03-wir-03-2012-english

GIZ STAFF MAGAZINE
03 _ 2012
better together
Networking works
A good culture of cooperation increases satisfaction
and improves operating results. Page 6
‘Triple Win’ plus one
How GIZ’s accumulated expertise in migration
helps to harness new markets. Page 14
How we achieve results
GIZ’s integrated results model is a suitable
instrument for all business areas. Page 20

editorial:
contents:
Dear readers,
You are looking at a genuine collaborative product. wir: is
the result of a process to which each member of the editorial
team contributes what he or she does best. We discuss
issues, we write, we edit, and much more. For me, though,
probably the best aspect of the group effort involved in producing
wir: is interacting with you. You invite us to come
and learn about what you do, and you give up your time to
explain patiently to us what drives you. Every day we have
such interesting encounters, and these have made GIZ a very
special place for me to work.
That said, good cooperation cannot be taken for granted.
Sometimes it cannot be expected as a matter of course, even
here at GIZ. This might be because someone has a very long
list of things to get through or because processes are not
defined clearly enough. Or maybe because not everyone is
equally willing to share their knowledge and abilities with
others. However, having a strong culture of cooperation also
entails being able to speak openly about problems of this
kind. This issue of wir: will examine both sides of the cooperation
coin. We report on cases where cooperation already
works very well (page 6). And we talk to colleagues about
where there is still room for improvement (page 8).
The editorial team was especially pleased with the positive
feedback on the article in the last issue in which our colleague
described his experience of burnout. The response to
his courageous account was overwhelming (page 27). We’d
like to interpret that as a sign that
openness and honesty is valued at
GIZ.
I hope that you find this issue of
wir: entertaining and informative,
and that it inspires you to
get talking.
04
in focus:
BETTER TOGETHER
Why GIZ’s success depends on good internal cooperation 4
NETWORKING WORKS
A good culture of cooperation increases satisfaction and
improves operating results 6
let’s talk
What still stands in the way of optimal cooperation at GIZ 8
window to the world
Organisational and social psychologist Wolfgang Scholl on the
prerequisites for human cooperation 10
thinking outside the box
The ‘better together’ memory test 11
Foto: Dirk Ostermeier
Title and focus illustrations: cmuk
2 GIZ staff magazine | wir: 03_2012

14
24
17 26
around the world:
global round-up
News from around the world 12
‘TRIPLE WIN’ PLUS ONE
Why GIZ expects major business opportunities
in the field of migration 14
UNITED TO PREVENT CONFLICTS OVER WATER
Cofinancing provides broader impact 16
email from …?
Ina Hommers reports from Uganda 16
5 pictures
Have a break! Where GIZ staff meet for lunch 17
Inside GIZ:
staff stories
News from GIZ 18
ten questions for …
Brigitta Villaronga Walker on circus clowns
and leadership development 19
HOW WE ACHIEVE RESULTS
GIZ’s integrated results model 20
behind the scenes
The Regional Centre in Bremen 22
TEN YEARS OF GIZ IS
Elmar Kleiner on the ups and downs of GIZ’s commercial arm 23
GOING THE EXTRA MILE
Corporate Principles in practice – using resources at GIZ 24
‘As public as possible and as secure as necessary’
Data protection in DMS 25
i’d say …
GIZ technician Micha Schwabel’s four-legged friend Gurke on change 25
a change of scenery
Arne Främk advises the Kenyan Ministry of Finance 26
have your say
Reader feedback on wir: 27
Going places – staff appointments 26
INFO 27
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine
3

in focus:
Better
together
Why GIZ’s success depends on good internal cooperation
4 GIZ GIZ staff staff magazine | | wir: 03_2012

There it lies in the sun, a big green heap of organic material –
much bigger than the workers that are about to start tackling it.
Leaf-cutter ants are experts in transporting vegetation over long
distances to their underground nests. To ensure their survival, they
have developed a perfect system: each ant does the job it does best, be it
cutting, carrying, reconnaissance or defence. There are many such examples
of cooperation in nature. Sometimes even predators join forces to hunt
because it increases their chances of survival.
Economists and business consultants have learned quite a few tricks of this
kind from nature. Rather than propagating competition and the survival of
the fittest, they are increasingly putting forward theories that highlight the
importance of working together. In his book on successful cooperation, business
consultant Frank Schäfer writes about the impact the global economic
crisis is having on the business world. ‘The companies that will survive
are those that succeed in channelling all their strengths and using all the
potential they have to master future challenges,’ he writes.
The more complex the environment and the stronger the competition, the
more important a well functioning internal system of cooperation that
allows organisations to respond quickly and flexibly to change. Teamwork
is what makes innovation happen. Knowledge can flourish in places where
people with different qualifications and different kinds of experience work
together. Collaboration, then, leads to growth and improved quality, both
of which are vital when competing internationally for the best ideas and
concepts. In addition, it secures jobs, both in Germany and elsewhere.
GIZ, with approximately 17,000 staff and hence an immense amount of
knowledge and experience when it comes to sustainability, is excellently
positioned to succeed in this competitive environment. And our full name,
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, emphasises that
cooperation (‘Zusammenarbeit’) is part of our company’s DNA. According to
the Guiding Principles for GIZ Employees and Managers, ‘We foster a culture
of cooperation’, but what exactly does that mean and how far have we
progressed on that point? This issue of wir: seeks to answer these questions.
Collaboration means joint action on the part of two or more people in order
to reach common goals – that’s the minimum consensus that researchers
from various disciplines have reached. The quality of cooperation, they
say, rises proportionately to the ability to look beyond your own horizons
and work towards the goals of your cooperation partner, too. In fact, GIZ’s
Guiding Principles actively encourage managers to foster collaboration
between the business units.
Cooperation across organisational units requires, first and foremost,
defined structures, processes, roles and responsibilities, all the way from
acquisition to the final invoice. For several processes, GIZ has clearly
defined who should work with whom and when, for instance when it comes
to commissioning procedures, commission management and commercial
processes. This is laid down in the Orientation and Rules (O+R). Over and
beyond that, employees are encouraged to identify and make use of cooperation
potential where this makes sense. This is something that a company
cannot completely impose on its staff, as organisational psychologist
Wolfgang Scholl says (page 10). People have to want to cooperate.
Cooperation is already strong throughout GIZ, as the examples on pages
6 and 7 show. In an interview with our editorial team, staff discuss where
there is still room for improvement (page 8). There is no place for egos in
the ant world, but in organisations individuals can sometimes unwittingly
be an obstacle to working together. Prejudices, a lack of confidence in
other people’s abilities, a silo mentality, profile raising, and the refusal to
give up existing rights and privileges all hamper cooperation and prevent
the organisation as a whole from developing positively. To promote a good
culture of cooperation, an organisation has to have the right structures
and value communication, transparency, trust, commitment and a solutionfocused
approach. And last but definitely not least, the organisation has
to deal constructively with conflict. According to Wolfgang Scholl, the
overarching aim should be a culture that reflects the philosophy of Ernst
Jandl: that our thoughts may diverge, but they are still friends.
One final glance at the origins of the word shows that cooperation means
more than just working together. The Latin cooperatio means ‘participation’.
‘Our work is about producing results’, as our Mission Statement says.
We work together and produce results together, inspired by what nature
teaches us to do.

