By IPS Correspondents
BONN, Mar 28 1999 (IPS)

Germany plans to increasingly focus on efficient energy utilisation in the next decade as an essential component of cooperation for sustainable development.

The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), based in Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main, has been given the task by the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of assisting capacity building in a wide range of sectors crucial for development.

Its activities span developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and also eastern European states and the former Soviet republics.

Stressing the need for cooperation in energy efficiency, GTZ’s Joerg Schindler says: “Environmental pollution caused by industrial enterprises was, for a long time, a ‘no-theme’ for most of the developing and threshold countries. But this is no longer the case in the more developed among the developing states.”

GTZ has 15 years experience in the field of energy efficiency streatching back past the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in June 1992. At that time the UN Conference on Environment and Development – as it was called – approved an action plan, known as Agenda 21.

“Efficient energy utilisation is necessary for implementing the Agenda 21,” Schindler stresses.

“With Morocco spending 30 percent of its export revenues on energy imports, India subsidising the energy sector with some 7 billion dollars a year and at the same time 25 percent of the energy in the pipeline going waste, the need for efficient energy utilisation is self-evident,” says Tilma Herberg, who heads the GTZ division on environment management.

GTZ’s major partners in cooperation in the field of energy efficiency presently include China, India. Thailand, Brazil, Jordan and Morocco.

German capabilities in the field were displayed at an exhibition early March in Bonn when 20 German firms active in environment technology participated in the first Moroccan-German exhibition on the environment.

The main objective of the exhibition, according to GTZ sources, was to promote consultancy and technology transfer, and to provide an initial impulse for cooperation between German firms specialising in environmental technology and Moroccan firms and authorities.

The Moroccan government puts the annual damage to the environment at 2.3 billion dollars. Despite the urgent problems, environmental technology is not being widely used in Morocco.

India, according to GTZ sources, is an important example of joint efforts towards developing energy efficiency. Together with the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) in Bangalore, GTZ is cooperating in the Indo-German Energy Efficiency Project, with Germany providing some three million dollars.

Launched in August 1995 for the duration of four-and-a-half years, the project has both large and small and medium-sized enterprises as target groups. The objective is to bring about a change and improvement in the Indian energy scenario by assisting industry in reducing its energy intensity.

The German Technical Cooperation also is involved in a public private partnership venture in Thailand. The Thai-German Energy Efficiency Promotion Project is being funded by the German government with some six million dollars in the ten-year period 1992-20002.

In Brazil, GTZ is assisting 13 firms in efficient energy utilisation and sharing the experience gathered with some 500 enterprises across the land. Between 25 to 50 pecent of energy has been saved in six firms nominated as participants in a pilot project.

A cornerstone of public private partnership are reliable facts and figures about a country, without which investors cannot be lured into a country.

GTZ therefore has helped build up comprehensive economic statistics for the Palestinian territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They form the basis for economic planning and decision-making processes in both the public and private sectors.

The Statistics Office was founded at the initiative of PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, in October 1993, only few weeks after the declaration on self-rule in the West-Bank and the Gaza Strip was signed between the PLO and Israel. It was the first central, Palestinian institution to be established.

Highly regarded international institutions, such as the World Bank, now avail themselves of Palestine statistics instead of producing their own data. Other users include ministries, research bodies, universities and UN organisations.

In another project, the GTZ – which has been active in Colombia for over thirty years – is assisting the survivors of the earthquake in Colombia. With some one million dollars provided by the BMZ, reconstruction work has been undertaken in the earthquake region.

More than 2,000 people lost their lives and approximately 25,000 became homeless in the earthquake beginning of the year.

GTZ is also assisting legislative and administrative reform in countries seeking to join the pesent fifteen-nation European Union (EU). The agency was tasked by the EU to help prepare the judicial and administrative branches of ten countries of the former eastern bloc for entry into the EU.

This Partnership Program for EU Enlargement, which is being implemented by the EU Commission’s Taiex office in Brussels, is intended to provide support for Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The top priorities are institutions from five sectors: agriculture, environment, finance, the judiciary and an additional sector chosen for its relevance to each country individually.

“Imagine a situation in which Germany, for instance, would have to introduce Islamic law within a period of a few years. The countries seeking entry to the EU are in an equally challenging position”, says GTZ project manager Andrea Joras, picturing the starting situation.

“The centralised social systems and socialistically-oriented economies must be made to harmonise with life and work in the EU countries.”

Whether it is cartel law or taxes that are involved, wherever legislation conflicts with EU guidelines, new laws need to be drafted and presented to parliaments. However, Taiex is focusing particular attention on application of the law.

“We want to be sure that the countries can maintain their sovereignty, and a productive and efficient administration is the best way to ensure this”, says Joras.

The Taiex partnerships also involve training courses and internships in EU countries. And they provide information and documentation about the EU regulations, which already amount to 80,000 pages covering 20,000 acts of legislation and affecting virtually every aspect of the law.

GTZ also is involved in programmes to combat genital mutilation of women by supporting local organizations and institutions in East and West Africa in their public information campaigns about this controversial practice.

Estimates place at some 130 million the number of women and girls who are “circumcised” – the euphemism still sometimes used for genital mutilation – with two million more added each year.

During the next four years, GTZ will support local initiatives in West and East Africa that have made this important cause their own.

In GTZ-assisted health projects in Kenya, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and the Central African Republic, the campaign to stop genital mutilation also has a high priority: doctors and nurses are being made aware of the topic and the women affected are given medical and psychological treatment.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
BONN, Mar 28 1999 (IPS)

Germany plans to increasingly focus on efficient energy utilisation in the next decade as an essential component of cooperation for sustainable development.

