for many years referred to economic development processes in low-income countries. However, with the 2015 UN Agenda for Development, an understanding emerged that all countries, regardless of their economic or political might, their level of GNI per capita, or their human development index, are in a process of ‘development’ – and need to address their specific gaps in economic, social, ecological, gender equality, and political rights. The objective of ‘development’ everywhere needs to be about human rights, economic equity, gender justice and child rights, and genuine social inclusion. It is about halting and reversing man-made climate change and saving biodiversity. In light of the proliferation of autocratic states, it is about sustaining democratic institutions and a division of political powers. These normative objectives apply to all countries, all economic classes and all peoples. They require massive structural change and social transformations.
“Development” hence always needs to be questioned. And indeed, the narratives around development are moving on. Parts of the UN and many progressive economists are arguing for a post-growth or rights-based approach – income levels are then not a criterion.
Here some of my thought pieces: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230000999_THE_UN_AND_DEVELOPMENT_THINKING_FROM_OPTIMISM_TO_AGNOSTICISM_AND_BACK_AGAIN
https://www.metropolis-verlag.de/Questioning-Development/075/book.do
https://www.peacewomen.org/sites/default/files/Seven%20decades%20of%20development.pdf
ideas & commentaries
May 2025: Remembering the persecuted (5/12/2025) - 80 years ago, Germany was liberated from Nazi fascism, and in this spirit, there are many commemorative events this month. One that touched me deeply was a concert on the eve of 8 May, with a haunting piece composed by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963). It was one of his compositions dedicated to the concentration camp…
Some updates on social policy (5/6/2025) - A coherent analysis of poverty is absent from the 2030 Agenda. While the agenda does address redistribution, social rights, and resource consciousness, and makes important contributions to social protection and care policy, it makes only superficial reference to the need for regulating of the economy. The 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty: New horizons for global…
“Feminist foreign policy?” (12/12/2022) - “Feminism needs tectonic plates to shift, not a trendy make-over” (Bernardine Evaristo) In recent years, a number of countries have re-labelled their foreign policy as ‘feminist’. Sweden introduced the concept 8 years ago. Spain, Canada, France, Luxemburg, Mexico, Chile, and Libya, and others have issued feminist foreign policy statements. Germany has a commitment to feminist…
How do we get there? (6/24/2021) - We have the core human rights treaties and we have the Agenda for Sustainable Development with its SDGs. However, in the past few years, more and more countries are falling into violent conflict, overthrowing legitimate governments. Human rights defenders and climate activists are persecuted. Even in stable democracies, climate commitments and SDG promises are not met.…
Myanmar – A bleeding country – and the need for UN-wide solidarity (6/12/2021) - Gabriele Köhler Myanmar: 900 people murdered by the junta which usurped power four months ago, 1000s arrested – many of them tortured, some to death. The elected government has been arrested and put on trial. The World Food Programme predicts a hunger catastrophe. Income poverty is exploding. Access to already dismal health services has collapsed;…
Ungerechtigkeit reduzieren? UN reformieren! (6/7/2021) - Um die globalen Ungleichheiten zu reduzieren, braucht es einen erneuerten Multilateralismus. Wie kann eine solche Reform aussehen? Allem voran muss das UN-Sekretariat gestärkt und als unabhängige moralische Kraft etabliert werden. Was meines Erachtens unbedingt reformiert werden muss: Die Finanzierung der UN muss autonom werden. Seit Jahrzehnten gibt es den Vorschlag, die UN und ihre Organisationen…
The Politics of Social Inclusion: just reviewed by the UN Association of Germany (4/26/2021) - https://zeitschrift-vereinte-nationen.de/suche/zvn/artikel/inklusion-zahnlose-konsensformel/ This volume looks at concepts and processes of social exclusion and social inclusion. It traces a number of discourses, all of them routed in a relational power analysis, examining them in the context of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 with its commitment to “leave no one behind.” The book combines analysis that…
Social protection in the ASEAN-10: challenges in a diverse region (3/24/2021) - Expert note on social protection, prepared for the ASEAN Development Outlook 2021 Introduction, outline, and scope The ASEAN region comprises ten highly diverse countries in terms of historical legacies, their economic structures, and their welfare state conceptions. Politically, however, the countries of the region share the characteristic of operating as highly flawed democracies or authoritarian…
Rubies and rights and responsibilities – Myanmar as a prism (3/11/2021) - The famed rich natural resources … Myanmar is renowned for radiant rubies and translucent jade. It also abounds in copper, gas, oil, natural gas. Until recently, it was a trendy tourist destination with its gilded temples and rambling rice fields. With the exception of widespread disbelief and then shock over the genocide against the Rohingya,…
