a) German Development Cooperation with Africa Dr K Prezyklenk, Senior Advisor, led the presentation which highlighted the following key issues: . The importance of Africa for Germany and the EU had increased, among other things, owing to the dynamic geopolitical developments in Africa in the past few years. Through the Joint Africa-EU Strategy adopted in Lisbon in 2007, Africa and the EU launched a comprehensive political initiative geared towards putting the two continents' relations on a new partnership-based foundation, moving beyond traditional cooperation. . Germany was on track to meet the commitment made by the G8 countries at Gleneagles in 2005 to double aid to Africa by 2010. . The bilateral commitments for Africa had risen further. Whilst they totaled 420 million euros in 2004, they reached 1.2 billion euros in 2009, thus almost trebling. The commitments for 2010 were at a similarly high figure. . The political goal of Germany was that Africa increasingly become able to solve its own problems in a sustainable manner to harness its great potential. . Germany was currently using the integrated set of all its instruments for bilateral cooperation with 25 partner countries in Africa. In cooperation with partner countries, priority areas covered were good governance, rural development, sustainable economic development, health energy and education. Germany was a major donor to government projects, with funding in this area amounting to more than $200 million. . Germany was the largest bilateral donor in the water sector for Africa, with commitments running to some 300 million euros. . In future, Germany, in its development cooperation with Africa, will step up its support even further for partner countries in the areas of education, health, climate protection and rural development.