Circle
Rethinking Development Policy
Strategies for a Changing World
Circle: Rethinking Development Policy
November 5, 2025
SAP Data Space
Few other policy areas are currently facing such intense scrutiny and significant budget cuts as development policy. However, the increasingly uncertain geopolitical situation requires Germany to strengthen its international engagement strategically.
In its final report, our Commission “A Changing World – Germany and the Global South” set out recommendations for realigning Germany’s international cooperation. Alongside State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Niels Annen and experts from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), we explored these approaches in greater depth.
Our discussion focused on the role that development policy can play in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical landscape. We examined ways to increase the effectiveness of development policy through reforms and how to rethink it as a central pillar of integrated foreign, security, and economic policy.

Selected Speakers
Contact Persons
Gregor Darmer, g.darmer@globalperspectives.org
Supported by
SWP Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
DEval – Deutsches Evaluierungsinstitut der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit
Circle
We believe in proximity building trust. Our most personal format therefore offers the opportunity to deepen the knowledge of our high-ranking guests in a small circle, together with an exchange of experiences, in dialogue.
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