From Disruption to Transformation

Global cooperation in 2025 faces unprecedented challenges. The tasks are more pressing than ever: the return of hunger, escalating climate change, the loss of biodiversity, pandemics and increasing conflicts are jeopardising our common future. 

Germany’s commitment is needed more than ever in the face of the Trump administration’s disruptive attack on the normative, legal and financial foundations of global cooperation. The latter has withdrawn from the WHO and the Paris Climate Agreement and is fighting the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. It has cancelled its participation in the Just Energy Transition Partnerships and dismantled USAID, which had made a key contribution to many global initiatives.

In Germany, a new coalition government will now shape the country’s international cooperation. Despite a uniquely high level of borrowing in the federal budget, budget cuts threaten all aspects of the international cooperation system. The previous cross-party consensus on the necessity and benefits of international cooperation is under pressure.

The first Berlin Forum for Global Cooperation, organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Humboldt University of Berlin, will lead the debate on Germany’s engagement with the Global South in this era of disruption. Never has this debate been more important than today.

 

Programme: 

09:30 – Welcome & Keynotes + Q&A
The State of Global Cooperation 2025

• Prof. Carlos Lopes, Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town, South Africa
• Maria Fernada Espinosa, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ecuador, President of the UN General Assembly 2017-19 

11:00 – Panel with the keynote speakers and Political Representatives
Germany’s role in global cooperation

• Moderation: Imme Scholz, Director, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Berlin

12:30 – Lunch Break & Networking 

14:00 – Deep Dives
Four Deep Dives into aspects of Germany’s North-South cooperation in the economic transformation:

1. Development finance on the brink: What is the way forward?
2. International climate cooperation – The role of Germany in times of uncertainty
3. From crisis to resilience? The future of Humanitarian Aid
4. Reinventing Germany’s global cooperation

16:00 – Closing Session
“Popcorn”  with young voices (Centre for Rural Development graduates) from deep dives

17:00 – Keynote + Q&A
Sustainable development and the crisis of US hegemony

• Adam Tooze,  Historian, Commentator, Editor of magazine “Surplus”

18:00 – Networking

Cooperation partner: 
Heinrich-Böll Foundation

Format:
Participation is possible both on-site and digital.

Registration:
For more information and registration, please visit this website: https://calendar.boell.de/de/event/berlin-forum-fuer-globale-zusammenarbeit-2025