Give us your ideas and win an original Basotho-blanket! The new regional programme „Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls in Southern Africa“ is looking to brand itself. We need a catchy title and/or acronym that we can translate into a logo and overall branding strategy! The programme is implemented under the heading “Partnerships. Action. Evidence”. Multi-stakeholder partnerships form a key principle of programme implementation so we need to create a brand that partners from different sectors want to be part of. At the same time, the brand needs to speak to the severity of the ..read more

Dear All First of all, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2020. In 2019, many of you have made distinguished and successful steps in reaching all of our goals as a focal points in our countries to support gender equality and women’s rights, especially in our countries within the Middle East region. I would like to talk about the efforts that we made during the year 2019, which was full of events, as well as development activities, one of which was the demonstrations demanding to get all kinds of rights, including women’s rights and against Gender- Based Violenc ..read more

Looking for Gender-related documents and strategies? Our mapping tool might help! As the only GG2 project in agriculture and skills development (TVET), we are always trying to keep up with Gender news and developments. Our project supports the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) in promoting Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training for Women (ATVET for Women). This work falls under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the continent’s blueprint for agricultural development. To stay up-to-date, we developed an interactive PDF to map and s ..read more

GIZ Bangladesh Gender Working Group (GWG) observed the International Women’s Day 2022 by hosting an online event on 8 March. With the theme “Gender Equality for a Sustainable Tomorrow”, the discussion centred around why feminism as a concept is good for everyone. It is about breaking down prejudices associated with the term. Another point of reference has been the new German government’s approach towards a feminist German Development Cooperation, which places gender equality at the centre of its policymaking and our development policy actions. Dr. Dana de la Fontaine, Programme Coordina ..read more

Freshly prepared, dried, as powder or oil, as food supplements or cosmetics – Baobab and Moringa can be used to make a wide variety of products. So far, however, African plants can hardly be found in local and European shops because producers often lack the know-how to market their products properly and win new customers. Twelve female entrepreneurs from Tanzania wanted to change this. In November, they travelled to Germany for a week and exchanged ideas with Africrops, a company that promotes sustainable supply chains and has been importing Baobab and Moringa since 2013. “It is importan ..read more

Women have suffered disproportionately from the economic fallout of COVID-19, shows a new policy brief by the DCED Working Group on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Although donors adjusted operations and issued new support in response, they should also adopt and promote a multidimensional and intersectional approach to Women Economic Empowerment. Increased unpaid care work, limited access to education and jobs, an increase in sexual violence, reduced income and savings – a large and growing body of evidence shows how hard the Covid-19 pandemic hit women and girls in developing re ..read more

Gender equality is a guiding principle and quality feature of our work. It is an engine and key attribute of a future worth living around the world. Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment feature prominently in the 2030 Agenda, the new European Consensus on Development and the OECD Global Forum on Development and the European Development Days in 2018.  With its Coalition Agreement the new German Government, which took office in March 2018, firmly put its weight behind the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Thanks to the GIZ-wide commitment, the Safeguards+Gender Manage ..read more

After a long work week, on Friday afternoon my friends and I decide to go to a café located right by Meskel Square. We live in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a beautiful country known for its rich culture, delicious coffee, gorgeous mountain peaks and great athletes. Meskel Square is in the middle of the city an area where many roads come together, but where there is also a huge square known for stairs that run around the entire space. As we are sipping from our drinks and the sun is starting to go down, we are surprised to see many people exercising on the stairs of Meskel Square. Small groups of me ..read more

Mobility is a fundamental part of urban life. As long as we live in cities, people and goods will need to move from A to B for various reasons. In the past, cities have been designed for car use so that, for instance, commuters would conveniently reach their place of employment. Yet this focus on individualised motorised transport contributes to global warming, health impacts for citizens, inequitable usage of space and discrimination. As a result, it is essential to rethink urban transport planning to ensure a climate-friendly and just transition – for example by listening to the needs and su ..read more

When it comes to financial inclusion, women in the Dominican Republic have long been stuck in the “second row”. Half of all micro-entrepreneurs in the country are women. However, women receive less credits to start their own businesses, and if they do, these come at higher interest rates. The Dominican government has recognized the problem – and started to confront it. Microcredits have been heavily promoted in recent years by the Dominican government as a development tool and to eradicate poverty. The government has handed out more than 66,300 loans for women via the National Council for the ..read more