Poverty & hunger

Goats are an important pillar of many SWISSAID projects in Chad. Not only do they provide smallholder families in the Global South with vitamin-rich food, their manure also improves the harvest. And thus independence for many.

16.10.23 | What means Agrobiodiversity? Warlier it is for the globale Food system increasingly important? And what is the effect it global warming? These and other questions are answered in the brochure «Agrobiodiversity on the plate» which was published on the occasion of World Food Day.

16.10.23 | Access to healthy and sustainable food is still far from being a given for all people. In an interview, Kavita Gandhi, head of the SWISSAID coordination office in India, explains why agrobiodiversity is particularly important in combating hunger in the face of climate change.

26.9.23 | Hunger, climate change and agroecology are our core issues. In October, we are taking a closer look at these in the form of events, forums, meetings and publications, and are campaigning for sustainable and social agriculture throughout Switzerland. Many events will take place as part of the “Days of Agroecology”. An overview.

With the military coup in Niger, the country is currently experiencing a profound political crisis. The people have already been suffering from terror and hunger and the difficult food situation for years. The Ukraine war drove up the price of basic foodstuffs, and an acute drought is now being compounded by the consequences of the government crisis.

The lack of agricultural knowledge, access to credit, and the ever-increasing cost of living keep rural families in southern Shan State, Myanmar, trapped in poverty. With the rise of violent conflicts and the effects of climate change, many people are forced to migrate. SWISSAID has initiated a project to enhance the value of crops through agroecology, enabling farmers to envision a dignified future.

Industrialized countries are primarily responsible for climate change, but it is mainly the populations of the South who suffer. Niger is particularly hard hit. In an interview, Sonja Tschirren, SWISSAID’s Climate Officer, explains the reasons for this situation, how bleak the outlook is, and what responsibility Switzerland must shoulder.

Communities in the central Indian state of Maharashtra depend on the natural resources of forests and ponds to survive. But these resources are increasingly threatened by climate change and poor natural resource management. A SWISSAID project has been working on resource reclamation by and for communities in central India.

Marthe Tchere, a smallholder farmer from Bokyo in Chad, was one of the first to join SWISSAID’s goat project. Thanks to the animals, she can now feed her family, earn her own money and use it to send her children to school. And in doing so, she earns the respect of the men in the village.

The Baiga tribe is a community living in central India. The loss of forest areas – their main resource for centuries – as well as the climate crisis, has made them very vulnerable. In recent years, learning agroecology has allowed them to develop new means of survival in harmony with nature and adapted to climate change.

21.10.2022 | The question is not whether there is a global food crisis. The question is to what extent it is worsening and how to reverse this trend. This has been the subject of a conference on October 21 at the House of Religions in Bern.

The food report published by the Sufosec Alliance on the occasion of World Food Day on 16 October 2022 shows shocking results. It highlights the dramatic increase in hunger in the world with figures and testimonies from those affected in the South. But it also gives hope and shows a way out of the hunger crisis. For example, with agroecology.

3.10.2022 | In autumn 2021, we followed Yaya, Marceline and Esther, women farmers in Chad, who received support from SWISSAID through its Women’s Empowerment Project. One year later, the aid provided has enabled these women to improve their living conditions and those of their families, and to fight against hunger. In video and in pictures, they tell us about their situation one year later.

26.09.2022 | The war in Ukraine has drastic effects worldwide. Especially in our African partner countries, the consequences are worrying. People who were already threatened by hunger before are now facing food shortages and price increases for basic foodstuffs. On this page you will find news and developments in our partner countries.

19.07.2022 | SWISSAID is helping the poorest families in southern Niger to survive until the autumn harvest. An emergency aid project provides them with seeds and food parcels to minimise the impact of the impending food crisis. 

21.2.22 | The emergency aid launched in December in the Dosso region of Niger is soon bearing its first fruit. Thanks to the rapid procurement of seeds, we have already been able to distribute 62 kilos of urgently needed plant seeds to the farmers. The first harvest is coming soon.

Hunger, misery, hardship: a tragedy is brewing in Niger. 3.7 million people are threatened by acute hunger. Conflicts and climate change are to blame. The people are left with nothing. SWISSAID is helping quickly and unbureaucratically with food parcels and seeds.

12.11.2021 | Bundespräsident Guy Parmelin hat rund 30 Schülerinnen und Schüler im Bernerhof beim Bundeshaus empfangen. Sie hatten sich am jährlichen Verkauf von SWISSAID-Abzeichen beteiligt, um Geld für die Projekte der Stiftung zu sammeln. Parmelin dankte ihnen herzlich für ihr Engagement und beantwortete einige ihrer Fragen.

For many families in Chad, there is often only one meal a day – little enough for the hard work in the fields. But without work, there is no harvest. Women in particular suffer greatly; they are often responsible for the family’s survival and take care of the household chores and work. The famine also often leads to disputes among the farming families. SWISSAID helps families in Chad to fight hunger and prevent conflicts.

Millions of people in Chad – often the women – produce their own food while the men work in the city. Due to the difficult climatic conditions, growing their own crops is often not enough to feed the family, and many people suffer from hunger. This is also the case for Esther and her family. SWISSAID is working on the ground to help these people.

