The Austrian Development Agency GmbH (ADA) is the operational unit of the Austrian Development Cooperation. The ADA is a public-benefit, non-profit, limited liability company headquartered in Vienna. It is owned by the

Republic of Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and represented by the

Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs The Ministry for European and International Affairs (, abbreviated BMEIA, colloquially ''Außenministerium'') is the government ministry of Austria responsible for diplomatic missions and immigration, the administration of foreign policy, and ...

. On behalf of the federal government of Austria, ADA plans, finances, and supports development programs and projects in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, South-Eastern and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. The goal of ADA is to improve conditions of life in developing countries and assist partner countries in their sustainable development. It also promotes projects in development communication and education in Austria to advance discussion on development cooperation. The ADA's objectives and tasks are defined in the Federal Development Cooperation Act (DCA 2002) as per amendments made in 2003. The respective Three-Year Programme on Austrian Development Policy sets the geographical and substantive priorities. As of 2021, the Austrian Development Agency is led by Friedrich Stift.

Organisation

Toyota Land Cruiser Prado of the Austrian Development Agency in Yerevan

The Austrian Development Agency maintains field offices in

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

, the Palestinian Territories and

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. In direct communication with respective governments, other donors, civil society and the private sector, these administer the programmes and projects and ensure that Austrian resources are put to the most effective use.

Clients and partners

As a federal government agency, ADA provides advice and support to all public institutions, civil society and enterprises in implementing development programmes and projects. These are carried out together with the partners, which are selected via calls to tender, application procedures or calls for proposals. It also works closely with

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

agencies, international financial institutions and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. As an accredited agency, ADA implements projects in developing countries on behalf of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. In humanitarian crises, ADA relies on competent Austrian and international organisations. After approval by the Council of Ministers, funding is made available for specific measures from the FMEIA’s Foreign Disaster Aid Fund.

Tasks and funding

The Austrian Development Agency works towards improving quality of life in partner countries and helps raise awareness of global inter-relations in Austria. To direct attention and to raise interest in development issues, financial support is provided to projects by civil-society organisations based in Austria and engaged in issues such as human rights, gender equality, environmental protection, world/fair trade and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as well as global learning. Another concern of ADA is to impress on Austrians how development cooperation directly affects their lives. The Business Partnership Programme is aimed at Austrian or European companies looking to carry out business ideas with added developmental value in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

and

. From 2004 to 2014, 140 business partnerships were conducted worth a total sum of EUR 61 million. According to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

, the 2019

official development assistance Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in 1969. It is w ...

from Austria increased 7.4% to USD 1.2 billion.

References

External links

www.entwicklung.at
{{Authority control Government of Austria Foreign relations of Austria 2004 establishments in Austria