About us

Helvetas — a Swiss Association for International Cooperation in Kyrgyzstan

Helvetas was founded in 1955 as the first private development organization in Switzerland. Helvetas is a non-partisan, politically and confessionally independent association supported by 43,000 members and 40,000 regular private sponsors. It actively works through its 16 program offices abroad to improve the living conditions of disadvantaged people in 20 partner countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

In Kyrgyzstan, Helvetas started its activities in November 1994 with the Agroproject — restructured as the Kyrgyz-Swiss Agricultural Programme (KSAP), operating in close cooperation with the Kyrgyz Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources. Today, Helvetas is running 5 projects in Kyrgyzstan:

Helvetas Vision and Mission in Kyrgyzstan

The engagement of Helvetas in the development process of Kyrgyzstan is guided by the following vision: The rural population of the Helvetas programme areas in Kyrgyzstan has an improved standard of living.

For the country programme 2008 — 2011 Helvetas will pursue this vision under the following mission statement: Helvetas Kyrgyzstan increases the capacity of the rural population to initiate and sustain its development towards improved living conditions.

Kyrgyzstan, as a country in transition to a free market economy, faces a development paradigm characterized by the triple challenge of economic transition, political reforms and under development. The assessment of the country's situation reveals three key problem areas or development issues: Poverty, Sustainable Economic Development, Democratisation and Decentralisation.

Helvetas will adopt the following strategic guidelines for the development of the Kyrgyzstan Programme 2008—2011:

• concentrate on people living in rural areas;
• promote complementary projects to raise the impact and to increase synergism;
• support access to local-regional-export markets in all projects to raise rural income;
• adopt an integrated approach for democratisation and decentralisation along vertical lines;
• validate available experience in and outside Kyrgyzstan in order to raise the effectiveness and efficiency of the Helvetas programme.

How to contact us:

Helvetas Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic:

43/1 Grajdanskaya St.,720022

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Tel: +996 (0) 312 36 06 72; 36 06 74

Fax: +996 (0) 312 36 06 73

E-mail: program@helvetas.kg

Drive scheme to our office: