Welcome to the Swiss Cooperation Office in Bangladesh!
Switzerland is one of the long-standing development partners of Bangladesh. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), a part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, has been working in Bangladesh since its independence. SDC considers Bangladesh as one of its priority countries to concentrate its long-term development cooperation efforts.
SDC has a substantial programme in Bangladesh with an aim to achieve an effective and sustainable poverty reduction in this country. During the last few years' work, SDC felt that Bangladesh has made huge progress in the previous few decades, notably in population control, food security, child mortality, malnutrition and access to education. However, poverty reduction remains a major challenge.
The SDCCooperation Strategy Bangladesh 2008-2012 addresses two major challenges: governance and the increasing gap between rich and poor which implies a growing number of extreme poor in the country.
The Cooperation Strategy focuses on the two thematic areas
§Employment and Income Generation
§Local Governance
Both thematic areas and the lines of action are aligned with the Bangladesh Government's Poverty Reduction Strategy. In addition to support of national level projects, the programme has a geographic focus in two low-income and under-served rural areas, i.e. Rajshahi & Sunamganj. In general, SDC is guided by the terms of the Paris Declaration to secure ownership for the joint endeavors among the national partners and to achieve a well coordinated, efficient cooperation with other donor agencies. Cooperation with other bi- and multilateral (likeminded) donors is an important way for becoming involved in the policy dialogue and for scaling up successful approaches.
Corruption, as a worldwide phenomenon and a development problem, has been on the international agenda for more than a decade. In 1998, SDC issued guidelines stemming from the concern that corruption should be taken into account in its own activities and processes so as to ensure that Swiss funds not be diverted through corrupt channels. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to contribute to preventing corruption as a major obstacle towards development.
SWISS TALK is the newsletter of the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh, providing information and news about Switzerland-Bangladesh relations in the areas of development cooperation, trade and investment, culture, diplomatic relations etc.
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