in focus:
Better together
Networking
works
Defending acquired rights and privileges tooth and nail,
maintaining a fortress mentality ... These attitudes are
toxic for cooperation and for the company as a whole.
A positive culture of cooperation has been proven not
just to increase employee satisfaction, but also to
improve a company’s operating result. There are many
good examples of promising cooperation across
national and organisational borders at GIZ.
wir: takes a look at some of them.
Alumni relations
40,000 people currently use GIZ’s two virtual
networks Alumniportal Deutschland and GIZ
global connect. ‘These communities are international
cooperation instruments that ensure
that cooperation doesn’t simply stop once people
leave. They are a great way to make sure that our
work remains sustainable,’ explains Jan Schwaab,
head of Global Knowledge Cooperation / Alumni
Coordination in the Germany Department. ‘Of
course, you have to know what kind of impact you
can achieve with alumni relations work and how it
can be integrated effectively in project planning.’
To ensure this is done, Schwaab and his team have
been building different kinds of networks throughout
the organisation for some time now. ‘We organised a
roadshow for the regional divisions, the field structure,
the Sectoral Department and the sector projects and
received very positive feedback,’ says Sabine Olthof,
Programme Manager at Alumniportal Deutschland.
However, there are also some reservations that have to be
addressed when it comes to the benefits and added value of
alumni relations, she adds. ‘But we’re making progress.’ For
instance, in future the alumni coordinators on the ground
will be integrated into the country offices and are also going
to participate in country-level planning. In China, this is
already the case. And GIZ is about to launch 14 pilot projects
that are the result of integrated planning and the newly
created internal networks. Lernort Deutschland > Globale Wissenskooperationen/Alumni-Koordination
> Über uns (Currently German only)
Steffi Mallinger, Sylvia Giessler and Irene Fröhlich from the Europe, Caucasus,
Central Asia Division. Photos: private.
6 GIZ staff magazine | wir: 03_2012

Photos: Martina Nagel (football),
Gundolph Klaehn (marathon)
United through sport
28 Bonn and Eschborn-based colleagues formed a network
of a very special kind on 22 April in Bonn, when they joined
the 10,000 runners who took part in the Deutsche Post marathon.
All of the seven relay teams reached the goal tired, but
in good spirits. Managing Director and patron Hans-Joachim
Preuß joined the GIZ Sprinter team. After crossing the finish
line, the runners enjoyed a well-earned meal.
The GIZ football team are already planning their comeback
for next year: At the Bonn GIZ indoor football tournament on
17 March, the joint Eschborn and Bonn All Stars team had to
surrender to the BMZ team. Managing Directors Sebastian Paust
and Hans-Joachim Preuß also gave their best on the pitch.

in focus:
Better together
let’s talk
‘Under pressure we don’t cooperate as well’
With around 17,000 employees worldwide, GIZ has access to a wealth of knowledge and experience. Yet making the most of these
assets is not easy, since the complexity of the organisation is quite a challenge for cooperation. wir: editor Sandra Voglreiter spoke
to Annette Roth, Departmental Advisor in the Germany Department, Konrad De Bortoli, Portfolio Manager in Ghana, and Axel
Fastenau, Deputy Director of the Industrialised Countries Flexible Business Unit, about the factors that are vital to cooperation and
what still stands in the way of optimal cooperation now the merger has been completed.
wir: According to GIZ’s Corporate Principles, ‘we foster a culture of
cooperation within the company’. How close are we to reaching that goal?
De Bortoli: I think that the organisational units and the people who work
for them already cooperate fairly well. To me, cooperation often depends
on whether the units are communicating with each other, so I wouldn’t
necessarily consider that an aspect of internal cooperation. Where Germany
is concerned, though, my impression is that there are still many
separate entities. Some units still feel very committed to the old structures
and are rather hesitant to open up to the new organisation.
Fastenau: You need to look at why we’ve decided to focus on cooperation
now. All of us, whether we came from GTZ, DED or InWEnt, were
already used to cooperating closely with each other one way or another.
But I think that there’s still room for improvement within the new
organisation, for two reasons. First, the different cultures, which are so
diverse that people often use the same words to mean something completely
different. Second, the new organisational structure. It’s far more
complex than that of any of the predecessor organisations. I think we’re in
a situation where the responsibilities are not always clearly defined.
Roth: I’ve had positive experience of cooperating with other departments
and organisational units within GIZ. When we introduced DMS, for
instance, we worked very closely with Knowledge Management. Our
conviction – and a philosophy I personally believe in too – is that cooperation
creates added value. I think if we cooperate well, we benefit the entire
company, not just individual units.
Fastenau: You’re referring especially to cooperation between internal service
providers, such as the Legal Affairs and Insurance Unit or the Commercial
Affairs Department. They still need to perfect their cooperation to some
extent, but it’s a relatively unproblematic area. What’s more of an issue is
cooperation at the operational level; that is, between the classic regional
departments, the new flexible and specialised business units, and the
Germany Department. To some extent we’re witnessing an internal fight
for resources in these areas. And when you’re fighting for resources,
cooperation is going to be a challenge.
wir: What are the reasons for these internal struggles?
Fastenau: We’re still operating in a system where people are dealing with
contradictory messages and management systems. Operational units are
measured in terms of their contribution to growth. Management staff’s
agreed goals are often based on quantitative commission and income
targets. The amount of resources they receive depends on these targets, too.
This system is not always an incentive for these units to cooperate. In some
cases, the units prefer to avoid cooperating openly and instead present
others with a fait accompli. I hope that our strategic initiative
‘Cooperation for growth’ will address the problem.
De Bortoli: Rivalry is not really a problem for us in the field structure. Our
main problem is when it comes to cooperation with various organisational
units at the head offices. For instance, it’s hard for us to find out who to
talk to when there are administrative problems.
Fastenau: I wouldn’t say that’s a genuine cooperation problem though;
rather, the issue seems to be access to the right information. That’s a
process that is still ongoing. I do think, however, that there’s a willingness
to cooperate.
8 GIZ staff magazine | wir: 03_2012

Photos: Jörg Hilger and GIZ Ghana
A lively debate: Axel Fastenau and Annette Roth at the editorial team’s office in Eschborn, while Konrad De Bortoli in Ghana takes part by telephone.
wir: Would you all agree with that statement? That there’s a willingness
to cooperate?
De Bortoli: Definitely.
Roth: Yes. But to come back to the issue of competition. For me, the
question is what kind of behaviour is incentivised? What do I have to do to
gain recognition? Efforts to cooperate need to be rewarded appropriately.
And as for the somewhat vague definition of organisational unit responsibilities,
as a rule I think people do cooperate. But they need structures
that encourage them to do so. And that’s where management staff right up
to the section level come in. What message are they sending out to their
staff? Do they say, ‘Now off you go and don’t look left or right,’ or do they
say, ‘OK, goals agreed with employees are supposed to encourage cooperation
because we want the entire company to grow and develop’? Generally
speaking, I’ve found that when we’re under pressure, we don’t cooperate as
well.
wir: Let’s come back to the different corporate cultures you mentioned.
To what extent do they influence the willingness to cooperate?
De Bortoli: There’s no doubt that they do. Their influence is felt in our
day-to-day work in particular, for instance because we now have employees
working under widely varying contractual terms. Take the full integration
of development advisors, for instance. It requires enormous effort, it’s
difficult, and it’s hugely time-consuming. And as for cooperation, which
doesn’t just entail working together but actually producing results, we’re
not exactly very effective at the moment.
‘The fact is that the smaller
units are being absorbed into
the bigger ones.’
Fastenau: I agree with my colleague, but let me say one more thing about the
different cultures. The predecessor organisations had very different
approaches. GTZ had a far stronger focus on the division of labour. My staff
in Bonn tell me that InWEnt did things very differently. There, the units
were far more independent in managing their own affairs; some even took
care of their own financial management. This is influencing people’s willing-
ness to cooperate in that those employees for whom this pronounced
division of labour is new may think that some colleagues are capable of
cooperating while others aren’t – which is complete nonsense, of course.
De Bortoli: When I came from DED to GIZ I said to myself, I’m leaving a
medium-sized company and joining a large one. That will mean very
different processes and a completely different role for the organisational
units. The fact is that the smaller units are being absorbed into the bigger
ones, so there are some people who are accustomed to this environment and
others who aren’t. But I think that this isn’t as much of an issue for the units
‘out there’ as it is for the head offices.
Roth: To cooperate well you first need to know what the other party has to
offer, while those offering services have to be aware of what you need. To
work all that out, you need to spend some time, roll up your sleeves and
keep asking questions. Cooperation runs smoothly and will always do so if
you have confidence that it will work out, and if both parties respect each
other and can build on previous positive experience. That’s also a question of
attitude.
Fastenau: You’re right on all counts, but you also need something else. In all
instances of cooperation you need one lead person who moves the project
ahead. And I’ve observed something else, too. Since we started encouraging
more cooperation this year there are situations in which half the company
seems to have a say. And in my experience, the result of that is that everything
grinds to a halt. I don’t have to be involved in every single project that
I consider to be of interest. But I do need to be confident that I’m informed
in time about what’s going on.
wir: All three of you have come to GIZ from very different areas of the
company and have different perspectives. Mr De Bortoli, GIZ is a very
decentralised organisation. What’s the experience that you and your
colleagues in the field structure have of cooperation with Head Office?
De Bortoli: In my experience, GIZ is indeed very decentralised. We have
relatively large room for manoeuvre. What we urgently need is someone who
encourages better communication – and I deliberately say ‘communication’
– between the organisational units at the head offices. 30 people work here
in our office. When the day draws to a close, accounts have to be settled, cars
have to have been repaired and so on. I believe that all of that works best
when the responsibilities have been clearly assigned, rather than just sticking
to the same old processes because that’s the way it’s always been. We need to
look beyond our own horizons more often, ask questions, call people up, and
participate in developing and establishing new processes.
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine
9

