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Foreword by the Management Board

Portrait photo: Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel.
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, Chair of the Management Board
© GIZ / Gaby Gerster
Portrait photo: Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven.
Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven, Managing Director
© GIZ / Gaby Gerster

Dear readers,

The understand, embrace, transform approach has served GIZ well over recent years, marked as they were by crises. In 2022, it again allowed us to retain our ability to act and deliver services. By constantly monitoring the environment in which we operate and responding to changing conditions, we continue to be a service provider that implements effective projects, even in times of multiple crises. In future too, our aim is to take effective action in difficult times.

24 February 2022, the day Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine, will remain engraved in our memories as a Zeitenwende – a watershed that changed the world in the long term.

Many other wars and fragile states have already left their mark on our work. Afghanistan, Mali and Sudan are just three harrowing examples of how a life in peace is by no means reality for many people worldwide. The situation is further aggravated by climate change and the persistent COVID-19 pandemic, both of which challenge us as a global community but are felt most acutely by people living in our partner countries.

»Forward-looking solutions need to factor in the interconnectedness and mutually reinforcing impact of urgent issues.«

Achieving more through dialogue and cooperation

Dialogue with our partner countries and direct proximity to the people we serve are vitally important in allowing us to respond appropriately to new challenges. We can only understand the contexts, frameworks and demands of our work and devise customised solutions if we deal with one another respectfully.

We can act more effectively if we and our partners embrace the different, mutually reinforcing challenges of our time, and pool our expertise and skills. This is true of our cooperation partners, including other European implementing organisations with which we work for sustainable development under the Team Europe approach. Equally though, it applies to our implementation partners on the ground, including local ministries, civil society organisations, scientific and research institutions, and private businesses. They are crucial if our work is to be successful.

Holistic solutions
for sustainable action

We are fully aware that forward-looking solutions need to factor in the interconnectedness and mutually reinforcing impact of urgent issues, rather than dealing with each in isolation. We need to bring together environmental, economic and social issues and consider them all in our approaches for transition. This is the only way to permanently transform the lives and prospects of the people we serve. Our focus is always on sustainability, both in our work around the world and in relation to our strategic direction. This is why we once again reaffirmed our commitment to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact in 2022.

Working together
for a future worth living

It seems safe to assume that these tasks will become neither fewer nor easier for GIZ given the unstable global situation. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our commissioning parties, our shareholder and our many local partners for the trust they have placed in us. Without this trust, we would not be where we are today.

In 2022, our business volume rose to a total of almost EUR 4 billion. That too reflects the challenges we face. Our workforce, which now numbers over 25,400 staff members around the globe, works with huge commitment and dedication day in, day out to use these funds in a targeted manner, in order to move closer to our vision of a future worth living. Our warmest thanks also go to them. Without their dedication, we would not be able to act and deliver services in the same way.

We still have a long way to go to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed upon in 2015 in the 2030 Agenda. We are already at the half-way mark in the implementation timeline, and we will only succeed if we pull together. Our shared efforts are helping every day to drive the transition to a socially just, sustainable world. So, as we look ahead to the next seven years through to 2030, the same holds true: understand, embrace, transform – not in spite of, but precisely because of the crises that shake our times.

Signature: Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel.

Chair of the
Management Board

Signature: Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven.

Managing Director