Time and Development: The Problem

Start
Results

Time-Questions
Input from 5 Disciplines
Working Groups
Time and Development in Germany
Closing Statement

Organizers
Team
Contact

How to appropriately deal with the time factor was debated in three working groups along three lines of argument:

as a problem of a conscious decision for a specific time policy under the conditions of globalization: globalization as acceleration of all processes of change has increased the time pressure on all actors along with the increased pressures of competition. It depends on the self understanding of development cooperation if it considers this time pressure to be unavoidable and seeks to pass it on to the partner or even seeks to run ahead of this dynamic. Or whether in fact it sees it as its task to strive for a more humane formulation of globalization. Then it has to attempt to synchronize its own processes with the time rhythm of the affected.
as a problem of process planning: the aims of projects and programs are dominating development cooperation too much. Only with the concrete planning and sometimes uncoupled from the aims, time will be factored in. Time must from the start play a bigger role – already in the setting of goals and the choice and development of instruments.
as a problem of the own routine: a conscious reflection about a meaningful use of time not only confronts the institutions of development cooperation with themselves but also questions the own routine. Time is not only a problem of the partner countries or in our dealing with those partners, but questions our own ways of working at a very fundamental level. That is why the question as to the time factor is so difficult to pose and perhaps also so unpopular.