By agreement between the German and Bangladeshi governments, the following priority areas of cooperation were adopted in September 2006:

Reform of the health system, family planning and HIV/AIDS

GTZ (now GIZ) began assisting Bangladesh’s family health and planning activities in the late 1970s. The work in Mushigonj District included the construction of Union Health and Family Welfare Centres as well as the subsequent training of personnel. The German involvement later continued with support for the National Institute of Population Research and Training. Today, GIZ still supports the Government of Bangladesh in its Health, Nutrition, and Population Sector Programme, and in the fight against HIV/AIDS. GIZ is helping four city corporations to improve healthcare and increase access to quality healthcare services for vulnerable groups who have a higher risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis.

Good governance, human rights and local development

GTZ (now GIZ) began providing support in this area in the 1980s in the district of Tangail, where it worked on rural infrastructure projects to provide year-round access to growth centres (markets) and increase trade in agricultural and other goods that were also produced with German support. Innovative management, maintenance and training methods were developed to ensure that the project’s impact was sustainable and that the roads and markets were still intact years and decades later. This helped to secure the poverty reduction impacts for the long term. These methods are now being used throughout Bangladesh.

In this priority area, GIZ’s support has now been expanded to promote and strengthen governance, decentralisation and the rule of law in rural and urban areas, through projects such as the promotion of legal and social empowerment of women, improving the situation of overcrowding in prisons, promotion of social and environmental standards in the industries, the second urban governance and infrastructure improvement project, and the rural infrastructure improvement projects I & II.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency

Development needs energy. The reliable and efficient provision of modern energy services is a key to reducing poverty. Only 40% of Bangladesh's 160 million people are connected to the electricity grid; in rural areas, where over 70% of the population live, only 20% have electricity.

The Sustainable Energy for Development programme, supported jointly by GIZ and the Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources, is helping to reduce the consumption of wood, biomass and fossil fuels, as well as carbon dioxide emissions, by disseminating modern forms of renewable energy, such as solar energy, biogas digesters, and energy-saving cooking stoves and rice parboiling systems. It is also helping industry, public sector power utilities and private households to use more energy-efficient appliances and production processes – helping them to do 'more with less.'

Climate change and environment

With its location in the Bengal Basin and its monsoon-dominated climate, Bangladesh has always been vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Floods, cyclones and river bank erosion are common in the country, and often affect its population and infrastructure.

To support the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, GIZ is working in affected coastal areas and in the wetlands, to introduce mitigation and adaptation strategies. GIZ also supports the Forest Department project for the conservation of resources through community reforestation, which is setting up a sustainable forest co-management system in the Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary.