More and more municipal companies are getting involved in international partnerships for knowledge exchange. International engagement is no longer just an end in itself. Through development cooperation, municipal companies can make a direct contribution to achieving climate targets, participate in international knowledge exchange and position themselves as attractive employers through exciting and meaningful projects. Until now, the operators’ involvement has been financed primarily from public funds, mainly by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). However, the financing of such partnerships from public funds is reaching its limits, and the economic framework conditions for municipal companies to make their own contributions to finance their involvement have not been adequately examined to date. The study attempts to fill this gap and – differentiated according to the organisational form of the companies – to address the legally permissible options.
The study also provides recommendations for improving the legal framework, creating incentive mechanisms and possible organisational structures to make the financing of operator partnerships more sustainable and resilient.
The approaches outlined here are not intended to replace public funding, but rather to expand the scope of municipal economic actors who wish to engage internationally.
The study is only available in German.
