euroresources.org: Introduction

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) within the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the overall co-ordination of development activities, as well as for the co-operation with Eastern Europe and Humanitarian Aid.

The Swiss government has made poverty reduction a main objective of its foreign and development policy and has committed itself to support the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Switzerland’s key development policy objectives include poverty reduction and fostering the peaceful coexistence of peoples, promoting respect for human rights and democracy, preserving the environment and safeguarding Swiss economic interests. All development activities should be sustainable, aim for maximum impact and be carried out in a spirit of partnership.

SDC’s new development strategy, “Strategy 2010”, spells out Switzerland’s key development topics, based on the four core strategies “Help for self-help”, “Knowledge”, “International Dialogue” and “Solidarity”:

Crisis prevention and management
Good Governance
Income generation and employment
Increase of social justice
Sustainable use of natural resources

Under this framework of five key themes, Switzerland broadly covers the whole thematic development spectrum. The promotion of gender equality and environmental sustainability have emerged as cross-cutting issues.

Swiss Official Development Assistance (ODA) has risen sharply over the last years. However, the increase can solely be attributed to statistical adjustments, as reporting procedures have been aligned with OECD DAC standards in recent years and now include debt cancellations. Actual disbursements in support of development activities have been fairly constant in the past. In 2005, Switzerland’s ODA was US$ 1,77 billion, up 14% compared to 2004. This represents 0.44% of Switzerland’s gros national income (GNI), which is slightly below the OECD DAC countries’ average.. Least developed countries receive the largest share of Swiss ODA, with Sub-Saharan Africa constituting the main target of bilateral disbursements. The main recipients of Swiss ODA in 2005 were Iraq and Nigeria (due to debt cancellations), as well as Mozambique, India and Tanzania.

Bilateral Aid

SDC currently concentrates its bilateral development co-operation on 17 priority countries and 8 special programmes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Including SDC activities in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries, as well as the bilateral activities of the State Secretary for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland has around 50 bilateral co-operation partners. This figure is rather high in relation to the size of Switzerland’s bilateral aid programme. The 2005 OECD DAC peer review of Switzerland concluded that a concentration on fewer bilateral co-operation programmes would enhance the impact and effectiveness of Swiss development assistance. The Swiss government has indicated that the number of co-operation countries will be reduced over the next years.

Priority Countries/Regions and Special Programmes for SDC’s development co-operation as of 2006:
Sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Southern Africa, Tanzania,
Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Vietnam/Mekong
Latin America/Caribbean: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua/Central America
Middle East: West Bank and Gaza

In addition to these developing countries and regions, SDC also co-operates with 12 priority countries in Eastern Europe and the CIS.

The selection of priority countries and regions is guided by several criteria, such as the level of need, the existence of an environment that is conducive to development co-operation (including good governance and respect for human rights), comparative advantages for SDC, and Swiss political interests.

Switzerland’s approach to working with developing countries emphasizes policy dialogue while stressing the importance of good governance. National Poverty Reductions Strategies (PRSs) are the policy and operational framework for elaborating Switzerland’s co-operation strategies and thematic sectors. The Swiss government aims to concentrate on no more than three thematic sectors in each country. However, in practice this rule is broadly interpreted, as the number of themes, sub-themes and sectors is quite large in most of Switzerland’s priority countries. The main foci of SDC’s bilateral programmes are cross-cutting themes like governance, institutional development and infrastructure, while social sectors do not feature prominently. However, it is noteworthy that Switzerland has formulated a gender policy, which applies to all of SDC’s bilateral interventions. According to this policy, all of Switzerland’s development programmes should be guided by a systematic gender analysis.

Multilateral Aid

Switzerland has a longstanding interest in multilateral institutions. SDC and seco jointly develop Switzerland’s overall multilateral priorities but have shared responsibilities with respect to co-operation with multilateral actors. While SDC is in charge of relations with the majority of the UN agencies, seco co-ordinates the co-operation with multilateral financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF.

Relations with the UN system have been strengthened since Switzerland became a full member of the United Nations following a referendum in 2002. In recent years, the Swiss government has committed itself to support the realization of the MDGs and to reach the 0.7% ODA/GNI target of the UN.

