Germany is helping countries in crisis to stabilise their political and economic situation and rebuild institutions that have been destroyed. It also helps partner countries to pursue conflict prevention policies that take account of the national situation, local culture and potential sources of conflict, and to foster economic development so as to give people the prospect of a viable future in their home countries, with a view to preventing displacement from happening in the first place.

The majority of refugees find shelter in neighbouring countries. However, the infrastructure of these countries is often not very robust. In order to ensure that refugees have access to basic services in their host countries, and to simultaneously help stabilise these countries, Germany is investing in developing local infrastructure, among other things.

Germany supports displaced people and host communities in emergency situations and helps people to help themselves in various ways, especially with regard to education and employment. This gives refugees a chance to lead largely self-determined lives in their host countries. The idea is to enable returnees to make the best possible use of the skills they have learned while living in a foreign country.

War and conflict are among the main drivers of displacement. Thus, preventing violence from erupting in the first place is an important objective of German and international development policy for peace. For such crisis prevention to be successful, actors need to change the causes and factors in the general environment that may lead to conflict in the countries concerned. Simultaneously, it is important to increase peaceful conflict resolution capacity. The BMZ provides more than two billion euros a year to support projects geared towards building peace, preventing crises and resolving conflicts.

The German Development Ministry not only seeks to reduce the dangers of irregular migration, it also works towards using the potential offered by regular migration for the benefit of development. In these efforts, it works together closely with other policy fields, such as foreign policy, domestic policy, labour market policy and education policy. The BMZ also plays an active role in defining migration policies at the EU level. From a development point of view, it is important to give direction to migration in such a way that positive effects (a triple-win situation) are achieved for all those involved – host countries, countries of origin and the migrants themselves.