Global Partnership Network (GPN)

The Global Partnership Network (GPN) is one of the centers of Excellence for Exchange and Development funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation (exceed) program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The center also closely collaborates with the International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) at Kassel University. The GPN is an assemblage of higher education institutions and civil society groups for research, teaching and training around SDG 17: “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development". The GPN targets research, teaching and workshops that investigates the global partnership for sustainable development in three specific areas, challenges its shortcomings and contributes to possible solutions to the concerns posed providing policy-relevant research informed by a historical sensibility. What do we do? The GPN calls attention to the shortcomings, limitations, and problematic aspects of international partnerships that have historically been shaped by colonial relations between North and South and sometimes continue to reflect them. Redressing this historical dynamic requires reconstructing the concept towards a partnership based on mutual recognition and solidarity, adequate to the multi-polar and postcolonial 21st century.