Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit

Abbreviation	GIZ
Formation	January 1, 2011 (2011-01-01)
Type	governmental
Legal status	GmbH
Purpose	Development aid
Location	Bonn and Eschborn, Germany
Executive director	Tanja Gönner
Staff	16,410[1]
Website	www.giz.de

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH or GIZ in short, is a company that specializes in international development. The name of the company translates to "German Corporation for International Cooperation" in English; however the German title of the organization has no official translation in the company's publications. GIZ is owned by the German Federal Government and operates in more than 130 countries. Its headquarters are located in Bonn and Eschborn, Germany.^[1]

GIZ was established on 1 January 2011 through a merger of the three German organisations Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), and Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung (InWEnt).^[2]

GIZ works in a variety of fields, namely: Economic development and employment; government, democracy and poverty reduction; education, health and social security; environment and infrastructure; and agriculture, fisheries and food. GIZ works primarily with states, state agencies, and the private sector (and not normally with for example non-governmental organizations, universities or research organizations).

Clients

Building of GIZ headquarters in Bonn, Germany

Staff members of GIZ and KfW together with local partners visit a project at a school in Gitega, Burundi

The GIZ mainly operates on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Further clients are other departments of the government, international donors like the European Union, World Bank or the United Nations, partner countries and the private sector. The cooperation with private enterprises is an emerging field, promoted under the name of sustainable development. The GIZ is set up with International Services (IS) and the Public Private Partnership (PPP)^[3] in this area.

GIZ works on a public-benefit basis.^[1]

Facts and figures

With a turnover of € 2.1 billion in 2012, some €1.87 billion came from projects and programmes for public clients, such as the BMZ, other German federal ministries or the EU. Roughly 90 percent of GIZ's turnover was under contracts from the German Federal Government. The GIZ made 18.7 percent (€230 million) in 2012 from contracts from other clients such as financing institutions or private sector companies. €956 million of its turnover have been channeled through to third-party-consultancies.

As of 2012, GIZ has about 16,000 employees working in more than 130 countries, including about 1,900 at its head offices in Eschborn (near Frankfurt am Main) and Bonn. About 70 percent of its staff are local employees in the partner countries.^[4]

Fields of activity

GIZ's main activities in its partner countries are focusing on sustainable development and resource management:^[5]

• Economic development and employment (including services such as vocational training, economic policy advice, financial systems development or private sector promotion)
• Government, democracy and poverty reduction (including services and working fields such as development-oriented emergency aid, peace building and crisis prevention, governance, sustainable urban development or structural poverty reduction)
• Education, health and social security (including working fields such as education, development-oriented drug control, promotion of children and young people or HIV/AIDS prevention)
• Environment and infrastructure (including activities such as waste, energy and water management, sustainable sanitation, natural resource management, transport and mobility, implementing international environmental regimes or environmental policy, climate change-related capacity building^[6])^[7]
• Agriculture, fisheries and food (including services such as coastal zone management, land management, market-oriented farming and food systems, policy advice on agriculture and rural development or securing livelihoods in marginal rural areas)

GIZ has been involved in the creation of various networks, associations and portals, and may carry out or support secretariat functions for some of these for a limited period of time. Examples of such networks and associations that have had some GIZ involvement include:

• Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21)
• BIOPAT
• Alumniportal Germany
• Sustainable Sanitation Alliance^[8]

GIZ works closely with the German government-owned development bank KfW which is based in Frankfurt. In this collaboration, GIZ has the role of what is being called "technical cooperation" by the German agencies, and KfW has the role of "financial cooperation".

See also

• List of development aid agencies

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.

• Official website (German)
• Official website (English)