Description
The Caucasus Initiative was launched by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) in 2001, and focuses particularly on the field of nature protection and biodiversity conservation to promote regional cooperation through cross-border projects.
The BMZ Caucasus Initiative supports the political and economic cooperation activities of the southern Caucasus republics Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.
The initiative not only steps up country-specific bilateral Development Cooperation, it also places it in a regional context. It forms the conceptual framework and an umbrella for German Development Cooperation with and in the region. The regional projects in turn build on experience from the bilateral projects and enhance their impact in terms of the stripped-for development results. At the same time it is important to put successful national projects in a regional context and to examine how the results achieved in these projects can be expanded and deepened at regional level.
However, the measures under the BMZ Caucasus Initiative are not intended to contribute only to the economic and social development of the countries in the southern Caucasus. The hoped-for economic and social stabilisation of the region will also make a specific German contribution to conflict resolution and crisis prevention in the region.The BMZ’s Caucasus Initiative is based on six elements:
* developing the democratic legal system
* strengthening communal democracy and civil society
* promoting the energy sector
* promoting the private sector
* supporting the fight against tuberculosis
* assistance in protective bioreserves.
