Decentralisation and good governance, financial management and energy – in spite of their primarily domestic policy character, these issues are meanwhile also seen as issues of regional and pan-African integration. For one thing, the challenges and thus also the solutions – for example concerning forestry issues – do not stop at national borders. Rather, they demand a regional and often even Africa-wide political agenda.

For another, transnational cooperation enables an important exchange of experience to take place. Mutual learning processes are supported, and setting standards and harmonising framework conditions provide orientation. The concern of our African partners is always to find African solutions to African problems according to the principle of “African ownership”, also in order to be able to hold their own in a globalising world. Thus, there has been notable dynamism towards cross-border cooperation on the continent in recent years.

German development cooperation takes up this dynamism. Alongside cooperation with individual partner countries, transnational cooperation is taking on an increasingly important role. This is also happening on the basis of the recognition that much development policy potential can only be tapped if the approaches employed transcend nation-state level.

GTZ works with various economic and political groupings in Africa on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). As well as the African Union (AU) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), GTZ supports a number of other transnational African institutions, initiatives and bodies.