in focus:
Better together
window to the world
wir: The flexible business units are new to GIZ, and we’ve
already established that learning from one another is
important for mutual understanding. What relationship do
you have with the rest of the organisation when it comes to
cooperation?
Fastenau: One of our main partners as far as new markets
are concerned is International Services. Our other major
cooperation partner is the specialised business unit German
Public Sector Clients. It’s our key account in new markets
whenever the German Government is involved. There
are other well-functioning cooperation partnerships with
the Sectoral Department, for instance in connection with
acquiring new business in the EU single market. Cooperation
with the Sectoral Department works so well that we
are already working together to adapt products that are
relevant to industrialised countries to these markets. You
can’t keep talking about development in the brochures for
these countries. The clients don’t appreciate that. We’re also
working well with the service departments.
‘We have repeatedly called
for more clearly defined
structures, roles and
interfaces.’
wir: And how about cooperation within the Germany
Department?
Roth: We have repeatedly called for more clearly defined
structures, roles and interfaces, something that we expect
will improve once the Management Board decision of 8 May
to strengthen the Department takes effect. Because that’s
what it’s all about – defining responsibilities more clearly
and simplifying processes. And even though there’s still some
room for improvement here and there, we’ve succeeded in
acquiring several interesting commissions. So the outlook is
bright, even though there’s still some work to be done, for
instance with integrated programming, which involves mainstreaming
the instrument in the programmes and projects.
Within the Department we also work closely together when
it comes to who does what during which phase of designing
and implementing HCD measures. You need to show an
interest in new things and stay flexible. And if you’ve already
worked together before, the cooperation project will go even
more smoothly.

‘Our thoughts can diverge and
still remain friends.’
thinking outside the box
Which pairs of images go together? It’s not immediately
obvious … Have fun with this ‘better together’ memory
test!
02
01
04
03
challenge us, and we think they’re reasonable and sensible. Yet having similar
views or even identical views doesn’t do much to help us push the boundaries
of our knowledge. We get much more stimulation from people who think
differently, yet they’re exactly the people we don’t like so much and with
whom we’re therefore more reluctant to cooperate. That’s one of the key
problems of cooperation.
05
Are there incentives, though, that can encourage us to cooperate?
Definitely. Corporate culture is a key factor. It’s vital to have a consensus
that cooperation is meaningful, especially where there are disagreements
and differences. It’s possible to achieve a lot in terms of cooperation by
means of guidelines and corporate principles, good role models among
senior managers, and management training, but some structures tend to
have a negative impact on cooperation. For example, the more you force
people to compete with each other – for pay, esteem or status – the more
rapidly cooperation will break down.
The Austrian experimental poet Ernst Jandl wrote that our thoughts can
diverge and still remain friends. That should underpin all our efforts. If we
can create a corporate culture that reflects that ideal, people will start trusting
each other. And then those who don’t want to cooperate will be carried along
by those who do.
06
07
08
Can you force people to cooperate?
Up to a point, yes, and it then becomes a duty, but that’s not usually enough.
Being forced to cooperate tends to lead to a situation in which everyone does
the bare minimum to create an impression of being cooperative, but it doesn’t
produce real cooperation. For there to be genuine cooperation, we need
people who think independently and see the bigger picture, who spot an
opportunity and seize it, who discover things and pass them on because they
realise that others will also find them helpful. And that isn’t something you
can simply tell people to do. You can create the structures that will encourage
it, but for genuine cooperation, you still need the right attitude.
10
09
Interview by Sandra Voglreiter
Contact: schollwo@cms.hu-berlin.de
Answers:
01/09: Raspberry ice-cream, 02/06: Ladybird, 03/08: Pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow, 04/07: Tea-bag, 05/10: Sherlock Holmes and the
magnifying glass
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine
11

around the world:
global round-up
New insurance against crop failure
Asia: In future, smallholder farmers in Asia should be able to use insurance
schemes to protect themselves from ruin in the event of losing
their harvest. The first policies will be available in Bangladesh, Cambodia,
India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. As a result,
approximately five million farms should benefit from greater financial
security. To achieve this, GIZ is cooperating, on behalf of BMZ, with the
insurance company Alliance Re and the Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation (SDC). Initially, the project is planned to run for three
years. It represents a new form of crop failure insurance. Cutting-edge
satellite technology and crop-growth models provide the data for accurate
harvest estimates, which are then used as the basis for calculating
possible losses and compensation payments. As GIZ’s Michael Roth,
who is responsible for developing and introducing the insurance system,
explains, ‘We don’t have much room for manoeuvre. The insurance has to
be affordable, yet at the same time it must protect people from sliding
into absolute poverty if they suffer losses.’
An important task for GIZ is to assist those responsible for the insurance
schemes in the project countries in developing the skills they need.
At the same time, we will support the approval process for the insurance
products within the relevant state authorities, and also provide the
population with plenty of information about the offer. ‘To run it,’ says
Roth, ‘we’ll work together with the responsible authorities, local insurance
companies, credit institutions and agricultural cooperatives.’ The
project partners also include Sarmap, the Swiss Earth observation service
provider, and the International Rice Research Institute, IRRI.

