Focusing on health during the pandemic and beyond
Global vaccination campaigns
COVID-19 can only be curbed globally. Yet access to vaccines is still extremely uneven across the world. One of our major concerns in 2021 was therefore to strengthen vaccination campaigns and measures, particularly in countries badly hit by the pandemic. GIZ Medical Services and our country offices provided information and helped raise awareness among colleagues. In 2021, in collaboration with the German Government, GIZ also organised the delivery of a total of more than 4,400 doses of vaccine to country offices in which effective vaccines were scarce. These deliveries benefited not only national and seconded staff, development workers and integrated experts and their families, but also people at other German intermediary and implementing organisations.
The GIZ country office in Malawi was offered vaccine doses by the UN. In the second campaign on 18 June 2021, demand was so high that the UN was able to administer the vaccinations directly at the GIZ country office.
(© GIZ / Malawi)A GIZ employee is given the AstraZeneca vaccine during the vaccination campaign run by Uganda’s Ministry of Health.
(© GIZ / Uganda)The GIZ country office arranged for GIZ staff to be vaccinated through the Honduran Social Security Institute (Instituto Hondureño del Seguro Social (IHSS)), for example here at the vaccination day at the Central American Technological University on 25 June 2021.
(© GIZ / Karla Cerrato, Honduras)In Germany, Medical Services (MED) in Eschborn (photo) and Bonn took part in the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign. MED administered just under 2,400 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 in 2021.
(© GIZ / Medizinischer Dienst Eschborn)In close cooperation with international partners, GIZ staff in Madagascar were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
(© GIZ / Madagaskar)
Corporate health management (CHM)
The key role that corporate health management plays in maintaining the performance of both individual staff members and the company as a whole became particularly clear during the pandemic. GIZ country offices that had been involved in the pilot project on Corporate Health Management in the Field Structure in recent years were able to respond well to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic at short notice. Different measures were used depending on what was required, for example yoga lessons, communal cooking sessions in the evenings or regular health talks. Since 2021, every country office around the world has had the option of introducing a differentiated health management system in the partner country. Health and wellbeing teams coordinate the various activities at local level, which are geared towards the needs in each particular country. The aim is to enhance both the physical and mental resilience of the employees at the various and, in some cases, difficult places of assignment.
One example is the GIZ Country Office in India that launched the 'GIZ India Moves Caro-Na' initiative during the COVID-19 lockdowns and encouraged colleagues to engage in various health-promoting activities. This internal video gives some impressions:
Information on the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be found on this page:
