The two articles in this special report explore the shift that is needed from the national to the global, not just in outlook but especially in policy agendas, institutional set-up, cooperation between sector ministries, governance and funding. How can this be done? Translating the awareness of a new political reality into policy practice is likely to be an uphill battle. Some European governments have taken first steps in this direction over the past years.

The first article examines the different initiatives undertaken by several Western countries, such as Sweden, Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, to gear their foreign affairs policies towards a changing global society. The second article explores what it will take to make these policy shifts work in practice. It discusses the obstacles and opportunities for devising new ways of cooperating, both nationally and internationally.

This special report aims to kick-start an international discussion on how this tricky but urgent change to a global development perspective can be taken forward. This discussion needs to take into account the risk that new perspectives on global development may result in throwing out the baby with the bathwater: when global public goods command our foremost attention, will poverty reduction drop in the pecking order of international concerns?

The author wishes to thank all those who have contributed to this report:
Mariano Aguirre, José Antonio Alonso, Hannelore Börgel, Paul Cullen, Anders Danielson, Ton Dietz, Jan Egeland, Pierre-Alain Eltschinger, Christian Freres, Sven Grimm, Ruth Huber, Annette Jansen, Stephan Klasen, Michèle Laubscher, Sebastian Lesch, Leiv Lunde, Rosemary McGee, Bertil Odén, Neha Okhandiar, Karin Roelofs, Imme Scholz, Barbara Unmüßig, Iacopo Viciani, Knud Vilby, Dirk Willem te Velde, Leni Wild, Lennart Wohlgemuth.