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Self Report 2018

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 1B
    Act early

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland actively supports the reform of the Security Council to enhance the accountability, transparency and coherence and supports substantive exchanges in the relevant Groups of Friends on the Protection of Civilians and Mediation, as well as in the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict.


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Switzerland is committed to strengthen and support efforts to mainstream human rights issues throughout the entire UN system, in particular as an early warning instrument within those institutions whose work focuses on the UN peace and security pillar, inter alia by supporting the Human Rights Up Front Initiative and by encouraging regular and more systematic exchanges between the human rights bodies based in Geneva (Human Rights Council and the OHCHR and the Security Council).


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland is committed to support the multilateral initiative "Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes" (GAAMAC), which focuses on putting in place the necessary national measures for the prevention of (mass) atrocities through working with national governments and stakeholders and sharing good practices and lessons learnt.


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Switzerland is committed to the continued co-chairmanship of the Group of Friends on the Protection of Civilians.


    • Partnership
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to act early upon potential conflict situations based on early warning findings and shared conflict analysis, in accordance with international law.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to make successful conflict prevention visible by capturing, consolidating and sharing good practices and lessons learnt.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland continued to coordinate a cross-regional group of 25 small and mid-sized countries working to improve the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency of the UN Security Council (UNSC). Switzerland i.a. coordinated the drafting and delivered a joint ACT statement at the Open Debate of the UNSC in February 2018, setting out current priority areas of improvement.
    • Switzerland continued to chair the Group of Friends of Protection of Civilians (PoC) and has coordinated the joint statement of the group for the open debate of the UNSC on PoC (with a focus on the protection of the medical mission and the implementation of UNSC Res 2286). Other meetings have been organised to discuss counter-terrorism and humanitarian action.
    • Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes (GAAMAC) Steering Group, composed of five States and several civil society organisations, is working on GAAMAC's virtual platform, outreach to new partners and the organization of GAAMAC III, which will take place in Africa in May 2018. An advanced draft of a manual on national atrocity prevention mechanisms, drafted by an African Working Group as a result of the GAAMAC II meeting held in 2016 in the Philippines, will be presented at the conference.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    • The 5th Glion Human Rights Dialogue will take place in May 2018 and focuses on the place of human rights in a reformed UN.
    • Organizing - during the High Level Meeting on Sustaining Peace (April 24/25, 2018) - a side event providing good example on human rights protection and conflict prevention, will contribute to implement the June 13 Appeal.
    • Switzerland is committed to further strengthen the Group of Friends PoC in 2018.

     

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability, Protection

  • 1C
    Remain engaged and invest in stability

    Individual Commitments (7)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • As Co-Chair of the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF), Switzerland commits to adhere to and promote the 2016 €œStockholm Declaration on Addressing Fragility and Building Peace in a Changing World€.


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland is committed to address the root causes of violence, conflict, and fragility and to strengthen and expand partnerships for effective peacebuilding, statebuilding and conflict prevention.


    • Partnership
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Switzerland is committed to further strengthen its and others'™ capacities in regard to peacebuilding such as facilitation, confidence building and mediation on policy as well as on the operational level.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Switzerland is committed to increase the effectiveness of peacebuilding endeavors by offering specific training courses for mediators and their teams, as well as for conflict parties engaged in dialogue and peace negotiations.


    • Training
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Switzerland is committed to strengthen the UN peacebuilding architecture based on a recent review. Switzerland also supports the recommendations to strengthen conflict prevention made by the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (A/70/95-“S/2015/446) and the subsequent implementation report by the UN Secretary General (A/70/357-€“S/2015/682).


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland is committed to support the UN'€™s efforts in sustaining peace and preventing countries from lapsing or relapsing into conflict by extending and increasing its financial support to the Joint Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention of the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).


    • Financial
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland is committed to use the New Deal principles and the Peacebuilding and Statebuilding Goals (PSGs) to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, especially in protracted humanitarian crises.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to improve prevention and peaceful resolution capacities at the national, regional and international level improving the ability to work on multiple crises simultaneously.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to sustain political leadership and engagement through all stages of a crisis to prevent the emergence or relapse into conflict.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to address root causes of conflict and work to reduce fragility by investing in the development of inclusive, peaceful societies.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland continued acting as Co-Chair of the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF) until November 2017 and advocated for the "Stockholm Declaration" and the strengthening of New Deal principles and SDG16+ in fragile contexts.
    • Switzerland continued support to the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding in order to contribute to an active involvement of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in peace and statebuilding. Switzerland also contributed to the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies.
    • The replenishment of the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries (IDA 18) has resulted in a significant increase of funds for fragile and conflict affected contexts. USD 20 billion will go to these contexts from 2017 to 2020. Implementation began in July 2017.

     

    -The MAS in Peace Mediation, a professional mediation training program of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, supported by Switzerland, Finland, Germany and Sweden, started as scheduled. Switzerland continues to offer quality peace mediation trainings on a yearly basis (ex: two Week Peace Mediation Course).

     

    -Switzerland continued its work within the C-34 to link discussions with current debates on Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding. Switzerland has launched an internal process to sharpen its prevention narrative, based on the report by the UNSG on implementing the concept of "sustaining peace" and in particular the preparation for the High-level Meeting on Sustaining Peace in April 2018.

     

    -The financial support to the Joint UNDP - DPA programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Preventions continued. Switzerland hosted, in December 2017, a Retreat of Peace and Development Advisors and other Senior UN Officials in Lausanne.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    • Switzerland will continue to finance the Peacebuilding Fund also in 2018 with again 1 million CHF in order to strengthen the Peacebuilding Architecture.
    • The Masters in Peace Mediation will deliver the first batch of trained mediators by mid-2019.

