GIZ has been working in Sri Lanka since 1956 as a development partner of the Government of Sri Lanka in issues ranging from vocational training, environment and climate change to reconstruction and peace as well as economic development and employment. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a global service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development with more than 17,000 employees. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, and peace and security. As a public-benefit federal enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government – in particular the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – and public and private sector clients in around 130 countries in achieving their objectives in international cooperation. With this aim, GIZ works together with its partners to develop effective solutions that offer people better prospects and sustainably improve their living conditions. Since 1956, GIZ has been working in Sri Lanka, implementing a range of development projects including conflict transformation, peace building, education, biodiversity conservation, and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. GIZ’s main office in Sri Lanka is located in the country’s commercial capital, Colombo, while field offices are placed in other parts of the island including in the former conflict areas in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Sri Lanka has seen substantial infrastructural and economic development in the recent years, following a quarter-century-long civil war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ended in 2009. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has identified Sri Lanka as a ‘lower middle income country’ while the ending of the war helped the country also make significant progress towards achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In an effort to foster the country’s transition from conflict to reconciliation, GIZ’s support to Sri Lanka aims to address root causes of conflict, fragility and violence by promoting social cohesion, security, ethnic equality, and by enhancing capacities for non-violent dealing with conflicts. Currently, GIZ is implementing several projects in Sri Lanka on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Federal Foreign Office, covering education, social integration, conflict transformation, private sector development, biodiversity conservation, renewable energy promotion and vocational training. With a wide range of activities – from offering advice on policies on the development of curricula and on technology transfer, to conducting training measures and exposure tours and providing platforms for exchange – all GIZ projects ultimately contribute to conflict transformation and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. In order to develop effective solutions that offer people better prospects and improved living conditions, GIZ cooperates very closely with its Sri Lankan partners from both the public and private sectors, the civil society as well as with international implementing agencies and donors. Substantial additional funding from the European Union and the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) helps GIZ achieve the projects’ objectives in Sri Lanka.
