‘Global player’ for sustainable development

Annual press conference 2014

Berlin. Three years after it began operating as GIZ, the company is now more of a global player in international cooperation than ever before. A federal enterprise, GIZ will continue to step up its engagement in industrialised nations and emerging economies, thus complementing its work in developing countries. The Chair of GIZ’s Management Board, Tanja Gönner, said that, ‘2013 was a good year for GIZ, with a business volume of over EUR 1.9 billion and new commissions worth EUR 2.3 billion. Demand for our services has remained stable at a high level.’ Today GIZ operates in more than 130 countries around the world, making it one of Germany’s most global enterprises.

Dr Friedrich Kitschelt, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Chairman of GIZ’s Supervisory Board, added that, ‘The wide range of instruments GIZ offers as a one-stop shop makes it a professional service provider for the entire German Government. We are also becoming increasingly attractive for other international clients, including the European Union and the World Health Organization.’

There is hard and fast evidence that GIZ’s work produces results:

In the area of social security, GIZ has supported partners in a number of countries, providing over 100 million people with access to health insurance for the first time. Between 2011 and 2013, these countries included India, Indonesia and Rwanda. The insurance schemes have been established in the partner countries themselves and represent a sustainable investment in the future.

To help combat climate change, GIZ is supporting moves to make greater use of renewable energy in more than 30 countries. In Brazil, India, and South Africa alone, millions of people today use solar and wind power. The electricity generated would be enough to power eight million German households (families with an average annual electricity consumption of 3,500 kWh).

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is GIZ’s principal commissioning party and in 2013 placed commissions for GIZ services worth EUR 1.5 billion (business volume). This figure also includes around EUR 170 million of project co-funding received from third parties, including the EU, foundations, and private companies.

GIZ is now a service provider for the whole of the German Government, and today the commissions it receives from other government departments, such as the German Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), account for almost 15% of total business volume. In 2013, income from these two federal ministries amounted to EUR 118.6 million and EUR 86.6 million respectively.

Around 9% of the business volume – some EUR 178 million – comes from commissions and funding supplied by private companies, foundations, multilateral organisations and foreign governments. ‘We use these millions to support the government’s international cooperation activities instead of using German taxpayers’ money,’ said Tanja Gönner.

At the end of 2013, GIZ had a total of 16,510 staff members compared with 16,229 on 31 December 2012. As in the previous year, about 70% of all employees – some 11,244 individuals in total – were employed in our partner countries as national personnel. Almost 1,000 integrated and returning experts and 869 development workers were also working for GIZ.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federal enterprise with worldwide operations. We support the German Government in the fields of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education. Through our work we assist people and societies in shaping their own futures and improving living conditions.