Tough debate ahead

Switzerland’s official development cooperation for 2007 fell to 0.37 per cent of gross national income (GNI). If we eliminate expenditures that have nothing to do with development aid but which have been reckoned as such since 2004 (asylum-related spending, bilateral debt forgiveness at face value), it comes to a measly 0.31 per cent, which is the lowest level since 1990. This is so even though the Government (Federal Cabinet) has been reiterating since 1991 that Switzerland will increase spending to 0.4 per cent.

No to 0.5 per cent

The Federal Cabinet is still clinging to that percentage target today although the percentage required internationally for attaining the Millennium Development Goals is 0.7 per cent. During the discussion of the new line of credit for the South corresponding to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in March, it rejected a request by Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey for development aid to be raised to 0.5 per cent by 2015. This rendered utterly meaningless the statement by the then Swiss President Samuel Schmid to the UN «Millennium+5» Summit (2005) that Switzerland would decide on a new target in 2008. This does nothing for Switzerland's international credibility.

But not only is the Federal Cabinet standing still, it is even regressing, as evidenced by its decision this spring to cut bilateral aid in order to finance multilateral contributions. More specifically, this refers to the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and the replenishment of the World Bank’s development fund (IDA) and the African Development Fund. The Federal Cabinet had not budgeted sufficient funds for those purposes and must now come up with an additional 220 million francs. It is taking the half of this amount from bilateral aid.

Using aid to further self-interest

The Federal Cabinet is also regressing in other more substantive ways. It is allowing the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) to withdraw from the poorest countries and concentrate only on advanced developing countries. Among other things, this is meant to pave the way for the conclusion of bilateral free trade agreements. In so doing it is again making an old mistake, for when development aid is used to promote self-interest, its effectiveness diminishes significantly. Besides, it has designated the focus countries of SDC and Seco in such a way that as from 2012, the two entities will both be active jointly in just two instead of eight countries or regions (Mekong region/Vietnam and Southern Africa/South Africa). This negates all the efforts of the past 10 years to work in a complementary manner in the same countries so as to make Swiss aid even more effective.

But the Parliament has the last word on lines of credit. It will be dealing with these topics in summer and autumn this year.

Michèle Laubscher, Alliance Sud