Context
Implementation in Germany of the Post-2015 Development Agenda adopted by the United Nations requires coordinated joint action by the German Government and Germany’s federal states. In the context of efforts to mobilise additional resources for international cooperation too, the aim is to avoid duplicate financing and to create synergies. Due to their position in the federal system, the federal states have specific and varied competences; the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is interested in cooperating with the federal states in order to harness these competences more effectively for development policy. There are currently no suitable cooperation formats that make full use of the potential of cooperation on development policy between BMZ and the federal states.
Objective
Suitable cooperation formats are used to harness the potential of cooperation on development policy between BMZ and the federal states more effectively.
Approach
The programme implements various forms of human capacity development that take account of the comparative advantages of each federal state. In addition, formats are tested to improve dovetailing of the federal states’ bilateral development partnerships and bilateral technical cooperation projects and programmes run by the German Government in the same partner country. One example is harnessing the technical skills of a federal state on administrative reform issues in a decentralisation project initiated by the German Government. European Union-financed projects are also to be used to mobilise the know-how of European partners for development cooperation activities carried out by the German Government and the federal states.