courses, and participants attend selected components of the training course for

which they are not enrolled. Similarly, one representative from the Federal Ministry of the Interior and one from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development attended the technical clos-ing event of the National General/Admiral Staff Officer course in 2018.

1 Attachés and staff members from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development regularly attend seminars at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College; examples include

“CERASIA – Simulation at policy and strategic level aimed at devel-oping an understanding of joint interministerial action at ministe-rial level” and “Strategic development on the basis of the scenario technique”. The CERASIA simulation was held in a virtual format in 2020 as a result of pandemic-related constraints; attendees included members of the 75th attaché training course.

1 Since 2019, the Federal Ministry of Defence has organised a special two-week training course for staff members of the Federal Foreign Office on preparing for crisis postings, held at the Bundeswehr UN Training Centre in Hammelburg. Staff members of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development have attended these two-week training courses in Hammelburg for many years; although the courses originally focused only on Afghanistan, they now also cover other crisis areas.

Participants in the interministerial young professionals seminar on interministerial engagement in fragile states outside Villa Borsig in November 2019.

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Measures taken to date by the Federal Government for the purpose of learning from past experiences and promoting the transfer of knowledge between academia and the world of politics include the following:

1 hubs (see voluntary commitment 43);

1 cooperation with the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding;

1 PeaceLab debates;

1 basic and further training on crisis engagement in a variety of formats;

1 training institutes operated by the Federal and Länder police forces;

1 training partner platform operated by the Centre for International Peace Operations (ZIF), the Bundeswehr and GIZ;

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The Federal Government will establish a learning platform for pooling and getting the most out of the experiences gained from its involvement.

Additional opportunities for sharing information

1 Discussions with staff members of other ministries are a permanent feature of the annual Conference of the Heads of German Missions Abroad and Regional Ambassadors’ Conferences.

1 The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development organise a multi-day event for all desk officers for development cooperation based at the Federal Government’s missions abroad; this typically takes place on an annual basis. In 2020, the event was held virtually as a result of pandemic-related constraints.

1 Furthermore, as part of the annual meeting of prospective leaders at the Federal Academy for Security Policy, further discussions take place between junior staff from the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

1 Employees of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police Office are provided with a joint one-day briefing before resettlement missions abroad. Regu-lar multi-day security training sessions organised by the THW are supposed to be held for individuals deployed on these tasks (Due to Pandemic-related constraints these sessions had to be cancelled in 2020).

1 The “International Police Relations” Section within the German Police University organises teaching and further training events, in some cases in cooperation with other providers of basic and further training (the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL), the State Office for Education, Training and Personnel Matters of the North Rhine-Westphalia Police (LAFP) and the Federal Criminal Police Office).

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1 improved cooperation on preparations for mission-based deploy-ments between the federal ministries and ZIF; and

1 post-mission assessment of lessons learned by the federal ministries and ZIF.

In February 2020, an initial discussion took place between the Federal Gov-ernment, academia and civil society with a view to gathering further ideas on ways in which a learning platform could be set up; representatives of the Dutch Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law also presented their thoughts. At a second meeting in December 2020, the ministries agreed to follow a modular approach with a view to interlinking more closely the existing measures listed above, and at the same time to incorporate addi-tional requirements and options such as innovative peer-to-peer knowl-edge sharing between staff members working on stabilisation or other crisis engagement topics, either within the ministries, at missions abroad or in multilateral settings.

The interministerial round Table for Civilian Crisis Prevention continuously monitors the application and further development of the Guidelines on behalf of the Federal Government. Based on the outcomes of its meetings, members lobby within their respective federal ministries for closer alignment of crisis engagement with the core ideas of the vision statement, for the stepping up of interministerial coordina-tion, for support for the implementation of coordinated courses of action, for the closing of conceptual gaps and for the maintenance and expansion of links with civil society.

The PeaceLab events and blog debates were and still are a key tool for familiarisation with the perspectives, experiences and concepts of German civil society and international bodies and institutions, and for further development of the Federal Government’s engagement in fragile contexts.

