Europe’s latest Foreign Affairs Council in its Development configuration on 18 May 2026 marks a quiet but significant shift: EU development cooperation is being recast as a geopolitical tool, with Kaja Kallas openly calling for aid, trade and security partnerships to be more tightly aligned with Europe’s strategic interests. A development council in a new … Read more
(TL:DR) Local knowledge is a city’s hidden strategic asset: when municipalities, communities, universities and businesses connect what they already know, they can drive transformative learning, social innovation and more resilient urban development, instead of relying mainly on imported expertise. The article concludes that urban practitioners should start with mapping existing knowledge, value qualitative methods, design … Read more
(TL;DR) Germany has invested heavily in decentralization in Africa and achieved real improvements at the local level, but national power structures remain largely centralized, so a strategic reset is needed to align future support with political realities, focus on fewer but stronger programs, and embed decentralization more smartly in democracy, service delivery, and sector reforms. … Read more
Physical reconstruction alone will not restore Ukraine. Evidence from war-torn Irpin shows that without deliberate investment in civic trust, bricks and mortar risk becoming monuments to elite capture rather than pillars of democratic recovery. The German Platform for the Reconstruction of Ukraine recently hosted the event Reconstructing Trust: Social Cohesion and Recovery in War-Torn Irpin. … Read more
Maritime trade and security in times of geopolitical crises Reporting from the World Trade Dialogue 2026, Hamburg The waters of global commerce have fundamentally darkened. For decades, the European Union’s economic model relied on a simple premise: a rules-based order where maritime trade flows unhindered and cheaply across the globe. But at the World Trade … Read more
Reporting from the World Trade Dialogue 2026, Hamburg For decades, the European Union’s economic engine has hummed to the predictable rhythm of a rules-based global trade order. But at the World Trade Dialogue 2026 today in Hamburg, the message from leading economists and industry giants was stark: the era of pure economic efficiency is over, … Read more
A methodology for stabilization and reconstruction, drawing on Ukraine’s experience, local economic development practice, and gender-responsive programming. Framing the Challenge When war displaces not only people but entire enterprises, the economic fabric of a country tears in ways that humanitarian aid alone cannot repair. Ukraine’s full-scale war since 2022 has produced one of the most … Read more
(TL;DR) Evaluations are no longer judged primarily by methodological rigor, but by how effectively their findings are communicated and used in decision making. In Germany’s current context of budget cuts, political polarization, and institutional reform, evaluation is gaining strategic importance as a tool for evidence-based steering, while also facing new risks such as political misuse … Read more
The Global Gateway (GG) Investment Climate Reform (ICR) Facility is one of the most strategically interesting instruments at the interface of investment, reform and sustainable development. It connects Global Gateway initiatives with the often underestimated institutional side of economic transformation: rules, procedures and incentives that determine whether investment actually translates into growth, jobs and local … Read more
Review: “Communities of Practice within and across Organizations. A Guidebook” (2nd edition) by Etienne Wenger-Trayner, Beverly Wenger-Trayner, Phil Reid and Claude Bruderlein Most books on organizational learning describe what communities of practice are. This one tells you how to run them. The second edition of the CoP Guidebook, co-authored by four practitioners across corporate, academic, … Read more
(TL:DR) Germany’s upcoming North South Commission sits at the intersection of two agendas: repositioning relations with the Global South and shaping a post‑2030 framework to succeed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It can become a strategic platform for rethinking partnerships and global rules, but it also risks ending up as a narrowly framed, low‑impact … Read more
The Feminist Innovation in Monitoring and Evaluation (FIME) Small Awards have produced something very tangible for practitioners: six concrete toolkits that cover the full evaluation cycle, from policy design and crisis response to relocation, community projects, impact investing, and evaluator training. They were developed in real-world settings and respond to gaps most of us know … Read more