  • 1D
    Develop solutions with and for people

    Individual Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland is committed to the continued support of the Burundi configuration of the UN Peacebuilding Commission as a platform for long-term peace-building efforts in Burundi.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Participation of women in the political, social and economic sphere is a priority of Switzerland's foreign policy. Switzerland specifically commits to promoting greater and meaningful participation of women at all levels and stages of peace processes, humanitarian action and post-conflict reconstruction, and will advocate for and strengthen women'€™s leadership in disaster risk management, in particular in cooperation with multilateral partner organizations.


    • Advocacy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland is committed to promote inclusive conflict transformation processes, in particular through dialogue with political actors with religious reference.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    • Switzerland is committed to strengthen the participation of women in peace processes and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland is committed to the universal implementation of Agenda 2030, including its Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies.


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • The first Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) strategy on gender equality and women's rights, which prioritizes women's economic and (political) participation, including in peace-processes was launched in 2017.
    • Switzerland maintained its support to the Burundi configuration via the co-financing of retreats and workshop, support to the Chair in the framework of its visits to Burundi, and joint analysis and information sharing.
    • Facilitated by Switzerland, the Humanitarian Charities Forum was launched in Lebanon  (August 2017). It has 8 member organisations from among Muslim humanitarian charities of different denominations. Its mission is to provide aid to Syrian refugees beyond confessional boundaries. In Thailand's Southern provinces, Switzerland is supporting a dialogue process involving Buddhist monks to address their grievances vis-à-vis the Muslim population. It supports relevant Buddhist actors to engage in non-violent conflict transforming.
    • Switzerland continued its efforts to strengthen the participation of women in peace processes, which will also be a priority in its upcoming 4th National Action Plan 1325. Switzerland supports the Civil Society Support Room in the inner-Syrian dialogue, a platform which brings concerns of civil society organisations, especially those affecting women and young people, into the official UN peace talks.
    • Switzerland helped launch the "Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies". This is a group of 25 Member States from all regions and income categories, international organizations, existing partnerships, and civil society. They committed to accelerate the implementation of SDG 16+. In September 2017, the Pathfinders launched the "Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies".

     

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Other: Introduction of standard indicators on participation/ Sex-age-disaggregated data by SDC; monitoring of implementation of FDFA strategy.
    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Other: Moving beyond numeric inclusion towards meaningful participation/empowerment.
    Keywords

    Gender, Religious engagement

  • 2A
    Respect and protect civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of hostilities

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to support dialogue with all parties to armed conflict to enhance their knowledge and respect for IHL.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to support mine action as an enabler for peace and security, humanitarian action and development, on the basis of its national mine action strategy.


    • Financial
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland is committed to the continued co-chairmanship of the Group of Friends on the Protection of Civilians.


    • Partnership
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance the protection of civilians and civilian objects, especially in the conduct of hostilities, for instance by working to prevent civilian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas, and by sparing civilian infrastructure from military use in the conduct of military operations.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland discussed issues of concern in regard to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) especially with parties to armed conflict and conducts demarches, where appropriate. Switzerland supports organisations such as the ICRC or Geneva Call.
    • In 2017, in the framework of its 2016-2019 Mine Action Strategy, Switzerland deployed some CHF 22.3 million to efforts to clear mines, raise awareness, strengthen local capacities, and facilitate the implementation of existing conventions at the international level. To implement the strategy the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) adopted a whole-of-government approach. The main instruments are: support to projects in affected States and regions as part of Switzerland's peace and development work; deploy mine action experts to UN mine action programmes; political work in the relevant multilateral fora (Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention (APLC), Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), and Convnetion on Certain conventional Weapons (CCW). The core contribution to the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) is an important part of Switzerland's mine action contributions.
    • Switzerland continued to chair the Group of Friends of Protection of Civilians (PoC) and has coordinated the joint statement of the group for the open debate of the UNSC on PoC (with a focus on the protection of the medical mission and the implementation of UNSC Res 2286). Other meetings have been organised to discuss counter terrorism and humanitarian action. 

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Switzerland is committed to further strengthen the Group of Friends of PoC in 2018.

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability, Protection

  • 2B
    Ensure full access to and protection of the humanitarian and medical missions

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to clearly distinguish humanitarian action from the political agenda, including by preventing the use of Swiss humanitarian aid for political purposes. Furthermore, it commits to consistently respect and promote respect for humanitarian principles, and in line with its obligation under international humanitarian law, to ensure conducive environments for humanitarian actors and facilitate humanitarian action that is based exclusively on needs and conducted without discrimination. Switzerland further commits to providing more core funding and reducing earmarking thereby enabling humanitarian actors to develop the financial independence necessary for principled humanitarian action. It commits to developing public education programs to disseminate humanitarian principles, informed by social and cultural traditions.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to engage in endeavours to ensure safety and security for humanitarian actors and the protection of the medical mission, including by fostering a principled approach, by enhancing the dialogue with all parties to armed conflict and by developing relevant standards and policies.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to ensure all populations in need receive rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to promote and enhance efforts to respect and protect medical personnel, transports and facilities, as well as humanitarian relief personnel and assets against attacks, threats or other violent acts.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland supported organisations such as the ICRC or Geneva Call and raised issues pertaining to the security of humanitarian actors and the protection of the medical mission in bi- and multilateral fora. Switzerland supports actively the implementation of UNSC Res 2286.  
    • Switzerland promoted and financially supported the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation in Geneva, which came into operation in October 2016. The Centre's objective is to facilitate and promote the exchange and analysis of experiences and practices in humanitarian negotiations to enable humanitarian aid and protection to reach people in need rapidly and without hindrance. The ICRC will host the Centre with the joint support of the five strategic partners UNHCR, WFP and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

    Keywords

    Humanitarian principles, Protection

  • 2C
    Speak out on violations

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to raise awareness of the potential of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission and of its services, including good offices and confidence-building, and to encourage the resort to the Commission as well as the recognition of its competence in accordance with article 90 of the first Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.


