Selected results 2016
Through its international cooperation work, Switzerland promotes democracy and a market economy in a number of countries. SDC and SECO projects and programmes achieved a wide range of outcomes in 2016.
Eastern Europe
Since 2012, the Swiss programme has been supporting the Bulgarian government in the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy. This strategy seeks to improve the living conditions of these vulnerable groups, in particular through better access to education and medical/social services, and through increased participation in public affairs. Thanks to the extension of the primary school in the Roma neighbourhood in the town of Burgas, 200 children can now attend nursery school and thereby increase their potential and improve school integration.
Better quality of life for Roma communities in Bulgaria, project SDC
The SDC’s strategy of gearing the vocational education and training system more closely to the needs of potential employers and expanding job placement and advisory services has paid off in the Western Balkans. Some 16,000 young people were integrated in the still tight labour market in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These measures were designed and implemented in close cooperation with the competent authorities, public and private recruitment agencies, and companies.
Middle East and North Africa
In the MENA region, SECO supports the development of local value chains and the trade of locally-manufactured specialities with protected designations of origin. In Tunisia between March 2015 and September 2016, a total of more than 1,500 people received training in fields such as the benefits of AOC certification, improving production and management, manufacturing specialities such as Harissa, jam and syrup, cultivating fig trees, and quality assurance. Morocco hosted the first competition featuring more than 350 local products, modelled on the Swiss competition of local products in Jura.
Latin America
Of the 15,000 young people in Nicaragua (66% of whom were women) who benefitted from an SDC vocational education and training programme in 2015 and 2016, almost half found a job as a salaried employee or were self-employed within a year. They therefore earned an income that was above the statutory national minimum wage.
