History

Benefit concert 1994 © SEZ-Archive

The change starts with us! How it all began, our values ​​and our vision

In 1991, the Baden-Württemberg Development Cooperation Foundation (SEZ) was founded with this insight, which was progressive for the time: How we act here in Baden-Württemberg has an impact on the whole world. For this reason, people here locally must take on global responsibility and become aware of how their lives, their decisions and their consumer behavior are embedded in global conditions.

The SEZ was established on January 9, 1991 by the Baden-Württemberg state parliament after the then Prime Minister Lothar Späth and the former CDU parliamentary group leader Erwin Teufel, together with the former state parliament president Erich Schneider, had been pursuing the idea of ​​the foundation for a long time. In May 1991, the SEZ moved into its first business premises on Urbanstrasse in Stuttgart and was run by Dr. Karl-Hans Schmid, who then handed over management to Rainer Lang. Philipp Keil has been the managing director of the SEZ since 2013.

Create networks and enable human encounters

In the 1990s, the SEZ created the foundation on which it stands today. The focus was on networking, which still plays a central role in the SEZ today. The professionalization of the work of the many volunteers involved in One World largely shaped the work of the SEZ in the 1990s. This not only created the basis for development policy engagement from Baden-Württemberg, but also established extensive partnership networks that still characterize the diversity of our work today. One example of this is the close relationships between people from Baden-Württemberg and Burundi, which have been fostered since 2009 by the coordination office of the AMAHORO! state partnership be perpetuated. The Partnership Center the SEZ initiates, accompanies and promotes encounters at “eye and heart level” between people in Baden-Württemberg and people in countries of the so-called global south.

From Urbanstrasse to Werastrasse: Teamwork for global connections and encounters

While in 1991 the SEZ's first office in Urbanstrasse still had 4 employees, today the SEZ in Werastrasse has a team of 15 employees whose skills are as diverse as the SEZ's projects. The aim of making our own global involvement tangible by enabling human encounters is the central motivation of our work. Working with people from Baden-Württemberg and the world shows us again and again that we can benefit from Partners can and must learn from Burundi and the countries of the so-called global south.

Diverse SEZ portfolio and platform for your engagement

Making people in Baden-Württemberg aware of how they and their actions impact globally has always been the theme of the SEZ. This is reflected in our diverse portfolio. The coordination office for the AMAHORO! Country partnership with Burundithe Fair trade fair and SEZ project funding – under the brand since 2019 works! – have established themselves as an integral part of the development policy map in Baden-Württemberg. New projects in cooperation with EU partners, the business world or on current topics have been added. In 2017, for example, Future fashion a joint project has been created that brings together committed people and producers for fair fashion far beyond the SEZ. In order to reach even more young people in Baden-Württemberg, there has been  Mindchangers, which specifically incorporates new topics into development policy.

While in 1991 the first letters in the SEZ were still typed on a portable typewriter, today we are digitally well connected and present on easily accessible channels for development policy advice and support, as a platform for networking and information: Here on the website you will find ongoing News. The Future Fashion movement can be found on www.futurefashion.de and Instagram. With the SEZletterto pay more attention to the Burundi Nouvelles and the Future Fashion Newsletter stay up to date on us, the partnership with Burundi and tomorrow's consumption. And also applications for project funding works! or Mindchangers today run completely digitally via our new one Application portal.

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