    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland is committed to strengthen and support efforts to mainstream human rights issues throughout the entire UN system, in particular as an early warning instrument within those institutions whose work focuses on the UN peace and security pillar, inter alia by supporting the Human Rights Up Front Initiative and by encouraging regular and more systematic exchanges between the human rights bodies based in Geneva (Human Rights Council and the OHCHR and the Security Council).


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In its capacity as the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) Secretariat, Switzerland has provided extensive support to the Commission for its first mandate in Eastern Ukraine in 2017. Switzerland also supported visits of the members of the IHFFC in various countries and mentioned the IHFFC in statements in international fora. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Additional Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions, Switzerland encouraged States having not yet done so to join these Protocols and promoted the IHFFC.

    Switzerland encouraged States to ratify the Rome Statute in bilateral as well as multilateral fora and supported non-governmental organizations promoting universalization. In addition to its general political support, Switzerland assisted the Court with a process aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of judicial proceedings. It supported the mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of crimes under international law in Syria created by the UN General Assembly in December 2016 and established in Geneva. Switzerland is currently funding the post of a legal expert in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and has financed a similar position in the Extraordinary African Chambers.

    The Code of Conduct was developed by the ACT group, under the leadership of Liechtenstein. So far, 112 countries have officially expressed their support to the Code. In order to implement it, the group has developed a draft letter to raise the attention on potential and actual situations of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    The 5th Glion Human Rights (HR) Dialogue will take place in May 2018 and focuses on the place of human rights in a reformed UN. It asks the questions of the different reform processes and focuses on the HR architecture and the real impact of HR mainstreaming throughout the different bodies.

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability

  • 2D
    Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

    Individual Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is to become a new priority topic for the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Department from 2017 onwards. In relation to this new priority theme and the Call to Action roadmap, the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Department commits to develop and implement an internal operational concept for SGBV prevention and response, which outlines the following priorities, actions and resources: 1) capacity of personnel of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Department on SGBV prevention and response is strengthened; 2) sufficient resources for the implementation of the commitments are made available and internal tracking of GBV funding is enhanced; 3) implementation of Call to Action commitments by key partners (UN etc.) is systematically monitored and GBV in emergencies is a regular topic in policy dialogue with these partners and; 4) international policy and advocacy opportunities for the promotion of the Call to Action are being used.


    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to advocate for the respect of international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law as well as the rule of law when countering terrorism. International humanitarian law carves out important protections for principled humanitarian actors, including offering services to all parties to armed conflict. Counter-terrorism measures may recast such activities as unlawful support for terrorism or designated terrorist groups. Therefore, Switzerland commits to engagements to ensure that principled humanitarian action is not affected by counter terrorism measures and that potential dilemmas between norms are addressed including by way of the necessary exemptions for humanitarian action.


    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to promote the Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.


    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to promote the universalization of the Rome Statute, to cooperate with and support the International Criminal Court and other mechanisms to ensure accountability and justice for victims at the national, regional and international levels, including by non-judicial measures.


    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to promoting compliance by States and non-State actors with international law, including international humanitarian law, human rights law as well as international refugee law in relation to gender-specific violations and gender equality norms.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland further commits to tackling SGBV from a short- to long-term perspective through its humanitarian and development programmes.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and refugee law, where applicable.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Implement a coordinated global approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in crisis contexts, including through the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Gender-based violence prevention and response

    The operational concept on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) 2017-2020 by Swiss Humanitarian Aid was launched in 2017 and includes a budget for implementation. There was an increase in SGBV deployments from the Swiss roster and tracking of SGBV expenditure through a new marker; and several new SGBV programmes were launched in the Middle East North Africa region. Internal SGBV training sessions were held and staff sent on individual SGBV trainings.

    Switzerland also supports the NGO Geneva Call which engages armed non-state actors (ANSA) through voluntary engagements on international norms including to prevent gender-specific violations and promote gender equality norms. Currently 23 ANSA have signed the gender deed of commitment and 21 ANSAs are in discussion on gender issues with Geneva Call.

    Through its support of the NGO Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, Switzerland supported gender justice through domestic mechanisms as well as the ICC, specifically in Uganda and the DRC.

    IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability

    • Switzerland acted as Co-Chair of the States and Donors Working Group/ Steering Committee members of the Call to Action.
    • In the context of the various UN organs, especially the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and the UNSC, Switzerland recalled the importance of respecting human rights, international humanitarian law and refugees law in the fight against terrorism. As part of the UN reform of the counterterrorism architecture, Switzerland continued to highlight the importance of a balanced implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (especially pillars I prevention and IV human rights). Switzerland supported independent research about the legal and practical challenges and possible solutions for potential dilemmas, for example counter-terrorism and humanitarian action.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Other: Annual progress report operational concept on SGBV; annual partners reporting under Call to Action.
    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Other: Making Call to Action known at field level.
    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability

  • 2E
    Uphold the rules: a global campaign to affirm the norms that safeguard humanity

    Joint Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to facilitate, jointly with the ICRC, an intergovernmental process as set out in resolution 2 of the 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in 2015, "€œto find agreement on features and functions of a potential forum of States and ways to enhance the implementation of IHL using the potential of the International Conference [of the Red Cross and Red Crescent] and IHL regional forums".


    • Partnership
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Partners: ICRC

    • Switzerland commits to strengthen cooperation among National Committees for the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law, notably by supporting the ICRC in the organization of a Universal Meeting of National Committees for International Humanitarian Law in Geneva in November/December 2016.


