The Deutsche Gesellschaft f”r Internationale Zusammenarbeit or GIZ is a German developmental organisation based in Bonn and Eschborn which mainly facilitates various international advancement projects around the world. By the union of three German international development organizations such as the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED), the Deutsche Gesellschaft f”r Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), and Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung (InWEnt), this organisation is formed. GIZ is founded to develop possible solutions to the challenging problems for its clients and partners. This agency provides international cooperative services for sustainable development and international education throughout the world. Since the starting of its endeavours, GIZ has been working on fields like education, employment, energy, environment, peace and security on a public benefit basis. This organisation is closely related to German Government, EU institutions, the UN where the civil society, businesses, research institutions and developmental policy making sectors are involved. GIZ is mainly commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), linked with other nationals and government organisations. As a representative of German Government, GIZ implements various developmental projects on behalf of BMZ.
GIZ operates in more than 130 nationals worldwide. Like many other countries, GIZ is also associated with Bangladesh. GIZ is being in a partnership with Bangladesh since the independence. On behalf of BMZ and with the inclusion of UK Government and Energising Development (EnDev) as donors, GIZ focuses on different programs of diverse areas yet principally aiming on the three most significant programmes in Bangladesh:
– Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency – Good Governance, Rule of Law, Human Rights; and – Adaptation to Climate Change in Urban Areas
About the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, GIZ is aiding the government of Bangladesh to be climate resilient nation undertaking the global Climate Finance Readiness Programme. Also, promoting sustainable supply and cautious consumption of energy, this organisation is working to ensure energy security, emission reduce, renewable energy sources
and improved livelihoods throughout the country. Meanwhile, to support the renewable energy and energy efficient measures, many solar energy plants have already been launched in Bangladesh rapidly than any other country in the world.
In addition, regarding the Good Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights, GIZ endorse the improvement of the justice system for the most susceptible members of the society and prevent corruption amongst public sectors. Besides, GIZ supports the equal rights for women and men to increase women’s engagement in the justice system and the workforce as well as workers’ rights, social and environmental safety in the factories of garments industry and make the workers to be aware of their rights and labour law. Citing the Bangladesh factsheet of GIZ, 2011-2014, 16,917 workers, supervisors and mid-level employees were trained on fire safety, of whom 5,272 (31 per cent) were female.
Similarly, since Bangladesh is a country that is severely being affected by the climate change and urban population, GIZ is focused on long term strategies to strengthen the provision of the vulnerable people as well as concentration to the negative aftermath of the climate change through their third project called Adaptation to Climate Change in Urban Areas. Working with the government, implementing national strategies regarding the climate change and to build a successful climate resilient country, GIZ has been assisting the Bangladeshi government with both national and international funds.
Apart from this three substantial projects, GIZ is already initiated its engagement into other areas to develop sustainable solutions. GIZ recently introduced several projects concentrating on reserving the ecosystem, training programmes for men and women to survive against natural disasters, generating employment, increase in income capacities and most significantly improving social and environmental standards in RMG factories in Bangladesh. These projects are procured based on the need and to fulfil GIZ 2030 agenda which is associated with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The core aspect of this future agenda links with world economy, social and environmental development goals. Also, for the first time, GIZ has embarked new strategies to alleviate poverty and sustainability that was absent before. Due to extensive international experience, strong position to deal with issues GIZ is a core partner executing the 2030 agenda.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals established by the Millennium Summit of the UN in 2000 dated to be achieved by 2015. All 191 member countries of UN and 22 international organisations were committed to help to attain these 8 goals by 2015. The MDGs is generally the result of the earlier development targets where the global leaders approved of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These 8 goals had particular and very specific targets which were designed to accelerate development and advancement in sectors like education, poverty alleviation and health. Following these one of the goals which is goal 3 was focused on promoting gender equality and women empowerment. Here goal no. 3 is being explained ‘
MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women ‘ Under this goal, there were only one target and that was to eradicate gender discrepancies in primary and secondary education system by 2005 and eradicate discriminations in all levels of education. The main features of this goal were
– Increase in the number of girls in school by 2015 compared to 2000, 103 girls enrolling in the school for every 100 boys in the Southern Asia, – Reduction in the proportion of women’s vulnerability in employment by 13 percent, – Achievements of women’s parliamentary position increased by nearly 100 percent in 174 countries, – Women’s participation rate in the paid work got increased from 35 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2015.
In addition, Bangladesh has successfully achieved MDGs for which it has been awarded UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Awards attaining the goal significantly. Bangladesh achieved this goal 3 through emphasising on the girl students and their education for free, exemption of tuition fees and introducing monthly scholarship in rural areas, decreasing gender disparities in all level of education, adoption of the National Policy for Women’s Advancement (2011), approval of certain programmes regarding sustainable development for women, increase in the women representatives in the parliament.
With the successful completion of the MDG goals within 2015, the global leaders of 193 countries came up with a new set of developmental goals in 2016 during a historic summit of UN congress that is dated to be achieved within 2030. This new set of goals are known as Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs that is comprised of 17 goals with 169 targets. SDG is the framework for global development after the MDGs or Millennium Development Goals. The SDG goal 1 and 17 are demonstrated here –
SDGl 1: No Poverty ‘ Between 1990 to 2015, extreme poverty dropped by more than half, meaning 1.9 billion to 850 million. Since 1990, extreme level of poverty has been eradicated which is a great achievement. Yet, more than 800 million people are still struggling and living less than $1.25 a day. Though rapid economic growth in countries like China and India has elevated people’s standard of living, still 80 percent of the people from South-Asia and SubSaharan African countries are living in extreme poverty. This poverty is not being able to alleviate radically due to food insecurity, climate change, unequal paid work. Therefore, this SDG 1 is focused on few key targets like ‘
– Building resilience for the vulnerable due to climatic disaster, – Significant mobilization of the resources, – Creating effective policies at the national and international level, – Increasing the equal access to the resources, – Achieving substantial coverage for the poor.
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals ‘ Through a strong cooperation and partnership all the 17 goals of SDG could be achieved within due time. The supports from development countries has risen by 66 percent between 2000 to 2014. However, many countries still require official developmental assistance for humanitarian crisis like conflicts and natural disasters. This goal is adopted to connect the North-South and South-South regions of the world in order to support the national plans to achieve the goal. Within its framework several targets are being taken which are
– Strengthening domestic resource mobilization in the developing countries through international assistance, – Implementation of the assistance commitments of the developed countries, – Assisting the developing countries to manage their debts,