The BMZ Caucasus Initiative supports the political and economic cooperation activities of the southern Caucasus republics Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

The initiative not only steps up country-specific bilateral Development Cooperation, it also places it in a regional context. It forms the conceptual framework and an umbrella for German Development Cooperation with and in the region. The regional projects in turn build on experience from the bilateral projects and enhance their impact in terms of the stripped-for development results. At the same time it is important to put successful national projects in a regional context and to examine how the results achieved in these projects can be expanded and deepened at regional level.

However, the measures under the BMZ Caucasus Initiative are not intended to contribute only to the economic and social development of the countries in the southern Caucasus. The hoped-for economic and social stabilisation of the region will also make a specific German contribution to conflict resolution and crisis prevention in the region.The BMZ’s Caucasus Initiative is based on six elements:

• developing the democratic legal system
• strengthening communal democracy and civil society
• promoting the energy sector
• promoting the private sector
• supporting the fight against tuberculosis
• assistance in protective bioreserves.

GIZ is currently implementing the following eight technical cooperation projects:

• Reform of the legal and judicial system in the southern Caucasus
• Fund for supporting civil society and communal democracy in the Caucasus
• Fund for supporting conflict-prevention initiatives in southern Caucasus states
• Municipal networks in the Caucasus
• Economic promotion in the southern Caucasus
• Promoting training and advanced training in agriculture and rural development
• Establishing retail banking in Azerbaijan and Georgia
• Fighting tuberculosis in the Caucasus.

In addition, GIZ is implementing the following programme within the framework of food security:

• Programme to promote food security and regional cooperation and stability in the southern Caucasus.