Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

The Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is a ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ministry's headquarters are in what used to be the Bundeskanzleramt (the Federal Chancellor's Office building) in Bonn, with a second office in the Europahaus, in Berlin.

 History 
The BMZ was founded 1961, as the Ministry for Economic Cooperation. Lots of different ministries had a little to do with helping the economies of foreign countries. These jobs were all taken away and given to the new ministry. It became the "Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development" on 23 January 1993. The change was to show that Germany was not just interested in working with Less Developed Countries, but in helping those countries as well.

 Ministers 
Ministers of Economic CooperationNoNameTerm startTerm endParty1Walter Scheel (1919-2016)19611966FDP2Werner Dollinger (1918-2008)19661966CSU3Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski (1922-2005)19661968SPD4Erhard Eppler (1926-)19681974SPD5Egon Bahr (1922-2015)19741976SPD6Marie Schlei (1919-1983)19761978SPD7Rainer Offergeld (1937-)19781982SPD8Jürgen Warnke (1932-2013)19821987CSU9Hans Klein (1931-1996)19871989CSU10Jürgen Warnke (1932-2013)19891991CSU11Carl-Dieter Spranger (1939-)19911998CSU12Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (1942-)19982009SPD13Dirk Niebel (1963-)20092013FDP14Gerd Müller (1955-)20132021CSU15Svenja Schulze (1968-)2021SPD

 Job 
The BMZ main job is help to other countries to develop and become richer. It does this by giving money and other aid.

The BMZ also oversees giving money to international organisations and private charities which can help the BMZ's main job.

The money that Germany gives to the European Development Fund, the World Bank and regional development banks is paid by the BMZ.

The BMZ also makes sure that countries which get money are democratic and have a good human rights record.

Germany thinks that giving this help is so important that the BMZ is a member of the Federal Security Council, which helps to make sure that Germany is safe and at peace.

 Aims 
 Halving the number of people in the world that suffers from poverty and hunger
 Making a basic school education possible for all children
 Promoting equality between men and women
 Lowering the number of child mortality
 Improving the health of the mothers
 Fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other illnesses
 Improving the protection of the environment

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