The Prince of Wales is patron of the Ashden Awards. Before
the ceremony, he met the award winners David Hancock
(left) and Oliver Haas.
Photo: Andrew Aitchison/Ashden Award
Photo: GIZ
Reading is healthy
New Delhi: On behalf
of BMZ, GIZ
is currently supporting
the Indian
Government in
its countrywide
programme of
slum redevelopment.
The aim
is to improve living conditions in existing settlements
that are inadequately supplied with utilities, while also
curbing the growth of new slums. A number of creative
measures are being introduced to achieve this. For
example, to help even the youngest residents to learn
about hygiene, the project has published a children’s
book, ‘Deepa and her Secret Place’. German Federal
Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development
Peter Ramsauer was introduced to the project when he
visited the Rangpuri Pahadi slum in the south of Delhi
in mid-April. He also distributed copies of the children’s
book.

around the world:
Migration
‘Triple Win’ plus one
Some countries don’t have enough jobs for their skilled workers, yet others – like Germany – face a
substantial skills shortage. It’s a whole new area of business that GIZ is now developing through
the Migration Flexible Business Unit.
Migration is a long-standing area of work for GIZ.
One of our specialised business units, the Centre
for International Migration and Development,
or CIM, has just celebrated its thirtieth anniversary,
yet the issues it deals with remain one of the major
challenges facing international cooperation in the future.
Experts believe that climate change will dramatically
increase migration, but many industrialised countries also
face a shortage of skilled labour because of demographic
trends, making this an economic problem. Observers
predict that by 2030, Germany will face a shortfall
of around two million graduates and a further two
million skilled workers. If the German economy is
not to suffer, these gaps will have to be plugged
promptly with labour from abroad. It’s also
essential, though, that we think about how
to integrate these workers into the German
labour market to ensure successful cooperation
between all those involved and guarantee that
everyone benefits – the skilled worker, his or
her country of origin, and the destination
country. This idea of a ‘win-win-win’ situation
is the thinking behind a pilot project, Triple
Win, developed by GIZ with the German
Federal Employment Agency. And it’s a model
for the future that offers potential benefits to
many different organisations: bodies needing
support in the area of migration of skilled
labour include not only the Federal Employment
Agency but a number of German Government
departments, including the Ministries of
Economics and Technology (BMWI), the Interior
(BMI), and Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), as well
as the European Commission.
‘Brain gain’, not ‘brain drain’
Migration is a very complex area. Every country has its
own legislation on immigration and rights of residence for
non-nationals. It’s also vital that incoming workers are well
prepared for their stay in the destination country; as well as
speaking the language, they need to integrate as smoothly as
possible in their new environment. And the principle is that
14 GIZ staff magazine | wir: 03_2012

In this intranet video, Adnan Softic describes his experiences with
Triple Win. Source: GIZ intranet
migration should bring a ‘brain gain’, not a ‘brain drain’;
incoming skilled workers and their countries of origin
should benefit in terms of personal skills and the long-term
transfer of knowledge between both sets of countries,
because migrants often return home after a period abroad
and put their new skills and contacts to use there.
A four-minute film on the Migration Unit’s intranet site
illustrates just how many aspects of international cooperation
are involved in the Triple Win project and the impressive
range of services that GIZ can call on to help meet this
challenge. The film shows Adnan Softic explaining that
there were no jobs for trained nurses in his country of
origin, Bosnia, but that a hospital in Frankfurt was short of
nurses with his skills. Triple Win brought the two together.
Adnan now has a well-paid job on an 18-month contract
and, he says, his family are ‘very proud that I am earning
my living in Germany, that I’m enjoying my job, and that
I have a better future.’
Another face you will see in the film is Dominik Ziller’s.
He heads the Migration Flexible Business Unit and is well
aware of GIZ’s strengths in this business sector. His team
doesn’t model migratory flows or apply such models; its
primary role is to stimulate demand for GIZ’s skills in the
area of migration and then to assemble attractive service
packages for potential clients as rapidly as possible. He sums
up the starting-point for his unit’s work: ‘We are a small
unit – just five people – but we draw on GIZ’s accumulated
expertise and decades of experience of migration. The main
thing is that we know who to go to for information and
advice and can be confident that we’ll get reliable answers.’
He’s enthusiastic about his experiences so far: ‘I used to
work for BMZ rather than for one of GIZ’s predecessor
organisations, so perhaps I have less baggage than other
people, but I have to say I’m impressed by how well
individual units support each other. The vast majority of
our colleagues are very cooperative, and we’re making good
progress.’
Vacancies ... filled
If a potential commissioning party wants to identify countries
that could supply the skilled workers it needs, Ziller’s
team approaches the relevant regional department and uses
GIZ’s global network of contacts in embassies, ministries,
official agencies and chambers of commerce. If a client
wants advice on the legislation relating to immigration and
residence, the unit can call on experts within CIM and the
sector project on migration. If migrant workers need
language training or skills development training, GIZ’s
skills in human capacity development and its regional
centres can help. And Ziller can offer GIZ’s experience
with alumni networks to foster the long-term networking
of skilled workers that underpins knowledge transfer and
economic cooperation between partner countries.
‘The German Federal Employment Agency has been
working with GIZ for many years and it knows our
strengths,’ says Dominik Ziller. ‘Our aim is to work with
the Agency to extend the Triple Win project beyond the
four pilot countries,’ – Albania, Bosnia, Indonesia and
Viet Nam – ‘and it will be a huge step forward if we can
increase the numbers of skilled workers beyond the project
parameters.’ However, Ziller’s team is also involved in
ensuring that Triple Win is
on the agenda in discussions
with other interested parties
at specialised meetings and
conferences, and the response
is good. Discussions
are currently under way
with the German Federal
Foreign Office on a
potential joint project to offer new opportunities to
Tunisian engineers after the revolution in their country.
The idea is to bring them to Germany to promote knowledge
transfer between the two countries. BMZ is also now
using GIZ advisory services to help develop a portal for
skilled workers. In Brussels, GIZ is supporting the European
Commission in the area of mobility partnerships. ‘It all
goes to show what excellent prospects GIZ has in the whole
area of migration,’ says Ziller, ‘and we’ll be developing that
potential through outstanding project work.’ That will be a
challenge to all concerned but offers a further advantage –
‘Triple Win plus one’, as it were – in the shape of further
growth for GIZ. And Ziller says he’s ‘really not interested
in who has opened up what opportunity or promoted
this or that. In the end, success relies on us all pulling
together.’ Migration
(currently German only)
‘We can draw on GIZ’s
accumulated expertise
in migration.’
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine
15

around the world:
0° 18’ N | 32° 38’ E
29° S | 24° E
United to prevent
conflicts over water
Southern Africa
T
he team of the BMZ-funded programme ‘Transboundary water
management in the SADC region’ has landed two new cofinancing
deals, one worth around EUR 13.5 million with AusAID, the
Australian Agency for International Development, and another
for EUR 19.5 million with the United Kingdom’s Department for International
Development (DFID). The GIZ programme is supporting the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) and its 15 member states
in setting up mechanisms to eliminate the potential causes of conflict
over vital, shared water resources, before such conflicts escalate. In
practice, that involves developing and advising river basin organisations,
under whose auspices the states with a stake in the rivers can
make decisions on collective, transboundary water management plans.
In addition to this, the programme is also helping to establish and
strengthen water authorities, and is involved in strategic development
partnerships with municipal authorities and the private sector. ‘These
cofinancing arrangements demonstrate the excellent reputation GIZ’s
work has among international donors,’ says Programme Manager Horst
Vogel. ‘And thanks to the additional funds, we can now achieve much
broader impact.’

