Hunger and malnutrition not only endanger the health of people but pose a significant threat to the overall development of a country. The SDC is committed to ensuring adequate, sufficient and good-quality food for all, taking into account the entire food value chain: from the fields where food is produced, to storage and processing, markets, trade, transport and up to consumers via diet.
The SDC works worldwide to secure the human right to adequate food. It designs its activities with the aim of giving poorer and disadvantaged population groups, such as smallholder farmers, women and young people, equal access to education, productive resources and markets. The SDC helps them to make productive but sustainable use of natural resources and supports them in dealing with the effects of climate change, with the storage and marketing of their produce and with continuous adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Throughout all these endeavors, the SDC persistently pays special attention to the preservation of the highly endangered biodiversity in each context. It also promotes needs-oriented research and advisory services.
In addition, the SDC encourages innovations all along the food value chain that provide consumers with a healthy and diverse diet by facilitating access to suitable foodstuffs, both in rural and in urban areas.
Sustainable agriculture ensures a healthy diet, preserves biodiversity, and is the basis for securing the human right to adequate food. With this goal in mind, Switzerland engages in international cooperation in the field of food security. The Swiss agriculture sector, with its multifunctional, family-based and environmentally-friendly food production geared to social and regional balance, acts as a role model.
Links
Documents
Global Programme Food Security: Programme Framework 2021–24 (PDF, 2.0 MB, English)
Food security: An SDC Global Programme (PDF, Number of pages 8, 1.7 MB, English)
Food security – a value-added chain (Multilaterale Akzente, September 2011, fr) (PDF, 2.2 MB)
Securing enough food for all (2007) (PDF, 6.2 MB)
Current projects
Crop Trust – Genebank Platform 2018
01.01.2018
- 31.12.2018
The Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) safeguards globally important collections of crop diversity critical for improving food and nutrition security. Genebanks require constant maintenance. The Crop Trust Endowment Fund ensures the long-term funding for the maintenance of these genebanks. The unique bilateral contribution by Switzerland contributes to safeguarding (and building up of) the Endowment Fund.
Strengthening the Right to Adequate Food, FIAN International
01.01.2018
- 31.10.2021
With 815 million undernourished people in 2017, the right to food as laid in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still not realized. For the past thirty years, FIAN International has raised awareness about people’s right to food worldwide and expanded spaces for civil society to hold governments more accountable. This project will promote effective participation of rights holders in food security and nutrition policies and governance mechanisms and be complemented by SDC support to the mandate of the UN Special rapporteur on the right to food.
Rural Markets
01.01.2018
- 31.12.2021
Rural Household Production Units experience various difficulties preventing them from establishing themselves sustainably and competitively in the market. The Rural Markets project successfully applied the market systems development approach. It now aims to induce systemic changes and a scaling up of markets for producers in new regions of productive potential. Support of non-financial services combined with financial services will establish synergies between public and private actors.
Livestock Development expanding from South to North in the South Caucasus
01.12.2017
- 31.08.2021
Livestock farming is the main economic activity for most poor households in rural areas of Armenia and Georgia. Through better access to services, inputs and markets, as well as effective management of natural resources, farmers in Armenia are expected to substantially improve their livelihood. Strengthening regional links and access to regional markets of animal and animal products will also make the livestock sector more profitable and increase its competitiveness, hereby contributing to higher incomes and employment for farmers in rural Armenia and Georgia.
Facility for Refugees, Migrants, Forced Displacement and Rural Stability (IFAD)
01.12.2017
- 31.12.2023
Switzerland is committed at the highest political level to help countries in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region coping with the refugee crisis. By co-financing two projects funded by IFAD (the International Fund for Agricultural Development) in Jordan and Lebanon, SDC will contribute to create sustainable livelihoods for thousands of Syrian refugees, and will also support host communities to increase their income and food security by improving the quality of their small ruminants and cattle, as well as their value in the market.
Technical Assistance Facility for Sustainable Business Development in Agriculture
01.12.2017
- 30.11.2021
This publicly supported fund provides technical support (training, marketing, organization dev., business plans) to medium sized enterprises active in agriculture and food processing in several developing countries alongside with capital investments from private impact investors. Impact investors seek to generate a social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. The fund is a public private partnership that will trigger an estimated $30m in private capital and improve the output market for approx. 200k family farms.
Lao Upland Rural Advisory Services (LURAS)
01.12.2017
- 30.11.2021
The rapid transformation of the rural economy brings smallholder farmers in contact with a wide range of new service providers (private agribusiness companies, farmer organisations, non-profit associations). The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) recognizes that greater pluralism in service provision is needed. LURAS supports a multi-stakeholder market-based approach to promote demand-driven service provision to farmers and strengthen the capacities of farmers’ organizations.
CABI Plantwise Programme
01.12.2017
- 31.12.2021
Plantwise is a global programme led by CABI to increase food security and improve rural livelihoods by reducing crop losses. Local plant clinics provide farmers with practical plant health advice, reinforced by the Plantwise knowledge bank, an online gateway to plant health information. Plantwise strengthens national plant health systems from within, enabling countries to provide farmers with the knowledge they need to lose less. Plantwise aims at reaching over 30 million farmers in up to 34 countries by the end of 2020.
Improved Access to Markets for Female and Male Fresh Fruits and Vegetable (FFV) Small Scale Producers
01.12.2017
- 30.06.2022
With focus on private sector-led agriculture and agribusiness, this program pursues systemic change in the agriculture sector and supports business modalities that favor small scale producers in the occupied Palestinian territory. The overall goal is to contribute to build a resilient economy with equitable agricultural growth, whilst contributing to protect small scale producers’ entitlements to natural resources and access to markets.
| Country/region | Topic | Period | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Palestinian Authority |
Agriculture & food security
Agricultural development
Agricultural services & market
Agricultural policy
|
01.12.2017 - 30.06.2022 |
CHF 5'200'000 |
Inclusion financière dans l'Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA)
01.12.2017
- 31.12.2023
En Afrique de l’Ouest, le faible accès aux services financiers ne permet pas de moderniser les exploitations familiales et de développer des activités productives. La DDC soutient la stratégie régionale d’inclusion financière de l’Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine et la Swiss Capacity Building Facility pour accroitre l’accès à de nombreux jeunes et femmes aux services financiers et leur offrir des opportunités économiques permettant ainsi de s’attaquer aux causes de la migration et de l’insécurité.
Rangeland Management project (RAMA)
01.10.2017
- 30.04.2030
The project will improve the livelihoods and food security of rural households by supporting communities to sustainably manage their rangeland resources. Poor and landless families depend on rangeland resources for livestock rearing and fuel and fodder collection. A growing population puts increased pressure on limited resources, while decades of conflict have weakened rangeland management systems. This has resulted in degradation of rangelands, which is exacerbated by the effects of climate change.
Partenariat scientifique entre 2iE Ouagadougou et institutions universitaires suisses
01.10.2017
- 31.12.2022
La maitrise de l’eau et l’accès à des sources d’énergie durables sont des facteurs nécessaires pour créer les conditions d’un développement humain durable en Afrique. Pour y parvenir la formation de cadres compétents et le développement de technologies et d’approches innovantes sont indispensables. Le partenariat avec 2IE y a contribué durant les années écoulées et les résultats atteints feront l’objet d’une capitalisation au cours de cette phase de désengagement qui est la dernière phase de ce partenariat.