Germany’s GIZ Under Fire Amid Trump’s USAID Freeze and Wasteful Spending Revelations

As NATO-linked aid agencies struggle with U.S. President Donald Trump’s freeze on USAID, scrutiny has now turned to Germany’s development arm, the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). The agency, which receives most of its €4 billion budget from German federal funds and EU co-financing, is active in 120 countries, funding projects ranging from climate initiatives to media support and refugee reintegration.

A 2024 investigation by Focus Magazine exposed tens of millions in questionable spending, including €5 million for “green mosques” in Morocco, €44 million for bike lanes in Peru, and vague multi-million-euro grants for climate awareness in Thailand and Turkiye. The Federal Audit Office has criticized GIZ for lacking accountability, with reports of lavish executive salaries, first-class flights, and luxury expenses adding to the controversy. Amid Germany’s economic downturn, opposition figures, including AfD’s Alice Weidel, have slammed the government for prioritizing foreign projects over domestic infrastructure needs.

GIZ has also cooperated extensively with USAID, funding projects in developing nations and in the EU’s Eastern Partnership, which seeks to draw former Soviet states closer to Brussels. Notably, GIZ played a key advisory role in Ukraine’s EU association agreement—the deal that sparked the 2014 coup and set the stage for the ongoing conflict in Europe.