Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit

Controversy

In 2021, German troops ended their presence in Afghanistan. Since then, the Taliban have taken over the country and persecuted former staff of foreign states, including former local staff of Germany. This led Germany to allow some local staff to immigrate. However, GIZ continued hiring new local staff in Afghanistan, and was criticised for this in 2022.

The GIZ continued to draw criticism for its spending. The Bundesrechnungshof concluded in 2023, that the GIZ does not produce data that allow to evaluate its economic efficiency. There were no mechanisms in place to encourage cost cutting and the Court of Audit noted, that some of the numbers for controlling had apparently been designed especially to allow higher bonuses every year for the 3 GIZ directors. In 2019 Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel became a board member and got paid 230.000 Euros in 2022, which increased to 242.000 Euros per year in 2023, plus pension claims.

In March 2024, Baraa Odeh, a Palestinian GIZ employee of 10 years, was arrested by Israeli border guards after a trip, administratively detained for three months without charge, and subjected to abusive and humiliating treatment. GIZ stated it would work "with all the means at its disposal to clarify the background." Germany's development ministry commented: "The Federal Government is critical of the practice of administrative detention – [...] International humanitarian law sets strict limits on this practice."