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Photo Gallery
This series of photographs offers a glimpse of Switzerland’s activities in Cuba between 2000 and 2010. They portray women and men, young people and old, working for the development of their country.
Switzerland supports Cuban communities in their efforts to improve living conditions through development projects at the local level.
Cuba
Website of the Cooperation Office (SDC) Cuba: www.cooperacion-suiza.admin.ch/cuba/
Since 2011,
Switzerland's main area of activity in Cuba has been municipal development. Switzerland supports the national municipal development policies in the areas of agriculture and
accommodation.
Compared with other countries in the Caribbean and in Central America, the level of basic social services (health, education, social security)in Cuba is reasonably high. Nevertheless the country faces economic problems characterised by the existence of a dual currency and by dependence on imports of food. To overcome the crisis, the government is now involved in the process of de-centralising public services, of privatisation of certain economic activities and of municipalisation.
The SDC supports this process of updating of the socio-economic system. Its programs focus on improvement of municipal management, the aim being to ensure access to local agricultural products and the satisfaction of basic accommodation needs for the population.
| Swiss International Cooperation | 2011 |
2012 |
2013* |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDC | |||
| Bilateral development cooperation | 3.16 | 5.35 | 7.50 |
| Humanitarian aid | 0.32 | 0.48 | – |
| State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) | |||
| Economic Cooperation and Development | – | – | – |
| Total SDC/SECO | 3.48 | 5.83 | 7.50 |
| Other Federal Offices | |||
| FDFA Human Security Division and Directorate of International Law | 0.02 | – | 0.07 |
| The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) | 0.12 | 0.12 | 0.12 |
| Total other Federal Offices | 0.14 | 0.12 | 0.19 |
| Cantons and municipalities | 0.06 | .. | .. |
| Total | 3.68 | 5.95 | 7.69 |
SDC figures excluding program contributions to NGOs
.. = figures not available | – = nil or amount < 5'000 CHF
Municipal management
Strengthening capacity
The SDC supports about 20 Cuban municipalities
in the management and financing of local investment projects by participating in the development and implementation of municipal development strategies.
Upgrading local agricultural products
To improve the production, transformation and commercialisation of local agricultural products,
the SDC supports the establishment of local agricultural innovation groups in 45 municipalities.The task of these committees is mainly to find ways of developing local markets.
Improving access to accommodation
In about 20 municipalities, theSDC is supporting the establishment of committees whose job will be
to work out accommodations strategies and to find local solutions to accommodation problems.
History of cooperation
Primarily humanitarianactivity since 1997
The SDC has been
present in Cuba since 1997, with a particular emphasis on humanitarian projects especially in the medical field. In 2000, the SDC established a Cooperation Office in Havana and started to develop a
special cooperation programme. After an initial exploratory phase (2000–2003),the Swiss programme has developed along two main lines: local development and sustainable economic development. These
main areas were implemented until 2011, together with the introduction of the transversal gender aspect. The present cooperation strategy (2011–2014) focuses on a single area of activity: municipal
development.
Background information Cuba
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| Source: World Bank's World Development Indicators 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Background information provided by the BBC
Local SDC contact address:
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Cuba (Havanna) |
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Oficina de Cooperación Suiza en Cuba |
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| Phone | +537 20 41353 +537 20 41130 |
| Fax | +537 20 40234 |
| habana@sdc.net | |
| Website | www.cooperacion-suiza.admin.ch/cuba/ |
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Additional Information and Documents Here, you will find more publications, links, documents and articles about Swiss development cooperation and humanitarian aid in this country. |