GIZ Development Service
The Development Service of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH brings Germany’s contribution to international development cooperation straight to the people on site. We are always on the lookout for experienced and socially responsible individuals to help us roll out our activities around the world.
Development workers are deployed worldwide in our projects under the German Development Workers Act (Entwicklungshelfergesetz; EfhG). Another option in this context is to head abroad as a peace expert with GIZ as part of the Civil Peace Service (CPS).
Development workers advise partner organisations in Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Latin America and the Middle East on achieving their development objectives on their own initiative using a participatory approach. Currently about 850 experts are assigned as development workers on behalf of GIZ. They bring their professional expertise to government agencies and other organisations in partner countries, provide training and advisory services and work with our partners on designing projects.
Development workers have completed their university or vocational training and have a proven track record of at least two years in their particular field, during which time they have been able to apply and consolidate their expertise. They are eager to work together with their partners to achieve development goals by applying their expertise and experience in a different cultural context, their objective being to improve local people’s living conditions.
Through the Civil Peace Service programme, peace experts provide strategic and systematic advice and capacity development services for local stakeholders, enabling them to resolve conflicts peacefully, bring about societal changes and foster sustainable development based on human rights. After completing their assignments, development workers bring their experience back to European society, where they contribute to sustainable development and help cultivate a tolerant society.
As the only federal agency engaged in the German Government’s Development Service, GIZ maintains a neutral world view. Over a period spanning more than fifty years, GIZ's Development Service has gained a wealth of experience in planning, preparing and supporting development worker assignments. The pivotal aim has always been to get close to local people, to provide professional support based on experience and intercultural sensitivity, and to enable them to develop their own skills and abilities.