Fiscal 2021

Business volume in 2021

GIZ’s business volume is made up of income from the public-benefit business area and the GIZ International Services business area, which is taxable. The majority of our work in the public-benefit business area is commissioned by the German Development Ministry (BMZ) and other German public sector clients. This business area accounted for EUR 3.6 billion of the business volume in 2021 – an increase of 11 per cent compared with the previous year (2020: EUR 3.2 billion).

The taxable business area also recorded considerable growth in 2021. International Services generated a total of EUR 135 million in revenue – an increase of 25 per cent compared with the previous year (2020: EUR 108 million). Through this business area, international institutions such as the European Union, the United Nations, governments worldwide, businesses and private foundations can commission GIZ directly.

GIZ in competition

GIZ increasingly receives commissions – funding for crisis management, development partnerships with the private sector, special initiatives and cofinancing – through ideas competitions, in which it competes with other public and public-benefit institutions. More than 40 per cent of this revenue comes from the special initiatives with which BMZ sets development priorities. The total income generated from the special initiatives, of which there are four in total, was around EUR 583 million in 2021 (2020: EUR 500 million). 

Implementing effective projects even during the pandemic

In 2021, we teamed up with commissioning parties and local partners once again to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, GIZ was able to use EUR 281 million from the BMZ budget item ‘Bilateral technical cooperation’ (TC budget item). Commissions to promote global health have received a significant boost, with GIZ recording an increase of 68 per cent in new commissions compared with the previous year (2021: EUR 225 million; 2020: EUR 134 million). Commissions in the climate and renewable energy sector continue to be important, accounting for around a third of our work (2021: EUR 1.4 billion; 2020: EUR 1.2 billion).

Solving global challenges together

Partnerships and cooperation with other organisations increase the impact of development policy. In the context of cofinancing, existing projects undertaken on behalf of BMZ or other German federal ministries are supplemented by additional funding from third parties or by a component or measure. In 2021, GIZ acquired EUR 626 million in cofinancing, an increase of 23 per cent against the previous year (2020: EUR 508 million).

Cofinancing institutions can be UN organisations, international donors (i.e. countries and their development organisations), enterprises, private foundations or the European Union. In 2021, the EU was once again the largest source of cofinancing in the public-benefit business area and was the main commissioning party in the GIZ International Services business area. GIZ’s business volume with the EU was EUR 505 million, an increase of almost 18 per cent on the previous year (2020: EUR 428 million).

Reasons for the decrease of 14 per cent in income from German public sector clients include delays connected with the pandemic as part of the commissioning processes, funding shifts between years and the high income in 2020 due to the one-time effect of the BMUV project on NAMA Facility Mitigation Accounts.