Swisscontact

Swisscontact – Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation is a Swiss non-profit-organisation, which carries out projects aiming at reducing poverty in developing and transition countries. It has been founded in 1959 as a politically and denominationally neutral organisation and has 25 employees in Switzerland and approximately 400 staff abroad. The main fields of activity are fostering vocational education, small and medium enterprises, micro-finance and environmental protection.

History

Swisscontact is a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO) that works for sustainable economic development in developing, newly industrialized and transition countries. The aim of all its activities is to reduce poverty by promoting private enterprise.[1]

Swisscontact was founded in 1959 under the name of Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation by leading figures from the Swiss business world, universities and politics. The organization was renamed in 1972, but retained its old title as a supplement.[2] More than 400 staff abroad and some 25 Swiss-based employees work for Swisscontact. In addition to these, retired experts who are members of the Senior Expert Corps undertake voluntary consulting assignments. Assistance is provided in the form of projects that are implemented in conjunction with local partners (companies, NGOs, public institutions). The aim is to ensure that people acquire skills and work to obtain the means they need to escape poverty through their own efforts.[3]

Swisscontact has received the ZEWO seal of quality from the Swiss agency responsible for monitoring charitable organizations that raise donations in Switzerland. The foundation has also been certified by the international inspection and certification company SGS as part of its NGO benchmarking programme. Two important partners of Swisscontact are the governmental organisations Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Projects

In the 1960s, Swisscontact set up vocational training colleges in Africa, Asia and Latin America and provided further training for the instructors at these colleges. This was followed in the 1980s by the launch of schemes aimed at promoting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), after graduates from the vocational training colleges had said that there was an urgent need for expert advice when setting up businesses. It was also evident that SMEs were experiencing considerable difficulty in obtaining commercial and investment credits. As a result, the organization introduced programmes favouring the creation of micro-finance institutions. After training car mechanics, Swisscontact also went on to develop integral solutions for preventing air pollution.[4]

Swisscontact is specialized in project implementation and accepts assignments from public and private partners and carries out projects that have been put out to public tender. The organization also runs a programme of its own activities that are financed from donations and contributions from the state. All of these activities can be divided into four areas of operation:

Vocational Education and Training

Since 1959 Swisscontact has been committed to providing vocational training and further education, the assumption being that good training opportunities are key to the economic and social development of a country. Swisscontact started off by setting up technical vocational training colleges (for mechanics, electricians, electronic technicians, etc.) based on the Swiss model in countries where infrastructure was lacking. Over the past 25 years the main focus in the promotion of vocational training has shifted to instructing vocational training college instructors and setting up national vocational training systems on the one hand and to holding shorter on the other, in particular for unemployed youngsters and disadvantaged sectors of the population courses (in development cooperation usually called «skills training»). In simple basic courses, they can acquire knowledge that will give them the chance to find a job or become self-employed. Emphasis is always placed on getting as many women as possible involved in the schemes. At present, around a third of those who have benefited are women.[5][6]

Swisscontact supports practical vocational training by:

Swisscontact assists vocational training in Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Indonesia, El Salvador, Albania and Kosovo.

Promotion of small and medium enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the largest employers in developing countries as well. Swisscontact is fostering private companies and public institutions that advise SMEs, provide them with further services (e.g. further training) and improve their legal and economic framework conditions.

Swisscontact assists small and medium enterprises by:

(e.g. business consultancy, product development, sales training, finance knowledge and specialist technical knowledge)

Swisscontact supports SMEs in South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras and Nicaragua.[9]

Financial services

In development cooperation, all financial services provided for people on low incomes in developing countries are bracketed together under the collective term microfinance. Their aim is to give small and medium enterprises access to banking services that allow them to maintain or expand their companies. Swisscontact does not grant microcredits, but instead assists local microcredit banks and savings and credit associations with advice and further training.[10]

Assisted by Swiss banking specialists, Swisscontact facilitates SMEs’ access to savings and loan opportunities by:

Swisscontact runs microfinance projects in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Indonesia, Ecuador, Peru and Ukraine.

Environmental protection

Swisscontact is working for an economically, socially and ecologically sustainable development and is considering the responsible use of natural resources a prerequisite to achieve this. Emerging countries such as Vietnam are starting to feel the effects with a sharp increase in pollution. Environmentally friendly measures – in the area of transport, for example – can cut costs and thereby boost company earnings. Swisscontact believes that services related to climate protection and associated technologies represent a growth market and will in future be able to provide people with jobs and incomes in developing countries as well. An example of this is recycling of reusable materials.[12]

Swisscontact lends its support by:

Swisscontact promotes environmental protection in Indonesia, Vietnam, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

Senior Expert Corps

Since 1979 Swisscontact has a pool of retired professionals called the Senior Expert Corps. Its members are supporting SMEs in developing and transition countries in solving technical and operational problems on a volutary basis. If necessary they provide further training to the personnel and management of the company. One assignment lasts a maximum of three months.[13] The pool contains experts in: marketing and management consulting, electrical, civil and mechanical engineering, hotel and tourism services, food engineering, education, artisanry, medical and health care services, agonomy and forestry engineering, construction, chemistry and pharmaceuticals, journalism, other specialized fields.[14]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.swisscontact.org/english/pages/UB/UB_Wn.php?navanchor=2110041
  2. ↑ Foundation Charter of Swisscontact (in German), PDF 120KB: http://www.swisscontact.ch/any/resources/pdf/Swisscontact_Stiftungsurkunde.pdf
  3. ↑ http://www.swisscontact.org/english/pages/UB/UB_Wn.php?navanchor=2110041
  4. ↑ http://www.swisscontact.org/english/pages/AR/AR.php?navanchor=2110011
  5. ↑ http://www.swisscontact.org/english/pages/AR/AR_Bg.php
  6. ↑ Video report about a female trainee car mechanic in a programme of Swisscontact http://www.swisscontact.org/any/resources/var/claudia_e.html
  7. ↑ Swisscontact Capability Statement on vocational education and training, PDF 40KB: http://www.swisscontact.org/any/resources/pdf/Cap_Statement_VET_SD.pdf
  8. ↑ Swisscontact Capability Statement on SME promotion, PDF 40KB: http://www.swisscontact.org/any/resources/pdf/Cap_Statement_SME.pdf
  9. ↑ National Public Radio (USA) report about a Swisscontact SME-project in Honduras and Nicaragua: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93050486
  10. ↑ Swisscontact Approach to financial sector development, PDF 40KB: http://www.swisscontact.org/any/resources/pdf/Approach_FSD.pdf
  11. ↑ MICROFINANCE: newspaper supplement by Swisscontact: extracts in English, PDF 100KB: http://www.swisscontact.org/any/resources/pdf/MICROFINANCE_2008_en.pdf (complete original in German, published on 24 September 2008 in Neue Zuercher Zeitung)
  12. ↑ http://www.swisscontact.org/english/pages/AR/AR_Uz.php
  13. ↑ http://www.swisscontact.org/english/pages/EX/EX.php?navanchor=2110018
  14. ↑ Example of a senior expert assignment: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/search/Result.html?siteSect=882&ty=st&sid=4716592

Publications by Swisscontact

Further reading