PEACElAB

Since 2016, PeaceLab (under the leadership and editorial control of the Global Public Policy Institute) has played a supporting role in the formulation and implementation of the Guidelines. In over 250 posts and ten debates hosted on the PeaceLab blog, initiated by the Federal Government or the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding, experts from civil society, academia and practice addressed recommendations for a more strategic peace and security policy to the Federal Government, covering issues such as security sector reform, promotion of the rule of law, transitional justice or women, peace and security. The PeaceLab community also discussed ways in which the Federal Government could rethink its peace and security engagement in 28 podcast episodes and at more than ten events.

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The Federal Government is committed to systematically following up on the application and advancement of the Guidelines.

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The Subcommittee on Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Management and Integrated Action of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the German Bundestag is responsible for monitoring implementation of the Guidelines. The Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding is one of the most crucial links with those who are active in the field of peace-building in Germany. The PeaceLab blog debates and workshops have enabled the Federal Government to maintain an ongoing exchange of expertise with the specialist community and other bodies in Germany and beyond; topics covered have included the further development or drafting of strategies for security sector reform, promotion of the rule of law and transitional justice, communications, European crisis engagement or implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

The Federal Government has set up an interministerial Working Group on Communications regarding the Guidelines on Preventing Crises, resolving Conflicts, Building Peace with a view to making improvements in this area. Members are the Federal Foreign Office (chair), the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. The Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding and the Federal Agency for Civic Education attend meetings of this Working Group as permanent guests. A concept for improved communications has been developed by the Working Group on the basis of a PeaceLab debate (blog and event); it is an internal Federal Government document.

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The Federal Government will cultivate a close exchange with the German Bundes-tag and actors from the peacebuilding arena. It will expand its communication with the public, and will for that purpose set up a permanent interministerial work-ing group for strategic communication.

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Index of abbreviations | Picture credits | Imprint

Appendix

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iNDEx OF ABBrEViATiONS

A4P Action for Peacekeeping ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific states ACT-A Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator AFRIPOL African Police Cooperation Organisation AG RSV Working Group on Promoting the Rule of Law, Security Sector Reform and Transitional Justice APSA African Peace and Security Architecture ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nation ASF African Standby Force ATI Addis Tax Initiative AU African Union AWLN African Women Leaders Network CAPAZ Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz – German-Colombian Peace Institute CEPOL European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy CoE European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management CSDP Common Security and Defence Policy DAC Development Assistance Committee (of the OECD) DCB Initiative Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative DEval German Institute for Development Evaluation DRM Domestic Revenue Mobilisation ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EEAS European External Action Service EIF Enhanced Integrated Framework EITI Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative EMP École de Maintien de la Paix EPA Economic Partnership Agreement EPF European Peace Facility ESKA Escalation Potential Analysis

EU European Union EU NAVFOR MED European Union Naval Forces Medical Operation Sophia Sophia EUAM European Union Advisory Mission EUCAP European Union Capacity Building Mission EULEX European Union Rule of Law Mission EUTM Mali European Union Training Mission in Mali FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FATF Financial Action Task Force FriEnt Working Group on Peace and Development GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH GPPi Global Public Policy Institute GPPT German Police Project Team ICMP International Commission for Missing Persons IDEA International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFSH Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg ILO International Labour Organisation IMF International Monetary Fund INCAF International Network on Conflict and Fragility IOM International Organisation for Migration ISP Integrated Approach for Security and Peace Directorate JIG Judicial Integrity Group KAIPTC Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre KFOR Kosovo Force LAFP State Office for Education, Training and Personnel Matters of the North Rhine-Westphalia Police LDCs Least Developed Countries LOST Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training MAPP Misión de Apoyo als Proceso de Paz en Colombia – Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia

