The UNHCR camp for Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in Iraq, photo taken in 2014.

    Displaced people

    Worldwide, there were more than 123 million displaced people by the end of 2024, according to the UNHCR Global Trends Report 2024. They all were forced by war and violence or human rights violations or political, ethnic or religious persecution to flee their homes and face the risk of heading into the unknown.

    In the past ten years, the number of displaced persons has almost doubled. And there is no end in sight to this dramatic situation. Worldwide, millions of children and adults are in the midst of a humanitarian disaster.

    The largest current displacement crisis was triggered by the war in Sudan: at the end of 2024, 14.3 million Sudanese were displaced – almost a third of the population. High displacement figures were also recorded for Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine.

    Supporting refugees and host countries is a top priority for German development policy. Nobody flees voluntarily and most refugees want nothing more than to be able to return home. They all deserve protection and the full solidarity of the international community.

    With its development cooperation, Germany supports countries that take in particularly large numbers of refugees, even though they themselves are very poor. This is because the vast majority of refugees stay close to home: Nearly 60 per cent of refugees were living as internally displaced persons in their own country at the end of 2024. Around 70 per cent of cross-border refugees stayed in countries neighbouring their home country. Nearly three out of four refugees are hosted by countries with low or medium incomes.



    Priority areas

    Still from the video "Creating prospects for Refugees – The Special Initiative on Forced Displacement"

    Video The Special Initiative “Displaced Persons and Host Countries”

    In severe emergency and crisis situations, the humanitarian assistance provided by the international community is a measure that ensures the survival of displaced people. Within the German government, the Federal Foreign Office is responsible for this type of emergency relief.

    Development cooperation, on the other hand, is geared towards medium-term and long-term assistance. Whenever the BMZ is active in crisis regions, it coordinates its work closely with the Federal Foreign Office in order to ensure the best possible combination of humanitarian work and long-term development cooperation.

    The task and mission of the BMZ is to assist people in developing countries in their efforts to live their lives in dignity and to build a future for themselves and for their children. The Ministry pursues a broad range of activities in order to work towards that goal.

    New drinking water pipes are laid at a house in the city of Mafraq in Jordan.

    Stabilising host regions

    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.

    A woman in a refugee camp in Lebanon can earn some money for her family as a seamstress.

    (Re-)integrating refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees

    Often, refugees and internally displaced persons have no choice but to stay in their host communities for many years. The situation they have left behind only improves very slowly, if it improves at all. Through its development cooperation, Germany seeks to give both refugees and internally displaced people in host countries as well as returnees in countries of origin a basis for building a future for themselves.


    General assembly of the United Nations in New York

    Preventing crises, resolving conflicts, building peace

    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 supports projects geared towards building peace, preventing crises and resolving conflicts.

    Symbolic image: Coach in Africa

    Giving direction to migration and using it for the benefit of development

    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.

    Initiatives and programmes

    A large proportion of the BMZ budget is used for traditional bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental development cooperation.

    However, transitional development assistance, which involves efforts to strengthen the resilience of people and of societies in countries affected by short-term or protracted crises, is another important instrument which the BMZ uses in the field of displacement and migration.

    And in the years since 2014, the BMZ has created special initiatives to complement its traditional development cooperation.

    The Ministry has launched a number of programmes to give people in crisis regions and host countries a better future.

    BMZ special initiatives Special Initiative “Displaced Persons and Host Countries”

    Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

    Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS)

    Logo: Action Network on Forced Displacement – Women as Agents of Change

    Women as Agents of Change Action Network on Forced Displacement

    The BMZ uses this Special Initiative to respond specifically to the challenges arising from global refugee movements. Since 2014, the special initiative has implemented more than 375 projects in 84 countries reaching around 48.1 million people (as at June 2025).

    In its work, the BMZ puts an emphasis on increased dialogue with host countries about protecting and integrating refugees and meeting their basic needs. The aim is to enable the people affected by displacement to live their lives in security and dignity whilst also supporting the people in the respective host communities. The Initiative also provides targeted support to internally displaced persons in a way that is tailored to their specific situation and the challenges they face.

    This involves a broad range of activities that address, among other things, areas like education, employment, health, social protection and psychosocial support. Measures relating to the fields of energy and climate are increasingly being promoted, for instance projects on reforestation, on erosion control, or advising governments on how to support people displaced within their own countries due to climate change. Local civil society organisations and municipalities are involved in planning and implementing the measures.

    One focus of the Initiative is on empowering women. So far, for example, cash-for-work measures have been implemented that have helped to achieve very high employment rates among women. The Initiative’s gender-transformative impacts are to be strengthened further as it is going to increasingly address gender-relevant power structures and processes, for instance by including women more in political processes or improving their legal situation in their own countries.

    View of a ditch in the Kutupalong refugee camp, Cox Bazar in Bangladesh

    German activities Transitional development assistance

    Transitional development assistance is a development instrument for crisis response that can be used quickly and flexibly.

    BMZ programmes

    Cash for work
    A cash-for-work project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

    The Partnership for Prospects

    At the Syria conference in February 2016, the German government announced that it would launch an employment drive for the Middle East entitled “Partnership for Prospects” so as to support people on the ground through job and income opportunities. Through cash-for-work activities, the programme provides quickly available income opportunities for refugees and for local people from host communities.

    Experts working for peace
    In the project "Someone is listening to me!" students and teachers in Lebanon work together on a play that encourages them to reflect on prejudices against others. No solutions are given, but the audience is encouraged to reflect for themselves.

    Civil Peace Service

    Civil Peace Service (CPS) experts work in crisis regions, helping to build a basis for lasting peace. They foster the non-violent resolution of conflicts between host communities and displaced people, provide space for dialogue to reduce prejudice and stereotypes, make the concerns of disadvantaged people heard, and help former combatants to return to civilian life.

    Regional focuses

    The BMZ's work in the area of displacement is currently focussed primarily on countries in the Middle East, where a particularly large number of people have fled and which have therefore reached the limits of their supply capacities, as well as on African countries that have taken in many refugees and internally displaced persons or from which many refugees come. Ukraine is also a priority region.

    Germany is also involved in countries in other regions of the world that have taken in particularly large numbers of refugees, such as Pakistan and Colombia.

    International cooperation

    Aid delivery distributed by a partner organisation of the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) to Syrian refugees in the town of Suruç in south-eastern Turkey

    The German government's support for refugees, internally displaced persons and host communities is part of an international effort. In this context, Germany works closely with international organisations: the United Nations and its Children's Fund (UNICEF), its World Food Programme (WFP) and its Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Together with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Germany is working to improve the coordination and integration of humanitarian assistance with long-term development cooperation.

    The German government also works together with German civil society organisations. The BMZ supports the work of these organisations through considerable financial contributions, which are increased in times of severe crises.

    In order to share responsibility more equitably within the international community, the United Nations adopted the Global Compact on Refugees in December 2018.

    On 17-18 December 2019, the first Global Refugee Forum took place in Geneva. At the Forum, about 800 pledges were made by governments, international organisations, non-governmental organisations and the private sector with a view to implementing the Compact. As an important refugee host country and also an international supporter of refugee protection, Germany played an important role as a co-organiser of the Forum.

    The second Global Refugee Forum to implement the Global Compact on Refugees took place in Geneva from 13 to 15 December 2023. Governments, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and others made financial pledges totalling over 2.2 billion US dollars. They also committed to taking refugees and host communities into account in their policies, funding instruments and programmes. As one of the largest host and donor countries, Germany had a special role to play here.

    As at: 17/07/2025