How GIZ is implementing the 2030 Agenda

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A lot has happened at GIZ since then. The 2030 Agenda has become an integral part of the planning, implemention and monitoring of all new projects.

Many of the partner countries of German development cooperation face enormous challenges when it comes to translating the 2030 Agenda into practical approaches. On behalf of BMZ, GIZ has been implementing a total of 34 measures in 29 partner countries and in conjunction with three regional organisations since 2016. In addition, the 2030 Agenda Transformation Fund was established and is being used to promote 17 short-term measures, which are being implemented mainly by governmental and non-governmental organisations. The measures support partner countries on their road to sustainable development, for instance aligning development plans with the objectives and principles of the 2030 Agenda, mobilising necessary funding and strengthening effective monitoring and review mechanisms. In BMU projects too, GIZ builds on the principles set out in the 2030 Agenda and specifically focuses on climate change mitigation, adaptation to climate change and biodiversity conservation
(SDGs 13, 14, 15). A joint BMZ/BMU project is explicitly supporting the principle of accountability.

With its work, GIZ is making a global contribution to realising the 2030 Agenda and Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy. Under the guidelines on the Joint Procedural Reform that covers BMZ and its implementing organisations, actors are required to take the 2030 Agenda into account systematically. GIZ has integrated the 2030 Agenda into the planning, implementation and monitoring of projects, which are carried out in line with five principles:

Universality

To achieve sustainable development, every country needs to change. The 2030 Agenda therefore applies universally to all countries of the world – developing countries, emerging economies and industrialised nations alike. In Namibia, for example, GIZ is contributing to the country’s efforts to create the necessary conditions for implementing the 2030 Agenda.

2030 Agenda Partnership – working together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Leave no one behind

All human beings should be able to lead a dignified life, free from poverty and hunger. In future, no one should be left behind or excluded from social development. To achieve this, GIZ is supporting efforts in Malawi, for example, to ensure that
2.2 million schoolchildren from poor families receive school meals.

Providing social protection for people living in extreme poverty

Shared responsibility

This principle embodies a new understanding of global cooperation that aims to preserve the world’s vital natural resources through partnerships and promote prosperity and peace. Governments, business, civil society groups, citizens, and the scientific and academic community will all play their part in this. An example of this is the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa, an alliance of governmental and non-governmental actors that aims to achieve greater sustainability and better working conditions in cocoa farming in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire. 

Professionalising cocoa producers and their organisations