03-wir-03-2012-english

Recommendations

Info

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.
Page 1 and 2: GIZ STAFF MAGAZINE 03 _ 2012 better
Page 3 and 4: 14 24 17 26 around the world: globa
Page 5 and 6: There it lies in the sun, a big gre
Page 7 and 8: Photos: Martina Nagel (football), G
Page 9 and 10: Photos: Jörg Hilger and GIZ Ghana
Page 11 and 12: ‘Our thoughts can diverge and sti
Page 13 and 14: The Prince of Wales is patron of th
Page 15 and 16: In this intranet video, Adnan Softi
Page 17 and 18: gallery: 5pictures 1 2 3 Have a bre
Page 19 and 20: The bids are in to host the Green C
Page 21: Boost to economic growth ▼ ▼ Mo
Page 25 and 26: Data protection in DMS ‘As public
Page 27 and 28: to finish: have your say ‘Credibi

03-wir-03-2012-english

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?