gallery:
5pictures
1
2
3
Have a break! There’s something for everyone among
the pictures you sent in for our ‘lunch break’ theme. In
New Delhi, five staff enjoy each other’s company over a
sandwich and a cup of tea, while their colleagues relax
with a round of table football. At the German Academy
for International Cooperation in Bad Honnef, the staff
spend their midday break together with course participants
in the shade of the old trees in the garden.
In Feldafing, lunch on a park bench overlooking Lake
Starnberg and the Alps provides a great way to switch
off for a while.
A rickshaw driver in Singapore inspired a colleague from
Bonn – he really has put his feet up, though he’s ready
to set off at a moment’s notice.
4
5 pictures shows everyday scenes from GIZ’s work. On
the German intranet, you can find a gallery with all the
pictures we received.
Unternehmen > Aktuelles > Mitarbeiterzeitschrift >
wir: Fünf Bilder
5
01 Tushita Mukherjee, New Delhi,
India
02 Tushita Mukherjee, New Delhi,
India
03 Kirsten Freimann, Bad Honnef,
Germany
04 Stefanie Zeiss, Feldafing,
Germany
05 Daniela Paffenholz, Singapore
For the next issue, we’d like you to send us your pictures
to do with the theme ‘encounters’. An image that
captures an encounter at a workshop; a picture of the
street vendor you often buy things from, or a shot of a
strange animal that crossed your path on the way into
the office: who do you meet during your working day?
We’re looking forward to receiving your photos at:
interne-kommunikation@giz.de
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine 17

inside
staff
GIZ:
stories
New Management Board from 1 July 2012
Photo: GIZ
Photo: GIZ
Photo: GIZ
Photo: GIZ
Photo: Thomas Ecke
Tanja Gönner
Christoph Beier Tom Pätz
Hans-Joachim Preuß Cornelia Richter
The GIZ Supervisory Board appointed
the company’s new Management Board
at its meeting on 23 April. Tanja Gönner,
Member of the State Parliament of
Baden-Württemberg and a former state
minister, has been appointed Chair of the
Management Board. Christoph Beier is to
remain Vice-Chair. Board Members Tom
Pätz and Hans-Joachim Preuss will also
retain their seats. Cornelia Richter, Director
General of GIZ’s Sectoral Department,
has been newly appointed to the Board.
The new executive body will take office
on 1 July 2012. ‘I appreciate the trust
the Supervisory Board has placed in me
and look forward to this fresh challenge,’
commented Tanja Gönner. ‘I will be working
with the Management Board to make
the company one of the world’s leading
providers of international cooperation
services while addressing new challenges
in the field of universal access to energy,
climate change mitigation and adjustment
to climate change. I know I can build on
a very solid foundation with a skilled and
highly committed workforce.’

The bids are in to host
the Green Climate Fund
Bonn: On 22 May, under the slogan ‘Turning vision into impact’, Germany
launched its campaign to be chosen as the seat of the Green Climate Fund.
Federal Minister Dirk Niebel introduced the campaign film and opened a
touring exhibition entitled ‘Climate – Change – Minds’. The exhibition
contains works by 11 artists who address different aspects of climate change
in different ways. In front of about 200 guests, including delegates from the
UN climate negotiations taking place in Bonn at the same time, and other
representatives of business, politics and civil society, Niebel said: ‘We want
to promote a paradigm shift towards low-emission, climate-resistant development.’
Climate expert Klaus Töpfer added: ‘We must turn the vision of
low-carbon development into reality.’ The decision to establish a fund was
taken during the UN Climate Conference in 2010, and was then worked out
in more detail at the follow-up conference in Durban. The fund is intended
to pay for greenhouse gas reduction and climate change adaptation measures in
developing and emerging countries. GIZ AgenZ is helping the German Government’s
task force to develop and implement the campaign. Whether Bonn will
become the location of the Green Climate Fund or not will be decided at the
next UN Climate Conference in Qatar in November 2012.

inside GIZ:
How we achieve results
GIZ’s integrated results model is suitable for all business areas and all stages of planning and implementation, from the preparatory
stage right through to project evaluation
If you ask Andrea Winter from the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit
why the company hasn’t just carried on using its old results model,
she grins and answers by asking a question of her own: ‘Which
model would that be, then? DED’s? InWEnt’s? Or GTZ’s?’ She has
a point: each of GIZ’s three predecessor organisations had its own model.
And German public sector client business and the work of GIZ International
Services were different again. ‘That alone was a good reason for us
to work together on an integrated model,’ says Winter, who used to work
for DED.
Michael Gajo, who heads the Decentralised Monitoring and Evaluation
Systems Section, says that the GIZ integrated results model is not
completely new, though: ‘It builds on earlier models but improves on key
aspects.’ Gajo is a member of a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit team that
includes colleagues from all three predecessor organisations and has led
the development of the new results model. ‘It was very helpful that we’d
all previously been dealing with the issues in our separate units. We knew
each other and trusted each other from the beginning, so we were able
to bring our knowledge of different areas to our work on the model. And
that made it much easier to devise an improved results model for units
right across the company,’ says Gajo.
For complex projects or programmes, the results model represents the
coordinated use of GIZ instruments and their interaction much more
clearly (see below, ‘The integrated results model: a sample project’). And
that, according to Tanja Baljkovic, a former project leader with InWEnt,
‘means that it better reflects the reality of projects. That’s crucial for integrated
programming involving GIZ’s new range of instruments.’ People
aren’t used to the greater flexibility the integrated results model offers at
project level, but that often produces interesting discussions, as Heidi
Gutsche and her staff and partners found when they trialled it. Gutsche
heads the peacebuilding project in Nepal, which GIZ is implementing on
behalf of BMZ. She says, ‘When we revised our results structure, we had
long and detailed discussions about the assumptions underpinning what
we were doing.’ The process of change into which the project strategy fits
was a priority, she says, and ‘the integrated results model also highlights
dependencies and risks, which makes it possible to have an informed
discussion about setting ambitious but realistic goals.’ Consultations with
the Nepali Government were scheduled for early June. Norway is also
involved in funding the project and is considering extending its current
cofinancing arrangements. Heidi Gutsche finds the new results model useful
in illustrating the future of the project to the various parties involved.
Over the coming months, the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit will
be developing a range of guidelines and tools and integrating the model
into further planning and commission management processes. ‘We’re
introducing the results model to sector networks and GIZ offices, too,
and we’re working on training and e-learning provision,’ notes Gajo. The
team is currently building up a pool of experienced consultants who can
help implement the model in project work. From October, the integrated
results model will be used for commission management in all business
with BMZ. Strategische Orientierung >
Qualität, Wirkung und Evaluierung > Wirkungsmodell
Curricula
in place
SECTORAL ADVICE +
EDUCATION WORK
AMA / HCD
Ministry drafts vocational
training legislation
POLICY ADVICE
AV
▼
▼
▼
Training centre
uses curricula
Ministry sets up training
centre for vocational
school teachers
STAFF PLACED
IF-CIM
SECTORAL ADVICE
NAT. FK
▼
20
GIZ staff magazine | wir: 03_2012

Boost to
economic
growth
▼
▼
More businesses become
employers of vocational
trainees
▼
Company
productivity
increases
Household
income
increases
▼
Youth
unemployment
decreases
▼
▼
▼
Other vocational schools
adopt vocational training
model
Vocational training
legislation adopted
and implemented
▼
▼
Companies’ demand
for labour
increases
▼
OBJECTIVE
▼
▼
Jobs
are available
▼
Companies
train
trainees
▼
Young trained workers
find
suitable jobs
▼
▼
Vocational school teachers
receive high-quality
training
▼
▼
Trained workers
available to
labour market
▼
AMA
HCD
AV
Nat. FK
IF-CIM
EH
= seconded expert
= human capacity development
= officer responsible for the commission
= national expert
= CIM integrated expert
= development advisor
SECTORAL ADVICE +
EDUCATION WORK
▼
▼
▼
Vocational schools offer
vocational training
courses
Vocational schools
use
curricula
SECTORAL ADVICE
NAT. FK
STAFF SECONDED
EH
▼
AMA / HCD
▼
▼
▼
▼
Vocational schools have
the necessary technical
equipment
Curricula
liegen vor
SECTORAL ADVICE
AMA + HCD
FUNDING
SUPPLY OF MATERIALS
Vocational schools
have qualified
managers
EDUCATION WORK +
STAFF SECONDED
HCD / EH
The integrated results model:
a sample project
Lower youth unemployment, more productive companies and a
boost to national economic growth are all classic ‘overarching
development objectives’ for a vocational training project,
but to what extent, and how, do individual project activities
and instruments help achieve these results?
The advantage of the integrated results model is that
the use of instruments can be planned and managed more
strategically. The model also provides a realistic representation
of how individual activities interact and can affect each
other’s results. For example, vocational schools cannot offer
skills training until curricula have been developed, but the
national Ministry of Education can be given advice on drawing
up vocational training legislation while, at the same time,
a training centre is developed with the support of an integrated
expert. However, the project has only limited influence
on whether companies in the country really to do go on to
train young people.
The area shaded green in the diagram shows precisely
what results the project can achieve with the services it has
available and makes these clear to all involved – including
the commissioning party.
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine 21