    • Partnership
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Partners: ICRC

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to support endeavours that aim at rendering the UN humanitarian system fit for purpose, including by strengthening engagements for the protection of civilians. Switzerland also commits to support endeavours that strengthen other humanitarian actors such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, as well as regional and local actors.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to support the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, in particular those relevant to forced displacement and migration (i.e. Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, and Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons and other), with a view to strengthen a human rights based approach to forced displacement and migration.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

    • With regard to WHS core commitment 2 under the Uphold the Norm roundtable, it is the understanding of Switzerland that the references to "working to prevent civilian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas" and "€œsparing civilian infrastructure from military use"€ do not restate or modify existing obligations and do not create new ones beyond those enshrined in existing and applicable norms of international humanitarian law.


    • Policy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and refugee law, where applicable.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland supports the National Societies Investment Alliance by IFRC and ICRC to strengthen National Societies, so they are better able to build community resilience and respond to humanitarian crises and armed conflict. The Swiss supported investment mechanism will focus on delivering multi-year support towards strengthening their institutional capacities, depending on the particular needs of National Societies in different contexts.
    • Beside the financial contribution to its field operations, ICRC receives a yearly core contribution of 80 million. CHF and the IFRC Headquarter is supported by 2.0 million CHF each year. 
    • Switzerland supported the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants politically, financially and with human resources (with a JPO).
    • Switzerland supported the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons politically and financially.
    • Switzerland supported the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons financially (two secondments) and politically (as "friend of the mandate")

    Keywords

    Community resilience, Displacement

  • 3A
    Reduce and address displacement

    Individual Commitments (10)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland acknowledges the crucial role played by local and national authorities as well as host communities, and commits to support them whenever possible and feasible with targeted measures.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to address the protection needs of people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change, in particular through the promotion and implementation of the Protection Agenda of the Nansen Initiative at the different levels, and its active engagement within the new Platform on Disaster Displacement.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to promote international human rights law and international humanitarian law as well as other internationally recognized protection standards, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which seek to ensure protection and assistance of those forcibly displaced internally. Switzerland further commits to promote regional protection frameworks such as the Kampala Convention and encourages and supports the elaboration of such frameworks in other regions of the world.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to promote the universal ratification, as well as the full and effective implementation of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its Protocol of 1967, and in particular the right to seek asylum as well as the principles of non-refoulement and responsibility-sharing, at the bilateral and multilateral level within the relevant fora.


    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to support sustainable solutions, in particular for protracted displacement situations catering to refugees, IDPs, returnees as well as host communities through: 1) joint analysis and programming frameworks, 2) an earlier engagement of development actors, 3) the integration of target populations in long-term development plans, in order to increase the protection, resilience and self-reliance of forcibly displaced persons.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to support the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, in particular those relevant to forced displacement and migration (i.e. Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, and Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons and other), with a view to strengthen a human rights based approach to forced displacement and migration.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland is committed to work towards more equitably sharing of responsibilities for refugees and to create, particularly for vulnerable people, additional legal pathways for admission. Switzerland is further committed to support first hosting countries in their capacities to provide refugee protection.


    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland supports the call by the Secretary-General to adopt a Global Compact on responsibility-sharing which should build on the principles of protecting displaced persons, ensuring their self-reliance and assistance to host communities, as well as preventing situations of forced displacement in the first place.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland supports the need to address forced displacement based on an integrated, multi-stakeholder approach, by engaging more systematically and coherently with all relevant actors, including the civil society, academia and the private sector. In a similar vein, Switzerland also commits to promote enhanced coordination and cooperation across the UN system, through system-wide objectives, followed up with system-wide funding. It will for instance promote the alignment of UNDAFs and the humanitarian strategic response plans at country level in order to improve coherence and efficiency.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland will also engage in addressing the root causes of forced displacement, including through the framework of the 2030 Agenda, as well as for instance through long-term engagement of development actors, particularly in fragile contexts, contributing therewith to state-building and peace building efforts.


    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Other-3A

    • Global Compact on Migration:  Switzerland together with Mexico is co-facilitating an intergovernmental process leading to the adoption of a global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration to be presented at an intergovernmental conference on international migration in Morocco in December 2018.  
    • Global Compact on Refugees: Switzerland supports the elaboration of the Global Compact on Refugees at different levels, for example it has actively engaged in the Geneva-based consultations while also supporting the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), especially with regards to Uganda. In this context, Switzerland supports UNHCR financially as well as with human resources through a secondment for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects.                                                                                                                                                                                                              

    Refugees

    • Switzerland recalled the importance of the universal ratification as well as the full and effective implementation of the 1951 Refugee Convention in different national statements  in various fora and processes (at national, bilateral and international levels), including the thematic discussions of the Global Compacts.
    • In December 2016, Switzerland has committed to welcome 2'000 additional Syrian refugees, 590 have arrived in 2017 (1000 should arrive in 2018 and the remaining 410 in 2019). In addition, Switzerland decided in December 2017 to resettle 80 refugees from Libya within the UNHCR evacuation mechanism framework.

    IDPs (due to conflict, violence, and disaster)

    • Switzerland reaffirmed the importance of legal and policy frameworks (i.e. the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the Kampala Convention, etc.) and their implementation at the national level in different fora and processes (at national, bilateral and international levels). Further, in the framework of the 20th anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, Switzerland contributes to efforts to enhance action, coordination and cooperation in the international response to internal displacement. Switzerland, for instance supports a study by the ICRC on urban displacement (aiming at shedding light how to improve the humanitarian response to internal displacement in urban settings).
    • Based on the findings of a OCHA-study Breaking the impasse, (financed by Switzerland) on the long-term impacts of protracted internal displacement, Switzerland is supporting the roll-out of the study's finding in selected pilot countries.                                                                                                                                                                                                    

    Cross-border, disaster and climate related displacement

    Switzerland continued to actively engage in the topic of disaster displacement at different levels: 1) as a member of the steering group of the platform on disaster displacement in Geneva; 2) by feeding findings of the Nansen Initiative consultative process into the relevant regional and international processes and fora in order to strengthen policy coherence across thematic areas, and; 3) through concrete project activities in support of the implementation of the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda in the regions.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    • Other: Lack of political will and leadership; a strategic vision. Lack of a strong IDP architecture at the international-level
    Keywords

    Migrants

  • 3D
    Empower and protect women and girls

    Individual Commitments (9)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Participation of women in the political, social and economic sphere is a priority of Switzerland's foreign policy. Switzerland specifically commits to promoting greater and meaningful participation of women at all levels and stages of peace processes, humanitarian action and post-conflict reconstruction, and will advocate for and strengthen women'€™s leadership in disaster risk management, in particular in cooperation with multilateral partner organizations.


