Alliance Sud (the former Swiss Coalition) is the Swiss Alliance of the six leading Swiss Non Governmental Development Organisations, comprising Swissaid, Catholic Lenten Fund, Bread for All, Helvetas, Caritas and Swiss Interchurch Aid. The organisation was founded in 1971 with a view to the more effective advocacy of shared concerns.
Alliance Sud strives to influence Switzerlands policies to the benefit of the poor countries and their peoples. Its goal is sustainable development, as well as a more just, peaceful and environment-friendly world that offers equal rights and opportunities to all. This calls for economic and political changes worldwide and in Switzerland. In pursuit of these goals, the Swiss Coalition engages in active lobbying vis-à-vis politicians, the administration and the economy, as well as intensive outreach work (press conferences, meetings, publications).
Staff members in the development policy area closely monitor Swiss policy in all fields that impact the countries in the South, and formulate alternatives. This covers bilateral foreign, economic and trade policy toward these countries, as well as Switzerlands policy in international organisations (World Bank, International Monetary Fund IMF, World Trade Organisation WTO).
Alliance Sud also adopts positions on domestic policy decisions that hold implications for the countries in the South (environment, energy, economic and financial policy, legal issues, research). As global problems call for global solutions, Alliance Sud collaborates with a number of international NGOs.
Our core concerns:
expanding and improving the quality of Swiss development cooperation
a socially and environmentally sound economic policy.
the promotion of fair trading relations and the reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
expeditious, total and lasting debt relief for the poor countries.
an international taxation policy that limits harmful tax competition and tax evasion.
a policy of sustainable development worldwide and in Switzerland: against climate change and the squandering of resources.
the right to clean drinking water for all. Alliance Sud is lobbying for a water convention that is binding under international law.
renewed regulation of international financial markets so as to avert financial crises with disastrous social consequences; the taxation of international capital transactions. World Bank and IMF policies that do justice to the interests of poor countries.