Extending between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, the Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands and home to people with heterogeneous cultural and ethnical backgrounds. Having become the Asian country with the largest number of Christians over the last four centuries has given this nation of about 77 million people a unique profile in Southeast Asia. To develop its functional, democratic, parliamentary system of today, the Philippines had to overcome colonialism, foreign occupation and dictatorship in the 20th century.

During the last three decades, the German government has supported economic and social development in the Philippines through a variety of organizations and projects. Among these, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) has always played a key role, as it is the main player in bilateral technical cooperation to the country. Drawing on its worldwide cooperation experience and professional competence, GTZ, in its second role as an established international consulting agency, is being increasingly commissioned by multilateral development organizations to carry out assignments and projects.