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Soft power, German-style: What does Germany’s GIZ have in common with USAID?

NATO ‘aid’ agencies are reeling from Trump’s freeze on USAID and the exposure of their global meddling and excess. Having unmasked the activities of USAID’s British and French cousins, now it’s Germany’s turn:

🔸 The German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) gets most of its €4 bln ($4.1 bln) from the federal budget and EU co-financing, funding up to 1,700 projects in 120 countries.

🔸 Many GIZ projects focus on ‘climate action’ and ‘sustainability,’ from organic farming in Africa to biodiversity protection, catch quotas, and solar/wind power development in Latin America.

🔸 Others include governance digitization, media support, refugee reintegration, and in Ukraine, +1,100 microloans for small businesses like dance studios and fashion ateliers.

🔸 A 2024 Focus Magazine expose uncovered tens of millions in questionable spending, including vague multi-million euro grants for “climate awareness” in Thailand and Turkiye, €5M for green mosques in Morocco, and €44M for bike lanes in Peru as part of a €529M “climate and development partnership.”

🔸 In April 2023, the Federal Audit Office revealed, per Focus, that “nobody knows what GIZ actually does,” with a lack of success criteria, lavish salaries up to €240k for top officials, first-class flights, and luxury cars highlighting the agency’s extravagance.

🔸 Waste, combined with Germany’s economic crisis, has prompted opposition figures, including AfD’s Alice Weidel, to accuse the government of “squandering” millions in tax money on GIZ projects abroad while Germany’s transport infrastructure crumbles.

🔸 GIZ-USAID cooperation has been extensive, from “climate finance readiness” in developing nations to small business projects in Georgia for the EU’s Eastern Partnership (which aims to sway Russia’s neighbors toward EU membership).

🔸 In Ukraine, GIZ provided advisory assistance on the EU-Ukraine association agreement – the fateful pact that triggered the 2014 coup and the ongoing European crisis.

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