Guiding principles and criteria of our practical development cooperation

Through our projects and programs, we contribute to a sustainable and significant improvement in the health of poor people in developing countries. In doing so, we are guided by the following principles:

• We concentrate our financial and human resources on the area of “international health”. We understand health in a broad sense and work with the definition of the World Health Organization: “Health is the state of complete physical, mental, social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
• Our programs are focused on major public health problems in developing countries to ensure that as many people as possible benefit from the initiatives that we support.
• We therefore concentrate on a few projects that we proactively develop and set up with partners (we cannot consider unsolicited project proposals). In this way, we can make a significant contribution to solving the problem.
• We initiate pilot projects and test innovative approaches. If these show highly promising results, we endeavor – in collaboration with partners – to ensure that the approach is scaled up.
• We engage in areas of international health where our expertise and resources provide us with a comparative advantage over other donors (e.g. donations of medicines for leprosy and tuberculosis, management of health systems, psychosocial health).
• We endeavor to ensure the maximum possible sustainability of the programs we support through integration of our interventions into existing health systems, further training and coaching of local partner organizations and beneficiaries, focus on the needs and local ownership of the target groups. 

When selecting countries and partners for the development of a project, we are guided by the following criteria:

• The key thematic focus of our projects must be consistent with the priorities of our partners and partner countries.
• We only engage in those countries where political and institutional conditions are stable and the criteria of good governance are met.
• Target groups, project partners and countries must have the necessary absorptive capacity.
• Countries, partner organizations and target groups must make a contribution of their own.
• We select our partner organizations according to performance criteria so as to guarantee successful implementation.