Tandem: windhoek

At the joint network meeting with the Actions Alliance for Fair Trade (Aktionsbündnis Fairer Handel) on 10th April 2025, around 50 committed individuals from civil society, administration and economy sector came together to shed light on fair trade in the context of international city partnerships. With short pitches from Berlin, exciting video contributions from Mexico City, Jakarta and Windhoek as well as intensive workshops, a variety of impulses for sustainable cooperation were generated – locally and globally.

The participants had the opportunity to get to know the work of two Berlin networks, make contacts and jointly generate new ideas.

Whether in Berlin or in the partner cities of the Global South – the issues of sustainable economic activity and fair trade structures are relevant worldwide – and therefore offered plenty of material for an exchange of experiences and the shaping of city partnership cooperation. We approached the topic through short pitches from various Berlin fair trade actors like Karma Kollektiv and the Berlin district of Mitte.

We also gained interesting insights into the understanding of organizations like Mercado Alternativo from Mexico City, Obalihara from Jakarta and Propaganda Collective from Windhoek regarding fair and sustainable economies:

Videos der Sister Cities Jakarta, Mexico City und Windhoek

In September 2024 a 12-day stakeholder meeting was held in Berlin with the 7 coordinators from all 4 cities. During the meeting, the main focus was on getting to know each other personally as well as our different contexts and organizations. On this basis, we then held intensive working sessions to gather initial ideas for the content priorities in the three tandems and for the project as a whole..

Workshop at the “24/7 Berlin Global Justice” Conference

The newly founded coordinator team- held a public workshop at the “24/7 Berlin Global Justice” with the broad title “Decolonization and socio-ecological transformation in Jakarta, Mexico City, Windhoek and Berlin”. It brought all four cities into direct dialogue with each other for the first time. The coordinators from the three partner cities presented key challenges in their respective cities. The exchange with each other, but also with the Berlin audience, crystallized where similarities and differences exist, e.g. on topics such as migration, climate impacts and processes of decolonization within urban spaces

Kick-Off Networking Event

We also organized a large kick-off networking event. The event attracted 60 different actors from the fields of education/science, decolonization, sports and culture, climate and environment, district and Berlin state administration as well as some individuals. After we presented the key goals of the model project, a lively exchange took place within the three tandems: Berlin-Mexico City, Berlin-Windhoek, Berlin-Jakarta.

Meeting the State Secretary Mr Biel

In addition to the public events, there were also smaller meetings with civil society actors, a meeting with the State Secretary Mr. Biel from the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises and an evaluation of the entire 12-day stakeholder meeting.

The opportunity to get to know each other personally in Berlin was a great added value for the project, especially so early on in the process. This enabled important foundations and principles of cooperation to be laid (Code of Conduct) and could be successively deepened after the meeting.