The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme partners with Switzerland on the Full Funding programme to deploy Swiss nationals as UN Volunteers. Switzerland also contributes to UNV's Special Voluntary Fund (SVF), a flexible resource to implement its Strategic Framework.
UNV’s two partner entities are the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, specifically, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Peace and Human Rights Division (PHRD) and the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO). SDC was one of the first partners to join the UN Youth Volunteers programme in 2001, followed by DPA/PHRD in 2004 and SECO in 2020.
The Centre for Information, Counselling and Training for Professions relating to International Cooperation (cinfo) acts as a platform for international cooperation in Switzerland and supports the human resource and career needs of all individuals and organizations engaged in international cooperation. In addition, cinfo collaborates with UNV in supporting the recruitment and training of the Swiss-funded UN Volunteers.
In 2023, 93 Swiss nationals served as UN Volunteers, 62 of whom were funded by the Government of Switzerland. SDC, PHRD and SECO fully fund 10 UN Youth Volunteer assignments each per year. In addition to its own nationals, the Government of Switzerland has also been supporting national fully funded assignments in Colombia since 2018 through the SDC representation there.
The Swiss Government also provides a substantial contribution to the Special Volunteer Fund (SVF), having contributed 800,000 CHF each year for the timeframe 2018-2020.
For further information, visit the websites of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Directorate of Political Affairs/Peace and Human Rights Division, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and cinfo, as well as the dedicated page for UN Youth Volunteers and UN internships. Also refer to UNV's Annual Report 2023, including our Special Voluntary Fund and Full Funding reports.