Familiarise yourself with the ASA Programme

The ASA Programme is a laboratory dedicated to global learning that facilitates learning, acquiring new experiences, and making a difference in our inter-connected, changeable world.

ASA participants discuss global interdependencies with one another. The seminars held in Germany last several days and provide participants with the opportunity to discuss a variety of topics such as colonialism, racism, discrimination, and other types of power relations, and their impact upon today’s society. They also offer a platform for participants to introduce their own topics, analyse them from different points of view, and critically examine them. The seminars also teach skills to deal with diversity, handling conflicts, and applying methods in group and project work.

Participants from a country in Africa, Asia, Latin America and South-East Europe complete a six-month project internship as part of an international team. Together, they work on specific projects, with three months spent at a partner institution in Germany, followed by three months at an institution in their country of residence. The qualified contribution of the ASA participants corresponds to the needs and fields of activity of the partner institutions. This forms the basis for exchange and reciprocal learning.

Participants have opportunities to share professional experiences and learn new approaches to their fields of expertise. They can broaden their understandings of global interdependencies, while receiving training in an international context.

The ASA Programme provides projects in a wide range of topics for international teams. In previous years, participants developed a sustainability map for the municipalities of Drakenstein, South Africa, and Neumarkt, Germany. They produced a podcast tackling the topics of migration and flight from conflict areas, together with students from Greifswald, Germany, and Pomerode, Brazil. They created a puppet show on climate change in a team with members from Berlin, Germany, and Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Throughout their participation in the ASA Programme, participants are invited to reflect on their own learning process and explore ways to integrate them in their everyday life and their future commitment. Participants have the opportunity to organise public events during their project in Germany.

Learn more about the programme cycle

The ASA Programme collaborates with partner institutions that include nongovernmental organisations, foundations, German Development Cooperation institutions, municipal authorities, businesses, and universities. The ASA Programme’s partner institutions are active in the following fields of activity:

• Sustainable development and global partnership
• Innovative research and applied science for sustainability

Participants from countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and South-East Europe can apply to the global programme format, in which international teams of four members participate in the programme cycle together.

Participants residing in Germany should visit the German website to find more information on the basic program formats, which differ in the number of participants per team, as well as on the ASA Programme’s programme offering in the field of activity ‘Shaping a sustainable world’.

Fields of activity and programme formats