Women in Chad bear a heavy burden: they often provide for their families, mainly their children, on their own, without having the rights and means to do so. This is the case of Yaya Adoum. Despite her hard work, this widowed peasant woman was unable to provide for her family. With the support of a SWISSAID project, she found a way to fight hunger.

03.09.2021 | Since September 2020, Régina Clément Likopéro has been an intern at SWISSAID Tanzania. Far from the university benches, the young woman has found herself thrown into the world of work and has grown from it. She tells us about her experience.

27.08.2021 | More than 70 people participated in the webinar on local markets and food sovereignty organized by SWISSAID on August 24. All speakers as well as the guests agreed: Many people in the South are dependent on local markets. They, especially women, deserve more help, remuneration and weight for their products.

30.6.21 | Hunger and malnutrition are still widespread in large parts of Africa and Asia. Heating climateand the loss of soil fertility are further exacerbating the problem. The new SWISSAID project CROPS4HD focuses on local, almost forgotten crops to improve the situation of people in the South.

30.4.21 Not long ago, the Corona situation in India seemed under control. In February 2021, India’s government declared that it had defeated the pandemic. Now the situation is worse than ever. SWISSAID is following the situation with great concern. Kavita Ghandi, Head of the SWISSAID office, tells us what the situation is like on the ground and what impact the pandemic is having on our projects.

In the north of Myanmar, the landscape is adorned with huge tracts of forest. Despite being the main resource for survival, the population has little access to it. Large industries are destroying the available land and replacing it with banana plantations. Thanks to the perseverance of the villagers and the help of SWISSAID, the village community is able to assert its rights.

26.01.2021 | From sustainable fish farming on the coast to organic watermelon cultivation and responsible mining of raw materials in gold mines in the interior: SWISSAID is active in Tanzania in many different areas. Our new programme officer Christina Aebischer reports on her project visit.

In Nicaragua alone, hurricanes “Iota” and “Eta” in November 2020 left 1.5 million people suffering their devastating effects. With an emergency aid project over the next six months, SWISSAID will be supporting families who were already living in extreme poverty before the disaster – and who are now struggling to survive.

20.11.2020 | Within a very short time Nicaragua has been hit by two devastating hurricanes. Many people in our project areas are severely affected by the consequences. In Nicaragua we are immediately switching all our activities and concentrating on emergency aid.

The idyll in the south of Tanzania is deceptive. Many young people are moving to the cities. Those who stay behind struggle with dwindling fish stocks, malnutrition and poverty. A fish farming project promises new perspectives.

India keeps on setting grim records in the fight against the coronavirus. And as if that were not enough, the country is repeatedly hit by natural disasters. People who are already living at  subsistence level are fighting for survival. SWISSAID has responded by providing emergency aid.

As a foundation for development cooperation, SWISSAID is also heavily affected by the corona virus. Faced with the crisis, each employee and each project had to reinvent themselves and often work in a hurry. On this page, you will find news from our partner countries for the months of March and April. –Translated with DeepL

As a foundation for development cooperation, SWISSAID is also heavily affected by the corona virus. Faced with the crisis, each employee and each project had to reinvent themselves and often work in a hurry. On this page, you will find news from our partner countries for the months of March and April.

Where to help when there people have nothing? Access to water is the most important thing, says SWISSAID employee Ibrahim Hamadou. In Niger, children in the “Blue Schools” learn why hygiene and healthy nutrition are also essential for survival.

A centre of expertise which trains future experts in agroecological techniques – farmers, promoters, association leaders. Widespread dissemination at local level and lobbying at  national level: this is the ambitious project of SWISSAID Guinea-Bissau.

How do you learn what healthy eating means? By growing your own food. In 2018, SWISSAID Tanzania, in partnership with local organisations, launched “School Clubs”: agroecological gardens were set up at four secondary schools. Halima and Hamza go to the Mtandi Secondary School in the community of Masasi and report here on their experiences.

Weren’t things better before? Not in Ecuador, and not for Raul Upaya Romero. The courses in agroecology have obviously left their mark on him. The smallholder’s sparse, low-yield land in the Ecuadorian Andes now thrives with a variety of different vegetables.

In Myanmar today, many women farmers are also taking part confidently in discussions with groups of men. They have been on courses where they expanded their knowledge of agroecological cultivation methods and built up their self-confidence.

For the Embera people on the Colombian Pacific coast, the forest is both a place to live and a food security back-up. Deforestation has put the indigenous people in a precarious position. Now they are reforesting, switching to agroecology and looking for other ways to ensure their survival in the long term.

Despite a large-scale school dinner programme, many school children in India suffer from vitamin and iron deficiency. In school gardens they grow the vital crops themselves and so learn about agroecological farming.

Farmers in Marathwada, India, are suffering from the drought – yet again. SWISSAID is supplying the poorest with water and food rations. For the moment, thanks to this and to our awareness-raising work with the authorities, hundreds of women can breathe a sigh of relief. But the climate crisis calls for long-term solutions.