Vision and mission
Good practice for financing in the GPN
There are three basic lines of funding for the GPN:
To this day, there is no reparation for the crimes of the colonizers and the massive transfer of wealth from the colonies. Therefore, we generally see it as an obligation to redistribute funds from the North to the South. Within GPN, this means that the funding needs and proposals of partners from the South, although of course bound by these criteria like all other proposals, are given high priority.
Against the backdrop of colonialism, there can be no top-down decisions, especially from the North. There are no trustees who know better than the people themselves how their lives can be improved, neither in the North nor in the South. Funding decisions should be based on equal participation and promote equal participation.
Nevertheless, it would be irresponsible to simply fund projects without asking: who is being funded for what?
a) In the GPN we want as a general focus progressive change, marginalized people and alternative solutions, i.e. alternatives to the solutions that the existing capitalist, patriarchal and Eurocentric structures - individual and market solutions are anyway funded by the usual development agencies and we do not believe that the market enables a good life for all.
b) For the projects, we want to finance research that addresses the deficits and opportunities of partnerships in development cooperation, in the global economy and in knowledge production.
c) For the workshops (training and empowerment), we want to fund initiatives that emphasize collaboration (not competition), bottom-up processes, sustainability and local knowledge.
d) GPN research projects and workshops should aim for tangible results and/or follow-up activities, be it in the form of publications, follow-up proposals, activities in the practical or political field or similar. Activities should not end in nothing.
e) GPN activities should include elements of collaboration within GPN. GPN activities should preferably include elements of external communication aimed at reaching additional stakeholders outside the GPN or the existing participants or stakeholders of an activity.
Of course, we can only fund activities within the guidelines of our funding organization DAAD. Emergency aid goes beyond our funding possibilities.