    • Advocacy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights are a priority of Switzerland's foreign policy. Switzerland promotes sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights for all, including full reproductive choices for women, men and adolescents. Switzerland commits to promoting sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights through its bilateral and multilateral engagement (Commission on the Status of Women, Human Rights Council, including the Universal Periodic Review) as well as its development and humanitarian interventions, including by supporting key partners with core contributions (UNFPA, UNAIDS, IPPF, WHO Human Reproduction Programme).


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to advocate for and strengthening women'€™s leadership in disaster risk management either through direct actions and funding or in cooperation with multilateral partner organisations.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to promoting compliance by States and non-State actors with international law, including international humanitarian law, human rights law as well as international refugee law in relation to gender-specific violations and gender equality norms.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to supporting the roll-out of the new IASC age and gender marker, continues to track the gender-responsiveness of its own humanitarian action and increases its efforts in presenting gender-results including sex disaggregated data in all its humanitarian work.


    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to upholding its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol and to support the implementation of General Recommendation 30 of the CEDAW Committee on Women in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations.


    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland is committed to strengthen the participation of women in peace processes and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.


    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland, based on the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, commits to promoting gender equality as a strategic objective in its new strategy for international cooperation 2017-2020. This will apply to all operations and engagement in humanitarian aid, both for operational and policy work, and throughout all stages of an emergency.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Switzerland commits to ensure that 50% of leadership positions in the Swiss Cooperation Offices in humanitarian contexts are held by women by 2020. 


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Empower Women and Girls as change agents and leaders, including by increasing support for local women's groups to participate meaningfully in humanitarian action.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome documents of their review conferences for all women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Launched in 2017 the first Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) strategy on gender equality and women's rights, which prioritizes women's economic and (political) participation, including in peace-processes.
    • Despite a challenging global environment concerning sexual and reproductive health and rights in 2017, Switzerland continued its financial support to key partners working on the issue and was actively engaged in discussions in the respective governance bodies (UNFPA, IPPF, UNAIDS, WHO, UN Human Reproductive Programme).
    • Systematic inclusion of gender in strategic documents, i.e. new country strategies. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) gender marker and a marker for Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) has been applied. New binding reference indicators have been developed, including in relation to gender, SGBV and sex-disaggregated data; and data is being compiled once a year.
    • Switzerland supported the NGO Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) to raise awareness of the parallels and the complementarity between the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in particular CEDAW GR 30, and the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security. This was done through the elaboration of a policy brief that analyzes the monitoring and reporting on the WPS resolutions and presents recommendations to improve joint implementation of the WPS resolutions and CEDAW, as well as through collaboration for a systematic way of sharing information between CEDAW and the UNSC Informal Expert Group on WPS. 
    • Within the Swiss Development Cooperation, by end of 2017, the overall women’s share was 59.7%, when in middle and upper management it reached 50% (2009: 43%) and in top management it was at 32% (2009: 24%) and women’s share in leading positions 39% (2009: 37%).

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    Keywords

    Gender

  • 4A
    Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

    Individual Commitments (7)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits - at all stages of humanitarian and development interventions - to seeking and heeding the voices of affected communities and grass-roots organizations.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to build community resilience in countries where protracted humanitarian crisis are linked to drought and environmental degradation.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to increase the use of cash as a powerful programming modality to be considered systematically alongside other tools, e.g. vouchers, in-kind, accordingly with affected population's needs and preference.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to invest in capacity-building of local government, as well as other local actors, including civil society.


    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to scaling up cash programming in humanitarian crises, and designing these programs so that they can eventually become national social protection systems.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to support coordination models/solutions for the delivery of cash-based transfers within the existing humanitarian architecture and to promote greater national leadership wherever possible, based on context specificities, best practices and lessons learned from the country and regional levels.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to supporting its main partners to use cash in emergency, alongside national capacity, existing systems and social protection programs in place.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    Switzerland continued to invest in capacity building projects and initiatives in the course of 2017. As a rule, 50% of Swiss Humanitarian Aid funding to local actors is devoted to capacity development and strengthening.

    Building community resilience

    Switzerland continued to support community resilience though livelihood and natural resource management projects in the Sahel (e.g. Chad) and the Horn of Africa.

    People-centered approaches (feedback mechanisms, community engagement, etc)

    Switzerland is engaged in involving the voice of civil society in peace and statebuilding. To this end, Switzerland supported the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS).

    Cash-based programming

    • Switzerland advocated for an approach on how to implement cash transfer programming more effectively and qualitatively when designing and scaling up humanitarian interventions and considering multi-purpose cash where the context is appropriate,while continuing on building evidence and fostering community-based approach. Switzerland pursued its policy to deploy Swiss Humanitarian Aid CTP Experts and to support its partners' capacity building.
    • Switzerland supported investments in implementing and strengthening social protection programmes to deliver humanitarian cash transfers through strategic secondments deployed to UN Partners in HQ and in the field and with an evaluation on social protection. Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) issued a Paper on Social Protection which provides the framework to further engage in social protection, to analyse SDC's comparative advantages and to enhance resilience and preparedness of vulnerable communities.

