1 - 1999

The New German Goverment

Springtime in Development Policy

More money and responsibility

by Karin Adelmann

Germany’s Ministry of Development is now led by two strong women, "Red Heidi" and "Green Uschi". The governing agreement provides for more money and more responsibility.

There is no lack of early accolades for the development policy of the new Red-Green federal government in Bonn. Both the relevant passages in the coalition agreement and the choice of persons - two assertive women at the head of the ministry - received favorable judgement from the development-political "scene" as well as from the profis in the implementation organisations and in the Ministry of Development itself.

All are hoping for a new springtime in development policy or at least an end to the carping criticism and moaning about the loss of importance of the politics of development.

In the coalition agreement of the Red-Green government the value of development policy is clearly enhanced. There are also a couple of substantial promises. "In order to come closer to the internationally agreed upon 0.7% goal, the coalition will turn around the downward trend of the development budget", it states.

"The present splitting up between various departments of responsibilities for development policy of the former government will be revoked and concentrated in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)".

The BMZ receives controlling authority for questions of development policy of the European Union and it receives a seat in the Federal Security Council. The work of the non-government organisations is to be more strongly promoted. What will become of the agreement depends of course not only on the nice words, but above all on the assertive power of the Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary. In Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul the BMZ receives a chief with the reputation for fighting and winning and for not shying away from a conflict. She is reckoned to be capable of pushing her position even against the Finance Minister if necessary. As the deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) she has the required weight in her party and parliamentary party.

The nickname "Red Heidi" has stuck with her since her "Juso" (Young Socialists) times, because of her red hair and because of her pronounced leftish political profile.

She was the national chairwoman of the Young Socialists in the Seventies, local politician, member of the European parliament, member of the German parliament, member of the SPD’s commission on principles and she is the head of the traditionally leftwing SPD district of Hesse-South since 1988. The new minister has a lot of experience in foreign policy and European development cooperation from her time in the European and German parliaments.

"My reason for engaging in politics was to make my own contribution to safeguarding peace and ending wars. That was the driving force of my political involvement from the beginning", the new minister said. She has made the issue of conflict mediation and crisis prevention a major point in her development politics. Wieczorek-Zeul has brought the new "Permanent Secretary", Erich Stather, from here earlier political work into the BMZ. He is the new head of administration of the house. From 1991-93 he was Permanent Secretary and Spokesman of the state government in Hesse and before that press spokesman for the SPD in Hesse’s state parliament. After that he headed an office for projects, organisation and communication and was, among other things, the election manager for Minister Wieczorek-Zeul.

Hopes as great as those directed at "Red Heidi" are aimed at "Green Uschi", the new Parliamentary Secretary (Vice Minister) of the BMZ, Uschi Eid. With a doctorate in the social sciences, she worked in the Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in the early Nineties. Her commitment to the Third World is connected with the religious influence in her childhood. "My grandparents always took me along when missionaries came to our congregation", she reported about her childhood in a village in the Palatinate. Later, as an professor’s assistant at the Hohenheim University near Stuttgart, she worked as a volunteer for the Protestant organisations for international aid "Brot für die Welt" and "Dienste in Übersee".

Eid joined the newly established Green party in 1980, organised a working group "Internationalism" and was elected to the German parliament for the first time in 1984. In Bonn since the Eighties Uschi Eid has gained profile as a development politician and spokeswoman for development policy for her party (Bündnis90/DieGrünen). For her period in office as Parliamentary Secretary she aims to give development policy a greater weight again at home as well.

The writer is a political scientist and works in Bonn as a journalist specialising in issues of development policy. Unabridged translation of an article which first appeared in Südwind Magazine, Nr. 12, December 1998 (Austria).