Updated Version 2022 - For SDC, education is a priority theme and comprises both basic education and vocational skills development. The SDC Education Strategy sets out how we will reach this objective through our bilateral and multilateral engagement. It provides guidance to the SDC’s South Cooperation, Cooperation with Eastern Europe, Global Cooperation as well as Humanitarian Aid and inspires the SDC’s cooperation strategies and its global and multilateral programmes.

This document is a guidance paper for SDC head office and cooperation office staff. 

This is the updated version 2022 in English and French. The Spanish version is from 2017.

The guidance document provides advice for SDC staff on how to manage projects using a market systems approach. Advice is provided for developing the initial project idea and formal entry proposal, the tender process, the inception phase, credit proposal and implementation phase, steering and monitoring, evaluation and preparation of a following phase.

Ce document est un guide d'orientation interne destiné au personnel du siège de la DDC et des bureaux de coopération.

Ce guide fournit des conseils au personnel de la DDC sur la manière de gérer des projets utilisant une approche des systèmes de marché. Des conseils sont fournis sur les activités du personnel autour du développement de l'idée initiale du projet et de la proposition d'entrée en matière, du processus d'appel d'offres, de la phase de démarrage, de la proposition de crédit et de la phase de mise en œuvre, du pilotage et du suivi, de l'évaluation et de la préparation de la phase suivante.

There is also a short video with explanation and overview of the guidance paper  - see video in English or see video in French

Further, there is a brief for decision-makers and poster that can be printed and displayed in your office to make people aware of the guidance 

The SDC guidance for Financial Sector Development provides the rationale  and strategic orientation of SDC’s approach to FSD. 

It offers guidance to SDC’ s programme staff and decision-makers in the cooperation offices and at the head office, executing Swiss, international and national agencies, and to consultants so as to ensure coherent and effective FSD projects.

Interested to see the presentation of the launch event of the FSD guidance?  >> here

The medium-term orientation defines the thematic and methodological priorities that SDC’s focal point and network on Employment and Income (e+i) for 2015 - 2019. 

A new medium-term orientation is in discussion for the new section Economy & Education with the aim to start from 2023 and beyond.

Economic and Financial Analysis (EFA) is a widely used approach for assessing whether the benefits of a particular action are greater than its costs over a given period of time. This also applies to VSD: In the application and assessment of a new project idea as well as in monitoring and project evaluations we would like to know if the expected benefits (for example: higher incomes for graduates) are greater than the costs of the project.

Therefore, this working aid and a rather simple Excel workbook have been developed and updated. Their aim is to support SDC program officers, project implementers, consultants and other stakeholders in assessing costs and benefits of VSD interventions, be it in the planning stage of a project (ex ante), for monitoring purposes (ex inter) or as part of a mid-term or end of phase evaluation (ex post).

This guidance sheet is part of a series of tools developed to support SDC staff and partners in designing and implementing projects aiming at financial inclusion.

This specific guidance sheet introduces the concept and key aspects of responsible credit. It provides guidance on how to design, prepare, implement, and monitor SDC projects effectively.

Why this slide deck?
The Market Systems Approach (MSD) has become a mainstream approach for SDC’s Private Sector Development projects. Several organisations / implementers are also applying the key principles of MSD / systemic approaches to Vocational Skills Development (VSD) projects. However, there is neither a unified language nor an agreed institutional understanding of SDC regarding systemic approaches to VSD.The purpose of this slide deck is to share some thoughts on systemic VSD projects and share initial lessons learnt. Additional insights from ongoing processes may be added step by step.

For whom?
For those involved in the planning, design, approval and implementation of Vocational Skills Development projects.

How to use it?
That’s up to you. Scan the slides quickly or take more time to dive deep in any of publications that are referenced on the slides.

To support the uptake of the SDC Guidance on Results Indicators, the IED has elaborated supporting working aids for FSD, PSD and VSD projects. 

This working aid aims to provide information on good practice approaches to ensure credible measurement and reporting of results indicators for SDC’s FSD and PSD programmes. It supports the selection of relevant indicators for programmes, but does not include detailed information on how to measure each indicator.

Watch this very short video explaining the rational of the working aid.

Working aid on the use of result indicators in VSD programmes.

The document brings together knowledge on Local Economic Development (LED) with current experiences of delivering LED within SDC. It aims to support design, implementation and steering of LED initiatives within SDC. After getting some initial understanding of what LED is this guidance will help you to deepen your understanding of the implications of LED for programme management within SDC’s Project Cycle Management (PCM).

This introduction paper and guidance is made for Vocational Education and Training (VET) practitioners, donors and implementing partners in development cooperation who want to better understand and analyse how VET systems function and how their different elements interrelate. It shall therefore…

- introduce those working in VET projects and institutions into VET systems thinking and provide them with a basic understanding and analytical dimensions;

- improve the quality of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)’s VET interventions based on a better understanding of VET systems;

- provide input for SDC’s position in the discussion about systemic approaches to VET systems development and reform.

