Anyone searching for innovative ideas on sustainability will generally have a hard time avoiding the city of Bonn. On 21 July 2011 BMZ State Secretary Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz and Bonn’s Mayor, Jürgen Nimptsch, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which they pledged to promote Bonn as a location for international debate on sustainable development. The joint project is called ‘Bonn Perspectives – A Fresh Look at Sustainability’. Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), this city branding initiative provides an innovative conference format that is intended to give fresh impetus to the sustainability debate at the Bonn location.

‘The reason sustainable development is so difficult to achieve is because it necessitates the alignment of societal sectors that often have diverging interests,’ believes BMZ State Secretary Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz, adding that fresh impetus is needed. And ‘Bonn Perspectives’ is the new city brand that will provide a forum for innovative themes in Bonn and hopefully find answers to the difficulties facing international cooperation. ‘If you want to discuss innovative ideas on sustainable development in a group of dedicated, international pioneers, then you should come to Bonn,’ says Mayor Jürgen Nimptsch, summarising the initiative’s goal. GIZ AgenZ is mentoring and supporting BMZ and the City of Bonn as they set up the new network and conference formats that will allow for a ‘fresh look at sustainability’.

The ‘Bonn2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. Solutions for the Green Economy’ will be held in November, and is being organised by the GIZ sector programme International Water Policy and Infrastructure at the request of BMZ and Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) is the first conference under this initiative. This underlines the goal and objective of the Bonn Perspectives – namely 90 per cent of global freshwater consumption is used for energy and agriculture. A mere 4 per cent is used to meet people’s direct needs. Without water not enough energy is produced and not enough power is supplied. Without energy it is not possible to adequately treat and distribute water. And food production depends on both energy and water.

Ultimately any solution has to reflect this interaction, because one-dimensional responses will not take us far in an increasingly networked world. ‘Bonn Perspectives’ also stands for this fresh take on this issue. To produce new solutions and strategies, the horizon cannot be pinned to the limitations imposed by policy areas. Topics and actors have to be interlinked in a creative and unconventional manner and these linkages brought to the fore.