Reshaping Decentralised Development Co-operation in Germany
German federal states and municipalities have engaged in decentralised development co-operation (DDC) since the 1950s. Germany provides over half of total official development assistance (ODA) in the world that is channelled as DDC. However, most of this support remains within German borders. To incentivise further international partnerships, the federal government has established dedicated programmes and financial support schemes for states and municipalities. This report presents key data on the DDC landscape in Germany and offers guidance on how to strengthen its role in enabling peer-to-peer learning and improve collaboration between German states and municipalities. It also showcases how to further raise awareness about the mutual benefits of DDC partnerships, including through better ODA data reporting and a harmonised approach to monitoring and evaluating its results across levels of government.
The multi-level governance, co‑financing, data, monitoring and evaluation of DDC in Germany
In terms of multi-level governance, the federal government is supporting the states mainly through the German Government and Federal States Programme (BLP) implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and co-operates with municipalities mostly through programmes offered by the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW).Yet, various decentralised development co-operation (DDC) multi-level governance challenges range from one-year funding cycles to lack of staff and managerial capacities and limited information sharing across levels of government. In terms of reporting, Germany is one of the few OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members that report data disaggregated by regional or state-level providers of official development assistance (ODA). However, it does not disaggregate municipal financing. States and municipalities usually have monitoring and evaluation systems for DDC but only a few assess the impact on development outcomes and long-term sustainability. They mainly analyse the objectives or efficiency of the project, in particular at the municipal level.
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