The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is the lead ministry for Germany’s development cooperation and official development assistance policy. KfW Bankengruppe and Deutsche Entwicklungs- und Investitionsgesellschaft mbH are responsible for financial cooperation. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH is responsible for technical cooperation.
The key tasks of German development policy are set by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Germany’s development policy focuses on pressing global challenges: ending poverty and hunger, pushing back inequalities, providing global health, facilitating climate change mitigation and adaptation, achieving gender equality, and finding answers to displacement and migration.
Based on cooperation with international partners, Germany’s development efforts advance the global transition to sustainable, socially just, climate-compatible and environmentally sound economies. Through its feminist development policy, Germany empowers women and girls to assert their claim to equal rights, resources, and representation.
In December 2023, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development launched the Asia Strategy: German development policy with Asia (Innovative-Social-Feminist). The strategy focuses on five guiding principles: (i) gender equality for just and strong societies; (ii) giving a social and inclusive dimension to climate-compatible development; (iii) technical and vocational education and training in green industries of the future (decent, fair, and innovative); (iv) harnessing the opportunities of social protection as an investment in the stability and future of Asian societies; and (v) preserving biodiversity and ecosystems, and resource conflicts.
Germany is a founding member of ADB and has, since 1966, committed $2.1 billion to ADB special funds. Of this commitment, $2 billion is for the Asian Development Fund (ADF). The ADF provides grants to ADB’s low-income, developing member countries to help reduce poverty and improve quality of life.
20 November 2024
ADB and the governments of Solomon Islands and Tonga have signed grant and loan agreements for energy projects on the sidelines of the Conference of the Parties 29.
20 September 2024
ADB has approved a $500 million policy-based loan to help Indonesia accelerate its energy transition.
3 May 2024
Donors and ADB have agreed to a replenishment of $5 billion for ADB’s Asian Development Fund 14 and Technical Assistance Special Fund 8. The commitment was made during ADB’s 57th Annual Meeting.
ADB is working with partners to develop new approaches and financing solutions to make infrastructure resilient, protect ecosystems, and enhance the well-being of communities amid the impacts of accelerated glacial melt.
Digital financing technology is expanding financial inclusion in Indonesia, helping to better connect women, young people, small businesses, and rural communities to economic opportunities.
ADB and the KfW Bankengruppe are supporting initiatives to improve life in the countryside while ensuring ecological balance and promoting green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
To clean up the Xin’an River, ADB and KfW are helping the People’s Republic of China build new water supply, sewage, and stormwater facilities and pilot green financing mechanisms in the urban and rural areas along the river.
New policies to arrest the worsening air pollution in major cities in the People’s Republic of China are targeting the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei megalopolis. The new policies support the shift from coal to clean energy sources.
ADB and Germany collaborated on several knowledge products and/or events, including the following:
ADB undertakes business opportunity seminars for its members to improve the interest and ability of eligible suppliers to locate ADB business opportunities, prepare high-quality and responsive bids, and understand ADB’s procurement and anticorruption procedures
The workshop provided a venue for participants to be exposed to the Indonesian start-up ecosystem development journey, current institutional arrangements and partnerships, as well as a platform for peer learning among participants.
This presentation discusses Germany’s start-up ecosystem: growth, deals, and key cities.
Active trust funds are those a) with ongoing projects; or b) with no active projects but have remaining funds.
*ADB’s regular assistance to Afghanistan has been on hold since 15 August 2021, but the bank has supported the basic needs of the Afghan people since 2022 through a special arrangement with United Nations agencies.
The ADB–KfW Cofinancing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), first signed in 2014, was subsequently amended in 2017, 2019, and 2022. The MOU targets total cofinancing of $8 billion for 2014–2025, €300 million of which has been earmarked to cofinance projects under the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility. The MOU also outlines ambitions to harmonize design and project implementation processes and to have joint knowledge management events and research. It has an ongoing staff exchange program.
Sovereign Cofinancing. In 2024, the KfW committed $651.1 million in project-specific cofinancing for loans to Indonesia. Of this amount, $433.5 million was for strengthening Indonesia’s program to reduce plastic marine debris, targeting a 70% reduction in plastic waste flow into the oceans by 2025. The remaining $217.6 million was committed to accelerating Indonesia’s energy transition, focusing on establishing a robust policy and regulatory framework for clean energy, strengthening sector governance and financial sustainability, and ensuring a just and inclusive transition.
Nonsovereign Cofinancing. The Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program (TSCFP) supported over 7,100 transactions valued at $4.6 billion with banks domiciled in Germany from 2009 to 2024. During the same period, the TSCFP supported over 9,820 German exports and/or imports valued at $1.4 billion. In 2024 alone, the TSCFP supported 2,754 transactions valued at $658.8 million with banks domiciled in Germany and supported 5,390 German exports and/or imports valued at $326.6 million. Exports and/or imports were mainly to/from the People’s Republic of China, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Underlying goods involved mostly textiles and apparel, industrial machinery and capital goods, as well as food and agriculture-related goods.
