Member Profile for DIE, Bonn

Siriwardane-de Zoysa, Rapti / Tilo Schöne / Johannes Herbeck / Julia Illigner / Mahmud Haghighi / Hendricus Simarmata / Emma Porio / Alessio Rovere / Anna-Katharina Hornidge
Drawing on Jakarta, Metro Manila and Singapore as case studies, we explore the paradox of slow political action in addressing subsiding land, particularly along high-density urban coastlines with empirical insights from coastal geography, geodesy analysis, geology, and urban planning. In framing land subsidence as a classic ‘wicked’ policy problem, and also as a hybrid geological and anthropogenic phenomenon that is unevenly experienced across urban contexts, the paper uses a three-step analysis. First, satellite-derived InSAR maps are integrated with Sentinel-1A data in order to reveal the socio-temporal variability of subsidence rates which in turn pose challenges in uniformly applying regulatory action. Second, a multi-sectoral mapping of diverse policies and practices spanning urban water supply, groundwater extraction, land use zoning, building codes, tenurial security, and land reclamation reveal the extent to which the broader coastal governance landscape remains fragmented and incongruous, particularly in arresting a multi-dimensional phenomenon such as subsidence. Finally, in reference to distinct coastal identities of each city–the ‘Sinking Capital’ (Jakarta), ‘Fortress Singapore’, and the ‘Disaster Capital’ (Manila) the paper illustrates how land subsidence is portrayed across the three metropolises in markedly similar ways: as a reversible, quasi-natural, and/or a highly individualized problem.

The developed/developing country division in the global economy: losing traction in the COVID-19 era?
This essay revisits the developed/developing country division in the global economy in the light of the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. A trend that precedes the pandemic has been a seeming detachment of the binary distinction between “developed” versus “developing” countries and what has been described as growing economic diversity in the so-called “developing world.” While emerging markets such as Brazil, India, or China have been able to catch up economically with the “developed” world, many African, Middle Eastern, or South Asian countries are increasingly marginalized in the global economy. At the same time, there is an increasing recognition that poverty is rising within the so-called “developed” world. Against this context, we investigate whether the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic reinforce this trend and further blur the developed/developing country divide in the global economy. We find a nuanced picture that contains elements of both continuity and change: while the short-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic cut across the developed/developing country distinction, its long-term economic repercussions largely reiterate the divide—with the exception of China among the emerging markets.

Shifting to the digital: a case study of the Managing Global Governance (MGG) academy as a digital learning format
At the start of 2020 a global pandemic hit our realities. The Covid-19 virus changed our everyday lives in a profound way. Our new lives consisted of lockdowns, quarantines, social distancing, wearing of masks, home office and home schooling, rising infection numbers and overfull hospitals. Since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020 almost all countries across the world put travel to a hold. According to a report by the UNWTO, at the start of the crisis „96% of all worldwide destinations introduced travel restrictions in response to the pandemic.“ This came as a tremendous blow to the travel and tourism industry, especially for countries where tourism has accounted for two-thirds of the country´s GDP. Because of our interconnected globalized existences, the impact reached beyond. Research and education are among the sectors that are increasingly internationalized and therefore the implications of travel bans on academia are manifold. Scientific and educational activities that ordinarily take place in the physical space, i.e. meetings with international research partners, student exchanges, scientific conferences, teaching and international student excursions, had to be rethought and where possible adjusted to the digital. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, many higher education institutions were skeptic about reducing and substituting academic air travel with virtual conferencing, due to concerns regarding missed career opportunities and the extent to which digital tools could cultivate and maintain international collaborations. With the corona travel and immigration restrictions higher education institutions were left with little choice than to explore the digital options. In the past year, the partner organizations of the Bonn Alliance for Sustainability Research equally went through the process of adjusting formats to the digital. To explore such a learning and transition process, the digital Managing Global Governance (MGG) Academy 2020 at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) is taken as a case study. As a former participant of the digital training and dialogue program, I will be sharing my learnings from these four months with the Bonn Alliance network. As such, this document will highlight the opportunities and challenges that the MGG team faced when changing from a full-time Bonn-based program to the first part-time digital academy. This exploration of lessons learned serves as the basis for a guidelines on shifting to digital formats to give impulse to a mutual learning process.

