Go
weltwärts
Go
weltwärts
Introducing weltwärts
Intro
weltwärts is all about engagement in development issues, global learning and interacting as equals. It brings people together in and from Germany, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Eastern Europe. The programme focuses on non-formal learning on a mutual basis and strengthening of international partnerships.
The programme, whose name translates as “worldwards”, was launched in 2008 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to support young people looking to take action for the good of our One World. Since then, going “worldwards” has been possible through the programme’s development volunteer service.
Each sub-programme has a comprehensive quality system and receives 75% of its funding from the BMZ. The remaining share comes from the civil-society organisations that implement the service. The administrative and financial coordination of the programme is carried out by Engagement Global’s weltwärts Coordination Unit.
The weltwärts volunteer service is a joint operation run by the BMZ, civil-society organisations and past volunteers, with decisions regarding the steering of the programme taken jointly.
weltwärts volunteer service
The weltwärts development volunteer service is aimed at young people from Germany between the ages of 18 and 28 who are interested in volunteering for several months (usually a year) in a country in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania or Easter Europe (North-South component), and at young people who come from those regions, are between 18 and 29 and would like to volunteer in Germany (South-North component). Promotion of global learning, engagement in development issues and international solidarity is a core aim of both components. Apart from a transfer of experience and knowledge, the organisations involved in Germany and the partner countries also benefit from continuing contact with returnees.
What is weltwärts South-North?
The weltwärts South-North development volunteer service gives you the opportunity to get involved in civic engagement in Germany by spending six to 18 months volunteering in the areas of education, healthcare, environmentalism, culture or human rights. The focus is on learning from each other and developing global awareness.
Be it a housing project for people with disabilities, an association that promotes community-supported agriculture or a nursery school - there are many different ways to play an active role in society and learn with weltwärts. Irrespective of the project you choose to support, the weltwärts volunteer service is all about working together for the community, creating change and learning from and with one another in the process.
No matter whether you’ve just finished vocational training or secondary school or whether you’re already in higher education or have already completed an internship or a different volunteering programme: with weltwärts you’ll gain experience in an international context as well as expanding your German language skills and getting a hands-on taste of non-profit work and everyday life in Germany.
What is…
Agenda 2030 and the SDGs?
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all UN member states in September 2015. It sets out the belief that the challenges facing our globalised world can only be solved in a concerted effort, which is why it applies to all countries in our One World. At the heart of Agenda 2030 are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals cover areas in which all people and countries need to take action. The aim is to achieve them together by 2030.
Global learning
On the weltwärts programme, global learning is considered to be learning that promotes global sustainable development. weltwärts participants develop and build on skills that enable them to contribute to worldwide sustainable development - both during and after the programme.
The Council of Europe defines global education as “... development education, human rights education, education for sustainability, education for peace and conflict prevention and intercultural education; being the global dimensions of education for citizenship.”
Development policy/cooperation
Germany’s development cooperation seeks to give people around the world the freedom to live an independent life without material hardship. It incorporates all initiatives by private and public stakeholders that are committed to achieving sustainable development – for shaping globalisation in an equitable way is a responsibility that encompasses all of society, as clearly stipulated in the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations.
Germany’s development policy responds to this conviction by cooperating with its partner countries, serving in international organisations, and above all supporting non-governmental stakeholders in the private sector and civil society. In doing so, the German government sees the countries and organisations with which it cooperates in this field not as beneficiaries, but as partners. The term “development cooperation” reflects this approach and describes these close forms of cooperation much more aptly than the previously used term “development aid”. For detailed information on Germany’s approach to development cooperation, go to
Non-formal learning
weltwärts sees itself as a non-formal educational programme, in which learning processes mostly take place when young people interact/live/work with people in their country of assignment or with another youth group, supported by organised educational measures.
Objectives – Aims and impact
Through weltwärts, Germany’s federal government provides funding for a development volunteer service. In addition to development activities by young people, the focus of the programme is global learning for the participants and strengthening of partnerships between civil-society organisations from Germany and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania and Eastern Europe.
