Rudolf Hermes, GTZ Project Advisor, Visayan Sea Coastal Resources and Fisheries Management Project and Marc Nolting, GTZ Project Advisor, Leyte Island Program, Integrated Community Based Coastal Zone Management Silago Bay (ICOM)
Priority areas and priority partner countries in Asia
GTZ's corporate mandate
GTZ is tasked by the German Government to achieve its development policy goals
GTZ works on a public-benefit basis
On behalf of the German Government
GTZ implements official Technical Cooperation measures
With the approval of the German Government
GTZ implements commissions from other clients (Technical Cooperation for International Clients) and measures financed from its own funds (GTZ financed measures)
GTZ profile
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH is a government owned corporation for international cooperation with worldwide operations.
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is its main source of finance.
GTZ has more than 10 000 employees in around 130 countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, in the Eastern European countries in transition and the New Independent States.
Around 8 500 employees are locally contracted nationals ("national personnel').
GTZ maintains its own field offices in 63 countries.
Our services: GTZ
advises organizations in partner countries in planning, implementing and evaluating their projects and programmes; recruits experts, prepares them and provides sector-specific and human resources backstopping services during their assignment;
conducts project-related training and upgrading; conducts technical planning and purchases materials and equipment for projects; and
provides non-repayable financial contributions from Technical Cooperation.
Focus of German Development Cooperation (DC) in Asia
Priority areas
Poverty reduction
Environmental protection and conservation of natural resources
Health, family planning, HIV/AIDS Education and training
Cross-cutting issues
Emergency aid and conflict prevention
Private sector promotion
Good governance
Decentralization
At the government negotiations in 2001, the Visayas region was agreed upon as a priority region for German development cooperation with the Philippines.
Our support to Coastal Resources Management in the Philippines Leyte Island Programme (Integrated Community Based Coastal Zone Management Silago Bay)
strengthens performance capability of the responsible extension services; establishes functional integrated bay-wide Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council;
supports institutional strengthening and capacity building of Local Government Units and People's Organizations in CRM interventions;
conducts technical planning and purchases materials and equipment for supplemental livelihood opportunities assist; and LGUs in delineation of municipal waters and fishing grounds.
Our support to Coastal Resources Management in the Philippines Visayan Sea Coastal Resources and Fisheries Management Project (VisSea)
Promotion of income diversification or supplemental livelihood;
Assisting in the formulation and implementation of a joint management plan;
Establishment of an information base for resources management and monitoring;
Networking among stakeholders in four participating provinces and 22 municipalities and cities; and
Support to Local Government Units in implementing CRM interventions (marine protected areas, mangrove reforestation, fishing gear regulations, pollution control, etc.).
Development policy
Development policy is part of the German Government's global policy aimed at securing peace and stability. The core problems facing many developing countries (poverty and social injustice, environmental destruction and population growth, disease and lack of educational opportunities, violent conflicts and crises of state) have reached a level which encroaches on the future of the industrialised countries and of the world as a whole.
These problems can only be resolved by means of global responsibility and partnership. The status of development policy, which pursues these goals, has consequently increased significantly. The German Government sees development policy as global structural and peace policy based on the tenets of sustainable development.
The aim is to influence globalisation by changing structures in order to enhance the political, social, economic and ecological framework in partner countries to:
Improve structures in partner countries;
Improve international structures by shaping global frameworks and establishing international regulations; and
Step up cooperation among bilateral and multilateral institutions and between public and private sector actors.
The developing countries and their governments bear the primary responsibility for their own development (principle of 'ownership'). Their will to help themselves and establish the appropriate political, economic and social framework conditions is an essential prerequisite for successful development #Journalistenhandbuch Entwicklungspolitik; BMZ (issued annually).
The basis of GTZ's work is the General Agreement signed on 12 December 1974. This stipulates that the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) dictates the development policy goals and the goals of the individual measures. The BMZ decides on the promotion of projects and the framework of financial assistance. GTZ implements the BMZ commissions on its own responsibility and has the work done either by its own staff or by sub-contractors. GTZ also has an advisory function vis-à-vis the BMZ. The guidelines on development policy of the Federal Republic of Germany are the starting point and goal of GTZ's work. GTZ is a public benefit corporation whose shares belong to the Federal Republic of Germany. GTZ's basic capital amounts to DM 40 million.
Technical Cooperation (TC)
In the field of international cooperation, GTZ assumes the tasks of Technical Cooperation (TC). Technical Cooperation boosts the performance capacity of both individuals and organizations. It helps enhance the political and institutional framework for sustainable development in partner countries. Technical Cooperation transfers and mobilises knowledge and skills and together with its partners; creates and develops the environment in which these can be applied. The aim is to strengthen peoples' initiative, enabling them to improve their living conditions through their own efforts. However, Technical Cooperation does not merely transfer know-how. It also acts as a facilitator between the government and civil society and as a mediator where there are conflicts of interest within society.