    Keywords

    Cash, Community resilience, Local action, People-centred approach

  • 4B
    Anticipate, do not wait, for crises

    Individual Commitments (13)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • In its economic development cooperation, Switzerland commits to support partner countries to reduce the financial vulnerability of the state to natural disasters by improving their financial response capacity in the aftermath of natural disasters, while protecting their long term fiscal balance.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Participation of women in the political, social and economic sphere is a priority of Switzerland's foreign policy. Switzerland specifically commits to promoting greater and meaningful participation of women at all levels and stages of peace processes, humanitarian action and post-conflict reconstruction, and will advocate for and strengthen women'€™s leadership in disaster risk management, in particular in cooperation with multilateral partner organizations.


    • Advocacy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to a proper and coherent use and effective coordination of foreign military assets in humanitarian action based on the Oslo Guidelines and common humanitarian civil-military standards for deploying, employing, receiving, integrating and coordinating foreign military assets in natural disasters.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks by dedicating human and financial resources to support implementing the Sendai Framework for DRR and other international efforts to reduce disaster and climate risks. 


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks by planning to allocate over the next four years 1/6 of its international humanitarian aid budget to disaster risk reduction and resilience building.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to advocate for and strengthening women'€™s leadership in disaster risk management either through direct actions and funding or in cooperation with multilateral partner organisations.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to build community resilience in countries where protracted humanitarian crisis are linked to drought and environmental degradation.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to strengthen disaster preparedness and response through partnership and cooperation amongst practitioners, and to use the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) as a platform for collaboration to develop solutions to the recurring challenges faced by responders.


    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to support and invest in the institutional capacities of Red Cross / Red Crescent National Societies, including preparedness, response and coordination capacities, especially in fragile context and where communities are vulnerable to conflicts, disasters, recurrent outbreaks and the effects of climate change.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to support national and local partners in developing effective disaster risk reduction management abilities and capacities, especially in the field of urban search and rescue.


    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland promotes - as 2016-2017 Co-Chair of the World Bank's Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) - initiatives and programmes, which aim at increasing people's access to early warning mechanisms and weather data such as the Climate Risk Early Warning System (CREWS), the GFDRR-WB/WMO Hydromet Programme and the Small Islands States Resilience Initiative (SISRI).


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland supports the development of new analytical and financial mechanisms that help the international community to act preventively before a disaster or a pandemic outbreak strikes.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland supports the generation of climate change-relevant knowledge and data, to enhance capacity development of partners and institutions and to support the sharing and application of sound climate change knowledge and data decision-making and as a contribution to relevant climate services.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland continued to support various risk transfer mechanisms for national governments and also continued to support the African Risk Capacity.
    • The Sovereign Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program continued to assist middle income countries in improving their financial resilience to natural disasters and their financial response capacity post-disaster through policy, budgetary and market-based solutions.
    • 11 FTE Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) experts were deployed in 2017 (11 FTE in 2016) in view of implementing programmes and projects in the field of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation as well as climate change mitigation in vulnerable partner countries.
    • The spending for DRR activities in 2017 amounted to 11% (CHF 46 million.) of the total Humanitarian Aid budget.
    • Switzerland continued to support community resilience though livelihood and natural resource management projects in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.
    • In 2017, Switzerland actively participated in the Humanitarian Networks Partnership Week and continued to support ASEAN and the Central American Centre for Disaster Preparedness.
    • Switzerland continued to support DRR projects, including emergency preparedness at the local and national levels (e.g. Nicaragua, Haiti, Myanmar, Bolivia)
    • Switzerland supported the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery through a core contribution which has been increased in 2017 for the period 2018-2019.
    • Switzerland supported national governments to introduce reporting mechanisms on climate and loss-related expenditures (Central America).
    • Switzerland supported national governments in collecting high-quality climate data for the provision of user-tailored climate services for informed decision making (e.g. Peru, Central Asia).

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction

  • 4C
    Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

    Individual Commitments (11)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • As Co-Chair of the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF), Switzerland commits to adhere to and promote the 2016 €œStockholm Declaration on Addressing Fragility and Building Peace in a Changing World€.


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to further coherence between humanitarian, development, and civilian peacebuilding actors, notably through joint context analysis, joint strategic planning, as well as close operational cooperation.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to further shift its development cooperation to fragile and conflict-affected contexts in order to strengthen governance and peacebuilding, hence decreasing vulnerability and increasing resilience.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to operationalise, to adhere to and to advocate for the Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets to Support United Nations Humanitarian Activities in Complex Emergencies (MCDA Guidelines) as well as related policies and co-ordination mechanisms. This includes in particular the endorsement of common standards, which should govern the use of foreign military assets in humanitarian action.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to provide smarter, more effective and more targeted development support in fragile and conflict affected contexts, including in humanitarian crisis.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to rigorously applying and strengthening "Conflict-Sensitive Programme Management" in its bilateral and multilateral cooperation.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to strengthen its "€œWhole of Government"€ approach between different parts of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs responsible for humanitarian aid, development cooperation, and civilian peacebuilding, as well as to increase the number of Joint Swiss Cooperation Strategies.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to support a reform of the UN development system, which would include the introduction of some system-wide objectives, followed by system-wide funding, in order to help orient the incentive structure towards results.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to support sustainable solutions, in particular for protracted displacement situations catering to refugees, IDPs, returnees as well as host communities through: 1) joint analysis and programming frameworks, 2) an earlier engagement of development actors, 3) the integration of target populations in long-term development plans, in order to increase the protection, resilience and self-reliance of forcibly displaced persons.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland commits to work more closely with humanitarian and development actors and to promote increased incorporation of conflict-sensitive and longer-term development approaches into humanitarian operations in protracted crisis situations.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Switzerland is committed to the universal implementation of Agenda 2030, including its Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies.


