On 21 June 2018, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungpolitik (DIE) and Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales / Institut d'études politiques de Paris (IDDRI) convened a workshop with French and German experts on global development and development cooperation. The purpose was to discuss the options and added value of intensifying French and German collaboration towards jointly promoting the Agenda 2030, in particular in the field of international development cooperation.

Participants included representatives from various ministries (French Treasury, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs MEAE and German Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation BMZ), development agencies, (Agence Française pour le Dévéloppement AFD, German Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau KFW); OECD; as well as researchers from DIE, IDDRI and Fondation pour les Études et Recherches sur le Dévéloppement International FERDI.

Discussions concerned how France and Germany cooperate, and could improve doing so, from a broad EU foreign policy perspective as well as regarding specific areas and practices of cooperation, including the Sahel alliance as a concrete joint initiative, and institutional cooperation between AFD and KFW.