Providing swift, direct assistance while at the same time ensuring a peaceful future for the long term: this is what GIZ works to achieve in countries such as Türkiye, South Sudan and Iraq.
In the municipality of Esenler, on the outskirts of Istanbul, life is buzzing. In the middle of it all, a group of Syrian women chat cheerfully among themselves as they head purposefully to the office of the Human Resource Development Foundation (HRDF). They are on their way to attend a Turkish course there together. One of the women is Shaza. Before fleeing from Syria, she had spent many years working as a teacher. Here in Türkiye, she is a housewife haunted by memories of the war. She heard about HRDF’s services for refugees from friends: Turkish courses, information, and a chance to meet and network with other women. ‘Thanks to HRDF, I have regained control over my life. They have given me back my self-confidence and my strength, and now I can help other women who are in the same situation as I was then,’ recounts Shaza.
The Human Resource Development Foundation is one of 18 local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that GIZ works with in Türkiye to support refugees and vulnerable residents of host communities in the country. The project is an example of how GIZ is implementing the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus. The aim of the nexus is to establish stronger links between humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peacebuilding in times of crisis. In Türkiye, GIZ looked at all three of these approaches in combination right from the outset.
GIZ’s work in Türkiye is underpinned by various pillars in keeping with the nexus. Development work, for example, includes training courses run by and for partner organisations, and the arrangement of discussion formats and networking meetings for the various NGOs such as HRDF. The organisations advise refugees and vulnerable members of host communities on things like social security benefits and job prospects. They also help them find suitable courses that will open up new avenues or better opportunities in their lives – language, craft or sewing courses, for instance.
Community-Based Local Initiatives Project (CLIP 2)
Commissioned by
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Cofinanced by
European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO)
Location
Türkiye
Term
2021 to 2026
»The three dimensions of the HDP nexus are interrelated and mutually reinforcing.«
When two powerful earthquakes shook south-eastern Türkiye and northern Syria on 6 February 2023, many of the regions where GIZ and its partners had been cooperating with refugees like Shaza since 2021 were among the areas hit. The earthquakes signalled yet another disaster for the many people, traumatised by war and displacement, who GIZ and its partners had been regularly supporting. Swift humanitarian aid was required. The financial and psychological support, together with the social contacts gained through the NGOs, gave people new hope and purpose in their lives and opened up new prospects – mirroring the experience of Shaza from Syria.
Tolga Baca tells a similar story. He is a Programme Director at the NGO International Blue Crescent (IBC), which likewise works with GIZ in Türkiye. At IBC’s community centre, hundreds of people found emergency accommodation and helpers distributed food and hygiene products. ‘After the earthquake, we looked after a woman whose son had been killed during the disaster. She had lost all will to live. The conversations she had as part of our psychological counselling helped her to look to the future. Afterwards she opened a café, which she named after her son. That gave her an income, but also hope.’
Over 55,000
people have made use of psychosocial support measures and social and legal advisory services.
Around 30,000
people have benefited from the emergency earthquake assistance.
Besides working directly with refugees, IBC also acts as a mentor for other aid organisations that belong to the partner network. ‘Building the capacity of our partner organisations is important to us,’ explains Christiane Danne, Project Manager at GIZ. ‘It goes without saying that we support our partners with our own knowledge, but above all we make sure that they share ideas and learn from each other in networks. We thus combine long-term development approaches with direct humanitarian aid.’
Christophe Gadrey works as a technical assistant for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) in Ankara. In this interview, he explains why DG ECHO supports the CLIP 2 project and shares his view of cooperation with GIZ.
DG ECHO has been cooperating with GIZ in Türkiye since 2018. How did this come about?
GIZ has good contacts with the civil society network in Türkiye and has worked with a wide variety of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) here for a long time. It therefore knows a lot about how these organisations can be reached and supported. Besides that, GIZ has strong institutional links with Turkish line ministries and local agencies. Those were the two most important factors behind DG ECHO’s decision to cooperate with GIZ. Our partnership complemented other measures in Türkiye that were being implemented by UN organisations, international NGOs and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Why is it so important to strengthen local NGOs through this project?
When it comes to providing support for displaced people in Türkiye, local NGOs are crucially important for DG ECHO. They reach the most vulnerable members of these groups. This is why we encourage dialogue and cooperation among local NGOs and build their organisational and operational capacities. By adopting this localisation strategy, we are able to work more effectively at the interface between peace, development and security while also improving the quality of the services provided. The joint project with GIZ is a model project and has the potential to transfer the localisation approach to other contexts.