Progressiver Multilateralismus: Die Kluft zwischen normativem Anspruch und realpolitischer Wirklichkeit (3/1/2021) - Gabriele Köhler Was könnte zu einer verbesserten, progressiven multilateralen Zusammenarbeit beitragen, um die in der Agenda 2030 proklamierten „Transformation unserer Welt“ voranzubringen? Was Hunger und Armut unmittelbar(SDG 1, 2) angeht, wäre erstens die Empfehlung 202 der ILO zu sozialer Grundsicherung zu nennen, die 2012 verabschiedet wurde und auch Eingang in die Agenda 2030 gefunden hat.…
Shake and Stir: Adding Human Security and Human Resilience to Help Advance the SDGs Agenda (2/28/2021) - Des Gasper, Richard Jolly, Gabriele Koehler, Tamara Kool, Mara Simane The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs respond to humanity’s challenge to live humanely, justly, sustainably and in peace on our interconnected globe. Pursuit of the Agenda is inevitably subject to forces that ‘shake and stir’ it. Correspondingly, our analytical frameworks need to be shaken and…
Ein transformativer Gesellschaftsvertrag statt grüner Deals! (2/27/2021) - Dieser Beitrag thematisiert, ob und wie es zu einer transformativen Wende kommen könnte. Bisweilen bieten extreme Krisensituationen die Möglichkeit, Gesellschaftspolitik radikal zu erneuern und einen transformativen Gesellschaftsvertrag einzuläuten. Ausgehend von der globalen Situation, die von struktureller Ungleichheit gekennzeichnet ist, untersucht der Bei- trag, inwieweit derzeitige Politikansätze wie der Green-Deal-Vorschlag der EU als progressiv einzuschätzen sind…
Pandemie-Folgen: Wie geht es jetzt weiter und wieder aufwärts? (5/25/2020) - Diese Woche gibt es viele Ansätze zu Konjunkturprogrammen. Ein guter Bezugspunkt dafür könnten die Agenda 2030 der UNO mit ihren 17 Nachhaltigkeitszielen (SDGs) sein, die sich auch in der Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie wiederspiegeln. Was die globale Situation angeht, treffen sich die UN-Mitgliedsländer alljährlich zu einem hochrangigen politischen Forum (englisch „HLPF“), um Erfolge anzuerkennen und Misserfolge zu analysieren. Aufgrund der Pandemie…
Some thoughts regarding the forthcoming review of the 2030 Agenda (5/23/2020) - Here are some thoughts as I worry whether the many post-Covid-19 recovery programmes in the pipeline will be economically, socially, gender and climate just. Perhaps, if one is optimistic, the forthcoming HLPF provides an opportunity to imagine another world, as Arundhati Roy put it so beautifully. It would definitely be worth fighting for. The annual SDG review …
Our common right to health (3/29/2020) - Gabriele Koehler March 30, 2020 Acute deaths, chronic deaths The COVID19 pandemic is frightening. The staggering number of deaths in just a few months is numbing our minds and breaking our hearts. Medical disasters such as the current covid-19 pandemic, or natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, earthquakes, or man-made disasters such as…
Blinder Fleck Gleichstellung (10/30/2019) - Warum SDG 5 (noch) nicht in der deutschen Politik angekommen ist Mit Verabschiedung der Agenda 2030 für nachhaltige Entwicklung sowie der darin enthaltenen 17 Ziele (Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs) hat sich auch die Bundesregierung zu einer Reihe politischer Absichten bekannt. Denn die Agenda 2030 gilt für alle Länder gleichermaßen, egal ob im globalen Süden oder…
SDG 5 and the HLPF process – just singing and dancing in circles or actually moving? (10/2/2019) - The HLPF process has come under critique for being an insiders’ airbrushing exercise. So the question is: what is the normative role and impact of the 2030 Agenda? Is there any real pressure from a UN document which after all is now a few years old now, was elaborated by more progressive governments, does not…
Me first? (1/15/2018) - Output der Verhandlungswoche CDU/CSU/SPD Das Sondierungspapier ist da, und wenn frau das größere Übel von Neuwahlen – bei denen wir möglicherweise einen weiteren Rechtsrutsch in der Parteienkonstellation riskieren – umschiffen will, ist dies jetzt wohl die Plattform, auf die wir mit möglichst vielen Partnern eindringlich und konstruktiv unsere Forderungen für soziale, Geschlechter- und Klimagerechtigkeit einbringen müssen.…
COP23: (Wie) geht es weiter? (11/20/2017) - Zwei bedeutsame Erfolge… Die 23. Klimakonferenz ging am 17. November zu Ende. Manches ist erreicht worden – maßgeblich durch den immensen und kreativen Druck der Zivilgesellschaft. Dazu gehören ein Gender-Aktions-Plan und eine Plattform zu den Rechten indigener Völker. Die zwei Beschlüsse machen bewusst, dass vor allem in einkommensarmen Ländern, Frauen und indigene Gruppen erheblich stärker von den Folgen…
COP 23-Zwischenbilanz: Von großen Ozeanstaaten, Superfrauen und vom Klima (11/17/2017) - In Bonn geht die Klimakonferenz in die zweite Woche. In korrekter Formulierung ist es die 23. Konferenz der Vertragsstaaten der UN-Klimarahmenkonvention (COP23). Und nach der Euphorie von Paris, wo 2015 das Klimaabkommen verabschiedet wurde, fragt man sich zunächst, worum es denn jetzt schon wieder geht. Im Grunde um alles: um Menschenrechte, Frauenrechte, Klima- und ökologische…
THE UN AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GERMANY’S SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY (9/17/2017) - I.) The 2030 Agenda between transformation and cooptation The UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable development commits to “transform our world”; both the Agenda and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change invoke human rights, an eradication of poverty, universal access to social services, and safeguarding the planet. Implementing the Agenda would require challenging the dominant economic…