The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a global service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, with 25.422 employees. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, and peace and security. Our business volume is around 4 billion euros. As a public-benefit federal enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government – in particular the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – and many public and private sector clients in around 120 countries in achieving their objectives in international cooperation. With this aim, GIZ works together with its partners to develop effective solutions that offer people better prospects and sustainably improve their living conditions.
Bioeconomy is considered a sustainable economic activity based on biogenic raw materials (plants, animals, microorganisms) and the associated knowledge. Therefore it has enormous potential for a sustainable transformation of the global economic system.
The German development cooperation and GIZ, as the implementing organization for technical cooperation, are working to ensure that this transformation is sustainable, inclusive and fair. This applies to the production and use of biogenic raw materials in Europe and in partner countries, as well as the creation of fair framework conditions and fair compensation for bioeconomic value chains. The agricultural and food sector plays a central role in German development cooperation‘s partner countries in providing the resource base for the bioeconomy. German development cooperation and GIZ are committed to observe the “Food First” principle. It gives food security priority over other uses of biogenic raw materials. German development cooperation also pays attention to the protection of human rights and the sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystems within planetary boundaries. Only then, the change towards a sustainable bioeconomy can contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda and thus the SDGs.
The GIZ Sector Project Resilient Rural Areas (SP RLR) and predecessor projects supported the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for years in its development policy regarding bioeconomy. The core issue is to enable Germany’s partner countries to use the potential of the bioeconomy, e.g. for employment and income in rural areas, or for the transition to sustainable land use practices and a fair sharing of benefits for the local population. Furthermore, increasing advice to partner countries of German development cooperation on the development of bioeconomy strategies and their implementation can be expected. To this end, the SP is increasing exchange with technical cooperation projects in BMZ´s partner countries and involvement in international discussions as well as agenda setting on the topic.
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