A group of personalities from politics and the church is warning the federal government against further cuts in development policy. An appeal, reported by Spiegel, states: “Do not be persuaded that humanity is ideology. It is the core of what defines us.” “Renounce further cuts to development cooperation and humanitarian aid.”
Signatories include former Bundestag president Wolfgang Thierse (SPD), Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, and former chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm. Bedford-Strohm is currently chairman of the central committee of the World Council of Churches. Dagmar Pruin, president of Brot für die Welt, Andreas Frick, director general of Misereor, and former federal development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD) also stand behind the appeal.
The text states that the federal government plans to “cut precisely among the poorest people in the world” for the fifth time in a row. “We consider this wrong.” Eliminating poverty, hunger, and avoidable diseases worldwide has long been a cross-party consensus.
In 1970, the UN General Assembly agreed on a goal for public development assistance. According to this, developed countries should provide 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product for development aid. In 2015, this requirement was also enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In Germany, this so-called “ODA quota” was only 0.56 percent in 2025. In 2027, it could drop to 0.39 percent.
