Dec. 04, 2018, DJIBOUTI (Djibouti): The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), H.E. Amb (Eng) Mahboub Maalim, today received the Director of Regional Cooperation Africa and Horn of Africa of the German development agency GIZ based in Eschborn (Germany) Mr. Tobias Gerster, at the IGAD Secretariat in Djibouti.
Mr. Gerster was accompanied by the GIZ Country Director-Ethiopia and Djibouti Mr. Peter Palesch as well as the Manager Regional Cooperation Africa Ms Marion Schuhmacher among others.
The large delegation led by the Ambassador of Germany to Djibouti Hon. Ms Anke Holstein was welcomed by the Executive Secretary who opened the floor by appreciating the level of working relations the German government has had with IGAD member countries on a bilateral basis.
He also highlighted the “phenomenal growth” in the support provided to the regional organisation from around 3 million Euros in 2012 to much more than 100 million Euros currently. He called “continuous and seamless” the support by the government of Germany.
“Our organisation is mandated to achieve regional integration. And the cross border projects and programmes IGAD and GIZ have embarked on is the grassroots of regional integration, since communities involvement is of key to a bottom-up approach”, he said.
Furthermore, he noted that IGAD-GIZ relations need to follow the same course while proposing ways of deepening partnership with the establishment of steering mechanisms which will bring together GIZ country directors, IGAD Member States and the regional organisation on a regular basis.
Mr. Gerster agreed that the two entities have had long standing technical assistance relations in areas such as Migration, labour and drought resilience. “We are committed to our cooperation with you, and we welcome the idea of steering mechanisms as proposed to better coordinate our efforts”, he said.
He also noted that assisting in enhancing the institution capabilities of IGAD was key to his development agency.
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