Ministry Organisation and structure

BMZ employees do not only work in Berlin and Bonn; the BMZ regularly seconds officers to work in its partner countries, at the European Union and in development banks and international organisations. Their role there is to coordinate development activities and to strengthen multilateral development policy respectively. Currently, some 130 BMZ staff are engaged in development work in postings abroad.

The BMZ seconds staff to the following embassies and consulates-general: Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Algiers, Amman, Ankara, Antananarivo, Baghdad, Bamako, Beirut, Belgrade, Bogotá, Brasilia, Cairo, Chişinău [Kischinou], Cotonou, Dakar, Dar Es Salaam, Dhaka, Erbil, Freetown, Gaborone, Hanoi, Islamabad, Jakarta, Juba, Kabul, Kampala, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kigali, Kinshasa, Kyiv, La Paz, Lilongwe, Lima, Lomé, Lusaka, Maputo, Mexico City, Nairobi, N’Djamena, New Delhi, Niamey, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, Phnom Penh, Pretoria, Pristina, Quito, Rabat, Ramallah, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Tirana, Tunis, Ulan-Bator, Vientiane, Windhoek, Yaoundé, Yerevan.

In addition, the BMZ also seconds staff to Germany’s permanent missions with international organisations or direct to international organisations such as the United Nations (in Geneva, New York, Rome and Vienna), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (in Paris) and the European Union (in Brussels).

The BMZ also has staff on the boards of the World Bank and of the African, Asian, Inter-American and Caribbean Development Banks. Furthermore, it exchanges staff with the European Investment Bank's “EIB Global” division (as at 2022).

Through its staff secondments to international organisations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and to the European Union, the BMZ seeks to strengthen multilateral cooperation in the field development policy.