Swisscontact

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Swisscontact is a Swiss foundation and was founded in 1959 by personalities from Swiss business and science. She works exclusively in international development cooperation and has carried out her own and mandated projects since 1961. The foundation has been close to the private sector since it was established. The focus of the work is the development of integrative socio-economic systems. A central aspect of systemic interventions in the private sector is the promotion of local and global value chains.

organization

The foundation works in 36 countries with around 1,100 employees and runs over 100 projects to promote economic stability in developing countries. The foundation's seat is in Zurich. The Board of Trustees currently has around thirty personalities from business, politics and science. The foundation received the ZEWO seal of approval . The accounting follows the regulations of SWISS GAAP FER 21. The Springfield Center, Durham (GB) has been a subsidiary of Swisscontact since 2019. The Springfield Center conducts consultancy, training and research projects in the field of systemic market development.

history

Anne-Marie Im Hof-Piguet (1916 - 2010) first took the initiative in February 1956 to set up a Swiss foundation for development aid, which is co-financed by the private sector. In Hof-Piguet "was of the opinion that Switzerland, due to its prosperity and as a country without a colonial past, could and must play an important role in development aid". Together with their former classmate Jacques Freymond and the liberal Sydney de Coulon , they designed the project for a national foundation for solidarity. The three are still considered to be the most important initiators of the foundation. The Swiss Foundation for Technical Development Aid was officially established on May 6, 1959, when former Federal Councilor Ernst Wetter established the foundation at the Zurich Old Town notary's office and issued a deed of foundation and statutes. Hans Schindler became the first president of the foundation . The assumption of a Switzerland without a colonial history has meanwhile been revised.

Thematic focus

The private sector promotion is the basis of the foundation's project work, which focuses on four core areas:

  • Promotion of vocational training and further education
The foundation develops vocational training systems and job market-oriented training and further education in order to increase the chances of young people and adults in the job market and for working life.
  • Business promotion
The foundation supports companies in the areas of corporate management, product development and quality assurance. In this way, the foundation gives them access to markets and information in order to increase the competitiveness, productivity and thus the income of small businesses and to create jobs.
  • Financial services
The foundation works with providers of financial services to develop customized and marketable products for micro-savers and borrowers. In addition, the foundation gives young start-up entrepreneurs access to financial services such as micro and small loans as well as microinsurance so that they can successfully set up and run a small business. These services are supplemented by basic financial education for entrepreneurially oriented people.
  • Climate-friendly economy
The foundation creates income opportunities through the efficient use of natural resources and environmentally friendly production. The measures involve the low-income sections of the population and at the same time protect against environmental and health damage.

Senior Expert Corps

The Senior Expert Corps was founded in 1979 and is a Swisscontact project. Retired specialists from Switzerland, from craftsmen to hotel specialists to marketing specialists, advise small and medium-sized companies in developing countries and Eastern Europe. The work is done on a voluntary basis. Your assignments last a maximum of three months. Around 150 missions are carried out every year. The most common branches of the Senior Expert Corps are tourism, food and vocational training.

literature

  • Aufdermauer, Albert: Ger transport and vocational training assistance. Swisscontact on the way to a new concept? in: Wolf-Dietrich Greinert, Werner Heitmann, Reinhard Stockmann, Brunhilde Vest (eds.): Forty years of professional training cooperation with countries in the Third World. Baden-Baden. 1997. pp. 429-426. ISBN 3-7890-4668-X
  • Diener, Franziska: The Swiss Foundation for Technical Development Aid (Swisscontact) 1956 - 1971 Development cooperation of the Swiss private sector. Licensed thesis of the Philosophical Faculty of

University of Zurich. Zurich 2012.

  • Feller, Elisabeth: The technical development aid for Swiss entrepreneurs, in: Eastern Switzerland - Western Switzerland - Confederation. Memorandum for Fritz Hummler , Zurich 1965. pp. 65–70.
  • Im-Hof-Piguet, Anne-Marie (co-founder of Swisscontact): On the way to an academy of human rights; A life story. Marie Sandkorn Verlag, Basel 2005. P. 28ff. ISBN 3-9521036-1-6
  • Jäger, Matthias and Stricker, Peter: Cheese, Industrial Dreams and Labor Market Realities; 50 years of Swiss-Nepal cooperation in the field of vocational education and training. Zurich, 2007.
  • Schuppisser, Ka: The commitment of the private sector in development aid. The establishment of the Swiss Foundation for Technical Development Aid 1956–1959 and its conflicts with the monopoly claim of the Swiss Aid Organization for 148 non-European areas (SHAG), in: Hug, Peter / Mesmer, Beatrix (ed.): Von der Entwicklungshilfe zur Entwicklungspolitik. Bern 1993, pp. 189-200 (studies and sources 19).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swisscontact annual report 2018 , annual accounts . Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  2. ↑ Merger of Swisscontact and Springfield Center , press release, June 12, 2019
  3. ↑ Springfield Center website
  4. ↑ See Schuppisser, Engagement der Privatwirtschaft, p. 190.
  5. ^ Diener, Franziska: The Swiss Foundation for Technical Development Aid (Swisscontact) 1956 - 1971. p. 19.
  6. ↑ transcript: Postcolonial Switzerland. Retrieved March 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Swisscontact Annual Report 2017 , Global Projects

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