News

Only a few weeks ago, a new Swisscontact-Project focussing on vocational education and training has been launched in the Karamoja region in northern Uganda.

Judit Seid from Swisscontact Germany attended the launching of the project in Moroto, Karamoja. We were very pleased to welcome Jeannette Higham (responsible for the project at the EC Delegation in Uganda) and officially open the new project office with her.

For further information and impressions from Karamoja please follow this link.

During 2009, Swisscontact South Africa furthered its mission of promoting private economic and social development through advisory services, training and continuing education. Significant progress could be achieved  in all  existing projects while a number of new ventures were initiated with the help of local and international partners.

For more information about the work of Swisscontact South Africa please follow this link:

South Africa_Annual Report 2009

Mobile phones are a success story of bridging the rural digital divide, bringing tangible economic benefits and acting as agents of social mobilization through improved communication.

At an ‘e-agriculture.org’ forum, Swisscontact's Sabbir Ahmed and Mirza Farzana Halim of Katalyst reported about their experience with a farmer telephone helpline in Bangladesh.

Please follow this link to read the whole article.

With more than 65.000 visitors this years spring trade fairs were a complete success.

Swisscontact Germany would also to thank all guests for their visit and all the interesting conversations that made our trade fair presence a real success. We are grateful for many new contacts and are looking forward to see everyone again at our next trade fair presence at the European Development Days in Brussels.

Swisscontact Benin recently published its own website.
In Benin Swisscontact focuses on vocational education of youth in the area of handcraft (mechanics of moped, tailoring, hair-dressing, etc). These programmes intend to offer better chances to generate an own income and consequently a self-determined future. To get an overview and more information about the work of Swisscontact Benin please click here.

Swisscontact joined the United Nations Global Compact. Founded by Kofi Annan in 2000, the UN Global Compact fosters sustainable and responsible business practices. Participating Companies commit to respect human rights, basic labour rights and environmental issues in their business practices as well as to fight corruption. Multilateral organizations and NGOs like Swisscontact contribute their unique knowledge to these purposes and share their experiences to learn how the private sector can contribute to a more equitable world and to the preservation of natural resources. More Information can be found here.

The BBC reports on how people in Aceh (Indonesia) have successfully recovered from economic devastation five years after the tsunami. One of the featured entrepreneurs is a diving shop owner who facilitates the regrowing of destroyed corals just off the island of Sabang. Thanks to the financial support of Swisscontact he already restored an area of more than 500m2 of corals which now attracts tourists and scientists from around the world. Watch the Video here.

For the second consecutive year Swisscontact Germany attended the European Development Days – the European Commission’s annual event serving as a dialogue platform for issues related to development cooperation. For more information on the topics discussed and visual impressions, please click here.

As part of the festivities for Swisscontact’s 50th anniversary, a week-long seminar for all the project leaders took place in Ittingen, Switzerland. Our project leaders came from around the world for training and experience sharing. During the official celebrations on August 20th, project leaders were joined by other Swisscontact employees, representatives of the private sector, politics and academia, donors and friends of the organisation to celebrate the anniversary. Click here to view impressions of the anniversary day.  

Swisscontact Germany gGmbH recently became a member of VENRO – the association of German development non-governmental organisations. VENRO is the umbrella organisation of independent and church related NGOs working in the fields of development cooperation, emergency assistance, development education and advocacy. Founded in 1995, VENRO is comprised of app. 120 organisations which share the common goal of shaping globalisation in a fair way and overcoming global poverty. VENRO in a nutshell.

Swisscontact recently became a member of the European Microfinance Platform – a network of approximately 100 organisations and individuals active in the area of microfinance. e-MFP promotes the co-operation amongst European microfinance bodies working in developing countries by facilitating communication and the exchange of information.

Read our contribution to the e-MFP summer newsletter here.

2008 was another busy and successful year for the worldwide Swisscontact network. The severe impacts      of the global financial and economic crisis pose new challenges for developing nations and make the work of Swisscontact even more imperative.

Click here for a copy of our annual report and find out more about individual projects and our commitment to fight global poverty.

"Claudia's bakery is flourishing and Sulema is dreaming of her own hairdresser's shop: How Swisscontact supports vocational training in El Salvador and by doing so gives a perspective to the unemployed"

Read here what the 'Neue Zürcher Zeitung' writes about our activities in El Salvador on the occasion of our 50th birthday today. (In German only)

Swisscontact is part of this year's German CSR Forum, which will take place on April 27th – 28th 2009 in Stuttgart. Together with GSMA and Grameenphone Bangladesh we will present on the topic of 'Mobile Financial Services'

Mobile Financial Services as driver for a social revolution – background and sustainability potential of an emerging technology

For the detailed programme and sign-up go to www.envicomm.org

We are proud to announce that Swisscontact once again has been awarded the NGO Benchmarking Certification by SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance), achieving an excellent score of 93.1%. We were audited in the following dimensions of best practice: board of trustees, strategic framework; integrity management; communication, advocacy and public image; fundraising, resources allocation and financial controls; field operations; outcomes; continuous improvement. You can find more information about SGS and NGO Benchmarking here.