The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), based in Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main, has been given the task by the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of assisting capacity building in a wide range of sectors crucial for development.

Its activities span developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and also eastern European states and the former Soviet republics.

Stressing the need for cooperation in energy efficiency, GTZ’s Joerg Schindler says: “Environmental pollution caused by industrial enterprises was, for a long time, a ‘no-theme’ for most of the developing and threshold countries. But this is no longer the case in the more developed among the developing states.”

GTZ has 15 years experience in the field of energy efficiency streatching back past the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in June 1992. At that time the UN Conference on Environment and Development – as it was called – approved an action plan, known as Agenda 21.

“Efficient energy utilisation is necessary for implementing the Agenda 21,” Schindler stresses.

“With Morocco spending 30 percent of its export revenues on energy imports, India subsidising the energy sector with some 7 billion dollars a year and at the same time 25 percent of the energy in the pipeline going waste, the need for efficient energy utilisation is self-evident,” says Tilma Herberg, who heads the GTZ division on environment management.

GTZ’s major partners in cooperation in the field of energy efficiency presently include China, India. Thailand, Brazil, Jordan and Morocco.

German capabilities in the field were displayed at an exhibition early March in Bonn when 20 German firms active in environment technology participated in the first Moroccan-German exhibition on the environment.

The main objective of the exhibition, according to GTZ sources, was to promote consultancy and technology transfer, and to provide an initial impulse for cooperation between German firms specialising in environmental technology and Moroccan firms and authorities.

The Moroccan government puts the annual damage to the environment at 2.3 billion dollars. Despite the urgent problems, environmental technology is not being widely used in Morocco.

India, according to GTZ sources, is an important example of joint efforts towards developing energy efficiency. Together with the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) in Bangalore, GTZ is cooperating in the Indo-German Energy Efficiency Project, with Germany providing some three million dollars.

Launched in August 1995 for the duration of four-and-a-half years, the project has both large and small and medium-sized enterprises as target groups. The objective is to bring about a change and improvement in the Indian energy scenario by assisting industry in reducing its energy intensity.

The German Technical Cooperation also is involved in a public private partnership venture in Thailand. The Thai-German Energy Efficiency Promotion Project is being funded by the German government with some six million dollars in the ten-year period 1992-20002.

In Brazil, GTZ is assisting 13 firms in efficient energy utilisation and sharing the experience gathered with some 500 enterprises across the land. Between 25 to 50 pecent of energy has been saved in six firms nominated as participants in a pilot project.

A cornerstone of public private partnership are reliable facts and figures about a country, without which investors cannot be lured into a country.

GTZ therefore has helped build up comprehensive economic statistics for the Palestinian territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They form the basis for economic planning and decision-making processes in both the public and private sectors.

The Statistics Office was founded at the initiative of PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, in October 1993, only few weeks after the declaration on self-rule in the West-Bank and the Gaza Strip was signed between the PLO and Israel. It was the first central, Palestinian institution to be established.

Highly regarded international institutions, such as the World Bank, now avail themselves of Palestine statistics instead of producing their own data. Other users include ministries, research bodies, universities and UN organisations.

In another project, the GTZ – which has been active in Colombia for over thirty years – is assisting the survivors of the earthquake in Colombia. With some one million dollars provided by the BMZ, reconstruction work has been undertaken in the earthquake region.

More than 2,000 people lost their lives and approximately 25,000 became homeless in the earthquake beginning of the year.

GTZ is also assisting legislative and administrative reform in countries seeking to join the pesent fifteen-nation European Union (EU). The agency was tasked by the EU to help prepare the judicial and administrative branches of ten countries of the former eastern bloc for entry into the EU.

This Partnership Program for EU Enlargement, which is being implemented by the EU Commission’s Taiex office in Brussels, is intended to provide support for Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The top priorities are institutions from five sectors: agriculture, environment, finance, the judiciary and an additional sector chosen for its relevance to each country individually.

“Imagine a situation in which Germany, for instance, would have to introduce Islamic law within a period of a few years. The countries seeking entry to the EU are in an equally challenging position”, says GTZ project manager Andrea Joras, picturing the starting situation.

“The centralised social systems and socialistically-oriented economies must be made to harmonise with life and work in the EU countries.”

Whether it is cartel law or taxes that are involved, wherever legislation conflicts with EU guidelines, new laws need to be drafted and presented to parliaments. However, Taiex is focusing particular attention on application of the law.

“We want to be sure that the countries can maintain their sovereignty, and a productive and efficient administration is the best way to ensure this”, says Joras.

The Taiex partnerships also involve training courses and internships in EU countries. And they provide information and documentation about the EU regulations, which already amount to 80,000 pages covering 20,000 acts of legislation and affecting virtually every aspect of the law.

GTZ also is involved in programmes to combat genital mutilation of women by supporting local organizations and institutions in East and West Africa in their public information campaigns about this controversial practice.

Estimates place at some 130 million the number of women and girls who are “circumcised” – the euphemism still sometimes used for genital mutilation – with two million more added each year.

During the next four years, GTZ will support local initiatives in West and East Africa that have made this important cause their own.

In GTZ-assisted health projects in Kenya, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and the Central African Republic, the campaign to stop genital mutilation also has a high priority: doctors and nurses are being made aware of the topic and the women affected are given medical and psychological treatment.

Excerpt: