Germany to restructure foreign aid agenda

Germany is planning to heavily restructure its foreign aid agenda, Development Minister Gerd Müller told DW on Tuesday.

Through the shakeup of its foreign aid, Germany will be limiting its “partner” list to 60 nations and dropping Burundi and Myanmar. Minister Gerd Müller says knock-out criteria will be corruption, rights abuses and poor governance.

Germany’s current list of 85 “partner” nations is too much and its annual aid expenditure of €10 billion ($10.9 billion) will now focus on just 60 nations, development aid minister Gerd Müller told DW.

“Our partner countries must understand this signal,” said Müller, stipulating German criteria for future aid cooperation: good governance, respect for human rights and tackling corruption. “With money alone we cannot solve the problems of Africa and the developing countries,” said Müller, adding that partners which met criteria would get more.

Those which remained “reform resistant” would lose German cooperation.

Outlining the concept “BMZ 2030” for his ministry known as the Federal Ministry for Cooperation, Müller said it planned four focuses: food security, health and family planning, education, energy and climate.

DW