GTZ consultancy services span a wide range of activity areas from economic development and employment promotion through health and basic education to environmental protection, resource conservation and regional rural development. Government advisory services have increased significantly in recent years. GTZ is now supporting numerous partner countries in their efforts to introduce comprehensive reform processes and to initiate the necessary changes in the policy, economic and social frameworks. Where acute need means that immediate human survival is jeopardized, GTZ also responds with emergency aid and refugee programmes, but even these short-term relief measures are designed to enhance peoples' potential and capacity to help themselves and to achieve long-term positive impacts.
GTZ services include:
planning and implementing project-oriented training and upgrading;
specification, planning and procurement of materials and equipment for the projects;
granting, processing and disbursing non-repayable financial contributions from Technical Cooperation funds;
advising organizations in partner countries on project and programme planning, implementation and evaluation;
planning, steering and implementing complex tasks, e.g. in the field of logistics or in cooperation and event management; and
recruiting and briefing experts for their tasks, as well as attending to their professional and personal welfare during their period of assignment.
The Technical Cooperation provided to the partner countries is non-repayable and because of the public-benefit nature of the GTZ as stipulated in its Articles of Association, profits can be used only for public-benefit development measures, regardless of whether they originate from public-benefit or non-public-benefit business. They are therefore channelled into so-called GTZ-financed measures. These are small-scale measures which the GTZ implements or finances from its own funds up to a ceiling of DM 200,000. They are designed to directly assist a formal or informal executing agency in a partner country. GTZ financed measures are used in particular as funds to promote self-help among local groups and private enterprise in the environment of a Technical Cooperation project. To ensure that the purpose of these measures is in line with the development policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, GTZ-financed measures also require the prior approval of the Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as well as of the Federal German Foreign Office.
Our corporate identity
Our vision:
We successfully promote international cooperation, which contributes to sustainable development throughout the world. Our company is strengthening its position on the global market for international cooperation services.
Our mission:
We are a government-owned corporation with international operations. We implement commissions for the German federal government and other national and international, public and private sector clients. We further political, economic, ecological and social development worldwide and so improve people's living conditions. We provide services that support complex development and reform processes.
Our common values:
We act on the conviction that respect for human rights and the dignity and uniqueness of each individual create the basis for international cooperation; rule-of-law, legal security and citizens' participation in the political process are prerequisites for effective government action; the environmentally sound use of resources secures development opportunities for future generations; a market friendly and socially oriented economic order together with development focused governance are the platform for income-security and progress; effective contributions towards peace and security are key pillars of development; cooperation in a spirit of partnership leads to success; transparency and integrity engender clarity and understanding of corporate action both within our organization and externally, and so create trust.
Our corporate guiding principles
Client orientation: Client satisfaction is the yardstick for the quality of our work.
Employee Orientation: We promote our employees' development. The quality of their work guarantees the success of our company. Management personnel are role models.
Results Orientation: Our actions are geared to achieving sustainable and verifiable impacts.
Efficiency: Our operations aim to achieve maximum cost-effectiveness.
Flexibility: We use flexible structures and processes, which we match to the demands on hand.
Responsibility and Accountability: Our decision-making is located next to the operational level and oriented to common corporate interests.
Guidelines on development policy of the Federal Republic of Germany
Focuses of development cooperation (DC)
Poverty reduction
Poverty reduction (poverty alleviation) measures are designed to foster the productive capabilities and creative forces of the poor and enable them, through their own economic activities, to create the preconditions for their advancement. Poverty reduction involves first and foremost measures to reform social, political and economic framework conditions (structural poverty reduction).
Environmental protection and conservation of natural resources
Measures in the field of environmental protection and conservation of natural resources are designed to maintain the natural resource base on which life depends, by making economic development in partner countries ecologically compatible and enabling those countries to participate in global environmental protection. This is achieved by promoting national environmental policies and partner-country programmes and projects designed to conserve natural resources. It also involves participating in international initiatives to promote eco-systems at particular risk and ensuring the environmentally sound design of all development cooperation activities.
Health
Health measures aim, in particular, to strengthen the medical infrastructure and to upgrade primary health care and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Education and training
Education and training measures are designed to help establish the human resource capacities needed for sustainable development of our partner countries. In this context, education and knowledge are considered elementary preconditions for human development. At this time of globalisation the importance of knowledge and the access thereto is constantly increasing.Emergency aid and conflict prevention
Within the scope of the reorientation of development cooperation (towards global structural and peace policy) new focuses are emerging which include emergency aid and conflict prevention.
Private sector promotion
Greater development policy impact through cooperation between development cooperation organizations, private sector businesses and public sector inputs dovetail. This enables both partners to achieve their goals better, more rapidly and at a lower cost.