We are celebrating our 50th birthday this year. On May 6th 1959 Swisscontact was founded by personalities from the Swiss private business and university sectors with the aspiration to promote private economic and social development.  Celebrate with us and continue to fight with us against poverty – for a future worth living for every person. To get to our Swiss homepage, please click here.

In joint effort with the Louis Leitz Foundation and the local handicraft’s association ANAS we are creating a formational course for water installers in Burkina Faso. In doing so, we are supporting the Burkinabe to resolve problems of leaking water pipes and broken water pumps themselves. Young people have the prospect of education and income and to liberate themselves out of poverty in a self dependent manner. Please use this link to get to the Louis Leitz Foundation.

Our new contact information is:

Swisscontact Germany    

Senefelderstraße 26  

D-70176 Stuttgart

Telefon +49 711 220468 0 

Fax +49 711 220468 10 

germany[at]swisscontact.net

Due to the great success of the workshop „Remittances & Development – Roadmap to Success“ Swisscontact would thank all referents and participants. The high level of interest and the lively discussions exceeded all our expectations. Here you can find the agenda of the workshop and the presentations

From 15^th to 17^th of November the European Commission is hosting the third edition of European Development Days in Strasbourg. In 2008 this high-level event for development cooperation professionals focuses on the local dimension and the implementation of MDGs. By breaking down walls between different issues, EDD serve as a natural platform for debating major development issues and launching new initiatives and partnerships. You are welcome to visit Swisscontact’s stand at the Development Village and join us at side events of the forum for lively discussions and debates. For information regarding cost-free registration for the event and daily programme, please follow the link.

From 27 to 31 of October the 13th International Metropolis Conference will take place in Bonn, Germany. The conference will explore the relationships between migration, immigrant integration and development. Together with selected experts we will, for this reason, arrange a workshop at the conference. The workshop is themed “Remittances & Development – Roadmap to Success”. Detailed information about the Metropolis Conference, the workshop and the daily schedule you can find here.

The beginning of August we travelled together with the W.P-Schmitz and Schmitz-Hille foundation to Indonesia, to visit one of our projects there. Collectively we support dedicated small farmers and their families in the province Nusa Tenggara Timur. Everyone was delighted by the progress of the project. Here you will find detailed information about our activites.

Swisscontact delivered the first training course on instructional skills at the School of Tourism and Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in July’08. This training is a part of an EC-funded Vietnam Human Resources Development in Tourism (HRDT) project. Here you can find more information.

From 25 to 27 of June the Association of German Foundations hosted its annual Meeting in Munich. In this context Swisscontact Germany took advantage to present its activities and projects at a forum that was organized on June 26. The forum served to establish intersting contacts to representatives of other foundations and to create synergies among each other. It also contributed to the mutual exchange of experiences and the stimulation of future project partnerships.

The main theme of the 2008 Congress will be 'Global Fairness - Local Integrity'. Research reports will be delivered on global research currently being conducted on "Fairness in international trade and investment" and "Ethics in small and medium enterprises". Swisscontact will give a presentation on "Business Inclusion - Experiences on Access to Financial Services in Cajamarca (Peru)" by Mrs. Cecilia Rivera, Swisscontact Country Manager from Peru, on July 15 2008 at 5:10 p.m. at the the Cape Town Convention Centre in South Africa.

The year 2007 offered various opportunities for Swisscontact to implement different innovative projects in cooperation with our public and private partners. The aim of all our activities is to stimulate and strengthen hidden potentials together with the population in the developing countries and to create opportunities for breaking the poverty cycle with one's own forces. The projects presented in the Annual Report 2007 show how with one's own initiative poverty can be reduced in a sustainable manner.

The poor population in the rural areas in Ecuador will get access to microcredits and saving accounts. For over 6.000 people this is one way to escape poverty self dependently and with dignity. For only 10 Euro you support one family to gain access to saving and credit services in the long run. Here you will find detailed information about  the project.

On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Swisscontact Germany welcomed together with the Project Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) to the symposium "Remittances for Development". Representatives from politics, science, bancs, development organizations, NGOs and last but not least the diaspora were vividly engaged in discussions about synergies and partnerships to enhance the better use of remittances in the future. Thanks to all participants for their valuable contributions!

The Diners Club Magazine presents in its April edition in cooperation with Maecenata the contribution of Swisscontact Germany to help reducing poverty worldwide.The article notes on how development policy can be linked successfully with the interests of a sustainable economy.  

The W. P. Schmitz-Foundation, non-profit organization for development aid, with its headquarter in Duesseldorf/ Germany, supports in the framework of our project activities in Indonesia the local partners on Flores and Alor in the area of economic development.