ZEF’s Annual Report 2005-2006

We are pleased to present you ZEF’s Annual Report 2005-2006. We have chosen the role of knowledge in development research as this year’s focus theme, since ZEF acknowledges the crucial role knowledge plays for sustainable human development. As you can read in this report, ZEF strives to contribute to this development by producing and sharing knowledge as well as by building academic capacity.

ZEF addresses its research issues in long-term projects based on transdisciplinary research strategies. ZEF’s large transdisciplinary projects on water and land use and biodiversity have become by now the institute’s trademark. In 2006, all these projects have been through a process of evaluation by its sponsor, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and are or are close to being approved for continuation.

This applies to the ZEF-led GLOWA Volta project on the regional impact of global environmental change in the West African Volta basin, for which the BMBF has approved funding of the third research phase 2006-2009. Also, the BMBF has cleared the next research phase without interruption for the project on “Conservation of Coffea arabica in the montane rainforests in Ethiopia” (CoCE) in July 2006. Finally, ZEF has submitted a proposal for a third research phase for its project in Uzbekistan on “Economic and ecological restructuring in Khorezm” due to be examined by the BMBF in 2006.

Moreover, this Annual Report shows how ZEF is contributing actively to capacity development and building. Capacity building is institutionally anchored in ZEF’s International Doctoral Studies Program (IDSP), which can now reap the fruits of seven years of hard labor since its inception 1999. A survey carried out in 2006 among former participants shows that the main target of the program, which is to train future decision-makers from developing as well as from industrialized countries for international careers in a development-related context, is certainly being achieved.

A special thanks goes to ZEF’s main donors, which are the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Dreyer Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation as well other partners in Germany and abroad. Their solid support enables ZEF to continue its efforts to make a substantial contribution to development research and capacity building.

We wish you an interesting read of our Annual Report.

Downloads:

- ZEF Annual Report 2005/2006 (english)

- Zusammenfassung ZEF Jahresbericht 2005/2006 (german)

- Pressemitteilung vom 18.12.2006 (german)