GIZ focuses on digitalisation and strong partnerships

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is adapting to changing requirements in development cooperation with a new corporate strategy. This was announced by the Chair of GIZ’s Management Board, Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, today in Berlin, where he presented a review of the 2022 financial year. ‘We are contending with interconnected and intensifying crises,’ he explained. ‘From climate change and armed conflict to the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their impact is setting back development of the global South in many ways: more people are suffering from hunger and living in extreme poverty; progress in health care is stagnating.’ All of this is destabilising societies, and weakening democracy and participation, he added.  

Transition to a new era is changing requirements 

Crises are the hallmark of the transition to a new era – and are placing additional demands on development cooperation. Schäfer-Gümbel announced that GIZ is wanting to become more flexible and more digital and to work more closely with partners, allowing it to remain effective, functional and nimble. For instance, the company will save time and resources by making more use of instruments and approaches that have proven successful in other countries. It is also strengthening partnerships on the ground – from civil society to the government level. ‘By pooling our knowledge and skills, we can do and achieve much more,’ he said. Data-driven approaches are seen as another important driver and ‘a genuine opportunity’. ‘Here, we put people and their needs at the centre and work for equal access,’ said Schäfer-Gümbel.  

Jochen Flasbarth, Chair of GIZ’s Supervisory Board and State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), welcomed the decision: ‘Global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the repercussions of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and climate change are unravelling much of the development progress made and threatening to overwhelm societies in our partner countries,’ he said. ‘And yet inclusive, resilient and sustainable societies are central to sustainable socio-economic development. A particular focus of cooperation is therefore on supporting the establishment and expansion of social security systems in our partner countries. Societies with stable social security systems are better equipped to deal with the multiple crises of our time.’  

GIZ’s business volume increased again. At around EUR 4 billion, it was 8 per cent higher in 2022 than in the previous year. GIZ’s main commissioning party is the German Development Ministry, followed by the European Union. More than 25,000 people work for the federal enterprise worldwide – more than half of whom (51.1 per cent) are women.