OUR STRATEGY 2020–2022
Guiding us in times of change
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the rising number of crises and conflicts posed particular challenges last year. In the second year of its implementation, our Corporate Strategy was again our guide, helping us to overcome these challenges and better perform our work worldwide. The strategy focuses on our capacity to implement effective projects, by which we mean our ability to implement demanding commissions in international cooperation rapidly and effectively, even under difficult circumstances. It also means pressing ahead with digital change within GIZ.
Cooperation and Leadership
We introduced the Cooperation and Leadership process so that we can continue to successfully address the increasing complexity of the environment in which we operate. The four Cooperation and Leadership principles help us to act with greater agility and flexibility. A project team has been working since 2017 to formulate and implement the principles as part of a company-wide process. 2021 saw them integrated into GIZ’s HR instruments and professional development services.
Diagram of the Strategy Architecture: Four key external influences impact on our actions. They move around our Strategy Architecture like clouds: • The trend towards more competition (and ideas competitions) will continue. • Our business is becoming increasingly volatile and diverse. • The demands on GIZ project management are rising steadily. • Digitalisation has an enormous impact on all of our work. Our vision forms the ‘roof’ of the building: We work to shape a future worth living around the world. We focus on our capacity to implement effective projects now and in the future. We do so in the four areas of action – the rooms – of our Strategy Architecture: • Effectiveness, Objective 1: We translate political requirements quickly and visibly into effective solutions. • Business development, Objective 2: We strengthen our market position with data-driven and technology-based services. • Expertise & alliances, Objective 3: We mobilise internal and external expertise more rapidly and manage it more effectively. • Value for money: – Objective 4: We digitalise our internal business processes, thereby making them more efficient. – Objective 5: We create demand-based implementation structures. The foundations on which the Strategy Architecture stands are the targets of the Shareholder and the legal foundation. The federal enterprise GIZ is a globally active service provider and partner in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work. A sign next to the Strategy Architecture points in the direction of the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda is a key benchmark that guides our actions.
The Corporate Strategy consists of a clear system of objectives that guides staff in their actions. It brings together all our objectives and the measures designed to achieve them for a three-year period, from 2020 to 2022. Overarching issues, including sustainability and digital transformation, are also reflected in the strategy.
Four focus projects
Our Corporate Strategy aims to make GIZ more digital, more flexible, more agile and more efficient. Four focus projects have been developed to achieve this. The project staff are drawn from organisational units inside and outside Germany so that the projects can harness expertise from the entire company.
Digital for results
We see digital transformation as a driver and as an opportunity to implement the 2030 Agenda more effectively. To enable us to reap the additional benefits offered by digital technology in our commissions, we are developing market-relevant digital services and are expanding cooperation with tech companies and the digital economy. The goal is always the same – to maximise and scale up development results. GIZ itself is also constantly evolving, and building data, technology and digital capacities at both organisational and individual levels. To drive these changes forward, we launched the focus project Data-Driven and Technology-Based Services.
Adapting flexibly to change
The world is becoming more complex, our work more demanding. We must respond to such changes – whether they involve difficult commissions in fragile states or new requirements imposed by our commissioning parties – with increased standards that can also be adapted at short notice. For this, we need innovative and flexible solutions for GIZ’s structural and management models. This is the only way we can rapidly adapt our work to changing conditions on the ground. And it is why we launched the focus project Future-Proof Implementation Structures.
Agility in action
If we are to retain our ability to act worldwide in very different contexts, we always need precisely tailored expertise – we need the right person in the right place at the right time. For this we rely on new service delivery approaches, which we combine with the appropriate partners and structures. They help us to act flexibly and successfully. This is where the focus project Tailored Expertise comes in.
Working efficiently
To achieve a higher level of efficiency, we aim to become a process-oriented company. To this end, we are going digital across the board. Media discontinuity and complicated procedures should soon be a thing of the past, while processes will be streamlined and organised on an inter-departmental basis. It is the only way we can keep pace with the high volume and frequency of our international work in the long term. This is the domain of the focus project Digitalised End-To-End Business Processes.
Information on the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be found on this page:
