Swiss development projects are lauded throughout the EU and OSCE for their effectiveness and participatory approach – and Switzerland and Central Asia – that has usually been a story of successful development assistance.

Lovingly referred to as ‘Helvetistan’, Switzerland since 1992 also acts as the chairman of a voting group within the World Bank and the IMF comprising Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Poland, Serbia-Montenegro, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Taking into account Switerland’s size, it has channelled quite a sizeable amount of development assistance into Uzbekistan over the past decade, e.g. approximately 10 million Swiss Francs in 2004. A total of around 10 projects were being financed in 2005.

After the EU had already imposed sanctions on Uzbekistan following events in Andijon in May 2005, Switzerland only recently decided to follow suit. Also, the country has announced to review its development assistance towards Central Asia.

Bern has to develop a coherent strategy for these countries, of which many are not governed ‘well’, said DEZA [Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation] director Walter Fust in Bern.

However, Switzerland will not disengage completely from assisting projects in Uzbekistan:

The DEZA director warned, however, to leave each country after a crisis occured. “In Nepal for example, the situation is miserable, but our projects are running very well”, said Fust. “To leave now would be wrong. We have to stand by the population.”

It is thus likely that while most current projects will run for their whole intended duration, new projects will be subject to increased scrutiny:

Provided that the country is secure enough, projects that strengthen civil society, provide social and health services to disadvantaged groups, support private enterprise and promote cross-border cooperation will be continued. The objective is to avoid additional suffering of civilians after the government’s violent repression. The current circumstances require that special attention is paid to any attempt to weaken accepted project goals and organizational and institutional reforms, or to limit access to, and exchange with, project partners and civilians.

Interestingly, the German version of the same page quoted above reads a little different:

Damit soll verhindert werden, dass die Zivilbevölkerung für das gewaltsame Vorgehen der Regierung zusätzlich bestraft wird.

Translation: Through these means [the continuation of projects] a punishment of the civilian population for the government’s brutal crackdown should be avoided.