Aktionszentrum 3. Welt

Sobre nosotros

Just as its town twins, the city of Osnabrück is also involved in a concept of common municipal development work between North and South. This new identidy of development work contradicts the old patriarchal ideas which were based on the assumption that a part of the world could develop the other part and therefore it had to accept the responsibility for its progress. A new partnership with the Third World, however, means that the decision on development and its start-up has to lie in the hands of the population of the countries of the Third World and their political representatives, while the industrialized countries can only play a supporting role. At the same time, however, the industrialized countries are demanded to change the conditions in their own countries which cause the exploitation and impoverishment somewhere else, such as exports of armaments, waste of resources and unfair world economic conditions.

Against the background of this request the citizens' action group "Aktionszentrum Dritte Welt" (action centre Third World) founded itself in 1982. It is basis-oriented and has meanwhile experience of many years in the fields of education work, actions and public relations work related to development policy with regard to municipal and regional activities. The registered charitable association made it its objective to link up work in Osnabrück related to development policy and to establish a common centre as education and action centre. Apart from the sale of products from the Third World, the initiative is active in working groups with different priorities: subjects such as how to feed the world and our life habits, ways of producing food, the problem of fodder, genetically manipulated food or textiles and clothes. The group informed itself about global economy and organized informative events and actions, also in cooperation with other groups. Keypoints of these actions are lying in the attempt to follow the ways of selected food from their place of production to the consumer, to make the production and consumption conditions more transparent and to point out to ecological as well as economic vicious circles of the world-wide food production which is governed by capitalism.

Franz Wirtz was born in Osnabrück in 1949 and is a pedagogue.

We have the possibility to offer overnight accommodations. Apart from that, we can give expert advice and deliver expert opinions, give lectures and communicate up-to-date specialist information and arrange for contacts referring to the subjects development policy and cooperation in the field of development, municipal development concepts and "Lokale Agenda 21".