Member Profile for DIE, Bonn

The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) is one of the leading Think Tanks for development policy world-wide. DIE builds bridges between theory and practice and works within international research networks. The key to DIE’s success is its institutional independence, which is guaranteed by the Institute’s founding statute.

Since its founding in 1964, the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) has based its work on the interplay between Research, Consulting and Training. These three areas complement each other and are the factors responsible for the Institute’s distinctive profile. DIE draws together the knowledge of development research available worldwide, dedicating its work to key issues facing the future of development policy. DIE’s research is theory-based, empirically backed, and application-oriented. The Institute’s Postgraduate Training Programme is concentrated on courses dedicated to development-related themes and issues bound up with shaping the process of globalisation as well as with improving trainee communicative and social skills. The cornerstone of the Postgraduate Training Programme – field research carried out by small interdisciplinary groups in a developing country – serves to provide trainees with an opportunity to gain practical experience with what they have learned by participating in concrete consulting-oriented research projects.

In addition to the Postgraduate Training Programme, the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) offers Young Professionals from selected partner countries of Germany’s international cooperation the participation in the Global Governance School. The highly qualified participants from Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa work in governments, Ministries, Universities, policy-orientated Think Tanks or research institutions. This unique exchange and learning opportunity supports the creation of a sustainable, equitable and effective global governance architecture. The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik is headed by Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner (Director). At present, the Institute has a staff of 100, two-thirds of whom are researchers.