Mandate and mission

The Swiss parliament defined education as one of the SDC's seven priority issues for 2008-2012 in the “Federal Council Dispatch on the Continuation of Technical Cooperation and Financial Assistance for Developing Countries”. With the reorganisation of the SDC, which began in 2009, the West Africa Division (WAD) was given the task of developing an education network for the entire SDC. The WAD is also responsible for managing a number of multilateral issues related to education, including Unesco and the Fast-track Initiative – Education for All. The WAD also represents the SDC in its dealings with external entities involved in education and is responsible for communications with the Swiss public and the Swiss parliament. The Education Focal Point is in charge of some of these tasks and can call on other Network members for help (with the agreement of their respective supervisors).

The Network’s vision

SDC staff working on education-related issues (as well as their close, interested partners):

• feel that they are an integral part of a community of professionals that possesses information, knowledge and experience that can inspire them and help them in their work;
• feel committed to sharing their own experiences and knowledge with others, and to further exploring conceptual issues and shared experiences;
• are thus apprised of the work of their colleagues at the various levels (bilateral, regional, multilateral, field, headquarters, etc.) and kept up-to-date on important international events and developments (global political dialogue, international and regional initiatives, etc.);
• are capable of using this information or requesting other information from the Network in order to enhance their work in both technical and institutional terms;
• feel responsible for learning and for enabling others to learn from their experiences; they are gradually able to accord more time to this task but remain free to adapt their level of involvement depending on the period;
• are convinced that the advantages of working in a network (sharing, learning, usefulness, motivation) outweigh the disadvantages (such as taking the time to provide information, or making one's experience available to others).

The SDC as an institution is able to contribute (1) to improving the quality of its education-related work, both at the operational level in the field and at the international/multilateral level, through the exchange of information and experiences, the capitalisation of "best practices" and greater collaboration between "experience bearers" in terms of both conceptual thinking and concrete action; and (2) to facilitating access to information on its own activities and those of its partners in the field of education, particularly concerning results achieved, and can thus better communicate this information and make use of it when formulating official positions or dealing with the Swiss public, the Swiss parliament, etc.