About us

The Joint Conference Church and Development (GKKE) was founded in 1973 as an ecumenical, Protestant-Catholic working group on development policy. The GKKE holds dialogues with parliament and government as well as social interest groups on questions of the One World and development cooperation. The instruments used are expert discussions, podium discussions, conferences, public statements and publications. The reference framework is the 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The concerns and perspectives of church partner organizations from the south should be introduced and supported.

The GKKE is supported by the German Commission Justitia et Pax and Bread for the World. Chairmen of the GKKE are the representatives of the two major Christian churches to the Federal Government: Prelate Dr. Martin Dutzmann, Plenipotentiary of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and Prelate Dr. Karl Jüsten, Head of the Commissariat of German Bishops.

Key activities

Justice, peace and sustainable global safeguarding of the future mark the scope for action. Continuous work is done by two task groups (Fachgruppen). Experts from science, the church and development cooperation work on the topics of arms export policy and the contribution of the churches to Just Peace in Africa.

Arms export policy

The task group draws up an annual report on the Federal Government’s arms export policy, making an important contribution to transparency in this policy area. The report compiles publicly available information on German exports of weapons and armaments of the previous year or their permits and assesses them in the context of peace and development policy. The task group accompanies current debates, e.g. for a new arms export control law and advocates an actually restrictive arms export control policy.

Chair: Dr. Simone Wisotzki, Leibniz Institute Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research (HSFK), Frankfurt/M .; Co-Chair: Dr. Max M. Mutschler, Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) Bonn. Management: Dr. Jörg Lüer, Berlin.

Contribution of the Churches to Just Peace in Africa

Guided by the message of the Gospel and the Christian mandate for peace, churches and Christian organizations in the global south make important contributions to the prevention of violence, overcoming of conflicts and developing of societies. What are the potentials of religious actors? How can they be strengthened? And how can church development organizations improve their dialogue and cooperation with relevant partner organizations? In order to answer these questions, the task group limits activities to the continent of Africa with a focus on Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Especially Christian partner organizations and churches are in sight. In doing so, the task group wants to make a specific and limited contribution to the qualification of the current debate on religion, peace and development.

Chair of the task group: Karin Döhne, Bread for the World, Berlin. Management: Tim Kuschnerus, Berlin.

Professionals in the development service

Together with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Entwicklungsdienste (AGdD), GKKE has organized for the third time the „Day of the Returned Professionals from the Development Service and the Civil Peace Service“. The returnees should be given recognition and appreciation for their commitment. Following an ecumenical church service, this appreciation was expressed by Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dr. Gerd Müller (May 2015), Federal President Joachim Gauck (March 2017) and most recently Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel (July 2019).

Further activities

The GKKE also takes up current topics and issues. Examples include the discourses on civilian crisis prevention, flight and migration or on diligence of human rights in global supply chains. Positions papers or studies are prepared, discussions with parliamentarians are organized. In addition, panel discussions on key topics and current topics will be organized.

Contact:

Catholic office

Hannoversche Str. 5 10115 Berlin, Germany – Managing Director: Dr. Jörg Lüer  sb@jupax.de  +49 30 28878 157

Protestant office

Charlottenstr. 53/54 10117 Berlin, Germany – Managing Director: Tim Kuschnerus  info@gkke.org   +49 30 65211 1890