Switzerland is ranked 9th in the 2008 HRI. The country ranked 7th in Pillars 3 and 4 and 10th in Pillar 2. By individual indicator, Switzerland ranked first in the indicators for funding IFRC and ICRC appeals, respecting or promoting human rights and respecting or promoting international humanitarian law. However, it ranked 21st in distribution of funding relative to ECHO’s Crisis and Vulnerability Indices, 22nd in sectoral distribution of funding through UN appeals, 18th in timely funding to complex emergencies with UN appeals, 15th in implementing human rights law and 14th in encouraging regular evaluations.
In the field, humanitarian agencies perceived Switzerland as a good donor. In fact, it scores below the donor average in only two questions, relating to involvement of beneficiaries in the design and implementation of programmes and long-term funding arrangements. Switzerland is perceived particularly well in terms of strengthening community resilience to cope with crises, aligning its humanitarian funding to long-term development aims and ensuring rapid recovery of sustainable livelihoods areas in which other donors on the whole perform badly. It also does well in another area in which donors as a group struggle, namely in supporting contingency planning and strengthening partner response capacity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Switzerland’s funding is perceived as being more independent from political, economic and military objectives than that of other donors. It is also strongly perceived as a country which respects and promotes human rights and international humanitarian and refugee law.
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