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Exchange Programme
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Go Africa... Go Germany... | |
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A large number of academic studies, but also press articles, confirm that developments in Africa are only followed at a superficial level in this country, that debates about Africa’s future prospects remain, by and large, blanket discussions that tend to ignore the diversity of specific developments. Media coverage tends to focus – following its own laws – on the continent’s conflict-ridden regions and major problem areas, whereas positive developments receive little or no mention. School children frequently perceive Africa merely as a "country", they assume there is poverty and deficiencies and shortages in all areas of life and would never associate advanced technologies and a high level of education with the people of Africa. The vision they have of Africa is that the entire continent is embroiled in wars, caused by different ethnological conflicts, which are being sustained by endless corruption, and that the majority of its inhabitants are suffering from starvation and are perishing of Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
Against this backdrop, in 2004, the Federal Agency for Civic Education launched its three-year Africa programme, Focus Africa: Africome 2004-2006, involving over 50 major projects. The main focal points were:
To educate people about the actual political and social diversity of the continent,
To expand knowledge about historical and current developments in Africa,
To counteract pessimism about Africa in society,
To analyse existing Eurocentric attitudes and to eliminate them by providing targeted information and by promoting individual initiative,
To eliminate racism and xenophobia,
To give a realistic view of how African developments fit into globalisation processes and
To initiate new ways in which young people especially can become involved in studying the continent and to strengthen the existing network.
The Federal Agency for Civic Education’s Focus Africa programme was completed at the end of 2006. In order to further pursue the ongoing process of changing awareness among important sections of the population, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, jointly with the Federal President, developed a programme for young people as part of its "Partnership with Africa" campaign.
In 2007, an initial dialogue took place between adolescents and young adults in Namibia and Germany with a view to eliminating misunderstandings and misperceptions by facilitating personal, intercultural encounters and by developing a greater understanding of the other culture based on knowledge.
Each year, a group of particularly dedicated and qualified students and young graduates participate in a demanding political education programme that teaches them how to identify historical and political correlations and their consequences for present-day Africa and to understand complex relationships of cause and effect. At the same time, policies and living conditions in Germany and Europe are re-evaluated and challenges that are self-evident to us, such as demographic change or family policy, are re-examined in the context of African realities. One objective for the German participants is to develop a different outlook that will enable them to understand the opportunities Africa has to offer and to correct the serious imbalance between African reality and European – and especially German – perceptions insofar as existing possibilities allow. The joint initiative is aimed above all at arousing students’ interest in the enormous political and social diversity of the continent as the study of Africa barely features during their degree courses and even at school, in fact, if anything, it is declining whereas it is becoming more important than ever as part of globalisation to gain a more differentiated perspective even on distant neighbours.
The programme was designed as a three–year one initially and will be implemented as a programme for scholarship-holders during two consecutive weeks in Germany and in an African region – in 2007, in southern Africa/Namibia, in 2009, in eastern Africa (Tanzania/Uganda) and in 2010, in West Africa (Ghana/Nigeria). Twelve participants between the ages of 20 and 27 from Germany and from the respective African region will meet in Berlin or Munich to begin with, from where they will embark on a demanding study trip. As part of a two-week programme, that will address a large number of social, historical, political and economic issues, the participants will travel to Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Bonn and Brussels. In 2007, they flew to Namibia in the third and fourth week and – based in Windhoek, the first destination – took part in a concentrated information programme. The 2008/2009 programme differs in this regard. The participants will be in Germany in September 2008, but they will not be in Tanzania and Uganda until February/March. In the meantime they will have the opportunity to work together intensively on a key theme involving German-African relations.
Participants are chosen by way of a call for papers on three political and social themes issued in Germany and in the respective African region. Since 2008, a jury comprising former scholarship-holders, the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Office of the Federal President have been jointly selecting the scholarship-holders.
The seminars are delivered in English. The costs of the programme are covered by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
The participants make their own contribution to the programme and, in between the programme’s two sections, produce an academic paper individually and afterwards jointly, which is published as a concrete result of the trip. In 2007, a paper was published on the subject of "Education for Employment" from the German and the southern African perspective.
18. März 2009 | |
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Informationen zur politischen Bildung |
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Afrika – Länder und Regionen
Afrikas Vielfalt und Afrikas Gemeinsamkeiten: Ein Überblick mit Schwerpunkt auf Politik und Wirtschaft erschließt die fünf Großräume des Kontinents und Länder, die für ihre Region charakteristisch oder besonders bedeutsam sind. |
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