HAUKARI e.V. – Working Group for International Cooperation was founded in 1995. It is a registered non-profit association recognized by the District Court of Frankfurt/Main and the Frankfurt Tax Office, dedicated to development cooperation and international understanding. As of December 31, 2019, HAUKARI e.V. had 33 members.
You can find our statutes [here].

The Member Assembly is the highest governing body of the association. It sets the guidelines for the association’s work and convenes at least once a year. The Executive Board and two auditors are elected by the General Assembly and are accountable to it.

The board is elected for a term of two years and manages the association’s affairs on a voluntary basis. Since 2019, the board members have been:
Karin Dorsch (Chair), Susanne Bötte (Deputy Chair), Karin Mlodoch, Ernst Meyer, and Claudia Kipp-Cötok. They were re-elected in July 2023.

Organizational Structure: HAUKARI e.V.’s head office is based in Frankfurt/Main. Additionally, there is a second workplace in Berlin, located in premises rented from a board member’s company.
This office hosts a project coordinator/advisor, two student assistants, and temporary interns working on project management and public relations.
Compensation is aligned with the collective agreement for public service employees in Berlin (TVöD) but is not published here for data protection and privacy reasons (cf. DZI donation seal standard 7a). In Iraq, HAUKARI e.V. operates through two project offices in Sulaimania and Rizgary, currently employing six local staff members. Salaries are based on standard public sector wage levels in the region. For project-related tasks such as trainings, conference organization, etc., fee-based contracts are issued.

Funding: In 2020, HAUKARI e.V. financed its project work through donations, public funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Ministry of Digital Strategy and Development of the State of Hesse, as well as private donors such as medico international.

Memberships and Cooperation: Since 2012, HAUKARI e.V. has been a member of the Berliner Entwicklungspolitischer Ratschlag (BER) network.
In recent years, the association has conducted cooperative projects with medico international, medica mondiale, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Berlin Educational Institute.

Sustainability: All HAUKARI e.V. projects are planned and implemented with local staff and civil society, municipal, and governmental partners in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. The association promotes civil society–government cooperation, for instance in areas such as women’s protection and counselling, as well as education and culture, aiming to build sustainable local structures.

Impact Monitoring: For each project, HAUKARI e.V. and its local partners develop a planning matrix outlining objectives, intended impacts, risks and assumptions, as well as qualitative and quantitative indicators and data collection methods for measuring impact.
Project impacts are reviewed regularly, and planning is adapted to changing conditions. At the end of each project, internal or external evaluations are conducted.
Evaluation results are included in the final financial and narrative reports to donors and inform future project planning. Results are published in annual activity reports and on the HAUKARI e.V. website.

Anti-Corruption Measures: In the use of funds, HAUKARI staff and local project partners are required to obtain competitive bids when procuring goods or awarding contracts, to regularly change service providers and suppliers, and to refrain from working with vendors who have family ties to project staff.
When hiring employees in Germany and in the project region, care is taken to ensure that no familial relationships exist between staff members and that no secondary employment is pursued that could lead to conflicts of interest.
Since 2019, anti-corruption guidelines have been signed along with all project agreements. Compliance with these guidelines is monitored by the Executive Board.

Accountability: For all HAUKARI projects—including those financed by private donations—accounting, financial reporting, and documentation of fund usage adhere to the legal requirements of the German Federal Budget Code (BHO).
Projects funded by federal institutions are subject to audits by the respective ministries, the advisory body bengo–Engagement Global, and, if applicable, the German Federal Court of Auditors.

Internal Auditing: Once a year, volunteer internal auditors review HAUKARI e.V.’s bookkeeping, financial reporting, and records on the use of funds. The auditors independently determine the focus of their annual audits.
Their reports are available to all association members.
The current auditors are Regina Bauer (Frankfurt/Main) and Christina Braun (Berlin). The most recent audit by Regina Bauer took place in early summer 2021.
No objections were raised concerning the use of funds in the audit reports.

DZI Seal of Approval: Since 2004, HAUKARI e.V. has held the Seal of Approval from the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI).
This seal is a sign of thoroughly verified credibility and donation-worthiness.
DZI annually audits HAUKARI e.V.’s organizational policies and has consistently confirmed the proper and statutory use of donations since 2004.