Partnerships for success

Sustainable development requires entrepreneurial commitment – not only in Germany, but in the partner countries of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as well. Companies create jobs, secure incomes, transfer technical knowledge and introduce forward-looking technologies.

All the same, companies from Germany and other European states face specific challenges in developing countries: promising business prospects might be upset by a lack of legal certainty, scarce training facilities, ineffective administrative structures and poor infrastructures.

develoPPP.de helps to overcome these obstacles with targeted measures.

Benefiting the market and development

Since complex challenges are best solved by working together, the BMZ launched its develoPPP.de programme primarily to promote cooperation between business and development agencies. Development partnerships combine the innovative power of business with the resources, the knowledge and experience of development work.

Participating companies and the people in the BMZ's partner countries benefit equally: with develoPPP.de, entrepreneurs reduce their market risk in new locations in developing countries. They convincingly demonstrate their corporate responsibility and foster confidence on the ground, without which long-term business success is not possible. For its part, Germany's development policy uses develoPPP.de to mobilise additional capital and know-how – playing an effective role in improving living conditions in developing, emerging and transition countries.

develoPPP.de – criteria

Whatever type of cooperation you choose to get involved in, you must meet the following five prerequisites before a project can get started:

  • All measures must be compatible with the defined development goals and objectives of the German government.
  • Public and private contributions must complement each other so that both partners can attain their objectives more cost-effectively, efficiently and faster (complementarity).
  • A public contribution will only be provided if the private partner would not carry out the project without the public partner and if the measure is not legally prescribed (subsidiarity).
  • Competitive neutrality must be ensured. The cooperation with DEG, GIZ and sequa is open to all companies and communicated transparently.
  • Companies are obliged to make a considerable financial contribution and/or provide staff in carrying out projects (private sector contribution: at least 50 percent of overall costs).

What is develoPPP.de?

In the develoPPP.de programme, PPP stands for "public-private partnerships". The term describes development partnerships which are jointly planned, financed and realised by companies and development aid organisations.

Funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), DEG, GIZ and sequa (GIZ was formed on 1 January 2011. It brings together the long-standing expertise of DED, GTZ and InWEnt. For further information, go to www.giz.de):

  • participate financially and contribute their human resources to projects that benefit the development in partner countries,
  • coach and support companies in planning and implementing projects that promote sustainable development in partner countries,
  • make available their contacts to governments, industry associations and companies,
  • provide specific expertise on countries, economic sectors and local conditions.



Guenter Siebertz

"Without an internationally recognised organisation like GTZ [...] at our side, we would not have been able to carry out the project. At GTZ we have found good, competent partners."

Editor's note: GIZ was formed on 1 January 2011. It brings together the long-standing expertise of DED, GTZ and InWEnt.

Please find the entire Interview on page 7 of our develoPPPreport. (Sorry, only German Version available)

Competent contacts

The develoPPP.de programme is financed by the BMZ and executed by DEG, GIZ and sequa. These  implementing organisations of German development cooperation have realised numerous projects in the past years and are competent contacts for the business world. They possess decades of experience in the partner countries, advise interested companies, provide support in process management, arrange contacts on the ground and negotiate contracts laying down targets and timeframes, public and private contributions, accompanying measures and review performance.

Global possibilities

develoPPP.de tackle obstacles to development, minimising risks and combining the resources of partners in areas such as vocational training and infrastructure. Together, they implement prepared standards in a broad range of value chains and tap previously neglected markets.

In some projects, companies are mainly interested in financial contributions to enable them to carry out effective accompanying measures with development benefits in new locations. In other cases, the partners together with non-governmental organisations initiate extensive dialogue processes; in again other instances development cooperation is used to promote measures in the vicinity of a partner company's activities. The respective project scope also varies widely. develoPPP.de enables both small-scale measures carried out by individual companies and "strategic alliances" which affect a whole industry sector, involving several countries and several million Euros in investments. All projects share one characteristic: one plus one is much more than two.

Any fruitful development partnership will associate a company's own objectives with sustainable policies aimed at the common good. Since this overlap of interests is crucial, develoPPP.de supports neither purely charitable projects without apparent business components nor proposals aimed at directly subsidising companies' business activities.

develoPPP.de set examples

Development partnerships function as a model: the cooperation between business, the state and civil society, as in develoPPP.de, shows that social and ecological market economy can offer a sustainable guiding principle even under difficult conditions. One goal of develoPPP.de therefore is to foster the understanding among companies that considering social and ecological aspects in business practice pays off economically in the long term and that this must be an integral element of corporate policy.

On behalf of Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development