Since the food crisis in 2008 and 2009, greater attention has been paid to rural development. Three quarters of all people who live in poverty and hunger  live in rural areas. Scarcely any other investment can alleviate poverty as effectively as rural development. AgenZ recognised its potential early on and in recent years has worked closely with GIZ’s agricultural experts, constantly developing concepts for how to position the issue in the political arena.

‘Guided by the principle of helping people to help themselves, we are currently making rural development – an issue that has been given too little attention in the past decades – a key area of German development policy,’ says Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel, speaking of the future direction of German development cooperation. The goal is clear: halving the number of people in the world living in poverty and suffering hunger by 2015, as envisaged by the first of the eight Millennium Development Goals. Neither can the resolutions of the Cancun Climate Summit, for example, or the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity in Nagoya be achieved if rural development is neglected.

Success will be possible only through concerted action. Studies published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have clearly shown that rural development cannot be achieved with public funding alone. The private sector is playing an increasingly important role, predominantly through direct investment, but also by establishing value chains and certification procedures. It is joined by a broad range of different actors from civil society, academic institutions, NGOs and private foundations.

AgenZ has been supporting this process for many years – for example, as part of the East-West Agricultural Forum at International Green Week in Berlin or with the Young Ambassadors for Rural Development (YARDs). The main concern is always to bring together the relevant actors in the field of rural development, act as an intermediary between them and sharpen awareness for new approaches to cooperation. ‘Perhaps the most important elements of this process are continuity and close collaboration with GIZ’s agriculture and food division,’ says Jörg Schindler, director of AgenZ Berlin, who has been working on rural development at AgenZ from the very outset. ‘Continuous collaboration creates trust. Structures that have evolved in this way make it all the easier today to forge new alliances and implement innovative concepts.’

The key to successfully developing the issue lies in devising a strategy that crosses policy fields and involves all actors and in setting up new partnerships between policymakers, the private sector, academia and civil society. This approach is reflected in all of AgenZ’s concepts on the subject, irrespective of whether they are aimed at German, European or international target groups. Furthermore, existing dialogue formats such as Green Week or the European Development Days are used as springboards wherever possible. The concepts focus on new target groups, creative approaches, innovative alliances and partnerships.

In this respect, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) have already prepared the way: presenting BMZ’s Strategy Paper on the development of rural areas in mid-November in Berlin, Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Ilse Aigner and Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel stressed: ‘Anyone seeking to combat world hunger simply cannot ignore the need to develop rural areas. Agriculture in developing countries in particular has enormous development potential, which we have to unlock and maximise. In the process, we intend to pool our resources even more effectively and share know-how.’

AgenZ – also working closely with GIZ’s agriculture division – will continue to support this process. AgenZ intends to continue to use innovative concepts and advisory services in the future to help attract more attention to the issue and create the space needed for all stakeholders to network and engage in a mutual exchange of ideas and information.