The political, social and economic status of development in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean varies widely. To this day, the region continues to be strongly influenced by three basic circumstances:

• an extractive, regionally largely non-networked economy that focuses on short-term gains
• societies divided along ethnic and social lines, with the elite forming separate units
• in almost all countries, policies with a short-term focus, a lack of rule-of-law principles, and close integration between politics and the economy.

The negative implications of these situations are:

• environmental destruction and the exhaustive depletion of natural resources, aggravated and spread in particular in recent years through natural disasters
• extreme social differentiation, once again worsening since the early 1990s
• lack of political continuity, clientelism, corruption, badly functioning public services
• release of social tension increasingly expressed through rising crime and failure to recognise and respect state authority.

At the same time, the countries are making widely varying but genuine efforts to address these problems. The reforms in the 1980s and 90s that aimed to introduce decentralisation, deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation have in many cases managed to improve the macroeconomic parameters, opening up new opportunities for the private sector and civil society, especially at decentralised level. Furthermore, better efforts are being made to strengthen and complement national economies by regional networks and stronger integration.

GIZ’s activities in the region are aligned with the Latin America Concept of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the priority areas named therein:

• poverty reduction
• environmental and resource protection
• modernisation of the government and society.

International Cooperation has pledged to support the reforms that were launched in the countries and address those areas where reforms have not yet succeeded in bringing about recognisable improvements (social justice, environmental and resource protection, and the Agenda 21).

On this basis, the GIZ focuses on the following regional issues in its activities:

• democracy, civil society and public administration in Latin America
• crisis and conflict prevention
• natural resource management and rural development.

GIZ International Services has been stepping up its activities in Latin America on behalf of both national and international organisations since 2000. Its tasks range from rural development and the conservation of natural resources to private sector development, trade, health and the modernisation of state structures.