Empleo de los fondos suizos

Under the definition of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, official development assistance (ODA) comprises financial cooperation, technical cooperation and personnel resources made available as part of official development cooperation. This definition has been in place since 1972 and has undergone minor revisions since then. However, additional costs that are recognised to be part of ODA have been defined over the years, including administrative costs incurred by the donor country, academic scholarships, assistance for asylum-seekers during their first year in the host country, and the cancellation of debts. 

Parliament decided that Switzerland's official development assistance during the 2017–20 period would correspond to 0.48% of gross national income (GNI). This is below both the 0.5% target adopted by Parliament in 2011 and the UN's 0.7% target, which Switzerland has accepted as a long-term objective. 

These figures include expenditures incurred by:

• The SDC (development cooperation, humanitarian aid, cooperation with Eastern Europe)

• The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (development cooperation, cooperation with Eastern Europe, debt relief measures)

• The State Secretariat for Migration (benefits for asylum seekers, repatriation assistance)

• The FDFA's Human Security Division (primarily peacebuilding and human rights)

• The Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (primarily peacebuilding and security)

• The Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets, scholarships for foreign students in Switzerland)

• The Federal Office for the Environment (contributions to international organisations)

• A number of other federal offices as well as the cantons and communes

In 2016, the net official development assistance of all member states of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee amounted to USD 142.6 billion, an increase of approximately 8.9% from 2015.

The DAC regularly publishes key figures on the ODA provided by its member states, with the ODA/GNI ratio as a basis for comparison.

In 2016, Switzerland increased its ODA/GNI ratio from 0.51% to 0.54%, putting it in 8th place among DAC member states. In absolute terms, however, Switzerland ranks 12th.

Switzerland's refugee costs that can be counted as ODA amounted to CHF 681 million in 2016, corresponding to nearly one fifth of the country's overall ODA expenditures. These costs include the annual lump sums paid by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) to the cantons (CHF 511 million), employment programmes and the costs of the federal asylum centres (CHF 152 million), and spending by the cantons on the school-age children of asylum seekers (CHF 18 million). 

As a result of cost-cutting measures affecting Switzerland's development cooperation with the South and East as well as humanitarian aid, SDC and SECO spending on international cooperation has declined, amounting to 71% of total ODA in 2016 (compared with 77% in 2015). The share of ODA excluding asylum costs declined from 0.44% in 2015 to 0.43% in 2016.