Programmatic Framework

Thematic context

The global need for improved health and food systems is immense: nearly two billion people face severe financial hardship due to out-of-pocket spending for health services and products, and more than half the world lacks access to essential health services. One-third of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet and 10% of the global population experiences daily hunger. Lack of food, unsafe food, and unhealthy diets account for almost a third of the global disease burden.

Switzerland relies heavily on well-functioning global food and health systems. Because of its climate and limited arable land, Switzerland has a high demand for diverse, high-quality food, which it must import. As such, it benefits from global market efficiencies and lower production costs in other countries. Investing in health and food promotes economic prosperity, social cohesion, stability, and peace. Switzerland has a strong pharmaceutical industry and leading academic institutions, and within the international system, Geneva is a centre for defining global health policy and action. Investing in quality standards and sustainable funding for health strengthens Swiss industry and research while creating opportunities for innovation. However, as health challenges become more complex and interconnected, Switzerland remains vulnerable to global health threats.

Addressing health and food crises calls for coordinated efforts between governments, financial institutions, the private sector and civil society. Switzerland brings added value to international health systems and policy frameworks through its unique expertise, experience and credibility as an honest broker in international negotiations. What’s more, Switzerland shares its technical expertise with partner countries in areas such as sustainable agricultural practices, food safety, mental health, and digital health services. Its unique Health Foreign Policy, supported by an interdepartmental structure, ensures a coordinated and strategic approach to global health challenges. Switzerland promotes a well-functioning global food system by supporting agroecological food production, research, and innovation. It promotes sustainable practices for smallholder farmers and finances climate-resilient agricultural solutions globally.

Results & Lessons learned in 2021-2024

Between 2021 and 2024, SDC contributed to advance global health through bilateral projects and multilateral mechanisms, involving civil society and the private sector, and incorporating digital solutions. It supported the strengthening of health systems by developing innovative health products for poverty-related diseases, improving access to affordable health services for disadvantaged populations, and promoting sustainable health financing. For example, Drugs for Neglected Diseases introduced the first oral treatment for acute sleeping sickness in East and Southern Africa in 2023 with SDC support. SDC also addressed health determinants, gender equality, and human rights, supporting the International Planned Parenthood Federation, to provide 222.4 million sexual and reproductive health services to 71.2 million people in 2023.

Over the same period, SDC contributed to making global food systems more sustainable, inclusive and resilient by promoting agricultural innovation, inclusive market systems, better nutrition, and agroecology. Key objectives included improved livelihoods of smallholder farmers, strengthened local value chains, and more sustainable agriculture for climate and environmental benefits. For example, SDC supports PlantWisePlus, a global programme to reduce crop losses through national agricultural advisory services and a global plant clinic network. From 2021 to 2024, it supported 5.6 million smallholder farmers across various regions, improving plant health, yields, and incomes. CROPS4HD supports local farmers by strengthening seed systems and advocating for seed policy reforms in countries such as Tanzania, Chad, India, and Niger. This work promotes biodiversity in agriculture, helps communities adapt to climate change, and thus secures livelihoods.

A key lesson from the 2021–24 period is the critical importance of addressing the health-food nexus to effectively prevent and tackle future health threats, food insecurity, and unhealthy diets. This involves addressing the root causes of food insecurity, poor health, and malnutrition, as well as improving access to health services and resource-efficient, affordable food. Nutrition is the essential bridge between global health and food systems, as it impacts health outcomes, economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social equity. The Health and Food Section will therefore focus on the health-food interface in the coming years.

SDC’s commitment/objectives – focus areas/outcomes for 2025-2028

Health and food security are priorities of the Switzerland’s Foreign Policy Strategy 2024-27 and the International Cooperation Strategy 2025-28 (ICS).

The Health and Food Section contributes to…

• Enhancing the thematic relevance, quality, credibility, innovation and impact of SDC’s interventions in health and food at global, regional, national and local levels.
• Positioning Switzerland in international policy and advocacy at the health-food interface through an evidence-based and whole-of-government approach.
• Setting norms and generating knowledge and robust evidence to feed into global thematic guidance and policies on health and food systems while leveraging SDC operations at country level.

The main priorities are:

1. Healthy and sustainable diets for improved nutrition

Improve nutrition by strengthening global policies and frameworks, empowering vulnerable rural and urban consumers, and promoting food and nutrition security through a human rights-based approach, with a focus on women, children, and adolescents.

2. Equitable access to health services

Improve access to quality, equitable, efficient, and affordable health services for all, including in fragile contexts. This includes strengthening primary healthcare with a focus on essential nutrition, access to medicines and technologies, sexual and reproductive health, and communicable and non-communicable diseases. The section also contributes to optimising health financing and leveraging digital solutions to improve health outcomes.

3. Improved access to food applying agroecological principles

Improve food access and food systems by promoting agroecological practices that protect biodiversity, improve soil health, and conserve resources. Agroecology provides a holistic approach which empowers farmers, supports communities, and fosters sustainable livelihoods, while strengthening local food markets and encouraging inclusive land and seed governance.

4. Strengthened global health and food systems architecture

Improve global health and food systems by promoting sustainable financing, and ensuring better performance, transparency and compliance of health and food institutions.

The Section is committed to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. It continues to advocate for inclusive policies that address everyone's needs, especially those of young people.

Approach

To promote the creation of healthy living environments and resilient food systems, the Health and Food Section supports public innovation and applied research, engages in public-private blended financing and encourages participatory and inclusive governance. It applies a gender equality and equity lens and supports global civil society networks and international NGOs. SDC works across the spectrum of short-term and long-term needs in its target regions. In response to short-term needs, thematic support is provided for humanitarian responses to health and food crises, and a “humanitarian-development-peace” nexus approach is used to ensure a continuum with long-term localised solutions. For long-term needs, the structural causes of ill health, hunger and malnutrition are addressed through policy dialogue and multi-country programmes, with a focus on the determinants of health and on agroecology to provide durable solutions.

The Section works from the local level up to the global level, linking in-country work supported by SDC country offices, with policy and advocacy efforts at the regional and global levels. For instance, mental health financing schemes were developed through a long-term collaboration with SDC bilateral programmes in Eastern Europe. This helped to expand regional and global initiatives to address advocacy and normative bottlenecks at the bilateral level, thus contributing to SDC's strategic, thematic and institutional coherence.

At the multilateral level, the Section seeks to influence and establish global standards and international normative frameworks. For example, it strengthens global health through its partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Health Organization. Switzerland sits in the governing bodies of specialized UN-agency and international finance institutions, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the global research partnership for a food secure future. The Section contributes its thematic expertise, along with its experience and knowledge from bilateral programmes, to facilitate the transfer of innovative solutions from one country to another through global fora. It conducts its international policy dialogue in collaboration with the Swiss Missions in Rome, Geneva and in New York, with international institutions and in collaboration with other federal offices. This enables SDC to shape global dialogues on health and food. Switzerland demonstrates leadership in the fields of nutrition and agroecology by co-chairing the Group of Friends on “the Right to Food” and “Nutrition” for the UN agencies based in Rome.