Updated version April 2022

SDC's thematic units Economy and Education (E+E) and Peace, Governance and Equality (PGE) engaged on a workstream to provide SDC staff with practical guidance on i) how to plan and implement IED projects in fragile contexts, taking into account the particular challenges of fragile contexts and ii) how IED projects can go beyond the minimalist approach of doing no harm (working in conflict/ fragility) by explicitly contributing to reduce fragility (working on conflict/fragility).

This practical guidance sheet should be considered as additional practical tips to the slide deck and FAQ published on the shareweb (links below): 

Slide Deck: Inclusive economic development (IED) in fragile contexts 

FAQ: IED in fragile contexts Slide Deck

New working aid on the use of indicators in VSD

IED TRI 3, EDU ARI 2, VSD-COI… is it all Greek to you? To facilitate the management of your VSD projects we have reacted to the new SDC Guidance on Results Indicators (published in April) and revised the VSD Working Aid accordingly. All Aggregated Reference Indicators (ARIs), Thematic Reference Indicators (TRIs) and context-specific Common Outcome Indicators (COIs) relevant for skills development are summarised and the most important indicators per project type are shown. Helpful? We are looking forward to your feedback! I

Watch this very short video explaining the rational of the working aid. 

Working aid Result measurement in PSD and FSD programmes.

Leave no one behind (LNOB) is the central pledge of the 2030 Agenda, recognizing the need to combat poverty and inequalities. In fact, leaving no one behind is indispensable in order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

This working aid is dedicated to LNOB and IED featuring good practices and relevant links on the topic of LNOB - and is based on SDC's guidance for LNOB.

This VSD Project Typology tool aims to help SDC operations to clearly define the approach and orientation of their VSD interventions, to select the right partners, and thus to manage their Project (Portfolio) in line with the relevant SDC strategies, the policy goals of partner countries, and professional standards. The paper also supports the formulation of realistic and plausible expectations predominantly regarding the outcomes and Impact of VSD projects across time. 

The Typology Tool includes the ADD-ONs on Private Sector Development (PSD), Private Sector Engagement (PSE), Governance and Dual TVET

The objective of this paper is to provide guidance on good Monitoring and Measuring Results practice with respect to the process and the roles and responsibilities of SDC program managers managing PSD programs and to enable implementing partners to design, apply, and benefit from a monitoring and results measurement system that enables learning and reporting credible results and that complies with the DCED Standard for Results Measurement.

The Good Practices paper was developed in 2016 and in late 2018 we sought feedback using an online survey and conducting in-depth interviews with SDC program managers. Find the summary of the feedback and the  changes we have made to the paper here. We have revised the version in February 2019. The Good Practices Paper is with more than 750 unique downloads among the top three of the most-downloaded resources from the DCED website. 

Responding to the need for a better structured and guided project application and assessment process, in which specific VSD challenges are properly addressed from the very beginning, the e+i network developed these guidelines. Their goal is to provide additional support and ensure high quality in the development of entry and credit proposals.

Education is integral to the inclusive, peaceful and sustained development of a society. If education is equitable and of good quality, it can ensure the participation of marginalised groups in the development process more broadly, thereby reducing social inequalities. Without attention paid to equitable access, learning opportunities and quality learning outcomes, education can entrench existing inequalities within societies. To create more inclusive and just societies, it is thus crucial to leave no one behind in education.

In addition to the note on education, there is a general guidance as well as four other thematic Working Aids on Agriculture and Food Security, Employment & Income, Decentralisation & Local Governance, and Health.

This SDC guidance sheet outlines key gender issues regarding women’s economic empowerment in MSD and how these can be integrated in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of cooperation strategies and project interventions. Some existing familiarity with MSD terminology is assumed.

This Manual for Strategic and Operational Project Cycle Management (PCM) aims at improving Accountability for Results in SDC Financial Sector Development cooperation projects. The manual provides practice-oriented guidance to development professionals dealing with FSD projects. The manual focuses on planning, monitoring, evaluating and steering FSD initiatives. Its main audience is SDC programme management staff and partner representatives with whom projects are planned, monitored and evaluated.

To monitor the implementation of Switzerland's international cooperation strategy for 2021 - 2024, SDC has approved a set of ressult indicators according to the 10 sub-objectives of the strategy. Result indicators allow to assess outcomes and outputs achieved with SDC support. 

E+E has 5 ARIs - Aggregated Result Indicators.

2 ARIs for EDU

3 ARIs for IED

To monitor the implementation of Switzerland's international cooperation strategy for 2021 - 2024, SDC has approved a set of reference indicators according to the 10 sub-objectives of the strategy. Result indicators allow to assess outcomes and outputs achieved with SDC support. 

E+E has a total of 10 TRIs

5 IED TRIs Thematic Result Indicators

5 EDU TRIs Thematic Result Indicators

This Glossary includes the most important terminologies and definitions about IED result measurement.