Swiss aid groups cut projects as global funding falls

Swiss aid organisations have scaled back or abandoned projects as development funding declines worldwide, SRF reports. The 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development spent around 23 percent less on development aid in 2025 than the previous year, a reduction of 40 billion Swiss francs.

Switzerland also cut its spending, removing 110 million Swiss francs from its development aid budget in 2025. A further 321 million francs is due to be saved by 2028.

Karolina Frischkopf of HEKS, the aid organisation of the Swiss Protestant Reformed Church, said considerably less funding was available even as needs in the Global South had grown. HEKS had been forced to reduce or abandon several aid projects in different countries, she said.

Jürg Merz of the Swiss aid organisation Helvetas said it had tried to secure new funding and establish additional partnerships. However, he said, state funding could not simply be replaced on a one-to-one basis.

“We can reach fewer people and consequently give fewer people access to water, education or food security,” Merz said.

Frischkopf said cuts to funding in the United States and Europe were causing suffering and deaths in crisis regions. She cited an estimate by the medical journal The Lancet that around 9.4 million people, including 2.5 million children under five, could die by 2030 because of cuts by OECD countries.

Swiss aid organisations do not believe the crisis has reached its lowest point. Merz said the full effects would only become clear in one to two years because most cuts did not take effect immediately. Projects were still running with current Swiss funding, he said, but budgets for their subsequent phases had already been reduced.

Frischkopf also suspected that European countries, including Switzerland, could make further cuts to development aid in the future.