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MENA Middle East and North Africa MINURSO United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara MINUSMA United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali NAP National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NDICI Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument NGO Non-Governmental Organisation OAS Organisation of American States ODA Official Development Assistance OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OIE World Organisation for Animal Health (formerly Office International des Epizooties) OSCE Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe P3S Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel PATRIP Pakistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan Regional Integration Programme PESCO Permanent Structured Cooperation RSF Rule of Law Promotion SADC Southern Africa Development Community SDG Sustainable Development Goal SSR Security sector reform TAMEB German/Turkish partnership for the vocational training of refugees THW Federal Agency for Technical Relief TI Transparency International UN United Nations UNAMID United Nations-African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon

UNITAD United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL UNITAMS United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan UNMAS United Nations Mine Action Service UNMHA United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement UNMIK United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UNMISS United Nations Mission in South Sudan UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNSOM United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organisation WTO World Trade Organisation ZFD Civil Peace Service ZIF Centre for International Peace Operations

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PICture CredItS

Title: Thomas Koehler/photothek.net, Page 6: Thomas Imo/photothek.net, Page 12: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com/Mahmoud Ajjour, Page 17: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com/Marcus Dipaola, Page 22: OCHA, Page 24: UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran, Page 29: berghof-foundation, Page 35: UN Woman, Page 37: GIZ, Page 39: GIZ, Page 44: GIZ, Page 51: GIZ, Page 53: Xander Heinl/photothek.net, Page 55: picture alliance/dpa/Jalil Rezayee, Page 60: Verena Neundter, Page 67: Thomas L. Kelly, Page 74: Picture alliance/dpa/Sputnik/Stringer, Page 77: ICC-CPI, Page 80: GPPT, Page 85: GIZ, Page 92: BMZ, Page 93: Jessica Kühnle, Welthungerhilfe, Page 100: BMZ/LOST, Page 113: ITC/GIZ/Christoph Petras/Central Studios, Page 114: picture alliance/AA/EU Council/Pool, Page 121: AA, Page 124: Thomas Koehler/photothek.net, Page 127: AA, Page 131: AA, Page 139: PREFASO/AA, Page 141: Xander Heinl/photothek.net, Page 146: ZIF/Stefan Pramme & Andreas Arnold, Page 152: ZIF/B. Kreutzer, Page 161: Florian Gärtner/photothek.net, Page 163: Florian Gärtner/photothek. net, Page 171: picture alliance/dpa/Kay Nietfeld, Page 175: BMVg, Page 179: AHA Centre, Page 183: picture alliance/dpa / Andreas Gebert, Page 185: Jake Lyell, Page 201: Humboldt Stiftung/Nikolaus Brade, Page 211: Julia Tatrai, Knowledge Exchange Lab (KEL), FU Berlin, Page 218: UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran, Page 227: picture-alliance/ dpa/dpaweb/DB/Silke Lode

Page 12: Children playing outside their house in the northern Gaza Strip. The situation in the Gaza Strip has worsened as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

Page 24: Girls in Kuma Garadayat (Northern Darfur in the Sudan) welcome the arrival of a UNAMID delegation with whom they will open a new school. The project was implemented by UNAMID personnel from Senegal.

Page 114: The EU foreign ministers during an emergency meeting on Iran, Iraq and Libya, on the 10 January, 2020

Page 218: A woman pushes a Hippo water roller in El Fasher (Northern Darfur in the Sudan). UNAMID distributed these water rollers to returnees across Darfur to help with develop-ment and reconstruction. There are 30,000 of them in use now to help supply villages with water.

Page 227: A wall made up of thousands of wooden blocks on Dag Hammarskjöld Square at UN headquarters in New York. Together the 59,000 blocks form a symbolic “protective wall” built by young people on the margins of the UN NPT Review Conference.

LInkS

VC 14, p. 70: https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/aussenpolitik/themen/menschenrechte/ menschenrechtsbericht/2422186VC 31, p. 143: https://onthemove.online/VC 43, p. 198: www.Ruestungsexport.infoVC 43, p. 199: https://securityconference.org/publikationen/msr-special-editions/stability-2020/VC 45, p. 207: https://www.deval.org/de/evaluierungen.html

ImPrInt

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