Press Release of 19 December 2012

Today, the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) has published its “Annual Report 2011-2012”. Two debates have merged in the past years and will continue to occupy us in the future: the debate on the post-2015 development agenda and the possible adoption of sustainable development goals, a debate that arose in the context of the Rio+20 Summit. The merging of these two agendas is a process fraught with conflict, because it concerns not only the priorities of international cooperation, but also adjustments to changed realities.

The radical economic, political and environmental changes which are happening, also force the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) to re-evaluate conventional approaches in research (e.g. calling for multidisciplinary work), in training and in institutional settings for policy solutions (e.g. with a view to the sectoral division of labour between ministries and increased cooperation between global, regional and national levels of policymaking).

The new “Annual Report 2011-2012” accommodates this re-evaluation by presenting five narratives which frame our cross-departmental work at the Institute. These narratives reflect the global dynamic trends for the next two decades which will produce radical change and thus modify conditions for national development. Detailed programmes for research and policy advice which feed into these narratives are elaborated by the five research departments.

The Institute expanded its global research and policy advice networks in recent years and forged new partnerships. The Institute is taking new paths in its cooperation with the Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research together with the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) and the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF). The Centre studies global cooperation, which it sees as the key to coping effectively and legitimately with pressing transnational problems. In 2012 the DIE was placed among the top five development think tanks for the fourth consecutive year by the Global Go-To Think Tank Ranking and among the 20 think tanks with the most innovative policy ideas and proposals. We present these ideas to the United Nations High-Level Panel for the post-2015 global development agenda and to the World Bank’s and European Development Commissioner’s advisory committees.

You would like to find out more about selected research findings and the new DIE strategy? You may order the print version of the “Annual Report 2011-2012” by E-Mail (stating your full contact details at presse@idos-research.de) or you may read it online here.