The Federal Ministers Guido Westerwelle and Dirk Niebel have agreed to considerably step up cooperation between their ministries, increase efficiency and generate greater synergies.

Enhancing the Government’s ability to steer governmental implementing organizations is part of the structural reforms carried out by the German Government in the sphere of development cooperation. In order to guarantee effective management of development cooperation on the ground in the countries concerned, additional staff from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) are to be seconded to German missions abroad. The additional posts will be financed from the BMZ budget and are part of the reform package for the 2012 Federal budget.

Moreover, the German Government’s response capacity in the event of disasters and humanitarian crises abroad will be strengthened in future. To this end, humanitarian assistance, until now within the remit of the Federal Foreign Office, and development-oriented emergency and transitional aid, currently the responsibility of the BMZ, will be merged and managed centrally from the Federal Foreign Office, which will be allocated the resources needed for this task. This will enable the German Government to provide assistance even more quickly, efficiently and effectively in future. At the same time, this meets long-standing demands from Parliament for structural clarity with regard to responsibility for immediate and emergency humanitarian relief. In return, resources from the sphere of crisis prevention and conflict management will be transferred to the BMZ.

Other areas will also be pooled to a greater extent in future. The BMZ will be responsible for coordinating development within the Government, also in the existing Interministerial Steering Group. Furthermore, the BMZ will take over from the Federal Foreign Office responsibility within the Government for the work of UNICEF, while the Federal Foreign Office will coordinate cooperation with the political foundations in Central and Eastern Europe.

The necessary adjustments to the Government’s organization and responsibilities schedule will be agreed upon within the Government in the coming days.

Federal Foreign Office and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development - common press release