Development aid Minister More UN organisations should come to Bonn
Bonn · As soon as Gerd Müller was put in front of a globe in the foyer of the Deutsche Welle Schürmann building, the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development started to play.
The Pacific – no, we do not need to look there now, he says and turns the world on its head. Then the CSU Minister from Franken points to the African Savannah and says “that’s where we’ve got to go. That is the future.” On Thursday evening, a few months before his parliamentary term comes to an end, Müller came to the first official residence of his Ministry to speak to Bonn citizens about his visions for the future. He addressed 200 people in the conference room at the Deutsche Welle.
The Minister was introduced to 20 aid organisations and associations working in development cooperation, ranging from working groups for development aid to civil peace services. Müller disarmingly explained that he had pictured chatting to a few pioneers over a glass of wine.
After a few words on the upcoming elections, Müller came down from the stage to meet his audience, put his speech to one side and made a plea for his Marshall Plan for Africa. This was good practice, as he had presented his project in Brussels only a few hours beforehand. 230,000 babies are born in Africa every day, 89 million every year, and will reach two billion by 2050. “This presents alarming challenges”, alerted the Minister. Either we will succeed in creating prospects with and for these people, or climate change, world nutrition and the refugee crisis will spin out of control.
On the other hand, Müller also referred to the prosperity of the African continent. Eight of the twelve countries with the highest economic growth are found in Africa. He said it should be up to the government to lead their countries in the future. In 1960, Ghana had the same conditions as South Korea but did not make anything of it. “The elites need to do more”, he demanded and announced the desire to give more support in future to forerunners in democratic development.
“This is a good approach”, said Hans-Jürgen Dörrich from Don Bosco Mondo. He only hopes that Müller will act quickly in putting his concept into practice. “He shouldn’t wait until after the elections. He could get many things off the ground now”.
The Ministry site in Bonn in the former office of the Federal Chancellor would be ideal for working with the United Nations and NGOs, Müller commended. Although he obviously does not support a complete relocation to Bonn, he joked that the 570 employees should be given a salary reduction to compensate for the beautiful office location. He would like to strengthen the city’s profile in the near future and add another, which would then be the 20 UN organisation in Bonn. (Orig. text: Martin Wein)
