Thursday, February 26th, 2026, 6-9pm, Berlin Global Village, Am Sudhaus 2, 12053 Berlin
The chili plant plays a central role in many kitchens around the world, including in Indonesia and Mexico. During the chili cooking evening, the kitchen becomes a political space: through two typical dishes, we reflect on the relationships between taste, memory, and belonging, as well as the journey of the chili plant through today’s cities of Jakarta, Mexico City, Windhoek, and Berlin.
Die Chilipflanze ist aus den Amerikas nach Afrika, Europa sowie nach Südostasien gereist und spielt heute eine zentrale Rolle in vielen Küchen der Welt, so auch in der in der indonesischen und der mexikanischen Küche. Dieses Chili-Koch-Event ist ein praktisches Austauschformat, der die Teilnehmende dazu einlädt, über die tiefen Beziehungen zwischen Geschmack, Erinnerungen und Zugehörigkeit nachzudenken. Die Küche wird zu einem politischen Raum, in dem das Alltagsleben verhandelt wird.
Wir werden ein indonesisches und ein mexikanisches Gericht zubereiten und die Erfahrung des Kochens und gemeinsamen Essens teilen, während wir den Weg der Chili-Pflanze in den Städten Jakarta, Mexiko-Stadt, Windhoek und Berlin nachverfolgen und Geschichten über Geschmack sowie Migration austauschen.
Wir laden ein, die indonesische und mexikanische Diaspora herzustellen und das Berlin Global Village kennenzulernen. Da der Platz begrenzt ist, bitten wir um eine Anmeldung über https://eveeno.com/244413999 .
Eine Veranstaltung von Watch Indonesia! und Mexico Via Berlin im Rahmen des Städtepartnerschaftprojekts „Sister Cities in Action“, gefördert von der Landesstelle für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (LEZ) Berlin.
On Monday, 20 October 2025, our third and final public event in Windhoek took place at the Village Garden.
On Monday, 20 October 2025, our third and final public event ind Windhoek took place at the Village Garden. It was a networking gathering where we invited various organisations from Windhoek to exchange experiences, present their work, and explore opportunities to learn from one another.
We began by introducing our Sister Cities on Action Project, the tandem structure, along with the different formats we use in our collaborative process in Windhoek, Jakarta, Mexico-City and Berlin. Afterwards, several Windhoek-based organisations took the floor to share their work with the plenary. We focused on initiatives working in the following areas:
● Group A: Migration & Inclusive Communities ● Group B: Culture of Remembrance (in public spaces) ● Group C: Climate Crisis and Urban Adaptation Strategies
Among them, the Namibian Museums Association presented their work connecting museums across the country and developing alternative approaches inspired by the concept of “living archives – we are all living archives.”
The Umbrella Initiative also presented its activities. They connect NGOs from different sectors and run several community projects, including a pre-loved exchange programme that collects and distributes items to people in need.
Lastly, Youth4Can, a youth-led organisation that advocates for radical action on climate change and aims to build local resilience and sustainable just transition across all 14 regions of Namibia shared its initiatives and ongoing efforts.
In the second part of the event, we facilitated three thematic discussion rooms where representatives from different civil society organisations in Windhoek explored the topics more deeply. Together, they identified points of intersection, shared challenges, and developed ideas for future collaboration.
Many promising insights emerged from these conversations — but so did meaningful reflections. They reminded us that we are more connected, more resourceful, and far stronger together than we often realise. The desire to nurture and strengthen a South–South cooperation became especially visible, grounded in solidarity, mutual learning, and a shared vision for more just and resilient urban futures.
Moments like these reaffirm the importance of building multilateral networks that transcend borders, disciplines and perspectives. When communities come together with openness and curiosity, new and exciting possibilities for the future of our cities emerge — possibilities that none of us could have imagined alone.
Many thanks to everyone who took part in this meeting, and to those who contributed to making it possible. We’re really excited about what’s to come and look forward to continuing to build bridges of understanding, diversity and action with you all!
