Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation – it’s a Swiss international cooperation organization, represented in nearly 40 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It’s activities are focused on implementing sustainable development initiatives, supporting humanitarian aid programs, economic recovery and resilience.

Helvetas uses a multi-level approach, engaging civil society, government, and the private sector in collaboration.

Social equity and strive for equal opportunities for all people are fundamental values for Helvetas.

Helvetas’ activities in Ukraine are related to infrastructure recovery projects, economic recovery and business support projects reducing the dependency of war-affected people on financial and humanitarian aid, encouraging local organizations to become the driving force behind community recovery.

By establishing operations at various levels, Helvetas in Ukraine collaborates with national and local authorities and builds a partnership network of civil society organizations (CSOs) to implement project tasks.

Currently, Helvetas works in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions, and plans to expand its activities to other regions.

In the Skills Alliance for Ukraine, Helvetas is represented with several projects:

Economic Resilience Program. Realising the program’s tasks оver 580+ people completed training in vocational skills, and 5 VET schools received material and technical support.

The project «Supporting the Reconstruction of Communities’ Social and Financial Resilience in War-Affected Regions of Ukraine». The pilot regions are Kharkiv, Poltava, and Sumy oblast of Ukraine. Here, Helvetas supports 3 VET schools, has already provided training to 158 adults, and organized internships at 27 local enterprises. Work is also being supported at the national level.

The project «Contributing to favourable economic development environment for returnees, IDPs and war-affected population of Ukraine». The focus is on grant support for SMEs, adult reskilling, and collaboration with VET schools. Cooperation has been established with national-level authorities to address the issue of economic instability in a comprehensive manner, particularly for vulnerable groups.

The project «Stiykist: Building a sustainable and inclusive Ukrainian Labor Market». The project operates in providing 120 grants for SMEs, improving the professional skills and access to employment for vulnerable groups, and promoting employment with a focus on enhancing labor market inclusivity.