Donors

Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) 

(English: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) 

Leveraging German private-sector engagement in order to promote key development partnerships is a proven instrument of German development cooperation – and one that fosters sustainable economic growth.   

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) instigated its promotion programme for key development partnerships involving the German private sector, in order to mobilise the know-how and experience of German businesses, organisations and institutions, for the purpose of development cooperation.   

There are around 1,200 people working at the BMZ in Germany. About 54 per cent of the staff are based at the Ministry's main office in Bonn, while the remaining 46 per cent work at the Berlin office. A certain number of BMZ staff are regularly seconded from the Ministry for a few years at a time to carry out development policy assignments in various parts of the world. At present there are 130 BMZ officials deployed abroad. The budget of the BMZ is contained in the German national budget. In fiscal 2020, provision has been made for spending in the order of 10.8 billion euros. 

The BMZ does not have the usual substructure of government agencies. For the execution of its projects, it commissions implementing organisations. These organisations then work with executing agencies in the partner country concerned. Those agencies are selected by the government of the partner country. 

German Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation e.V. has been an implementing organisation for BMZ programmes since 1992. As an implementing organisation, German Sparkassenstiftung customises and aligns approaches that have proved their worth in Germany in order to transfer them to the partner country.  

Development partnership projects involving German private sector actors are implemented independently of any bilateral agreements that may exist. In addition to its specialist technical inputs for BMZ funded projects, Sparkassenstiftung is also responsible for quality assurance and monitoring project contents and the use of financial resources, especially as projects are always executed in cooperation with local partner organizations. 

In Eastern Africa, our project activities were recently merged and organized in two Regional Projects named “Vocational and Commercial Education for the Microfinance Sector in Eastern Africa” and “Rural Development in Eastern Africa through Institution Strengthening of the Microfinance Sector”. Both are being financed by BMZ and are present in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. 

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH  

(English: German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH) 

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (English: German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH) is a German development agency that provides services in the field of international development cooperation.  

GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and environment, as well as peace and security. 

GIZ is a federal enterprise, which works with the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector and governments of other countries. 

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is the main commissioning party. 

The German headquarters of GIZ are in Bonn and Eschborn. In 2016 the business volume was around EUR 2.4 billion. GIZ has more than 18,000 employees in 120 countries. 

Between German Sparkassenstiftung Eastern Africa and GIZ various fields of cooperation exist. German Sparkassenstiftung Eastern Africa has implemented and is implementing several projects on behalf of GIZ (e.g. in the fields of green finance, private sector development and financial education). 

Currently in Burundi, GIZ is funding our Green Finance Project “Améliorer l’accès des groupes d’épargne au microcrédit pour le financement des latrines agro-écologiques ‹Akasuga› ". 

Also, GIZ and German Sparkassenstiftung Eastern Africa together created a seminar on the development and implementation of national strategies for financial education, which has been adapted from English to Russian and Spanish, and has been implemented in Uzbekistan as well as in several countries in the Latin American region.