The interaction and experiences gained through weltwärts build participants’ global awareness and highlight what they themselves can do to help make life on our planet more equitable for everyone. Through their work on the ground and educational activities to help them reflect on what they have experienced, the young people gain an understanding of what development cooperation is. They learn that each and every one of us can make things happen. Numerous returnees from the programme continue to participate in civic engagement activities over the long term. In addition, weltwärts strengthens the participating organisations in their day-to-day work and their ability to take joint action. The weltwärts volunteer service and weltwärts Exchange Projects thus promote the implementation of the United Nations Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Objectives
- Young people gain an awareness of future issues in the area of development and the concept of our One World.
- They act as multipliers, passing on the sustainable development message to those around them.
- Young people’s interest in development-related areas of work and engagement is stimulated.
- They learn how to interact with people in different countries, cultures and ways of life.
- The participants form a robust returnee network and cultivate partnerships in line with SDG 17.
Objectives
- weltwärts promotes the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
- Existing partnerships are expanded, civil-society structures strengthened.
- Civil-society stakeholders receive training and benefit from their interaction with volunteers.
- The participating organisations enhance their potential to take joint action.
- Participation structures are established and expanded in the areas of youth work, youth education and development cooperation.
Sustainable Development Goals
Quality and security matters
weltwärts is regularly assessed to monitor its attainment of the programme’s ambitious objectives, both in Germany and in our partner countries. The assessment takes the form of standardised volunteer surveys and independent evaluations and certification of the participating organisations.
weltwärts is effective
The objectives of the weltwärts volunteer service are based on Agenda 2030.
By taking part in weltwärts, the intention is that young people from Germany and our partner countries will develop enhanced global awareness and take action in line with the principle of solidarity and with the SDGs. weltwärts returnees act as “multipliers”, passing on the sustainable development message to those around them, and often continue to participate in civic engagement activities over the long term. In addition, weltwärts reinforces the international partnerships between civil society stakeholders in the programme. It is a programme that produces learning effects for everyone involved.
weltwärts’ impact is measured based on various factors
weltwärts volunteers and their civic engagement in Germany
In 2017, DEval (German Institute for Development Evaluation) published a comprehensive study entitled “weltwärts volunteers and their civic engagement in Germany”. Almost ten years after the launch of the programme, the study took a detailed look at the North-South component of weltwärts, analysing its effects on volunteers and their civic engagement in Germany. The findings provide a particularly informative insight into volunteers’ personal development and how they affect society in Germany after their return from assignment. Some of the DEval recommendations have already been implemented. They include giving new definition to the profile of the volunteer service, adding information on aims and impacts in programme documents and establishing a monitoring and evaluation system.
The weltwärts South-North component
“The South-North component of weltwärts” was the simple title of a study conducted by Syspons GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and published in 2017. Its subject was the South-North component, introduced three years earlier, which enables young people from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Oceania to come to Germany to do voluntary service. According to the study, the component is adequately designed and the partners in all countries are equally involved. At the same time, it points out that differences in the way it is implemented make impact measurement difficult. The recommendations drawn up by the evaluation team were addressed in a thorough follow-up process, in which the programme objectives were defined more clearly and compared with the North-South component.
Quality of partnerships
Surveys are conducted as part of the international conferences held several times per year for the participating volunteer service organisations. The aim is to obtain information about the development of the partnerships between the organisations. Another point of interest is the extent to which weltwärts plays a role in each organisation’s development. The data is presented to the Programme Steering Committee.
Participant survey for the volunteer service
Roughly three months after their weltwärts assignments, all returnees are asked to rate the programme and how it has affected them. Aspects assessed include how their own behaviour and perceptions have changed as a result of weltwärts. For example, the findings regularly show that 90 percent of returnees feel more motivated to play an active role in society due to weltwärts.
The survey is carried out externally by uzbonn – Gesellschaft für empirische Sozialforschung und Evaluation and each year’s findings are published on the weltwärts website.
