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Former athlete Patricia Danzi heads the Deza Development and Cooperation Directorate. It is restructuring development cooperation: fewer priority countries should receive more money. What if now Ukraine needs a lot of funds?
War and crisis dominate the headlines. Be it the military conflict in Sudan, poverty in Afghanistan or the war in Ukraine. Patrizia Danzi is the top development worker in Switzerland. “I prefer to talk about development cooperation. Someone always has to say thank you for development aid. When you work together, you are pursuing a common goal.”
Ukraine war has changed development cooperation
The head of Deza and her team face new challenges every day. Even with those that were not foreseeable, such as the conflict in Sudan. On top of that, Ukraine has changed everything in development cooperation: “The war and the Russian aggression triggered an earthquake,” says Danzi.
We have now decided to provide 1.8 billion francs in development cooperation for Ukraine by 2028. That will not be enough for reconstruction.
The aggressive war forces the SDC to look for new solutions. «Switzerland has so far given 270 million francs to Ukraine, also through donations from the cantons, but that’s not enough. The war goes on. And the question comes up very quickly: What is Switzerland doing?”
1.8 billion for Ukraine by 2028
Payments by Switzerland to Ukraine have so far been financed by additional funds from Parliament, so-called supplementary credits. “The situation is more difficult. And we have now decided to provide 1.8 billion francs in development cooperation for Ukraine by 2028. That will not be enough for reconstruction.”
The question now is where this additional money should come from without reducing Switzerland’s commitment. One thing is clear: “It bites,” says Danzi.
Legend:
Patricia Danzi in the SRF daily talk.
SRF
The SDC has drawn up a proposal in the new strategy for development cooperation IZA 25-28. The Deza boss cannot yet reveal what this looks like. Towards the summer he will be put into consultation.
Danzi wants as many people as possible to comment on this. “Everyone has an opinion on these issues. While we don’t hope to get ten million comments, we do hope to get feedback from the younger generation on the UN’s 17 development goals.”