What value does this partnership between DG ECHO and GIZ add? What do you like about it personally?
I personally appreciate the quality of the exchange with GIZ staff on site regarding key issues such as sustainability and the HDP nexus, or how we can further improve support for local organisations. These topics are embedded in GIZ’s DNA as a development organisation, and I find our talks truly enriching. In return, DG ECHO has a distinct emergency aid ethos to offer. Flexibility and responsiveness are particularly important for this – and we expect our partners to act similarly. I believe that in this way both organisations – GIZ and DG ECHO – can learn from one another and benefit from the exchange. I am very proud that I contribute to this cooperation at my own level.
D for development
GIZ also works at the interface between humanitarian aid, development and peacebuilding in South Sudan. The goal is to improve food and nutrition security for farmers as two thirds of the people living in South Sudan are malnourished. In fact, this East African country is actually highly fertile and could provide for itself. However, after the outbreaks of violence in 2013 and 2016, many people left their homes and the agricultural smallholdings were abandoned. Although many are now gradually returning, they lack equipment, knowledge and opportunities to sell products.
GIZ addresses this situation at multiple levels and provides training for farmers on crop-growing methods and nutrition: ‘The training courses have taught the farmers how to calculate their income and expenditure correctly, for example, and how to earn a profit from their products,’ explains Project Coordinator Peter Lo-severio. More than 4,700 smallholders have attended these courses. GIZ and its partners have also provided the farmers with high-quality seed – something that isn’t easy to find in South Sudan. ‘The objective is for farmers to achieve higher yields from their fields so that they can feed themselves and their families and generate an income,’ Peter adds.
Food and nutrition security and natural resource management (FONA)
Commissioned by
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Location
South Sudan (federal states of Western Equatoria und Northern Bahr el Ghazal)
Term
2021 to 2025
4,298
households received seed and agricultural inputs.
»The good farming principles and the management skills that I learned during the training allow me to now venture into farming as a business. I want to support other women to stop depending on men. They can obtain their own land and start farming as a business just like me.«
Janety Simon, participant in a training course in Western Equatoria
GIZ is also training multipliers in order to reach as many people as possible. They take their newly acquired knowledge about agriculture and healthy diets back with them to their village communities, where they explain for example that it is important not to grow just one type of crop, even if that might be the one that makes the most money. Instead, diversity is key – both in the field and on the plate.
»GIZ benefits from our networks and knowledge of local context. In return, we learn a lot from them about climate change adaptation measures, which are very important for the long-term success of the project. Even though it can sometimes be challenging to work together in this constellation, it makes our work more effective and we achieve better results.«
Daisy Nyaga, Manager of the project being implemented by WFP and UNICEF
The training courses do more than just help people in South Sudan improve their lives directly. Greater food and nutrition security also promotes stability in the country over the long term and prevents conflicts – entirely in the spirit of the HDP nexus. GIZ is not working on this alone. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) also operate in the region, likewise on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), providing schoolchildren with meals and schools with teaching materials on the subject of nutrition. In addition to this, they focus on improving nutrition and hygiene for infants and pregnant women. The GIZ and UNICEF/WFP projects cooperate closely and their results are mutually complementary. The pooling of different forms of expertise, in particular, is beneficial for everyone: in a fragile country such as South Sudan, where GIZ does not work with state actors but has to rely on local implementation partners, the experience and support offered by WFP and UNICEF are a major asset and a stabilising factor for project work.
P for peace
It is not only in Türkiye and South Sudan that GIZ has adopted the HDP nexus approach, but also in the fragile state of Iraq. Climate change, above all, poses a major threat there, potentially leading to new sources of conflict, for instance over increasingly scarce water. A new project launched in 2023 is intended to help secure peace in the region. Together with the Government of Iraq and local partners, GIZ helps farmers to adapt their growing methods to climate change and be more careful with the use of what water is available. The project also supports the Iraqi people in sharing their experiences more effectively with each other and reaching joint agreements on fair water use in order to resolve existing conflicts and prevent new ones. In that way, development cooperation can contribute to stability and peaceful coexistence there too.
Climate and security nexus – improving peace and stability through climate change adaptation and conflict prevention
Commissioned by
German Federal Foreign Office
Location
Iraq
Term
2023 to 2025
You can find out more about our partnerships and the impact of our work here:
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