Profile and themes of our work

Municipal decision-making and local engagement also affect people’s lives elsewhere. More and more decision-makers in German cities and municipalities are recognising the huge potential that implementing sustainability strategies and local development policy has both for their local community and worldwide.
Through municipal partnerships, the social, ecological and economic future of local communities unfolds not only in more diverse and inventive ways, but also more successfully. Local government action for global sustainability creates trust, and gives citizens space to identify with their city and get involved.
Over the last few year municipalities have continued to emerge as important development actors. The Service Agency supports them in identifying local solutions to global problems. Our activities promote the exchange of lessons learned and expertise both between German municipalities, and with municipalities worldwide.
Together with municipalities we work on themes for the future, focusing on three areas:

• We support municipal partnerships with developing countries – with a current focus on climate change, participatory budgeting, and professional exchange among local government experts based at the venues for the FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006 and Brazil in 2014.
• We support municipalities in the field of migration and development, and work with local diasporas.
• We promote fair procurement as a municipal contribution to fair trade.

Municipal partnerships are closer to events on the ground – in both the North and the South. This enables local government experts to harness joint potential effectively. These activities aim to make full use of the wealth of expertise available within local governments, and enable municipalities to learn from the solutions of others. The challenges of urban management are often the same: urban development planning, environmental management and waste disposal, transport, water supply and sanitation, citizen participation and public administration need to be organised in all municipalities. German municipalities possess expertise in these areas. Using this experience they are able to support their international partner municipalities, offer solutions and improve their own processes.
The Service Agency helps municipalities further develop their existing intermunicipal relations and establish new partnerships. To do this we draw on the expertise of a network of municipalities, German federal states, German government agencies, non-governmental organisations and specialised institutions.
In the field of migration and development at the local level, we provide key impetus for networking through One World structures that are largely ‘German-based’, but also include migrants with a commitment to development. These activities aim to enhance intercultural skills within municipal administrations, network actors from different departments such as international affairs and integration, and improve cooperation between them. This strengthens municipal development cooperation and gives a significant boost to migrant integration.
The Service Agency’s various publications showcase smoothly running intercultural projects and strategies that involve municipalities and non-governmental organisations. These activities clearly demonstrate that the migration process offers opportunities to build a sustainable future at the local level.
The Service Agency also offers professional advice on redesigning municipal procurement to make it fair and socially sound. We provide information on the legal regulations and new legislation. We can help you network with fair trade actors on the ground, and identify links with other areas of activity such as green procurement. Through our publications we can show you concrete examples of fair municipal engagement. We also organise the ‘capital city of fair trade’ competition.

Promoters and cooperation partners
The Service Agency Communities in One World is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia, and the city of Bonn.

Please note:
Since 1 January 2012 the Service Agency Communities in One World is part of Engagement Global.