The Birth of Common Effort 

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Common Effort came into being in 2010, when the First (German/Netherlands) Corps (1GNC) initiated an exercise for Civil-Military Cooperation to strengthen stability, safety and security in a comprehensive way. To make this work, development workers, diplomats, think tank experts and military meet on a regular basis to practise comprehensive cooperation on the basis of an existing country or region that faces challenges with stability, safety and security. Following years of cooperation, in 2015 the participants established the Common Effort Community which to date counts over 50 members. The Common Effort Community provides a platform for organizations that share the idea of a comprehensive approach to improve stability, safety and security.

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Riding a new course

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In 2019 Common Effort reshaped its agenda by introducing a multi-year regional focus in line with the policy priorities on foreign relations, security and development of Germany and The Netherlands. This unlocked the full potential of the Common Effort Community. For the period of three years we have focussed on the Sahel Region, a region that has become a foreign policy, security and development priority for many European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands. 

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The Two-Pillar Approach​

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After a succesful three-year-focus on the Sahel Region and presentation of the Sahel G5 Report to the Dutch and German Ministries of Defence and the German Ministry of Economic and Social Development in September 2021, the Common Effort Community changed its focus to a two-pillar approach, where on the one hand focus remain on Crisis Response Operations in the Sahel Region and spill-over areas, and on the other hand will focus Collective Defence, Hybrid Threats and Resilience. The first webinar has already been conducted and a Knowledge Development Workshop is planned in calander week 10 of 2022.