DED (Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst)

Overcome poverty and shape one's own life: this is what the German Development Service (DED) works for. It operates worldwide with organisations in countries where people suffer from poverty and its many consequences on nutrition, health, and the opportunity to participate in social and political life. DED's goal is to improve these people's lives fundamentally. As a public-benefit organisation, DED cooperates with local partners. DED technical advisers are experienced and committed experts on limited-term assignments, who work with local active organisations to induce positive change. DED also works with local experts and specialists to ensure the sustainability of this development process, thereby strengthening local competences and partner organisations' responsibility and initiative, so that local people can shape their future themselves in the long term. DED technical advisers in turn benefit from the knowledge, experience and contacts of their local colleagues. This knowledge is of inestimable value for effective cooperation.
DED also offers young people the opportunity to gain experience worldwide. The Young Professionals Programme is a scholarship scheme which enables young people embarking on a career and university graduates to work in a project during a one-year stay in a DED partner country, to get to know how DED and its partners work, and to develop social competence for living and working in another culture. The Young Professionals Programme is intended to encourage them and, at the same time, enhance their subsequent opportunities to work in development cooperation institutions in Germany and abroad. DED also offers young people aged 18 to 23 the opportunity to participate in "weltwärts" – the international volunteer programme of the German Federal Government.
DED operates on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). With its nuanced range of personnel and services, DED is recognised worldwide as one of the leading European development services for personnel cooperation. Since its formation in 1963, more than 16,000 technical advisers have worked on reducing poverty through sustainable development. Currently, some 2 000 technical advisers are working in 48 countries.