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis and planning towards collective outcomes

    • Switzerland's "Whole of Government" approach has been strengthened through increased coordination and cooperation and through special efforts to identify the right portfolio mix, working with a long term view while at the same time allowing also for flexibility.
    • Switzerland decided at the beginning of 2017 to commission an independent evaluation on the humanitarian and development nexus. This evaluation will formulate recommendations for strengthening the implementation modalities between humanitarian aid and development cooperation.
    • Switzerland facilitated the General Assembly’s “Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review” (QCPR) resolution in 2016. The resolution notably calls for a system-wide UN strategy for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. It also calls for enhanced coordination between humanitarian, development and peacebuilding efforts, including through joint needs and risk analysis.

    Other-4C

    • Through Swiss-supported financial instruments such as the UN – World Bank Fragility and Conflict Partnership Trust Fund, the former “Post-Conflict Needs Assessment” tool has been updated. The new “Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessments” (RPBA) support a more coordinated engagement in countries emerging from crisis. RPBA’s have been done in CAR, Nigeria and Cameroon.
    • Switzerland continued its focus on fragile and conflict-affected countries in its development cooperation. Around 50% of Swiss bilateral aid goes to fragile contexts. In the multilateral field, Switzerland contributed to a significant increase of resources of the World Bank's International Development Association. During the three years of IDA 18 (from 2017-2020), almost $20 billion will be available for contexts affected by fragility, conflict and violence.
    • Switzerland has become the first major donor of the UNDP Funding Window “Emergency Development Response to Crisis and Recovery”. This allows UNDP to intervene flexibly in crisis situations with a development approach.

    Keywords

    Humanitarian-development nexus

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    Individual Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to increase the proportion of humanitarian financial support which is programmed by local and national responders.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to increase the proportion of total support to funding tools, including pooled or umbrella funding, which helps to increase and improve assistance delivered by local and national responders. These include, as appropriate, UN country-based pooled funds (CBPFs), the IFRC Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF), as well as NGO-led pooled funds, with the goal of strengthening local and national responders.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to invest in capacity-building of local government, as well as other local actors, including civil society.


    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to support and invest in the institutional capacities of Red Cross / Red Crescent National Societies, including preparedness, response and coordination capacities, especially in fragile context and where communities are vulnerable to conflicts, disasters, recurrent outbreaks and the effects of climate change.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to support endeavours that aim at rendering the UN humanitarian system fit for purpose, including by strengthening engagements for the protection of civilians. Switzerland also commits to support endeavours that strengthen other humanitarian actors such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, as well as regional and local actors.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland works towards ensuring that contributions to UN led country-based pooled funds will result in at least 25% of funding for local and national actors by 2020.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Direct funding to national/local actors

    • Switzerland as co-convener of the Grand Bargain work stream on localization together with IFRC conducted consultations among the signatories on the definitions of “local actors” and “direct funding”, which were endorsed by the signatories through silence procedures. It was decided to collect more evidence with a baseline study before endorsing the definition of “as directly as possible”.
    • Switzerland will continue to invest in mainstreaming localizing aid into its programming by providing thematic sessions and workshops to its staff and partner organizations (Swiss NGOs).

    Addressing blockages/challenges to direct investments at the national/local level

    • Switzerland continued to invest in capacity building projects and initiatives in the course of 2017. As a rule, 50% of Swiss Humanitarian Aid funding to local actors is devoted to capacity development and strengthening.
    • A quick assessment / mapping of Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC)/ Swiss Humanitarian Aid (SHA) funded organisations that currently work through local organisations will be carried out in order to increase SDC/SHA understanding of its humanitarian partners in terms of working through and/or supporting local organisations.
    • SHA will continue the internal discussions on how best it can increase and track funding going directly and as direct as possible to national and local actors.

    Country-based pooled funds

    • In 2017, 5% of the funds was provided through pooled funds (UN-led Country Based Pooled Fund’s (CBPFs), Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) and other pooled funds, excluding Central Emergency Response Fund). The Swiss contribution to pooled funds in 2017 has slightly increased compared to 2016. Switzerland participates in the UN Pooled Fund Working Group and supports the increase and improved access to the funds by local and national responders as well as the set target of 15% of HRP’s funded by CBPFs.
    • Switzerland continued to be member of CBPF’s Advisory Boards in 7 out of the 18 country based pooled funds and regularly advocates for a facilitated access by national and local NGO’s to those funds.

     

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Data and analysis
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    Keywords

    Country-based pooled funds, Local action

  • 5B
    Invest according to risk

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • In its economic development cooperation, Switzerland commits to support partner countries to reduce the financial vulnerability of the state to natural disasters by improving their financial response capacity in the aftermath of natural disasters, while protecting their long term fiscal balance.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks by dedicating human and financial resources to support implementing the Sendai Framework for DRR and other international efforts to reduce disaster and climate risks. 


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks by planning to allocate over the next four years 1/6 of its international humanitarian aid budget to disaster risk reduction and resilience building.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to allocate 1/6 of its international humanitarian aid budget to disaster prevention and preparedness interventions and initiatives between 2017-2020.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to invest in risk management, preparedness and crisis prevention capacity to build the resilience of vulnerable and affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland continued to support various risk transfer mechanisms for national governments and continued to support the African Risk Capacity.
    • The Sovereign Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program continued to assist middle income countries in improving their financial resilience to natural disasters and their financial response capacity post disaster through policy, budgetary and market-based solutions.
    • 11 FTE Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) experts were deployed in 2017 (11 FTE in 2016).
    • Switzerland implements programmes and projects in the field of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation as well as climate change mitigation in vulnerable partner countries.
    • The spending for DRR activities in 2017 amounted to 11% (CHF 46 million.) of the total Humanitarian Aid (HA) budget. It is still lower than initially intended (1/6th of the HA budget, 16.6%).

