with the subject matter in greater depth during webinars with
guest speakers and open Q&A sessions. GIZ’s Academy for
International Cooperation (AIZ) provided the digital platform
and organised and ran the course. Upon completing the course
the participants were awarded a certificate. Yet MOOC is far
more than just an e-learning tool. It marks the starting point
for experts around the globe to begin networking sustainably
so that they can jointly address burning issues for the future.
Just how well global networking can work is demon-
strated by ‘Connective Cities’. This global platform for knowl-
edge sharing and joint learning unites local government
experts and ideas for sustainable development within a com-
munity of practice. The United Nations forecasts that by 2050,
two out of every three people will live in cities, with all the
foreseeable consequences: environmental pollution, gridlock
and social tensions. This creates enormous challenges for
metropolitan regions and cities in Africa, Asia, Latin America
and Europe. This is why GIZ, working on behalf of BMZ,
got together with Engagement Global/the Service Agency
Communities in One World and the Association of German
Cities Cities to establish Connective Cities. Whatever the
benefits – improved public services thanks to greater citizen
participation in Indonesia, innovative mobility strategies in
South Africa or renewable energy use in urban development
in Germany – all stakeholders will gain from the good prac-
tice examples and the know-how provided by experts from the
realms of administration, politics, business and civil society.
At workshops and training courses, through online portals
and through the involvement of German cities in interna-
tional cooperation projects, a strong alliance is being forged.
This alliance is responding to the problem of urbanisation
with tried and tested strategies for good governance and local
economic and urban development.
Stable financial markets and sustainable global eco-
nomic growth: to achieve this goal, the G20 countries have
been busy developing new standards for financial transactions
ever since the global financial crisis in 2007. Major alliance
partners in this process are emerging economic powers, such
as Brazil, China, Indonesia and South Africa. Since 2014,
BMZ has been funding the Emerging Market Sustainability
Dialogues platform, the aim of which is to support emerging
economies and industrialised countries in jointly developing
solutions to global economic and financial challenges.
These are then fed into the international reform processes of
the G20 countries. On behalf of BMZ, GIZ is managing the
secretariat of the dialogue platform and coordinating the
meetings. A meeting on the topic of financial markets in
South Africa, India and the USA, for instance, brought
together private investors and actors from ministries of finance,
central banks, stock exchanges and institutions such as the
G20 Financial Stability Board. The topics discussed included
financial stability in the major emerging economies, develop-
ing capital markets through the involvement of institutional
investors, and cooperation between regulatory authorities.
One first concrete outcome was the support provided to
South Africa in developing new legislation in the financial
sector.
//
03
Quality and effectiveness
| Responsibility for the quality of
our service delivery processes and quality within the
organisation rests with the organisational units concerned.
This is one of our most important managerial tasks. Our
employees in Germany and in partner countries are
resource persons and actors at one and the same time. In
their day-to-day work, they shape the quality of our products
and processes by feeding in their knowledge and by putting
our sustainability concept into practice. GIZ’s quality man-
agement measures involve using a range of instruments for
measuring, assuring and developing quality.
To continue developing the effectiveness, efficiency
and quality of our corporate performance, we conducted an
internal evaluation on scaling up and achieving broad
impact in 2014. Among GIZ’s commissioning parties, demand
is growing for project approaches that reach a maximum
number of people, local communities and regions. More
than 300 ongoing projects were included in the evaluation.
As a result, the topic is now being integrated into an exist-
ing training course on commission management, and, where
appropriate, systematically incorporated as an obligatory
component in offers, project design and the preparation of
new projects. With measures like these we are contributing
toward effective sustainable development and
gearing our efforts to delivering ben-
efits and satisfaction to our com-
missioning parties and partners.
We aim to deliver excel-
lent services efficiently and to
continuously improve our
work.
//
// Worldwide
Getting better all the time
www.giz.de/globalcompact www.globalcompact.de(in German)
Not only do we participate in the Global Compact – we
also support its implementation. Since 2001, GIZ – on behalf
of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and Development (BMZ) – has been home to the Focal Point
of the German Global Compact Network.
//
Corporate social responsibility
| GIZ has been a member of
the United Nations Global Compact since 2004. The company
is committed to the ten principles of this voluntary initiative
that promotes sustainable development and social engage-
ment. Every year we explain in a ‘communication on prog-
ress’ how GIZ is implementing and promoting the principles
in the fields of human rights, labour, environment and anti-
corruption. Since 2012 our communications on progress have
reached the ‘advanced level’. This means that as well as
documenting progress they also include other good practices
in the company, for instance regarding business activity in
fragile states and the transparency of our reporting. As part
of our risk management measures we use our business
partner screening procedures to verify whether the compa-
nies we intend to work with comply with the principles of
the Global Compact.
// Germany
UN Global Compact
MOOC – contact:
aiz@giz.de//
www.mooc.eld-initiative.orgThe United Nations University:
http://inweh.unu.edu// Academy of International Cooperation (AIZ):
www.giz.de/akademie(in German)
Connective Cities – contact:
manfred.poppe@giz.de//
www.connective-cities.net/en|
www.giz.de/en/worldwide/29306.htmlEmerging market sustainability dialogues – contact:
daniel.taras@giz.deQuality, results and evaluation:
www.giz.de/evaluationIn 2014,
300
ongoing projects were evaluated
in terms of the effectiveness,
efficiency and quality of
their services.
GIZ Integrated Company Report 2014
50
51
Well networked