As part of the ongoing Sister Cities in Action initiative, Windhoek recently hosted an insightful event focused on Memory in Public Spaces, bringing together creatives, community voices, historians, and city stakeholders to reflect on how our urban landscape tells — and sometimes fails to tell — our collective story.
What if our cities truly reflected who we are? This question guided the discussion as participants explored how Windhoek can honour all its cultures, histories, and futures. The goal is not simply to replace what exists, but to complete what is missing, ensuring every Namibian can walk tall, knowing their identity and dignity are represented in the spaces around them.
Key reflections from the session included:
Honest engagement with existing monuments, buildings, and symbols, and what they communicate about our past.
Recognizing stories that have been erased, overlooked, or ignored, and the importance of restoring them to public memory.
Empowering communities and creatives to tell histories with dignity through art, design, storytelling, and cultural expression.
Imagining beyond the present, using creativity, public art, and film to inspire what Windhoek could become.
A clear message emerged: we need more open discourse and thoughtful debate around memory, representation, and identity in public space. To shape a future that reflects us all, we must define our values, establish guiding principles, and understand why we are building and transforming our city in the ways we choose.
This event marks another meaningful step in strengthening dialogue between Windhoek and Berlin and in building a cityscape that honours the past while inspiring a shared and inclusive future.
On Thursday, 16th of October from 8AM – 4 PM the joint network meeting on “Past, Present and Partnership” took place.
On October 16, the Sister Cities in Action coordinators had the honor of presenting our pilot project during the 25th City Partnership Anniversary between Berlin and Windhoek, organized in collaboration with the Namibia Institute for Democracy at the Windhoek Country Club. The event, held under the theme Past Present Partnership, brought together representatives from civil society, city officials, and a visiting delegation from Berlin, which included members of the Berlin Senat and the Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion herself, who delivered the closing remarks.
During the event, the Sister Cities in Action team had the unique opportunity to introduce the concept of sister cities, share a brief history of the partnership, and present the mission and activities of the initiative—highlighting who we are, what we do, and how we collaborate to address global challenges together.
At the second part of the Full-Day-Workshop we worked and discussed together in three breakout sessions on the following topics:
Group A: Memory, spaces, and urban identities
The First Group discussed the central role that creatives play in shaping memory, space and urban identity. This is why the discussion focused on securing sustainable creative funding…
Building long-term structures for artists requires resources that enable continuity rather than short-term initiatives. To support this, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg should introduce a German–Namibian international coproduction fund, modeled on the German–Polish and German–Turkish funds. The latter is based on the Berlin–Istanbul city partnership. Such a fund would deepen cultural exchange and collaborative production. Additionally, the idea of an Arts Expo in Windhoek emerged as a key platform to connect artists and creatives, strengthen networks, and foreground the shared evolution of memory and urban identity across both regions.
Group B: Equal and strategic partnership models
The second group focused on future partnership models and what is important for achieving genuine equality. The discussion revealed the following important characteristics…
Reciprocal Mobility Equal partnerships require the ability to meet in each other’s cities; without mutual mobility, the relationship remains unbalanced.
Local Employment Institutions should employ people from the countries where they operate, ensuring local knowledge, lived experience, and skills shape the work.
Intersectional Inclusion This goes beyond representation—true partnership integrates diverse perspectives, experiences, and expertise at every level (intersectionality)
Transparent Finances Open and accessible financial structures build trust and create a foundation for genuinely equal relationships.
Process-Based Funding Funding long-term processes instead of short, activity-focused projects enables sustainable change and strategic development
Group C: Youth and participatory governance
The last group took a look at Namibia’s youth and the role they play, or should play, in governance and democratic processes…
In Namibia, where unemployment is high (at 44.4% among young people in 2023), many young people struggle to meet their basic needs and often feel that political participation is out of their reach. Politics can be intimidating, and structural barriers make it difficult for young people to engage meaningfully with decision-makers. Many also feel that politics is far removed from their daily lives and that older generations rarely consider their views. Consequently, young people are often unaware that they are permitted to participate in political spaces, or these spaces are inaccessible to them. Strengthening political education and sharing accessible information are crucial steps towards inclusion. As one participant said: ‘If we always see the same people in the room, we have to change the room!’