inside GIZ:
The Regional Centre has gained a
lot of experience with migration
through projects such as ‘Afrika ist
auch in Bremen’ (Africa comes to
Bremen). The project aims to draw
attention to the African diaspora
and their potential both for Bremen
and the countries of origin.
behind the scenes
Photo: Sandra Voglreiter
Photo: GIZ Bremen
Katrin Gerhard, Birgit Trusch,
Christel Schipmann, Margit
Leising-Felzmann, Stefanie
Donker-Tsibu and Martin
Foth-Feldhusen.
Full speed ahead
The Regional Centres are GIZ’s ‘feelers’ in each of Germany’s federal states. Cooperation between the
federal state and municipalities has long been a tradition in Bremen.
Hanse, Handel, Hafen – these three words (meaning
‘Hansa’, ‘trade’ and ‘harbour’) run through Bremen’s
entire history and today serve as key components of
the work carried out by Martin Foth-Feldhusen and
his team. The Regional Centre in Bremen has more than 20
years’ experience in maritime industry and ecology, which
includes coastal zone management, harbour development
and logistics.
The Regional Centres’ strengths lie in further education,
training and dialogue events; in other words: knowledge
transfer, networks and cultural exchange. The Bremen team’s
main client is the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. GIZ has
been organising the city’s climate partnership with Durban
(Bremen’s partner city in South Africa) since 2011. The aim
is to develop measures for adapting to climate change by
means of dialogue and exchanging knowledge. From 2009
to 2012, the Regional Centre also coordinated USA-themed
activities in the region and organised events, presentations
and panel discussions through the Bremen United States
Center. ‘We have established numerous contacts in the
USA through this work and are currently considering
which GIZ services might be interesting for our partners
there,’ says Foth-Feldhusen.
An important task is making potential clients
aware of GIZ’s range of services, which has grown
due to our broader corporate purpose. In addition,
the centre’s six staff are currently working
intensively on presenting their product portfolio
to their colleagues in an expanded GIZ. They
cooperate closely with the regional depart-
ments and the relevant divisions in the Sectoral Department,
and are adding German and global clients as well as specialised
expertise to their product portfolio. ‘We are now working
together to identify potential for further programmes,’
explains Foth-Feldhusen.
July 2011 saw the launch of a new coastal zone management
project. The Regional Centre developed this product
together with a team from the Rural Development and Agriculture
Division in the Sectoral Department. The head of the
Regional Centre in Bremen recently took part in a planning
mission in Mexico focusing on protected marine areas. ‘It was
great that our colleagues from the Sectoral Department were
so open and interested,’ says Foth-Feldhusen. ‘This project will
also have an integrated human capacity development component.’

Ten years of GIZ
As it celebrates its tenth anniversary, GIZ’s commercial arm –
International Services – looks back over a successful decade
and a few ups and downs along the way.
Mr Kleiner, you were involved in building up IS right from the start. How
would you sum up the last ten years?
Testing GIZ in the market was a great time. We’ve had problems, ups and
downs, but we’ve managed to achieve positive results throughout our first
decade. We’re seeing a growing number of commissions and a higher total
output, and that’s down to our great staff, great ideas and, of course, great
clients.
So what have been the most difficult times?
It’s always difficult when IS posts a negative operating result at the end of the
year. That’s happened twice. The first time was in the very early days, when
we weren’t really sure what sort of business IS was attracting. The second
time was in 2008, when we had to deal with wildly fluctuating exchange
rates. We’ve now put mechanisms in place to protect us against that happening
again.
And what have been your major successes?
Winning a commission is an unbeatable feeling and it spurs us on even more.
And of course, there have been some high points – large and attractive commissions
like the university construction programme in Ethiopia, high-volume
commissions in Brussels, and medium-volume commissions in many other
countries. That’s what’s really great about IS – winning out over our competitors
time after time.
Commission
volume of EUR
2.6 billion over
ten years •
First year: EUR
170.8 million;
2011: EUR 252
million • Ten
offices around
the world: Abu
Dhabi, Addis
Ababa, Ankara,
Belgrade,
Brussels,
Jakarta, Kabul,
Moscow, New
Delhi and Riyadh
• Around
1,700 projects
over ten years.
The single
highest-volume
project was the
University Capacity
Building
Programme (UCBP) in
Ethiopia, worth EUR 42.5
million • Largest clients: the
Governments of Ethiopia
and Saudi
Arabia and
international organisations
including the European
Union and the
United Nations
• Originally 264
staff in Germany and
abroad; by early 2012,
379 employees plus
976 national personnel
• Most recent commissions:
Guinea,
India and China
• October 2003
and March
2005: former
German Chan- cellor Gerhard
Schröder visi- ted IS projects
in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait •
March 2008: Crown Princess
Victoria of Sweden was briefed on
a project in Abu Dhabi
Before he helped set up IS, Elmar Kleiner had a number
of responsibilities, including heading the economic and
social policy division of what is now our Sectoral Department.
When Martin Hansen takes over as IS Director
General on 1 July, Elmar Kleiner will be returning to the
job he originally trained for in development economics.
IS’s experience of tapping into new markets and new business areas is now
potentially of benefit right across GIZ, given our broader corporate purpose.
What do you feel you can contribute to developing the public-benefit
business?
The most important thing I can say is that you need to proceed cautiously
and to think carefully about the direction you’re taking. That way, you can
avoid having too many flops and excessive costs. IS has taught us to act cautiously
in the market so that what we do will be efficient in business terms.
And when you’re competing against other organisations, you need stamina
and you have to remember that knock-backs are a normal part of business.
And what can IS learn from the public-benefit business?
Basically, IS sells the models, experience, presence and networks of the public-benefit
part of the business. We wouldn’t exist without the public-benefit
business, so you could say we exist in a solid symbiotic relationship.

