The importance of knowledge in a globalized world

What is important in all of these arrangements is that the primary focus is on people as the pivot of development, on their expertise and skills, because globalization is not manifested simply by rapidly growing financial flows. National borders have become permeable not just for flows of goods and capital, but also for people. People need not even physically move in order to be globally mobile ­ new technologies enable them, through the Internet, to form networks across borders. Given this, the knowledge of people becomes more central than ever before. We may count ourselves fortunate that the tradition of German development cooperation has brought forth this large number of instruments that provide training to people and forge networks.

It must be said that this tradition has changed over the years, along with the situation in the developing countries. They are no longer faced with a skills shortage. On the contrary, in some countries there is even an excess supply of well-trained people, who encounter difficulties as they try to find a suitable job which allows them to make optimal use of their knowledge and skills. In many cases, international competitiveness is also impeded by a lack of practice-oriented expertise, management and planning skills, and further academic training. Global transition processes, the growing scope of knowledge in the sciences and technology, and the growing speed and intensity of the exchange of information require constant further training and networking of institutions and people and a constant exchange of experience.

What are the instruments used in Human Resources Cooperation?

1. Basic and further training for skilled workers and executives from the partner countries

Training and education needs in the countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia have undergone significant change. Basic vocational training is now provided by our partner countries mainly from their own resources. Our contribution is to provide additional specialized knowledge to experts who have completed formal training, and to enable them to take part in the international exchange of experience. Our main target group is young people headed for management positions, and trainers, especially those who train trainers. This applies particularly to skilled personnel and executives from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and from the Central Asian and Caucasian countries, for whom we offer special further training programs that are tailor-made for their specific needs.

One element that is gaining increasing importance ­ a trend likely to continue ­ is further training at the higher education level. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has a leading role to play in this context. With its sur-place scholarships, it is making an important contribution to the availability of highly qualified experts and executives for the spheres of trade, business, administration and higher education. The number of students receiving this kind of sur-place support alone is an annual 1200, covering Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In addition, some 600 students per year are granted a scholarship allowing them to take up their studies in Germany. Further training at German universities is increasingly offered in foreign languages (mainly English); degrees enjoy international recognition and may thus serve as stepping stones in people's careers.

Our focus is not just on those who are currently undergoing further training in Germany ­ be it on their own initiative, funded by their home country, or by development cooperation ­, but also on the large number of those who received such training in the past and have now returned to active working life. These people can form networks, something to which we are giving increasing support by providing special further training programs in specific subjects. Important elements in this context are, for instance, returnee associations and the Internet.

There is a large number of sectors in which the German government offers further training for nationals of developing and transition countries: 

• The Carl Duisberg Society (CDG) focuses on environmental and resource protection (e.g., hydropower, industrial environmental protection), infrastructure, communication, international marketing, organization of production, maintenance, technology and quality management.
• The German Foundation for International Development (DSE) concentrates mainly on education systems, basic education, economic and social policy including financial, monetary and currency policies, public administration in the broadest sense, promotion of occupational training in the private sector, as well as health policy, rural development and forestry, and the print media sector.
• Deutsche Welle Radio and TV International offers further training for radio and TV journalists.
• In the academic sphere, DAAD, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the German Research Foundation (DFG) offer scholarships, doctorate programs, research cooperation programs, twinning programs for higher education institutions, visiting professor programs, master's programs in areas relevant for development (such as engineer exchange programs for India and Brazil).

2. Support for reintegration

Among the developing country nationals living in Germany, there is a vast potential of skilled personnel who are urgently needed in their home countries. The reintegration program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) targets those skilled persons who are, in principle, interested in returning home and for whom a job may be found there that is important in development policy terms. The program provides incentives for returning by providing preparatory training and also transition and start-up assistance ­ both for those who wish to take up employment and for those who wish to set up their own business. BMZ is spending close to DM 40 million per year for the various support efforts. The purpose of the program is to put the know-how that these skilled persons have acquired in Germany to use for the economic and social development of their home countries.

Over the past five years, BMZ has supported, through the provision of job-start grants and salary top-ups, an approximate 5000 skilled personnel in reintegrating into their national labor markets upon their return from Germany. An approximate 1000 returnees received business start-up grants to set up their own enterprises. Ever since the program was first introduced, an approximate 6400 business start-up loans have been approved from the joint credit funds set up for this purpose, resulting in the creation of nearly 50,000 jobs. We will continue to utilize a broad range of instruments in this important area in order to make the best possible use, for the benefit of their home countries' development, of the skills and social, political and cultural knowledge and experience that the returnees have gained in Germany. These people form important bridges between the various parts of the world, all the more so as they remain in touch through professional associations.

