German Agency for International Development Cooperation (GIZ)

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH or GIZ in short, is a company that specializes in international development. GIZ is owned by the German Federal Government and operates in more than 130 countries. Its headquarters are located in Bonn and Eschborn, Germany.

GIZ works in a variety of fields, namely: economic development and employment; government, democracy and poverty reduction; education, health and social security; environment and infrastructure; and agriculture, fisheries and food. GIZ works primarily with states, state agencies, and the private sector.

GIZ mainly operates on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Further clients are other departments of the government, international donors like the European Union, World Bank or the United Nations, partner countries and the private sector.

UN-Habitat through the GLTN together with the German International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have an ongoing collaboration project that is developing a more robust Tenure Responsive Land Use Planning (TR-LUP) tool, with special focus on applications in developing countries and incorporating experiences and good practices from other organizations.

GIZ has launched a publication dealing with land “Land in German Development Cooperation: Guiding Principles, Challenges and Prospects for the Future”. This handbook discusses a number of principles, concrete tools and examples for dealing with land related problems. It makes reference to a number of pro-poor and gender responsive land tools and puts emphasis on the Continuum of land rights approach.  The Continuum of Land Rights is being promoted and increasingly accepted worldwide. GLTN partners support the use of a continuum of land rights, or a range of rights, to make it possible for the majority of people, including the poor, to have security of tenure.