Longitudinal study of German volunteers
In order to detect longer-term changes in attitude brought about by participation in the weltwärts programme, a multi-year study is being conducted among former weltwärts participants, in which they are periodically invited to answer a set of questions. The results are compared with those of a control group that did not participate in weltwärts to identify trends in areas such as career, consumption and civic engagement.
This analysis is being performed by DEval, the German Institute for Development Evaluation, and the final report is scheduled for publication in mid-2022.
Quality auditing and development
weltwärts aims to constantly grow and improve. As part of this effort, quality standards for the volunteer service have been drawn up in recent years with the intention of ensuring equal quality of service for all participants. External certification institutes and Engagement Global conduct regular audits to monitor compliance with these standards. In addition, the implementing organisations have their own quality-improvement processes.
The weltwärts quality system
A number of the quality measures that make weltwärts so appealing as a volunteer service have been in place since 2013 and are constantly being evolved and enhanced. They include:
- Volunteer surveys
- Certification of all implementing organisations involved in the volunteer service
- Establishment of permanent quality-management bodies (quality associations, Engagement Global)
Certification
All implementing organisations that offer the opportunity to do a weltwärts volunteer assignment are required to be certified. This involves them having to document all their processes every two to three years and present them to experienced auditors. The latter review and assess the documents, conduct interviews with randomly selected volunteers and visit the organisation concerned to see for themselves how they work.
The certification mark issued to organisations that pass an audit can only be awarded by one specially authorised agency: Quifd.
Volunteer surveys
Approximately three months after the end of their voluntary service, returnees receive a detailed questionnaire to complete for the survey. In it, they are asked to rate their volunteer experience in terms of the education and mentoring provided, security aspects, their visa experiences, support from their organisation and other personal experiences. The data is compiled by uzbonn – Gesellschaft für empirische Sozialforschung und Evaluation - and the results compared with those of the previous year. The survey highlights where improvements are needed on the ground.
Assessment by Engagement Global gGmbH
Engagement Global’s weltwärts Coordination Unit performs an approval process for all implementing organisations. This involves assessing their liquidity, non-profit character, educational capabilities and their general suitability to serve as weltwärts organisations. Implementing organisations cannot apply for funding until they have been successfully assessed. During the funding period, the weltwärts Coordination Unit assesses each measure to ensure that the certification and quality standards are met.
In addition, the weltwärts Coordination Unit supplies data for programme-steering processes, for example programme-wide data and statistics concerning the demographic make-up of the participants.
Our partners in quality and security matters
Germany’s Federal Foreign Office
The BMZ and the Federal Foreign Office consult closely on visa and security issues and the latter’s security and travel warnings must be complied with by all weltwärts stakeholders. German participants register in the Federal Foreign Office’s crisis preparedness list (ELEFAND) during their international assignment so that they can be contacted by German diplomatic missions in the event of a crisis or other extraordinary circumstances.
weltwärts contact points for visa and security matters
weltwärts has its own contact points for visa and security matters in Argentina, Bolivia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Colombia, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The contact points provide a communication link to German authorities and those of our partner countries and to German diplomatic missions.
Quality management by Engagement Global’s weltwärts Coordination Unit
As part of its quality-management activities, Engagement Global’s weltwärts Coordination Unit analyses survey, evaluation and study findings, advises the BMZ and the Programme Steering Committee with regard to any necessary modifications and coordinates their implementation.
Quality associations in German civil society
The weltwärts quality associations were set up as a way of enhancing quality-development support and advice for voluntary service organisations. Membership of one of the five associations is compulsory for all of the approximately 160 implementing organisations.
The quality associations provide training, information, networking opportunities and advice on all key weltwärts topics. In their role as representatives of implementing organisations, they also communicate and liaise with the BMZ and the weltwärts Coordination Unit.
Ombudsperson at Engagement Global
Confidential matters can be addressed in writing to the ombudsperson at Engagement Global. The ombudsperson is an independent and neutral resource to whom individuals and organisations can turn for help. He or she is required to maintain confidentiality and acts as an advisor and mediator in conflict situations.
