Making home a good place to live – The Climate Partnership between Nohfelden and Balingore

Nohfelden is a municipality in the Saarland part of the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park, while Balingore is a rural municipality in southern Senegal, around 50 km from the Atlantic coast. The two municipalities have been in contact since 2019 and, through their partnership, are embracing an understanding of sustainability which also encompasses the sharing of ideas and views as well as mutual support between the Global North and the Global South. A feature of the relationship between the two municipalities is openness and curiosity, and the desire to bring about decisive change even with limited human resources and small budgets.

The municipality of Nohfelden has allocated a small amount in its budget for the collaboration with Balingore. 7000 euros does not seem like much at first glance. According to Kerstin Lauerburg and Sarah-Maria Welter, who coordinate local development policy and bring together the various strands of partnership work, this approach can, however, achieve a great deal in Balingore. This applies in particular if, for example, the own funding element of project funding is covered in this way.

The cooperation between the two municipalities has gained momentum due to the climate partnership. Alongside previous projects, such as the expansion of a kindergarten in Balingore, the construction of a solar-powered drip irrigation system for a women's cooperative and a glasses project, further projects have now been added focusing on climate change and climate change adaptation.

Nohfelden is very active in terms of climate protection and adaptation to climate impacts and has already implemented numerous projects. Just a few examples of these include the leasing of municipal roof space for photovoltaic systems, the sustainable construction of the local primary school, a climate protection sub-concept for municipal properties and the expansion of LED street lighting. For its commitment, the municipality was awarded the first prize in the German government's “Climate Active Municipality” competition in 2022 in the category “Climate-friendly administration”.

The collaboration with Balingore adds a global dimension to this commitment, and the partners view their collaboration as a shared journey. Nohfelden emphasises that, most of all, the climate partnership leads to a realistic view of the overall scale of climate change and also raises awareness of the potential scale of future developments in Nohfelden. Mayor Andreas Veit, who personally supports the climate partnership, puts it this way:

Climate change certainly affects all municipalities worldwide and calls on everyone to take action. However, the climate partnership has also shown those involved that the effects are currently manifesting themselves in varying degrees of severity. In Balingore, where the majority of the population lives off subsistence farming, the issues are existential. Rice fields become salinized, harvests are poor or fail entirely, a lack of water can mean acute drinking water shortages. In short, there is a direct threat to the population's food security.

The people who take on these challenges are a source of encouragement. Nohfelden's proposal to turn the fledgling partnership into a climate partnership was welcomed enthusiastically by the highly motivated mayor of Balingore. As a doctor of meteorology and climate expert, he has taken up the cause of turning Balingore into a “green municipality”. He views the partnership with Nohfelden as an opportunity to develop specific projects from the ideas for climate protection and adaptation to climate impacts and to be able to finance these projects thanks to funding. The joint plans with the partner community in Germany have already attracted the attention of Balingore's neighbouring municipalities – so the project's appeal is clear.

The municipality of Balingore is looking above all to its own population to achieve this sustainable development. Since 2022, the municipality has developed a programme for citizen participation. Ideas and projects can be proposed and this directly contributes to shaping the development of the municipality. There is a particular focus on young people, as the development of the municipality is also dependent on whether they see a future for themselves in Balingore.

Nohfelden and Balingore have now developed a joint programme of action for their cooperation on climate protection and adaptation to climate impacts – supported by the Service Agency Communities in One World's “Municipal Climate Partnerships” project. When it came to Balingore, the search for suitable topics did not take long. The delegation visit in January 2023 showed the urgency of the water issue, the opportunities provided by renewable energies and the need to take action on waste. In Nohfelden, the programme of action ties in with the wide range of existing activities. One focus is on measures aimed at raising awareness and mobilising the population. In some places, the municipal partners are also planning parallel activities.

The intensive collaboration over the past two years of the project was an important phase in the partnership between Nohfelden and Balingore – a partnership still in its early days. The reciprocal delegation visits have helped in getting to know each other well and gaining a better understanding of the other partner's concerns. Even though opportunities for trips focussed on the exchange of expertise will now become rarer following the end of the project, the partners are determined to implement the joint projects.