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Specific projects
Films - An insight into the SDC
Humanitaere Hilfe

A number of short films provide an insight into the SDC’s mission

Humanitarian Aid
 Portrait of an employee in Sri Lanka
All short films

Aid operations
Message 2013-2016
Message 2013-2016

What are the new strategic orientations of Switzerland’s international cooperation, and how is the budget broken down among them? Information on the funding earmarked and concrete examples can be found in this dossier:
 Dossier

Humanitarian Aid: emergency aid and reconstruction

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International humanitarian aid forms an important part of Swiss foreign policy and manifests the Swiss philosophy of solidarity with the real world. When disasters, crises and conflicts occur abroad it supports, on the one hand, the projects of other humanitarian organizations for the benefit of people in need. During and after crises and disasters it saves lives and relieves suffering, providing people with survival aid and supporting them in the reconstruction process.

Spotlight on

UNHCR and its partner agencies provide returnee families with a cah grant for reinstallation, as well as landmine awareness training, medical attention and immunisation against disease. [© UNHCR]

2 - 3 May 2012, Geneva
Conference on Afghan Displacement
 The aim is that as a result of the conference Afghani refugees will be able to return to their home country. Together Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR are trying to achieve this goal. Switzerland has also promised to support these efforts.


International Day of Families, 15 May 2012
Safe, clean shelter for Palestine refugee families in Lebanon
Thanks to an innovative SDC-supported pilot project, the living conditions for 38 families in a Palestine refugee camp in Lebanon have improved dramatically. They now live in safe, clean and healthy housing. The project is being expanded to benefit 736 families.

Project
Logo WFP

PAM
Switzerland elected to Executive Board of the World Food Programme
From 2013-2014 Switzerland will be a member of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme (WFP). The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations elected Switzerland in April 2012. The WFP is one of the SDC’s most important humanitarian partners. As a board member Switzerland can bring its policies, interests and values in to the work of the WFP. 

Switzerland and the Executive Board of the World Food Programme
The WFP and the Swiss engagement
Für den Einsatz der Suchkamera wird eine Kernbohrung gemacht. [© EDA]

Award
 Pro Humanitate prize for the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit and Toni Frisch
 The Pro Europa Foundation honours the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) and its longstanding director, Toni Frisch, with the Pro Humanitate prize.

Article, 08.05.2012 
Annual Conference of the Humanitarian Aid 2012

23 March 2012
Annual Conference of the Humanitarian Aid and the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit SHA
 The challenges facing humanitarian aid globally are demanding and complex. Good cooperation and coordination by all actors on behalf of afflicted people in crisis and disaster areas is becoming increasingly important. This is why Swiss Humanitarian Aid has chosen Sharing Responsibility as the motto for this year's annual conference. 

Films of projects and speeches  
Aufklärung über die Minengefahr in Somalia [© Noe Nielsen / UNMAS]

2012-2015
Demining strategy
 The federal government has defined the strategy for its commitment to humanitarian demining for the period from 2012 to 2015. An annual amount of around 16 million Swiss francs is to be spent for projects and the secondment of experts in the fight against landmines, cluster bombs and other explosive remnants of war.

Media release and strategy, 04.04.2012 
Women thresh grain in Niger © [ILRI]

Food crisis in West Africa
Sahel: a humanitarian disaster can still be averted
 In the Sahel region of West Africa more than 10 million people are facing serious food shortages due to drought and the after-effects of the 2010 food crisis. Drawing from the experiences made in the Horn of Africa, Switzerland and other donors have reacted quickly in order to avert famine.

Article, 03.04.2012  
Actual Factsheet
Somalische Flüchtlinge die neu in einem Lager in Kenia eingetroffen sind.

Famine
 «The Horn of Africa must remaina focus of Swiss aid»
 Thousands of people are still living in appalling conditions in the Horn of Africa – in squalid accommodation, without clean drinking water and without access to schooling. Manuel Bessler, the delegate of Swiss Humanitarian Aid, visited Somalia and Kenya in January 2012 to see the situation for himself. What he saw there confirmed him in his conviction that the Horn of Africa must remain a focus of Switzerland’s humanitarian aid.

Dossier  

Additional Information and Documents