The Federal Council has presented what Swiss development cooperation (DC) should look like from 2021 to 2024. The plans concern both the projects that Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) itself, as well as those that receive financial support from the federal government. All interested organisations were allowed to give feedback to the Federal Council. This is welcomed by terre des hommes schweiz, because we see a number of things that the Federal Council needs to improve.
The Federal Council should definitely implement these points:
- We demand that the Federal Council give special priority to the promotion of peace and gender justice. They are fundamentally important for achieving the goals formulated by the Federal Council.
- We demand that the Federal Council strengthen women's, children's and youth organisations and protect human rights defenders. Such civil society actors make the progress that has been preserved for so long possible. They also carry out important work to protect the weakest sections of the population. Without them, we can no longer Sustainable development goals not even reach.
- Under no circumstances should the SDC withdraw completely from Latin America. For decades, Swiss organizations have been doing important work there for people who receive no help from their own state. They are dependent on foreign presence. The Federal Council, on the other hand, only wants to promote projects where Switzerland is supposed to benefit directly.
- The Federal Council should finally honour its commitment to invest at least 0.7 % of gross national income (GNI) in development cooperation. The Federal Council is currently talking about 0.45 % of GNI. The Federal Council absolutely must improve this, because it is clearly too little. Moreover, it is not enough to combat climate change with the budget for development cooperation. It is absolutely necessary to introduce additional levies, such as the air ticket tax and CO2-fees on fuel to stop global warming.
