The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is an office-level agency in the

federal administration of Switzerland The federal administration of Switzerland is the ensemble of agencies that constitute, together with the Swiss Federal Council, the executive branch of the Switzerland, Swiss federal authorities. The administration is charged with executing ...

, and a part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Together with other federal offices, SDC is responsible for overall coordination of

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

international development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic development, economic or human development (economics), human development on an international sca ...

activities and cooperation with

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, as well as

humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and Humanitarian Logistics, logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homelessness, homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Th ...

. According to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

, Switzerland's total official development assistance (ODA) increased in 2022 to USD 4.5 billion (preliminary data) due to an increase in in-donor refugee costs. This represented 0.56% of gross national income (GNI).

History

The SDC has been active in

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

since 1974. In 1993, the SDC ran an office in

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

, which closed in 2006 when the SDC stopped supporting its projects in Eritrea for political reasons. The SDC relaunched its support actions in Eritrea in 2017 and terminated it in 2025, after no progress in the field of migration was made in negotiations with the Eritrean government. In 2014, through a partnership with the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

, the SDC launched the

Mooc A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the World Wide Web, Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and p ...

s for Africa program to improve science and technology education in French-speaking African countries. On 13 December, 2019, Patricia Danzi was appointed new director general of the SDC. She assumed office on 1 May, 2020, succeeding Manuel Sager who had held it since 2014. In April 2020, the SDC, which had already contributed CHF 101.42 million towards the global response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, committed to provide an additional CHF 400 million. In December 2020, the SDC released a 4.35 million dollars support fund for the phase 2 of the

UNFPA The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies and protocols, increasing access to birth control, and leadin ...

Women Girls First Programme in Myanmar, and invested 30 million dollars in Aceli Africa (loans to agricultural SMEs) along with the Ikea foundation and the

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

Organisation and tasks

The Swiss constitution states that Switzerland contributes to the alleviation of hardship and poverty in the world, to respect for human rights, and to the promotion of democracy and the peaceful coexistence of nations. The SDC is charged with implementing this mission.This section has been adapted from . The text of that publication is in the public domain in Switzerland. All figures are as of 2008, unless otherwise noted. The SDC's activities are divided into three areas: * In the context of bilateral and multilateral

development cooperation Development aid (or development cooperation) is a type of aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political development of developing countries. It is distinguished from humanitarian aid by ...

, the SDC promotes economic and national

self-sufficiency Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...

, works to improve conditions of production, assists in dealing with environmental problems and helps to ensure better access to education and healthcare for the poor. For example, SDC was a major donor to the International LUBILOSA Programme: which developed a biological pesticide for

locust Locusts (derived from the Latin ''locusta'', locust or lobster) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they b ...

control, in support of small-holder farmers in the

Sahel The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a ...

. * The mission of the Confederation's agency for

is to save lives and alleviate suffering. During

armed conflict War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

s and following

natural disaster A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

s, it provides help through the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit and supports humanitarian partner organisations such as the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

. * Cooperation with Eastern Europe assists the countries of

and the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...

(CIS) to make the transition to

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and the

market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a mark ...

. Swiss bilateral development assistance is as of 2008 focused on 17 priority countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Cooperation with Eastern Europe centres on ten countries in South-Eastern Europe and the CIS. At the multilateral level, the SDC works with UN agencies, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

and regional

development bank Development finance institution (DFI), also known as a Development bank, is a financial institution that provides risk capital for economic development projects on a non-commercial basis. DFIs are often established and owned by governments or ...

s. The SDC's specialist units are grouped in the Thematic and Technical Resources Department. They focus mainly on conflict prevention,

good governance Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for t ...

, social development, employment and income,

natural resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

and the environment.

Notes

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Development and Cooperation Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Federal offices of Switzerland