Switzerland
Country Profile
To create access for all to resources and services to improve health is one of the goals of the international cooperation of Switzerland. In the area health Switzerland concentrates among others to improve maternal and child health and to reduce infectious diseases like HIV.
In February 2012, the Federal Council has transmitted to Parliament the Message on Switzerland’s International Cooperation in the period 2013 – 16. For the first time, the Message describes in one document the tasks of humanitarian aid, development cooperation, economic and trade policy measures within the framework of development cooperation, and cooperation with the countries of Eastern Europe. While the principal objective of development cooperation remains poverty reduction, in the future, Switzerland plans to work more closely in fragile contexts and to contribute to overcoming global challenges which seriously worsen the prospects of poor countries.
An obligatory amount of CHF 11.35 billion has been budgeted for the 2013 -16 period corresponding with the decision of the parliament to raise the resources it makes available for public development aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national product (GDP) by 2015.
Between 2013–2016 development cooperation will commit a total of CHF 6.92 billion (or 61% of total funds) to technical cooperation and financial aid for developing countries, of which around 60% will be for bilateral and 40% for multilateral cooperation.
