"We saw the East as much too homogeneous"

Ludmilla Nestryliai has worked for the SDC in Kyiv since 2001 and has overseen many projects during her career as a local staff member. As she explains, there was a desire on the part of the Ukrainian authorities to make prisons more modern and humane, which amounted to a breakthrough in terms of human rights.  This coincided with a growing realisation that in order not to reoffend, inmates would have to be successfully rehabilitated. In Bila Tserkva, a large prison near Kyiv, a wide range of reforms were carried out and it is now considered a model institution in Ukraine.

Young women who gave birth while in prison could only see their child twice a day.  This meant that breastfeeding was impossible. The children were housed in a children's home adjoining the prison. Thanks to Swiss support, the buildings were converted so that mothers could live with their children during their sentences. However, the Swiss support was not limited to the conversion of buildings. Staff received training, work was coordinated between different actors and offenders received support after completing their sentences, for example in vocational skills development. This ensured a successful return to normal life after prison, both for mothers and for their children.

Johan Gély started working as a regional adviser on water management in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in 2001. Alongside Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan is one of the three post- Soviet states in Central Asia where the SDC has been providing assistance since the late 1990s. When the Soviet Union collapsed, suddenly there were no centralised government structures, and therefore no joint management of water resources. This lack of political structure was particularly serious in the Fergana Valley, where there were many conflicting interests.

As water is a precious commodity that can spark conflicts, the Fergana Valley is a tinderbox: densely populated, ethnically diverse, and covered by seemingly nonsensical borders that date back to the Stalin era. The tributaries in the valley originate in the surrounding mountain ranges in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and in winter are used to generate electricity. However, the agriculturally dependent population of the plain which belongs to Uzbekistan need the water in the summer. To preserve peace between the countries and ethnic groups, the SDC supported the creation of new political structures for water management. Johan Gély helped the local population set up water networks that work together to ensure water is fairly distributed. The aim is for goodwill ambassadors from various groups and authorities in the different countries to seek amicable solutions.

As the name suggests, this calls for goodwill from all involved. These schemes have now come to an end, but they consistently led to workable solutions at local level. The insights obtained have been crucial to modern Swiss water diplomacy, such as the Blue Peace initiative, which Switzerland launched.

Imagine that a child has been hit by a car and urgently needs help but neither the police nor the ambulance staff are trained to deal with this type of injury, and even the regional hospital is lacking specialist staff and the necessary emergency medical equipment. This fictional example illustrates how paediatric emergency services were in the Republic of Moldova before local authorities asked for support.

The resulting project was overseen by Valeriu Sava, the SDC programme coordinator in the field of health in Chisinau.  The project sought to improve the survival chances of seriously injured children and to reduce the likelihood of accidents occurring. This involved training emergency responders, so police officers, fire fighters and ambulance workers, but also of course the staff treating children in hospital emergency departments. The necessary infrastructure was modernised, from ambulances to the creation of regional emergency centres. This also included a functioning alarm system which allowed swift communication between the responders involved.  In a subsequent step, an awareness campaign was launched on preventing and dealing with the most common accidents involving young children.  Finally, training and administration in hospitals were improved, which on the one hand guaranteed further training for staff, and on the other, resulted in an improved return on funding.

The results of all these measures are clear: child mortality in the Republic of Moldova fell by over 20% between 2009 and 2017. Or, to put it another way, the lives of thousands of young children were saved.

In remote regions of Armenia, people rely on agriculture – particularly cattle breeding – for their livelihoods. There is high domestic demand for dairy products, and neighbouring Iran is a growing export market. The problem was getting the milk from producers to consumers due to a lack of expertise, transfer and refrigeration technology, and processing factories. In addition, farmers often used to produce just enough milk for their own consumption.

The SDC worked with Armenian NGO, the Strategic Development Agency, to develop solutions. For example, milk collection points were set up, where farmers could bring their milk, and from where it would be dispatched in refrigerated vehicles. Both farmers and processing factories were equipped with expertise which allowed them to increase the quantity and quality of their products.  Work was also done around animal welfare, and a network of vets was set up to care for the animals and perform artificial insemination. This led to farmers producing more milk and receiving a steady income. Loans facilitated by local authorities made it easier for all involved to grow.

This and many other measures allowed the creation of a production chain on the one hand, and the production of more and better dairy products on the other. This has benefited all involved in what is now a functioning value chain, from the cow to the cheese consumer.