3. Secondment, placement and deployment of skilled personnel

Under the German development cooperation program, we provide our partner countries with skilled personnel who match precise job specifications. Again, the purpose is to develop the local potential. It is only if no skilled personnel are available in the partner country for a specific program that they are recruited from abroad, and only if the partner country cannot pay the foreign expert itself that Germany provides external funding.

For some years now, skilled personnel from developing countries have also been recruited, with growing success, for bilateral official development cooperation. The purpose is to achieve the greatest possible ownership on the part of the partner and the greatest possible use of the partner's own resources and also to mobilize the potential existing in the partner country, especially by using local skilled personnel and products. The emphasis on our partners' ownership in running projects also translates into a lower number of foreign skilled personnel for project work.

At a time when local experts are increasingly taking over tasks that used to be carried out by foreign skilled personnel in the past, questions relating to program development and project identification and evaluation become all the more important ­ and also more difficult. Specifically, the issues related to selecting an executing agency and to capacity-building for that agency have become even more important. Capacity building must be stepped up, but in such a way that the specific sociocultural background is carefully taken into account. This not only results in high demands being made of local experts, but also in changed job specifications for foreign experts.

This principle being taken into account, it is still unavoidable that a number of functions continue to be assigned to foreign experts. In addition to simply passing on knowledge, the functions in demand are increasingly those related to improved communication between various interest groups, impact monitoring, and financial monitoring. However, the more local experts are integrated into development cooperation, the greater the likelihood that the sustainability of development cooperation projects will benefit.

Future challenges for Human Resources Cooperation

The human resources cooperation activities described above serve to enhance the greatest potential of our partner countries, that is, the people and their skills. This enables them to participate in global processes.

It is my intention to strengthen these skills in yet another area. We are now more aware than ever of the crises and wars within, and between, our partner countries. Development policy is faced with the challenge of contributing, together with other policy fields, to preventing crises and armed conflict wherever possible. One envisaged instrument to this end is the Civil Peace Service (CPS). The CPS has special requirements of its staff. Before entering the Service, they must undergo special training in professional civil conflict management. This task, of such importance for the future of development cooperation, must ­ and will ­ be tackled by Human Resources Cooperation.

But a number of challenges also lie ahead with regard to existing institutions and instruments. We need to examine our programs constantly to see whether they match the needs of our partner countries. That requires a permanent process of adjustments both in terms of substance and strategies and in institutional terms, something which presents us, time and again, with considerable challenges.

For instance, with regard to the sectors dealt with, it must be expected that the significance of some areas of training will decrease in relative terms, whereas other training programs will come to the forefront, namely those that deal with democratization, prevention of political, social and economic crises, and environmental aspects in the public and private sectors, to name but a few of the current examples. Cross-sector further training, leadership skills and communication will be growing in importance.

Another matter requiring changes is the general orientation of the programs, which are still rather one-sided at this point in targeting mainly the public sector. In future, equal weight must be given to training public sector and private sector workers, including NGOs. This can be achieved by increased efforts to give direction to programs and their substance along these lines, but also by moving away from supply-oriented support policies (program catalog) towards demand-oriented training, that is, training that meets the needs of the partner countries, which have first been identified in detail.

There is one more area that I am especially concerned about: equal support for female skilled personnel from developing countries. While we can point to some degree of success in this respect, special efforts are still required in order to reach the target of half of all scholarship holders being women. Of course, figures may vary between specific subjects.

Conclusions

What is decisive for the success of Human Resources Cooperation and of development policy in general, therefore, is that we help to establish structures that enhance the effectiveness of our partners' own efforts. A measure of the success of all our projects and programs will be, not least, the extent to which they mobilize our partners' own skills and to which they support the efforts of institutions in our partner countries and enhance the required structures. This could be achieved by the recipient countries' assuming greater responsibility for planning, implementing and monitoring projects. The question must be asked, not least, to what extent non-centralized and nongovernmental players in the developing countries should be included in defining the needs and interests relating to a given project. This will strengthen the potential for self-help and, particularly, one aspect that I believe has not been sufficiently appreciated thus far: the sense of confidence and self-worth of many of our partners ­ needed if they are to solve their problems increasingly autonomously.

I am sure that the organizations running the programs, which have always shown themselves to be flexible in responding to changes in the past, will continue to make the necessary adjustments quickly in future. This will be made easier for the large number of institutions, not least, thanks to the fact that the German Foundation for International Development (DSE), the German Development Service (DED) and the German Development Institute (DIE) will be moving to Bonn very soon, within the year 2000, and will form the core of the Centre of Development Cooperation there. We expect this concentration, reorganization and expansion of tasks of individual institutions to result in fresh impetus and new ideas for the field of further training and dialogue, not least as a result of cooperation with Bonn-based national, international and UN institutions and with multilateral organizations worldwide.

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (Social Democratic Party) is Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.