inside GIZ:
Living the Corporate Principles
Going the extra mile
GIZ gives advice worldwide on sustainability.
But how responsible is it in its own use
of resources?
Katrin Gothmann switches off her electric bike, grabs the lithium ion
battery for recharging and heads for the showers. This is how she
begins her typical work day. Except when she’s on a business trip
or when the temperature drops below minus five degrees. ‘Then
it’s just too cold and too slick for the nearly 15-kilometre journey,’ she says,
smiling on this clear spring day. As a Senior Planning Officer in the Competence
Centre for Environment, Resource Efficiency, Waste Management, she
is personally very committed to sustainable mobility: ‘I’m very pleased that
I work for an organisation that has sustainability as our guiding principle.
Especially when it means that we not only advise others, but actually live it
ourselves. We’re already doing quite well, but we could do even better.’
The last sentence is all too familiar to Roger Wolf, who works three
doors down from Gothmann. As the Environmental Affairs Manager,
he not only hears it more often, but he also uses it as a personal mantra.
After all, his work is measured against the quantitative objectives of GIZ’s
environment programme: 10% less waste, electricity and heat energy use,
5% less paper and drinking water use, and achieving climate neutrality
– that is, completely offsetting the carbon emissions of the entire organisation.
GIZ’s first corporate life cycle assessment, which was prepared by the
Environment Affairs Managers at all German locations in 2011, provides
the base values for achieving these goals, which have intentionally been
set high. ‘We want to be EMAS-certified next year,’ explains Wolf. EMAS
stands for ‘Eco-Management and Audit Scheme’. It is a more ambitious
system in comparison with the International Environmental Standard ISO
14001. ‘If we want to be the leading service provider in sustainable development
worldwide, our own environmental management must be viewed
as exemplary,’ stresses the Environmental Affairs Manager, again keeping
with the theme of doing better.
It is only fitting that the Management Board appointed Bernd Schleich
as the Chief Sustainability Officer in May. His unit, which will also be
home to the Environmental Affairs Manager, is to ensure coherence both
internally and externally with regard to all sustainability issues at GIZ.
‘Our mission will be to coordinate and promote the various aspects of
sustainability in the organisation so that by 2013, we have a reporting
system that complies with all significant international standards,’ explains
Schleich. ‘Be it the UN Global Compact, where GIZ has been reporting
as a member since 2004, the Global Reporting Initiative, or the still young
but extremely important German Sustainability Code, we will strive for
compliance just as we are for EMAS.’ And of course Gothmann welcomes
this development: ‘For me, this is a clear indication that the organisation is
serious about its Corporate Principles.’
‘I expect that we will see more commitment in terms of sustainability
than ever before, for example, as regards the food we eat in the cafeteria.
Leave the car at home! Katrin Gothmann
sets out almost every morning on her
bicycle.
I also hope that we, as an organisation and as individuals, will now become
more aware of the many ways in which we can act sustainably.’
On the Environmental Affairs Manager’s intranet site, there are already
guidelines on working in an environmentally-friendly way with regard to
saving paper and energy, reducing waste, green procurement, sustainable
event management and operational environmental management in the field
structure. The site also showcases a range of awards, including first place
for GIZ’s ‘outstanding commitment to environmental performance in the
office’, the international training centre in Feldafing’s third certification
as an ECOPROFIT business for 2011–2012, and the award for the Most
Bicycle-Friendly Employer in Germany. In addition, the site also mentions
the organisation’s own electric filling stations for solar cars and electric
bicycles. There are a number of environmental activists working for GIZ –
but there could be even more. Environmental Affairs Manager
intranet: Our company > Company-wide roles > Chief Sustainability Officer
Better together: Three simple tips
anyone can follow to contribute to
GIZ’s environmental goals
• Turn off your PC monitor during your lunch break because the
standby mode consumes energy. When you leave the office,
turn off your computer, screen and printer.
• Set your standard printer to print double-sided. Simply click
the Windows start button, then Devices and Printers > rightclick
on the default printer > Printing Preferences > set layout
to double-sided printing > OK. You can override this setting for
future print jobs if needed.
• Don’t use paper cups; bring a mug to the coffee machine.
Photo: Dirk Ostermeier
24
GIZ staff magazine | wir: 03_2012

Data protection in DMS
‘As public as possible and as secure as necessary’
Illustration: Fotolia
Paper documents – they’re already consigned to history, aren’t they? In
the age of the World Wide Web, electronic filing systems have long
been a part of office life. However, while this may be good for the environment
because it saves such a lot of paper, it brings with it another
kind of threat. Whereas before you could simply lock up any sensitive files in
a filing cabinet, with electronic filing systems, such as the Document Management
System (DMS) used by GIZ, protecting your data isn’t that simple.
As Melanie Seegräf from the Competence Centre for Information and
Knowledge Management, and GIZ’s DMS officer, explains: ‘In a knowledgebased
company like GIZ, it’s essential that all colleagues working on a particular
task should be able to access the relevant working documents as easily as possible,
including commission documents such as offers and reports, and other information
related to the processes and instruments.’ While striving to provide this
access, GIZ pursues a policy of: ‘as public as possible and as secure as necessary’.
‘As secure as necessary – that’s something we have to take seriously,’ says
Seegräf. ‘No manner of personal data should ever be stored in generally
accessible, public repositories.’ The German Federal Data Protection Act
also contains some explicit rules on that. DMS uses the ‘secure folders’ as its
solution. These are where, for example, you should keep telephone directories
for emergencies, information about consultants, CVs, staff assessment
and development talk forms, birthday lists and absence lists. ‘The colleagues
who work with these kinds of documents are also responsible for filing them
properly,’ Seegräf explains. To ensure nothing goes wrong, the data protection
and DMS officers have put together a set of guidelines with tips and
advice for your practical work. Seegräf is confident that ‘if you stick to the
basic rules described in the guidelines, your data will be as secure as it would
be in a good, old-fashioned filing cabinet with a padlock.’ Unternehmenskommunikation >
Downloads > Data protection in DMS.pdf
List of contacts for your questions about DMS:
Unternehmensweit > 7_Prozesse und Instrumente > OuR > Wissens- und
informationsmanagement > Dokumentenmanagement > 2011-10-04 DMV
liste.DOCX
i’d say ...
Gurke probably knows his way around GIZ in Berlin better than anyone else. The dog and his master, Micha Schwabel, have spent the last five years
supplying the technology for meetings. Gurke doesn’t really like change, but it’s all around him and he has to confront it every day – in Berlin’s cityscape,
in nature, and at GIZ. We eavesdrop on his thoughts.
Illustration: cmuk
Well, that’s a good
start to the day:
we have to get
up at six, half an
hour earlier than
usual, and all because
there’s always building
work going on
somewhere in Berlin
and we get caught up in
traffic jams. But Micha’s
got a job on at GIZ and
we must be on time. As we
travel in to work, it strikes me again that Berlin
really is a city of change. Every day, there’s something
new, whether it’s the range of fizzy drinks
at the convenience store round the corner or the
lady who serves us at the bakery, never mind the
fashions that the people on the street are wearing.
It’s very tiring having to adjust to change
all the time! By the evening, I’m exhausted. If
you ask me, it’s bad enough having to cope with
the changing seasons. It’s spring, then summer,
and then autumn, winter and spring again. It’s
cold, then it’s hot. It’s dry, then it’s wet. Oh well,
at least the temperature in the GIZ building is
always comfortable. Once I get there, I can have a
nice long snooze. I’ve sat in on so many meetings,
I don’t take much interest in what they have
to say these days. Mind you, something funny’s
been going on lately. There are a lot more people.
One man’s even taken my favourite chair. What
a cheek! Now where am I supposed to relax?
They’re discussing new things, too. I’ve no idea
what international leadership training is, but it
sounds quite interesting! What? Is the meeting
over already? Have I been listening the whole
time? While Micha clears the microphones away,
I look out of the picture windows to Piano See
lake outside. The reeds are a tender green, the sky
is bright blue, and the water lilies are just bursting
into deep pink bloom. I love colours. Perhaps
everything would be grey the whole time if we
didn’t have different seasons … Ah, home again!
I’m exhausted but also strangely contented. I’d say
… maybe change isn’t such a bad thing after all.
Anna-Lisa Zug recorded Gurke’s thoughts for us
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine
25

