Zeitenspiegel Agency

The cooperative of well-known writers and photographers is based in Weinstadt near Stuttgart, Germany. Additional offices include Havana, Milan, and Brussels. The agency provides features for magazines such as stern, Focus, and Geo, but also for daily newspapers and the foreign press. Central importance is given to close-up features, “because a good story can move mountains, raise spirits, and change the world.”

Zeitenspiegel’s contributions to Peace Counts come from Tilman Wörtz, Uschi Entenmann, Bernd Hauser, Jürgen Schäfer and Uli Reinhardt.

German UNESCO Commission

The Peace Counts Project achieved recognition as the official German contribution to the UNESCO project “Culture of Peace.” The project’s lengthy full title does justice to UNESCO’s comprehensive worldwide organization: “International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World.” UNESCO’s goal, in its support of interethnic cooperation through education, research and culture, is to help enable peace and security and to strengthen the respect for law, justice, human rights, and basic freedoms that the United Nations charter guarantees to the peoples of the world without regard for appearance, gender, language, or religion. In brief, its goal is to build trust through peaceful cooperation. The German UNESCO Commission (DUK) is an intermediary to the federal foreign office’s cultural relations and education policy. It serves to link government with the research community.

WDR – Westdeutscher Rundfunk

The radio division of WDR (Western German Radio) broadcast a five-part series on peacemakers in February, 2004. The half-hour episodes were broadcast on Sundays beginning February 1 at 7:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. on WDR5. Themes included exemplary peace initiatives in Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Macedonia, and Brazil. WDR’s cooperation with Peace Counts began in the last week of January with the program theme “Conflicts and Peace,” incorporating stories in as many WDR programs as possible. The radio project was coordinated by the journalist and historian Dr. Heiner Wember of Münster.

Institute for Peace Education Tübingen e.V.

Founded in 1976, the Institut für Friedenspädagogik has established itself nationally as a locus of peace education. The institute produces educational publications and audiovisual materials on a variety of themes, prepares bibliographies of literature and media, and leads seminars. The institute’s offerings are patronized by people from all areas of education and by interested members of the public. Accredited institutions of continuing education for teachers and other adults as well as youth services offices are important partners. The institute maintains an office in Tübingen and works in concert with experienced specialists from the worlds of science and research, education and media, with programmers and graphic artists. All publications are issued by an internal publications department. The institute’s work focuses on a critical encounter with interpersonal, social, and international conflicts, with the aim of calling attention to possibilities for civil resolution. A further important theme in recent years has been “global learning.”

German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ)

The GTZ is a globally active agency of the German government supporting international cooperation. In more than 130 countries of the south and east, the GTZ supports around 2,700 development projects and programs, mainly under commission from the German government. Its goal is to improve conditions and future perspectives for people in emerging and developing countries. Peace Counts works with the GTZ on several levels, including the Eschborn headquarters’ Sector Consulting Plan for Crisis Prevention and Conflict Resolution (http://www.gtz.de/crisisprevention) financed by the BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) with the aim of strengthening potential developmental cooperation in the areas of crisis prevention and conflict resolution. In addition, Peace Counts works with GTZ staff in conflict zones such as Sri Lanka and Colombia. The bimonthly Peace Counts Forum is organized in cooperation with GTZ’s Berlin branch.

zivik – Civil Conflict Resolution

The zivik project of the Institute for Foreign Relations supports the foreign ministry in reviewing NGO proposals in the areas of civil conflict resolution, crisis prevention, and peace consolidation measures, providing practical advice and consulting on current projects during both execution and auditing. NGOs (non-governmental organizations) make an important contribution to international peace efforts. Supporting them is an integral part of the German federal government’s umbrella concept “Civil Crisis Prevention: Conflict Resolution and Peace Consolidation.” In 2002, the foreign ministry supported a total of 88 NGO projects with a volume of 7.65 million Euros. In the first months of fiscal year 2003, more than 4.7 million Euros were appropriated for 64 projects, among them Peace Counts.

Bonn International Center for Conversion

The Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) works independently and in the public interest to convert former military assets to civilian goals: know-how, facilities, weapons, technology, materiel, and financial and economic potential can be directed, in the course of disarmament and structural transformation, toward meaningful applications. The BICC offers its analyses and informational and consulting capacities to researchers and practitioners in the public and private sectors, in governmental and non-governmental institutions. In this way, the BICC contributes to disarmament, demilitarization, improved management of conflict, and sustainable development.