For three decades now, CIM, the Centre for International Migration and Development, has been placing specialist and management personnel with employers in developing and emerging countries. The reception held to celebrate CIM’s 30th anniversary was an occasion to look to the future of this joint operation of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Federal Employment Agency (BA). Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel was among those gathered at the GIZ Representation in Berlin to congratulate CIM.

Federal Minister Niebel honours CIM

‘CIM’s integrated and returning experts have become indispensable both for ourselves and for our partners,’ stated Niebel in his speech.

Before an assembly of around a hundred guests from the fields of politics, industry, science, academia and civil society, the minister thanked CIM employees for their dedication. He also praised the valuable contributions of the more than 12,000 integrated and returning experts who had worked for employers in CIM partner countries. ‘Since 1980, CIM experts have been working effectively and independently as global bridge builders. Their employers refer to them as ‘our experts’: what clearer sign of ‘ownership’ could there be than that?’

In his remarks, Minister Niebel was keen to stress the independence and responsibility CIM employers assume for the job assignment of the CIM experts they hire – as is required by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

Innovation based on experience

In future, CIM, as a joint operation of GIZ and the Federal Employment Agency, will continue to contribute innovative ideas to German development cooperation. ‘In view of the migration problems that have now become clear to all – and not only since the dramatic turns of events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya – we intend to go a step further: ‘triple-win migration’ is our innovative contribution to global migration policy,’ said GIZ Managing Director Jürgen Wilhelm. This pilot project was begun early this year.

The project seeks to ensure that the migration process offers advantages for all concerned: the country of origin, the host country, and the migrants themselves. In a discussion session following the reception, Dr Christoph Beier, Deputy Chairman of the GIZ Management Board, stressed that this was only possible with the pooled know-how of development policy and job market policy, and took the opportunity to thank the partners in the joint operation: ‘In CIM, GIZ and the Federal Employment Agency bring together the expertise that will be essential for coping with migration-related issues as they arise. In this project, we focus on people. What is important is that we provide them with relevant and useful support during their integration process.’

Bridge-building for sustainability

During the discussion session, a former CIM expert joined representatives of CIM partner organisations in reporting on the impacts and benefits of the CIM assignments. Jörn Lauterjung, project leader of the German-Indonesian tsunami early warning system at the German GeoForschungsZentrum (geo-research centre), emphasised: ‘Without the bridge-building function of CIM experts working on site, our project could never have been as successful and sustainable as it has proved to be.’