The objectives of environmental protection and development must be integrated into development cooperation. To this end, the FOEN collaborates closely with the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Development requires an intact environment to be successful long term. The potential for development depends to a considerable extent on the state of ecosystems, so environmental protection is a key federal objective in development cooperation and an integral component of Swiss development policy.
Given the natural tendency for developing countries to focus on activities that yield greater immediate economic benefits, it is vital that developed countries, and Switzerland in particular, commit to protecting the environment and conserving natural resources. Ensuring climate stability, biodiversity and soil fertility are essential to global food security and poverty reduction.
It is thus in Switzerland's interest for environmental policy and development policy to be mutually supportive. The aim is to incorporate environmental issues into development cooperation more effectively, and vice versa. This means that environmental impact studies are conducted more systematically on development programmes and projects. The principles of Switzerland's development policy, which aim to enable developing countries to take charge of the development process themselves, must not impair the effectiveness of aid from an environmental perspective. Development cooperation must respect the principles of environmental protection and developing countries should build capacities to pursue and manage their own development, in particular in the area of environmental protection.
Switzerland’s 2025–28 dispatch on international cooperation envisages greater respect for the environment so that it is resilient to climate change and natural disasters. International cooperation supports the protection of the climate, biodiversity and the environment in general, and contributes to the preservation of natural resources. It seeks to stimulate the positive impact and avoid the negative effects of its activities on the environment in developing countries and globally. Switzerland encourages multilateral organisations to integrate the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity into all their activities. International cooperation also plays a role in Switzerland's international commitments under multilateral environmental agreements.
Environmental and development agendas can be aligned in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the United Nations in September 2015.
Close collaboration between the FOEN, SDC and SECO
The FOEN supports the integration of environmental and development objectives into development cooperation programmes with developing countries and countries in transition and the establishment of coherence between bilateral and multilateral activities. These goals can only be attained through close collaboration between the FOEN, SDC and SECO. The implementation of aid activities in developing countries for the benefit of the global environment is regulated by a piece of legislation passed in 1991.
Since 2012, the FOEN, SDC, SECO, the Federal Finance Administration (FFA) and the Prosperity and Sustainability Division Federal Department of the Foreign Affairs (FDFA) have been collaborating through a joint platform on funding international cooperation on environmental issues. This platform deals with both the mechanisms for funding environmental conventions and with bilateral and multilateral cooperation related to the environment.
At the international level, the FOEN is involved in OECD and UN activities (UNECE, UNEP, UNDP and conferences on development).
Further information
Last modification 20.06.2025
