Swisscontact has developed a standardised system that provides information on project progress in real-time. This method helps us to achieve our goals. Moreover, it demonstrates economic, social, and environmental sustainability, in addition to the outreach and relevance of our project initiatives. Based on solid quantitative data and qualitative information, our system can reveal why and how specific changes have taken place, and how sustainable these might be. This makes it possible for our project teams to make informed decisions and implement corrective measures in a timely fashion. The overall system, therefore, not only provides information on the viability, efficiency, efficacy, and impact of our projects and organisation as a whole, but it also ensures adaptive and results-oriented project management.
Our impact measurement system complies with the internationally recognised standards of the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED).
The following results are based on the Swisscontact results measurement system and are rounded.
During the past five years, 417,000 people have completed vocational education and training across 53 projects. These people have also received support in labour market insertion or to develop opportunities for self-employment.
During this period, 160,000 people have found a job or started their own business, generating a total 156 million Swiss francs in additional income.
Thanks to 68 enterprise promotion projects implemented from 2015-2019, 5 million farmers and SMEs gained access to better products and services, increasing their productivity and competitiveness.
This has resulted in 3 million farmers and SMEs generating 578 million Swiss francs in additional income over the past five years. Additionally, during that same period 93,000 jobs were created or maintained.
Over the past five years, more than 224,000 farmers, SMEs, and graduates of vocational education programmes have gained access to financial services totalling more than 102 million Swiss francs. Of these individuals, 40% were women or women-led businesses.
Swisscontact promotes solutions for efficient and sustainable use of resources. As part of environmental development, we have helped reduce CO₂ emissions by more than 3 million tonnes and either recycled or reduced 735,000 tonnes of waste.
Gender equality and social inclusion significantly help to significantly eliminate poverty and foster economic growth. In the past five years, the percentage of women participating in our vocational education and training projects was 45%. More than half of these people who then found jobs or started their own businesses have been women. In our business development projects, the share of women-led agricultural enterprises and non-agricultural SMEs has risen steadily for five years, exceeding 41% in 2019.