Democracy, peace and justice are the basic principles underlying the work of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). The KAS is a political foundation, closely associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). As co-founder of the CDU and the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) united Christian-social, conservative and liberal traditions. His name is synonymous with the democratic reconstruction of Germany, the firm alignment of foreign policy with the trans-Atlantic community of values, the vision of a unified Europe and an orientation towards the social market economy. His intellectual heritage continues to serve both as our aim as well as our obligation today. In Germany, 16 regional offices and two conference centres offer a wide variety of civic education conferences and events. Globally, we have 78 offices and run programs in over 100 countries. Our current chairman is the former President of the European Parliament, Prof. Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering.

German political foundations

The quite unique German “system” of political foundations affiliated to political parties has a long history. Created in the post-war years, they are traditionally committed to run political education projects, to encourage civic involvement in political life and to promote pluralism.  The German political foundations were an answer of the democratic Western German society to the dark past of National Socialism: they were formed and publicly funded with the clearly defined goal of educating German people on values and principles of democracy.  There exists a consensus that democratic civic education constitutes a pillar of democracy. Since then, in Germany political education is considered a public task – and also a life-long process. It is the German Basic Law which gives the state a mandate to promote political education. Germany today has six political Foundations. Each of these foundations is close to one party represented in the federal parliament.

While in the years following World War II, the political Foundations concentrated on “re-educating” the West German people, in the sixties they expanded their reach abroad, as their expertise in promoting democracy became more and more prominent. Today, more than fifty percent of KAS funds are earmarked for activities outside the German borders. The Foundation is publicly funded; however, it is independent from the government.

Through our civic education programmes both at home and abroad we promote freedom, peace and justice. Our primary goals are strengthening democracy, furthering European unification, improving transatlantic relations and deepening development cooperation. We develop practical, solution-oriented concepts to address current issues in the fields of domestic policy, social policy, economic policy and foreign policy. The academy, located in Berlin, is our forum for dialogue on issues crucial to our future – from politics and the economy to religion, society and science. Our conferences and events bring together people who “have something to say”. In Germany alone, we offer more than 2,500 events each year. We provide moral and material support to intellectually talented young people from Germany and abroad, during their undergraduate and graduate studies. We stay in close contact with our more than 10,000 alumni. Exhibitions, readings and awards are also distinctive elements of our work. We promote young artists and award every year our prestigious Literature Prize. We support young journalists with specific programmes.

Our values and principles

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is guided by a set of clearly defined political principles.  We are committed to democracy and the rule of law, social justice and respect for human rights. In international programs, we engage in three sorts of activities. The basic activity is the traditional civic education, aimed at strengthening the participation of people in decisions that affect their lives. In addition, we promote political dialogue, aimed at bringing together individuals and groups to jointly devise solutions to the many challenges our societies face. Lastly, the Foundation engages in political counselling: Experienced experts share their expertise with our partners.

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of our engagement in international cooperation. Strengthening democracy and economic development are the primary goals of our international cooperation activity. The diversity of our education and exchange programmes allows us to focus on topics such as good governance, the strengthening of parliamentary structures as well as the implementation of decentralisation, the rule of law and of the concept of social market economy. Other key interests include promoting independent media, equal opportunity for women and intercultural dialogue as well as international dialogue and understanding. Since our goal is to enable sustainable change, we collaborate with many organisations contributing to local development such as parliaments, political parties, public administrations, religious communities. We also work closely with research institutions, think tanks, associations and other representatives of civil society as well as with all the relevant local multipliers.

In the South Caucasus, KAS has been represented since 2007 with a regional office based in Tbilisi and branch offices, where projects in support of transformation processes have been conducted.

Our activities in Azerbaijan

Why is KAS in Azerbaijan? What are its activities? Our presence is a result of close German-Azerbaijani relations. There is intensive cooperation not only in economic and energy sector. Germany supports Azerbaijan's interests in further rapprochement with Euro-Atlantic structures and acknowledges the importance of the country for stability and peace in the region. It was during his visit to Germany in 2007 when President Ilham Aliyev gave a public speech organized by the KAS and invited the foundation to Azerbaijan.  Consequently, KAS opened a branch office in Baku and has sought to share ideas with Azerbaijani partners on various issues of social, economic, environmental and political relevance.

Past and current KAS programs have focused on strengthening civil society, increasing women’s and youth participation, helping political parties on organizational development. Equally, we want to contribute to furthering the relationship between German and Azerbaijani people. Thereby, we closely cooperate with Azerbaijani partners.

We do not think that we know exactly how to solve problems in other countries. We do not believe in one-to-one transfer of successful models from Germany or Europe. And we do not try to design and implement as foreigners blueprints for the solution of problems in other countries. What we do is: we work with partners. Bonding with partners is a fundamental rule of our activities. And we work through dialogue, exchange of knowledge and experience, joint research, joint piloting, joint capacity building. Based on our values and principles, we engage in an open dialogue.

Our joint projects with political parties aim at promoting dialogue among cetre-right political parties and members of the European Peoples Party, developing modern structures, and enhancing leadership skills of women and youth. Through educational measures, among them study visits to Germany, political summer and winter schools, young politicians from different political parties of Azerbaijan expose themselves to the network of continuous sharing of political ideas and political competence in fields relevant to their activities.

Since 2010 our office is running the EU funded project called “Democracy starts with You”, which aims at improving civic participation of young people from rural areas. The project operates with Public Schools of Azerbaijan chosen with the close cooperation of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan. Teachers from different areas are receiving intensive trainings on teaching civic education. The objective is to establish mechanism for the continuous promotion of the civic participation of young people from rural areas in social life.

Our Media programme aims at enhancing skills of journalists to contribute to development of professional journalism, free and responsible mass media. The program offers trainings in subject-specific reporting as well as basic courses such as journalistic ethics. Furthermore, we promote dialogue among journalists through regional meetings and conferences in Germany.

With conferences and seminars we offer a platform for an intensive dialogue with high-ranking representatives from German politics, business and academia on regional and international issues, such as European integration, NATO, peaceful reconciliation. One of the latest activities in this regard organised by the foundation was the Third Security Forum of the Southern Caucasus - “Azerbaijan and the Eastern Partnership: Addressing Regional Challenges and Identifying New Opportunities." The forum was organized together with the Centre for Strategic Studies (SAM) under President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Prospects for the regional development of the South Caucasus, security, peace, new energy projects as well as cooperation issues were discussed and outlined by think tanks and well known experts from Germany, Poland, Great Britain, USA and Georgia. Another successful international conference was conducted on “NATO a player for Peace and Democracy for 60 Years”, which was organized in cooperation with the Azerbaijani Atlantic Cooperation Association.

As the KAS is relatively new in Azerbaijan, and there is a huge potential for cooperation, we will further intensify our activities in the country as well as in the whole region. Support for projects aiming at strengthening prosperity, social justice and sustainable economic development will be our focus in the future. Equally, we will address issues of relevance for environmental protection and climate change by bringing in international expertise. In this regard we are open to the suggestions and recommendations.