     

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction

  • 5C
    Invest in stability

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to further shift its development cooperation to fragile and conflict-affected contexts in order to strengthen governance and peacebuilding, hence decreasing vulnerability and increasing resilience.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland is committed to strengthen the UN peacebuilding architecture based on a recent review. Switzerland also supports the recommendations to strengthen conflict prevention made by the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (A/70/95-“S/2015/446) and the subsequent implementation report by the UN Secretary General (A/70/357-€“S/2015/682).


    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland is committed to support the UN'€™s efforts in sustaining peace and preventing countries from lapsing or relapsing into conflict by extending and increasing its financial support to the Joint Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention of the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).


    • Financial
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland continued its focus on fragile and conflict-affected countries in its development cooperation. Around 50% of Swiss bilateral aid goes to fragile contexts.
    • In the multilateral field, Switzerland along with other shareholders, has contributed to a significant increase of resources of the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA). During the three years of IDA 18 (from 2017-2020), almost $20 billion will be available for contexts affected by fragility, conflict and violence. On the side of the UN, Switzerland supports the UN Secretary General's priority on Prevention.
    • Switzerland continued its work within the C-34 to link discussions with current debates on Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (where appropriate). Moreover, Switzerland launched an internal process to sharpen its prevention narrative, particularly based on the report by the UN Secretary-General on implementing the concept of "sustaining peace" and in preparation for the High-level Meeting on Sustaining Peace in April 2018. Simultaneously, Switzerland will continue to finance the Peacebuilding Fund also in 2018 with again 1 million. CHF in order to strengthen the Peacebuilding Architecture.
    • The financial support to the Joint UNDP - Department of Political Affairs programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Preventions continued. On top of the regular support, Switzerland hosted, in December 2017, a Retreat of Peace and Development Advisors (PDAs) and other Senior UN Officials in Lausanne.

  • 5D
    Finance outcomes, not fragmentation: shift from funding to financing

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to achieve at least 30% of funding to humanitarian organizations that is unearmarked or softly earmarked by 2020.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to prioritize multi-annual plans in protracted crises through the use of flexible multi-year financing instruments.


    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to strengthen its "€œWhole of Government"€ approach between different parts of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs responsible for humanitarian aid, development cooperation, and civilian peacebuilding, as well as to increase the number of Joint Swiss Cooperation Strategies.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to support the testing of new and bold models to go to scale, and identify best practice and risks in each context, from sudden-onsets to protracted crisis.


    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to enable coherent financing that avoids fragmentation by supporting collective outcomes over multiple years, supporting those with demonstrated comparative advantage to deliver in context.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to broaden and adapt the global instruments and approaches to meet urgent needs, reduce risk and vulnerability and increase resilience, without adverse impact on humanitarian principles and overall action (as also proposed in Round Table on "Changing Lives").
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    1) Swiss humanitarian contributions in 2017:

    • Unearmarked: 30% (29% in 2016)
    • Softly earmarked: 6% (6% in 2016)
    • Country earmarked (Multi-Bi): 23% (23% in 2016)
    • Tightly earmarked (everything else): 41% (42% in 2016)

    Switzerland has already exceeded the aim of the Grand Bargain commitment that aspires to achieve a global target of 30 % of humanitarian contributions that is non-earmarked or softly earmarked by 2020.

    2) Switzerland increased its multi-year planning and funding with a number of smaller Geneva-based partners in the area of “principled and effective humanitarian action”. As for the UN partners, Switzerland has multi-year agreements with OCHA, UNICEF (EMOPS), UNWRA and UNISDR. Further multi-year contributions based on multi-year planning is provided to the Global network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR) and World Bank-Global Facility For Disaster Risk Reduction (WB-GFDRR).

    The percentage of total expenditure based on multi-year agreements Switzerland provided is 19%. This percentage has been stable over the last two years. Out of those 19%, almost half of the multi-year funding was provided as core contributions. The core contribution part has markedly increased compared to 2016 and 2015.

    3) Switzerland financially supported the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), is a member of the Board of Directors and of the Technical Advisory Group. This partnership aims at ensuring coordination and maintenance of high technical standards and field linkages. Moreover, a Swiss Humanitarian Aid Expert is currently deployed to CaLP in Geneva, strongly focusing on multi-sector approach, technical cash coordination and leading CaLP’s work stream on Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) and risk.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Data and analysis
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    Keywords

    Cash

  • 5E
    Diversify the resource base and increase cost-efficiency

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Switzerland commits to increase inter-donor collaboration to improve and streamline interactions and lessen the burden on local and national responders.


    • Partnership
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to keep at least the current level of contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), considering the Secretary General's call to expand CERF to $1 billion by 2018.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    • Switzerland commits to understand and further explore, together with the private sector, innovative financing mechanisms aiming to generate funds for the most vulnerable and unprotected victims of disasters, wars and conflicts.


    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    • Switzerland as member of the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) and as co-convener of the Grand Bargain work stream on localisation, presented the work stream progress including the discussions about definitions on localisation to the GHD and continued to ensure maximal donor engagement on this topic.
    • The Swiss Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) contribution in 2017 was 6 million USD (2016: 8 million USD; 2015: 10 million USD). The level of funding to the CERF will depend on the budget restriction measures planned, but also on the use of the reserve of Swiss Humanitarian Aid. Planning of CERF funding remains volatile.
    • Switzerland strongly believes in innovative investment in humanitarian action. Switzerland has therefore supported the ICRC with the development of an innovative financing method, the Programme for Humanitarian Impact Investment (PHII), which is also known as the Humanitarian Impact Bond (HIB) launched in September 2017.

    Keywords

    Innovation

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