Core Contribution to Swiss Personnel Development Cooperation of UNITE 2027-2028

In recent years, the international environment has undergone rapid normative and geopolitical shifts, while funding for international cooperation (IC) has increasingly been deprioritised. At the same time, IC is confronted with a growing number of overlapping crises, including wars in Ukraine and Sudan, protracted conflicts in the Middle East, the Sahel, the DRC, Myanmar and Afghanistan, as well as rising food insecurity and the accelerating impacts of climate change. These crises disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and result in increasing humanitarian needs. Particular challenges include shrinking civic space, restricted humanitarian access, erosion of the rule of law, forced displacement and persistent gender inequalities.

As a result of these changes and challenges, Swiss NGO receiving core contributions must continuously adapt while diversifying their funding sources and demonstratingt heir added value for Swiss IC.

UN General Assembly Resolution 70/129 of 2015 underlines the important role of national and international volunteers to reach the SDGs of the Agenda 2030. UNITE is the central actor for volunteerism in international cooperation in Switzerland. UNITE member organisations work in more than 30 countries, half of them classified as fragile or extremely fragile. They support local organisations in their efforts towards food security, education, health and governance and partner with a wide range of actors: civil society movements, local NGO, local, regional and national government authorities, churches, academic institutions and the private sector

Strengthening the capacity of partner organisations to fight multidimensional poverty in the Global South with and for local populations and to improve, at a systemic level, the framework conditions for the implementation of the SDGs.

Nine co-financed Member Organisations (MOs) contribute to the overall goal and to specific objectives: 

- Associazione per I'aiuto Medico al Centro America (AMCA);
- Comundo;
- DM;
- E-CHANGER;
- Eirene Suisse:
- MediCuba Suisse:
- Mission Evangélique au Tchad;
- Mission am Nil International;
- SAM global.

Achievements of UNITE umbrella organisation

UNITE’s and the member organisations’ international programmes have demonstrated their resilience in fragile contexts, and the umbrella organisation as well as its members have developed their respective institutiona land operational capacities further. UNITE accompanied the work of its member organisations by commissioning studies on various topics, such as Triple Nexus, and regularly applies participatory, qualitative impact analyses to its programmes.

Achievements of UNITE’s co-financed MOs

Outcome 1: Food security remained a main focus of many UNITE interventions: in total, in 2025, nearly 47'000 women and men improved their access to safe and sufficient food and engaged in sustainable food production and resilient practices, white 61 local organisations engaged in agriculture have been strengthened (by affecting 46 PDC staff), and nearly 1 ’500 local staff trained. On a more systemic level, in Burkina Faso, a UNITE intervention contributed to the adoption of the new national policy concerning community-certified bio-inputs and their production. 

Outcome 2: UNITE MOs create impact on systemic level, e.g. in the health sector: in Nicaragua, support for the National Children’s Hospital has contributed to the Ministry of Health’s adoption of a national standard on pediatric palliative care and to the integration of such care into university medical training

Outcome 3: in the field of education, MOs have, e.g., strengthened local structures in Haiti for the prevention of violence and civic participation through the training of teachers and the promotion of inclusive and non-violent teaching practices. In total, nearly 1’ 600 staff were trained by UNITE MOs and 73’000 people benefited from a reduction in violence at community level.

Absorbing roughly one third of the UNITE budget, the results in the field of education are generally substantial.

1. Sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices are strengthened (SDG 2)

2. Healthy living and the promotion of weII-being for all at all ages are strengthened (SDG 3)

3. Inclusive and equitable quality education for all is ensured (SDG 4)

4. Peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development are promoted (SDG 16)

5. Awareness to sustainable development has raised among the public in Switzerland (SDG 4.7) (for this outcome no SDC contribution will be used).

The visibility of the value added by the Swiss NGO to the implementation of the Swiss IC Strategy 2025-28 shall be strengthened and highlighted through:

a) sharpening the narrative for the rationale of the core contribution;

b) an inclusive policy dialogue between SDC and the NGO;

c) implementation oflocally-led cooperation;

d) relevant adaptations of programmes and approaches; and

e) evidence-based programming of quality funding.

Phase 20 01.01.2027 - 31.12.2028   (Active)