Even in times of coronavirus, the National Council does not want to expand Switzerland’s international engagement. Several motions from the Foreign Affairs and Finance Committees have called for the Framework loans for to increase international cooperation 2021-2024. The Council rejected them all.
The National Council approved the framework credits of CHF 11.25 billion proposed by the Federal Council. This is expected to result in an ODA (public development assistance) ratio of 0.46% of gross national income if, like the Federal Council, expenditure on asylum seekers in Switzerland is also counted as development cooperation. The international ODA benchmark recognized by Switzerland is 0.7%. Countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the UK clearly exceed this value. Minority motions that also aimed to achieve this target for Switzerland were rejected.
The coronavirus crisis affects everyone, but it does not affect everyone equally. It is having a massive social, economic and political impact in the world’s poorest countries. The World Bank expects up to 60 million people to slip into extreme poverty by the end of the year; the number of people suffering from hunger will double from 130 million to 265 million. The often heavily indebted countries of the South will not be able to cope with this crisis on their own.
Various international organizations are calling on industrialized countries to increase their development spending. A group of 20 renowned economists led by Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz warns in an open letter that the consequences of this crisis will also hit the West hard. To prevent this, the industrialized countries should provide additional development funds now.
The National Council has failed to send an urgently needed signal for international solidarity. Not only people in need on the ground would have benefited from this, but a different decision by the upper chamber would have set an example for other industrialized countries to also work towards a just, sustainable and stable world without hunger and poverty. It is now up to the Council of States to correct this problematic decision by the upper chamber.
Alliance Sud media release 15.6.2020. To the Alliance Sud website