SDC’s multilateral strategy has defined several principles as a framework for its multilateral co-operation, such as a focus on certain priorities and overall effectiveness, careful selection of multilateral partners, utilization of synergies with bilateral aid, and involvement of civil society and the private sector. In light of this strategy, multilateral institutions are ranked according to three broad categories:

High-priority institutions in which Switzerland participates with financial and/or human resources
Medium-priority institutions with a modest degree of involvement
Low-priority institutions in which involvement is limited to a specific focus

For high-priority institutions, SDC formulates strategy papers, which cover thematic priorities and the proposed use of financial and human resources.

Switzerland’s multilateral ODA was US$ 359 million in 2004, of which US$ 146 million went to the World Bank, US$ 117 million to UN agencies, US$ 42 million to Regional Development Banks and US$ 53 million to other multilateral institutions. Of the UN agencies, UNDP (US$ 42 million) and UNICEF (US$ 14 million) were the largest recipients of Swiss aid.

Support for SRHR and HIV/AIDS activities

Improving reproductive health and the control of major communicable diseases (including HIV/AIDS) constitute two of the five strategic priorities of SDC’s “Health policy 2003-2010”. Switzerland has subscribed to the Cairo Agenda of the ICPD in 1994 and recognizes reproductive health and reproductive choices of women, men and adolescents as a human right. SDC aims to focus on the following issues in its future support to SRHR:

Promoting the concept of reproductive rights
Promoting gender sensitive approaches to SRHR
Promoting integrated reproductive health services, including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
Promoting maternal and infant health
Supporting efforts to reduce gender based violence, including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Swiss support for SRHR has been largely limited to funding for multilateral activities, for example by supporting UNFPA, international NGOs such as IPPF and the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP) implemented by WHO. Examples of bilateral support for SRHR are the provision of US$ 3 million in funding for the Centre for Health and Population (ICDDR) in Bangladesh and the Rural Health Development Project (RHDP) in Nepal.

The Swiss government plans to develop and implement more bilateral SRHR programmes in the future.

In the field of HIV/AIDS, Switzerland has stepped up its efforts over the last years. In the past, HIV/AIDS programmes have lacked a coherent approach and were not mainstreamed intro other development policies. According to the SDC health policy 2002-2007, the Swiss government aims to:

Strengthen skills and capacities in the field
Promote programme synergies
Take a multi-sectoral and systematic approach
Integrate HIV/AIDS prevention into SDC projects and programmes
Promote operational research

Switzerland’s funding levels for SRHR and HIV/AIDS has increased over the last decade, however, the Swiss government does not seem to be as committed to support these issues, compared to a range of other OECD DAC donors. As of August 2006, Switzerland has paid around US$ 16 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), which is a low figure compared to most other European donors. In 2004 Switzerland contributed US$ 9.9 million to the UNFPA budget. Estimates put the total figure the Swiss government has spent for population and HIV/AIDS activities at US$ 35.8 million in 2003.

Co-operation with NGOs

Co-operation with civil society organisations is an important feature of Switzerland’s development co-operation. SDC has partnered with NGOs since its foundation in 1961, and the relationship between NGOs and SDC has since then developed into a variety of co-operation schemes. The importance of NGO co-operation in Switzerland’s development policy is highlighted by the fact that nearly 30% of Swiss ODA is managed by civil society organisations.

SDC’s co-operation and funding of NGOs takes place under several support schemes:

Programme Contributions are longer-term financial contributions to a programme that has been developed by a (Swiss) NGO and which consists of several projects. These contributions are not necessarily aligned with SDC’s geographic and sectoral priorities. The programmes usually run over several years and are managed and implemented by the NGO. SDC funds around 30% to 50% of the total costs. Around a dozen large Swiss NGOs currently receive Programme Contributions from SDC.
Under Mandates, contracts are awarded to private or civil society organisations to carry out a specific project or programme. The Swiss Confederation assumes responsibility over the project costs and the implementation, while the NGOs contribute with their capacity and particular expertise. As a general rule, contracts under this scheme are submitted to public tender.
Project Contributions constitute the funding instrument available to smaller NGOs, which receive neither programme contributions nor mandates. Under this scheme, SDC co-finances individual NGO projects in developing countries.

The largest recipients of Swiss NGO assistance are Helvetas, Interco-operation, Swisscontact, Caritas Switzerland, Swissaid and the Swiss Red Cross.

Funding criteria and guidelines for the Project Contributions scheme are outlined on the following pages. Swiss NGOs interested in the other two schemes should contact the SDC NGO Division (for Programme Contributions) or the relevant department of the region they are interested in (for Mandates): www.sdc.admin.ch

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