Development cooperation or so-called "development aid" is a phenomenon that became an integral part of a country's foreign policy or international relations only after World War II. This also applies – with some delay – to Austria, which in the 1950s did not see any direct responsibility of the state for public "development aid". On the one hand, because it was involved in colonization ventures emanating from Europe, but did not have any colonies in the Global South itself, and on the other hand, because of the reconstruction after World War II and against the background of the country's small size.

In Austria, therefore, development cooperation can be traced back very strongly to the initiative of institutions of the Catholic Church, which took up the topics of worldwide "underdevelopment", poverty, hunger and justice and wanted to work on a "better world" with concrete offers as well as to point out possibilities for action. Publicly supported structures did not develop until the 1960s, and development aid did not become an object of public administration until 1973.

Via the menu on the left, important milestones and organizational changes in Austrian "development aid" can be accessed, sorted by development decade from 1950 onwards. This should give an overview of the genesis of Austrian development cooperation and its different actors as well as a better understanding of the specific reality of Austrian development cooperation. This section is only available in German.