UNDP head in Bern on official visit

Bern, 12.06.2018 - Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), visited Bern on 12 June. He met Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), and also held talks with FDFA state secretary Pascale Baeriswyl and Manuel Sager, director general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Mr Steiner also met with the chairperson of the National Council's Foreign Affairs Committee, Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter. The UNDP is Switzerland's largest partner in the UN system.

As an outward-looking and innovative trading and industrial nation, Switzerland depends on global peace, stability and legal security. Switzerland's partnership with the UNDP is especially significant in the areas of conflict prevention, the rule of law, democratic participation and cooperation with the private sector. The UNDP has an external network spanning 170 countries and has operated in all fragile countries and regions since the 1960s. The UNDP is also the only multilateral development organisation whose projects focus on preventing and managing conflicts, strengthening the rule of law and democratic participation.

Through its cooperation with the UNDP, Switzerland has a global reach that enables it to work in fragile countries early on together with partner countries. Achim Steiner took up his post as head of the UNDP a year ago. During his official visit to Bern on 12 June, Mr Cassis, Ms Baeriswyl and Mr Sager briefed him on Switzerland's priorities and reaffirmed Switzerland's commitment to working together with the UNDP as Switzerland's largest partner in the UN system.

Switzerland is one of the ten main partner countries of the UNDP. Switzerland supports the UNDP's work through core contributions that enable it to respond flexibly to crises, through project-specific funding of global programmes and through contributions to specific projects in the countries that are a priority for Swiss development cooperation.


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https://www.admin.ch/content/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-71084.html