The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, one of Germany"s main development agencies, has been
cooperating with the African Union (AU) on behalf of the German Government since 2004. The GIZ AU Liaison Office actively
engages in about 20 supra-regional projects in 33 African countries. The main office of GIZ AU is located in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia with a number of offices in oth...
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, one of Germany"s main development agencies, has been
cooperating with the African Union (AU) on behalf of the German Government since 2004. The GIZ AU Liaison Office actively
engages in about 20 supra-regional projects in 33 African countries. The main office of GIZ AU is located in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia with a number of offices in other locations, including South Africa, Algeria, and Tanzania. GIZ cooperates with seven
of the eight AU departments, with a focus on the following five areas: (1) peace and security, (2) good governance and migration,
(3) regional economic integration, (4) education/youth/employment, and (5) agriculture and land governance. Many programmes
pursue a multi-level approach and work not only at the continental level but also at the regional and national level. Most
staff work in the respective offices while some are seconded to the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), including the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC)
and to 19 of the AU"s Member States. They strategise together with the respective partners on how to realise best and implement
continent-wide policies, agendas, protocols, and declarations. An important measure to create awareness and sensitise stakeholders
- ranging from (high-level) policymakers, legislators, representatives of the media, academia as well as the private sector,
and members of the civil society, including Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) - on relevant policy issues as well as facilitate
networking between these actors are virtual and physical/face-to-face dialogue events. Such exchanges can focus on a particular
country (national level), but also on specific regions or the continent (regional and continental level). The exchange formats
vary largely in format, length, and number of participants. Some GIZ projects organise up to 40 events per year, depending
on the requests and needs of partners and commissioning parties. Implementing such events, significantly larger face-to-face
events requires a lot of resources and coordination efforts on the side of GIZ and its partners, including the procurement
of air tickets for participants, booking of conference venues and accommodation for participants, securing catering, interpretation
services and technical equipment as well as supporting the reimbursement of participants for expenditures such as visa and
transport costs and coordinating COVID-tests.
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