inside GIZ:
1° 17’ S | 36° 49’ E
In the Treasury:
Arne Främk provides
advice on transparent
and goal-oriented
approaches to public
financing.
a change of scenery
Photo: Maria Schuster
A spot of good housekeeping …
As GIZ advisor in Kenya’s Ministry of Finance, Arne Främk can be more innovative than he could in his previous job with the
German Bundestag’s budget committee.
The key to Kenya’s public coffers is kept somewhere on the 13th floor.
The Treasury, as the Ministry of Finance is also officially known, has
been Arne Främk’s workplace since November 2011. From his office
window he has a view of the Nairobi skyline.
‘It’s the same, age-old conflict you get in every country,’ Främk explains.
‘The objective of the Ministry of Finance is to present as balanced a budget
as possible – which means spending as little as possible. But the sector ministries
all feel their areas of work are important and that they should be allocated
plenty of money. Negotiating these different interests – dipping into
the coffers – is what the national budget is all about.’ Främk, 34 years old,
works for the BMZ-financed Programme to Support Public Finance Reforms
in Kenya. The main focus of his advisory activities is supporting transparent
and target-oriented budget processes.
Arne Främk’s own personal passion is programme budgeting. ‘We haven’t
even introduced that in Germany yet. But here am I, playing a part in
making sure the mixture of presenting the budget in a traditional way with
budget items, and breaking it down into programmes succeeds.’ The budget
Going places – staff appointments
Every time wir: goes to print there are on average 150 new
appointments and relocations to report. On the German intranet
you’ll find a PDF with an overview of all the changes – you can
print it out, read it, save it, or pass it on to colleagues. Mitarbeiterzeitschrift > wir: Personalien
expert is obviously pleased. Unlike the ‘traditional’ presentation of budget
items, in which funds are simply allotted for specific purposes and nothing is
said about the results of the expenditure, in programme budgeting, indicators
are set, against which it is possible to measure policy impacts in real
terms.
Främk studied political sciences and began working in PR for the Bundestag
while still a student. He then spent six years as an advisor to a member
of parliament and as a consultant in the budget committee. ‘My work at the
interface between parliament and government stands me in good stead here,
because the negotiation process between institutions doesn’t work in Kenya
yet.’ He didn’t find it hard to leave the job in the Bundestag which he’d liked
so much. On the contrary, he went out specifically looking for a new challenge.
‘I wanted to use the things I’d learned about public finances and political
relationships in the Bundestag, in a new position,’ Främk remembers.
‘At the same time, I wanted to work abroad, which was something I hadn’t
done before. GIZ seemed an obvious choice. Change is just a part of my life;
I always need new challenges, and my new job is full of those.’
Besides the many larger and smaller changes to his daily routine, the job
with GIZ has also opened up new prospects for Främk’s future. ‘I can now
very easily imagine staying in the field of international cooperation. But for
the time being, I’m just looking forward to the years I’ll spend here.’ One
thing’s for sure: his work with the Kenyan Treasury won’t cease to be exciting
any time soon.

to finish:
have your say
‘Credibility means leading by example’
Have you been moved by an article? Or is there something you
don’t like about wir:? Write and tell us what you think:
interne-kommunikation@giz.de
Dear colleagues, I’d like to say thank you for all the feedback I received
on my article in the second issue of wir: about my experiences with
burnout. It also takes courage to write such responses. Courage, willingness
to take a risk, personal commitment and openness – these are all
things included in our own Corporate Principles, and they are qualities
we expect our partners around the world to demonstrate, often at times
of profound and precarious change. Credibility means leading by example;
being the first to take the necessary steps. I’m glad that I published the
article. I didn’t receive any negative responses from my colleagues – no
cold-shoulder treatment, and certainly no reproaches. I’ve seen lots of
signs that my article has encouraged others too to face up to the problem.
At least a few people seem to have overcome their reluctance, and
are actively looking for help. | Rolf-Peter Mack
I find the content of the magazine really good and interesting. But I’m
not so happy with the layout. The headlines are too large, the empty
space at the top is just wasteful, and many of the pictures and illustrations
are too big. That’s probably what’s bulked out the format so
much. I find it cumbersome and unpractical, both for reading while on
the move and for filing away. The actual font size in the text is good.
In that respect, you’ve avoided the minimalist mania of many other
magazines. | Hans Pfister
info:
Updated design guidelines for BMZ are
now available
In April, new BMZ corporate design requirements were introduced for
use in Germany. The rules apply to the entire visual presentation of
BMZ. They range from the positioning of the logo to the layout of
covers and inside pages, for print publications and other media.
Additionally, the ‘Future-makers’ logo must also be used in all
media, in combination with the BMZ logo. The new guidelines are
binding for all publications produced by GIZ in the context of its
commissions on behalf of BMZ in Germany. You can find the BMZ
design guidelines in the GIZ Corporate Design Center:
http://cdc.giz.de/
Contact: corporatedesign@giz.de
New email address for
Internal Communications
The Internal Communications team has a wide range of tasks,
whether it’s editing wir: and the company-wide News on the
intranet, or providing communications advice. We now have a new
email address where you can send your stories, make suggestions
or give us feedback:
interne-kommunikation@giz.de
The new magazine is a success, and it really makes you want to read
it. Its predecessor often used to lie around in my office before landing
unread in the bin. The articles were mostly too long and I missed the
people behind the work and the results they achieved. However, I also
have a problem with the format of the printed edition. Because I find
the content so interesting, I want to read wir: when I’m on the train,
which would be more practical in a traditional A4 format. | Elfi Kolmar
Contact: interne-kommunikation@giz.de
You can find more comments about wir: on the German intranet:
Unternehmen > Aktuelles > Mitarbeiterzeitschrift > wir: Forum
PUBLISHED BY:
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RESPONSIBLE:
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EDITORIAL TEAM: Irene Genzmer (IG),
Roland Großmann (RG), Jörg Hilger (JHi),
Sandra Voglreiter (SV)
EDITORIAL SUPPORT: Tabata Kunze (TK),
Claudia Schülein (CS), Tanja Stumpff (TS),
Anna-Lisa Zug
Articles written by named authors do
not necessarily reflect the views of the
editors.
wir: is published by Corporate Communications
every two months. Issue 4 will be
published at the beginning of September.
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
GIZ Language Services
CONCEPT: GIZ Internal Communications;
Zimmermann Editorial, Cologne
DESIGN/LAYOUT: cmuk, Wiesbaden
LITHO: Andreas Groß, Frankfurt
PRINTED BY: Heinrich Fischer
Rheinische Druckerei GmbH, Worms
wir: 03_2012 | GIZ staff magazine 27

in focus:
Facts and figures
Active in more than 130 countries
2 main offices in Germany
19 other locations in Germany
17,185 employees
994 development advisors
599 integrated experts
453 returning experts 1
‘It’s not the management, but the interaction of all the employees that determines
how well or how badly a company copes with the challenges posed by a
difficult market situation and uncertainty in the future. [...] The companies that
survive […] will not be those with the best individual talents, but the ones that
manage to get the entire team to work toward the common objective.’ These
are the words of Frank Schäfer in his book Erfolgreiche Kooperation in Unternehmen
(Successful cooperation in companies). 2
Achieving good company-wide cooperation is particularly difficult for enterprises
whose staff work all around the world. It’s a problem that GIZ also
faces, as the facts and figures listed here make clear.
In the wir:forum on the intranet, we’re asking for your opinions about cooperation.
How do you view the cooperation culture within GIZ? What best practices
can you share with us? Where do difficulties still exist? Join the discussion on
the German intranet:
Unternehmen > Aktuelles > Mitarbeiterzeitschrift > wir: Forum
1 All statistics as at 31 December 2011
2 Schäfer, Frank. Erfolgreiche Kooperation in Unternehmen. Warum wir heute mehr brauchen als gute Führungskräfte
(Successful cooperation in companies. Why we need more than good managers). Frankfurt/Main,
28 Campus-Verlag, 2009, Page 11.
GIZ staff magazine | wir: 03_2012