Regional Office Germany-West

GIZ’s Regional Office Germany-West in Düsseldorf works with institutional partners in the German states and implements programmes and projects for a wide range of commissioning parties and funding providers, including federal ministries, international organisations such as the European Union (EU), partner country governments, German private sector companies and state governments. It assists the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland with the implementation of their projects and programmes in the field of international cooperation.

This approach, in turn, enables partner countries engaged in international cooperation with Germany to gain access to relevant German and European organisations and experts, and to institutional stakeholders from politics, public administration, business and academia across the various German states. Drawing on their technical, business and administrative expertise, they provide advice and support to the German Government’s programmes and to international initiatives.

The Regional Office Germany-West works in the following priority areas:

  • Energy: The Regional Office engages in extensive networking with energy sector organisations, both public and private. Stakeholders from partner countries engaged in development or international cooperation with Germany thus have access to German expertise, particularly in the fields of energy policy, energy-efficient renovation of buildings, preparation of energy efficiency plans and monitoring of energy parameters using the latest IT-based processes. In addition, practical training is provided for skilled workers in various sectors, such as solar technology.
  • Sustainable urban development: Here, topics range from strategies to promote the ‘digital city’ and ICT-based management of municipal services to urban planning schemes which aim to create a ‘compact city’ with short distances between housing, work and shops. Working closely with German municipalities, local enterprises and associations, the Regional Office deploys local experts and hosts dialogues in various formats, including workshops for practitioners, in order to facilitate the sharing of viable solutions.
  • Circular economy and waste management: Here, the focus is on developing strategies for waste prevention, materials recycling and low-impact disposal. The Regional Office assists stakeholders in countries engaged in development cooperation with Germany to devise and implement waste management strategies and solutions, such as the introduction of collection points and appropriate disposal of various waste categories. This is accompanied by relevant training and upskilling for sector workers.
  • Economic development and the labour market: The Regional Office runs programmes of cooperation targeted at young professionals and managers from other regions of the world, mainly Asia/China, Latin America, North and sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and the US. The programmes specifically prepare experts and managers to work with German companies. Another area of work focuses on the provision of career guidance services around the world and placement of young people in the labour market; this area of activity involves a number of prestigious German and international networks, including the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the African Union (AU), the European Commission and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

In addition to working in these priority areas, the Regional Office Germany-West develops sustainable mobility strategies which consider the transport needs of the economy and aim to reduce the growing environmental pollution from over-reliance on the car. These smart mobility strategies prioritise energy-efficient, safe, low-carbon and affordable solutions.

As a further field of work, the Regional Office supports the provision of psychological and trauma therapy services for returnees and has built an extensive network of trauma therapy competence centres across Germany for this purpose. The aim is to structure service provision on the basis of the cascade principle, addressing different types and degrees of trauma.

Commissioning parties and partners

The Regional Office Germany-West works for various clients and funding providers. It implements programmes and projects on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and the German Bundestag. It also implements grant-funded projects on behalf of the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). Governments of other countries, such as Chile (Ministry of Education), and the private sector also feature among its clients. In addition, the Regional Office implements projects for the EU, mainly under the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon 2020).

At project level, the Regional Office Germany-West cooperates with a large number of state ministries, including the North Rhine-Westphalian ministries responsible for the economic affairs, environment, transport and higher education portfolios, the ministries of economic affairs and environment in Hesse, and the economic affairs ministries of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. Other key partners include economic development agencies and centres of excellence, such as NRW.International, NRW.INVEST, the EnergyAgency.NRW and chambers of commerce. The Regional Office also works with universities and research institutes, including Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Kaiserslautern, Saarland University and the Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken.

Additional information