Summary and Closing Remarks
There were many young, highly committed people there with clear ideas and demands about what kind of future they envision. One of them was encouraged by the Berlin Senator for Culture during her closing remarks to enter politics after the participant gave a passionate speech about the importance of young people’s participation in politics.
On Thursday, 3rd of July from 2-8 PM a network meeting on new municipalism and other approaches to grassroots democracy took place.
At the network meeting, the sister cities in action project provided a forum for discussion on the following question: How can Berlin’s international connections and (city) partnerships be used as a platform for the democratic participation (e.g. new municipalism) of diasporic perspectives and voices from the Global South?
As the group comprised participants involved in different areas, it was important to first clarify the core concepts of new municipalism, diaspora and city partnerships within the question. This exchange was made all the more exciting by the group’s diversity. The participants’ varied knowledge and experiences revealed connections and intersections between all the concepts, and above all emphasised the importance of diasporic community participation.
What is the goal? New municipalism & other forms of grassroots democratic participation
Our group understood new municipalism to be a form of democracy that enables and ensures the participation of all members of society, i.e. a democracy that is determined and lived from the bottom up. Based on this understanding, we established and discussed connections to other concepts. For instance, one participant highlighted parallels between new municipalism and cooperativism in their contribution to the workshop. Both are organisational structures that facilitate new avenues for democratic decision-making and collective action. The latter is particularly relevant in the context of trade relations. In cooperativism, every cooperative has one vote and is equally involved in decisions, regardless of its size. This was also discussed in the context of international cooperation, where cooperatives trade not only locally, but also between the Global North and Global South.
How can this goal be achieved? (City)Partnerships – a platform for democratic participation
Civil society (city) partnerships are an instrument of democratic participation because they are usually closer to municipal structures than other civil society actors. This makes them a more accessible point of contact than traditional forms of participation at the municipal level. At the same time, city partnerships can open up a different scope for action at the international level than would be possible through international cooperation at the national level, especially with regard to foreign policy issues. In one example a participant talked about a city partnership, where important projects supporting local self-organisation are being implemented that would not have been possible at the national level between the two nations states involved. Ultimately, city partnerships, as well as other forms of civil society partnerships, facilitate meeting places centred around specific issues, bringing together people, initiatives, and organisations from different locations who are working on the same or similar global challenges. Where encounters take place, exchange takes place; where exchange takes place, people can learn from each other, and new solutions can be developed.
With whom can this be achieved? Diasporic communities & voices from the Global South
It was clear from the contributions of Dêrik and Bahia, and the subsequent discussion, that the active participation of civil society and diasporic communities in democratic decision-making lends legitimacy and a long-term perspective to these processes. In our discussion forum, we emphasised the importance of diasporic community participation in making the perspectives of the Global South more visible. Participation brings individuals to the forefront, showcasing their unique stories, interests, needs, ideas, and abilities.
If we understand city partnerships as a platform for democratic participation, the active involvement of respective diaspora communities in these partnerships at a civil society level offers an opportunity to shed new light on partnerships and, above all, on the people in partner cities. This helps to avoid purely deficit-oriented perspectives. This is because state perspectives tend to be very one-sided, focusing on the interests and needs of the state rather than the partner cities. Diaspora communities can actively contribute to highlighting imbalances, thus making partnerships more equitable and solidarity-based. This is because they often (though not always) facilitate understanding between the two cities on linguistic, cultural and political levels.
To enable diasporic communities to participate in local democratic decision-making processes, such as civil society-based city partnerships, it is important to create safe, linguistically accessible spaces where everyone feels welcome. If we take this serious, this could lead to new perspectives and strategies in various socially relevant areas, such as development policy, migration, the economy and trade, education, and culture. It could also lead to alternative forms of cooperation, such as cooperativism.
Conclusion
“City partnerships based in civil society that enable the active participation of diasporic communities can provide a platform for democratic participation by diverse social groups. At the same time, they can serve as a space for global solidarity where mutual learning is possible. And that is crucial for democratic processes in a society.”
