German development cooperation activities have been carried out in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 1975, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and other German clients in the public sector, such as the Federal Foreign Office. Initially the work was performed by GTZ and since 1 January 2011 by GIZ. This is a result of the merger with the German Development Service (DED) and InWEnt – Capacity Building International, Germany to form the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Recent decades have seen politically based armed conflicts repeatedly take the country to the brink of disaster. Although peace has been brought to some areas of the country since 2003, ongoing political and economic instability has induced not only many foreign investors but also international and bilateral development and financial institutions to withdraw from the country.

The Central African Republic has a total population of around 4.4 million people, some 800,000 of whom live in the capital Bangui. Despite its abundance of natural resources, such as diamonds, uranium and gold, the Central African Republic is one of the least prosperous countries in Africa. It has a surface area of more than 600,000 square kilometres or 60 million hectares, large swathes of which, mainly in the north-east of the country, are virtually uninhabited. The main obstacles to socioeconomic development in the country are its poorly developed infrastructure, the lack of energy and water supplies, an absence of transport links, and an adult literacy rate of only 45 per cent.

GIZ's work in the Central African Republic focuses on cooperation with the Commission of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Communauté économique et monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale – CEMAC) in the field of extractive resource governance and the extractive industries.

Fisherman on the River Sangha