Background
APRI – Africa Policy Research Institute’s Economy & Society Programme focuses on the political economy of Africa’s global relationships and structural policy reform. Under its Identifying and Addressing Colonial Continuities in German Development Cooperation project, we critically examine how colonial and neocolonial continuities affect international cooperation (IC), specifically within the structures and practices of German development cooperation (DC), and how persistent power imbalances can be addressed to build decolonized partnerships.
While contemporary practitioners and institutions emphatically disavow colonial intent, asymmetric power relations, resource access disparities, and epistemic hierarchies established during the colonial era remain embedded in everyday operational practices, policy frameworks, and agenda-setting processes. Operating within a dynamic geopolitical environment marked by shifting power architectures, Western aid budget contractions, and growing demands from Global South partners for genuine co-creation, the project draws on practitioner experiences to identify not only patterns of colonial continuity, but also existing practices and emergent opportunities to address them.
The Event
Against the backdrop of the BMZ’s reform strategy, Zukunft zusammen global gestalten, which calls for dismantling colonial continuities, APRI—in collaboration with GIZ’s ICPoC initiative—conducted the research project "Identifying and Addressing Colonial Continuities in German Development Cooperation." The project critically examines persistent power imbalances, knowledge hierarchies, and structural dependencies within German international cooperation.
Ahead of the release of their forthcoming APRI policy briefs, lead authors Dr. Nicodemus M. Minde (Tanzania) and Prof. Dr. Henning Melber (Namibia) will host a webinar to present findings from their country case studies. Focusing on two former German colonies, the authors explore how historical trajectories shape modern bilateral relations and development initiatives—ranging from high-level agenda-setting to green hydrogen projects and conservation governance.
This webinar offers practitioners and policy makers across BMZ, GIZ, and the broader German development sector an opportunity to engage with key findings, discuss postcolonial realignment, and identify actionable takeaways for contemporary development practice.