Mit wem sollte die nächste Bundesregierung zu Nachhaltigkeit kooperieren?
Die nächste Bundesregierung sollte – ressortübergreifend und europäisch integriert – verstärkt in angewandte Forschung mit vielfältigen Akteuren und ihre länderübergreifende Vernetzung im globalen Süden investieren.

La participation citoyenne au Maroc: entre expériences passées et régionalisation avancée
La participation citoyenne est mise en place au Maroc sous différentes formes depuis les années 2000. La nouvelle constitution adoptée en 2011 met l'accent sur la mise en œuvre de nouvelles institutions et instruments dans ce sens pour faire entendre la voix des citoyens. La présente étude examine de plus près l'interaction de ces nouvelles formes de participation citoyenne avec les acteurs, institutions et pratiques établis. Les activités antérieures, notamment les projets financés par la coopération au développement, la planification participative au niveau municipal ou l'Initiative Nationale pour le Développement Humain, ont toutes contribué au développement des capacités et à la sensibilisation et constituent ainsi le fondement pour la mise en œuvre des nouvelles approches. Mais ces activités ont également établi des réseaux de relations et d'intérêts, et façonné des carrières individuelles. Sur la base d'études de cas de quatre villes du Nord et du Sud du Maroc, cet ouvrage décrit et analyse comment les différents acteurs locaux (élus, acteurs de la société civile, acteurs des administrations publiques) s'approprient de manière très différente les nouveaux processus et institutions, et les incluent dans leurs processus de légitimation ou dans leurs pratiques clientélistes. Les études de cas montrent que les revendications pour plus de transparence et de responsabilité dans les politiques publiques et pour l'accès à un niveau minimum de services publics persistent, et que la société civile reste un acteur indispensable à l'interface entre l'État et les sociétés. Cependant, les récentes réformes visant à accroître la participation des citoyens ne répondent pas encore à ces besoins. Le cadre juridique et la pratique actuels de la participation des citoyens reflètent, dans le meilleur des cas, une participation au sens d'une "meilleure information" ou, dans certains cas, d'une "consultation", mais ne conduisent pas à une participation substantielle des citoyens à la prise de décision politique. Le flou procédural et technique des réglementations actuelles exprime un flou politique qui encourage une appropriation et une interprétation très variées par l'administration, les élites locales et la coopération internationale, et contribue dans certains cas à reproduire les inégalités de pouvoir.

Warum wir eine bessere Governance von Meeresschutzgebieten brauchen
Um die Wissensbasis für den Schutz der Ozeane zu stärken, haben die Vereinten Nationen am 1. Juni die Dekade der Meeresforschung für nachhaltige Entwicklung ausgerufen. Das generierte Wissen soll unter anderem in bestehende internationale Rahmenwerke zum Schutz der Ozeane einfließen.

EU-Turkey relations - Theories, institutions, and policies
This open access book explores the new complexities and ambiguities that epitomize EU-Turkey relations. With a strong focus on the developments in the last decade, the book provides full access to a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted relationship through three entry points: (1) Theories and Concepts, (2) Institutions, and (3) Policies. Part I brings together complementary and competing analytical approaches to study the evolution of EU-Turkey relations, ranging from traditional integration theories to novel concepts. Part II investigates the institutional machinery of EU-Turkey relations by analyzing the roles and perspectives of the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. Part III offers analyses of the policies most relevant for the relationship: enlargement policy, trade and macroeconomic policies, foreign and security policy, migration and asylum policies, and energy policy. In Part IV, the volume closes with a systematic survey of the conditions under which cooperative trends in EU-Turkey relations could be (re)invigorated. The systematic setup and the balanced combination of distinguished experts from EU- and Turkey-based institutions make this book a fundamental reading for students, researchers, lecturers, and practitioners of EU-Turkey relations, European integration and Turkish foreign policy.