Switzerland

Basic information

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Mechanisms of Vertical Integration

National — sub-national linkages

In Switzerland, vertical integration mechanisms are relatively strong. Linkages between the federal, regional (cantons) and local levels of governance are managed within the framework of the ‘Sustainable Development Forum’. The Forum was set up in 2001 as an initiative of the Federal Office for Spatial Development. Forum events involve representatives from cantons and cities and take place twice a year. The Forum is dedicated to exchanging information on current SD projects and plans, starting up new SD projects, monitoring, and on promoting participation possibilities. Another important goal of the SD Forum is the joint development of national targets for LA 21 projects.

Further information on mechanisms of vertical integration can be obtained from the following websites:

• Sustainable Development Forum: German | French | Italian
• Cercle Indicateurs: German | French | Italian
• Quality criteria for a sustainable development process: English | German | French | Italian

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Mechanisms of Horizontal Integration

The coordination function for SD within the Swiss Government is undertaken by the Interdepartmental Sustainable Development Committee (ISDC), which was formerly known as Inter-departmental Committee (IDARio). Approximately 20 federal agencies are involved in ISDC. It is headed by the Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE). The following four, together with ARE, form the smaller leadership body, known as the ISDC Office: Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Federal Office for the Environment, Federal Office of Public Health.

The tasks of the ISDC include:

• Coordination of Confederation policy as it relates to sustainable development
• Inter-departmental and inter-agency coordination of Confederation activities which are of significance to sustainable development
• Joint development of strategies and action plans for Switzerland's implementation of Agenda 21
• Coordination of the stance taken by Switzerland in international processes, and reporting to international bodies such as the United Nations
• Fostering relationships within the federal administration as well as with the private sector and civil society.

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Evaluation and Review

National level:

The Secretariat of the Interdepartmental Sustainable Development Committee (ISDC) is responsible to deliver an annual report on the basis of the information provided by individual governmental departments. ISDC analyses these individual reports and makes them available to the Federal Council, Parliament and the Federal Administration. After adoption of the revised NSDS in 2008, the next annual report is due in June 2009.

Switzerland has commissioned an external evaluation of its SD strategy in 2005. The evaluation was carried out in 2005/2006, and the results of the evaluation have been published in September 2006 (click here for the German version of the evaluation report).

Based on the evaluation results, the Interdepartmental Sustainable Development Committee (ISDC) has adopted recommendations for the renewal of the SD strategy in January 2007. This document includes the major findings of the evaluation carried out in 2006 (chapter 3.3.): English | German | French | Italian

Switzerland developed a method to assess political projects from a sustainable development perspective: Sustainability Assessment: Conceptual framework. In the course of this framework, sustainability assessment guidelines for federal agencies and other interested parties have been developed. These guidelines have been drawn up to help sustainability assessments to be carried out as efficiently as possible and in accordance with standard principles. They set out a procedure in nine steps and provide additional support in the form of a Sustainability Assessment Excel Tool that enables the relevance of an initiative to be reviewed from the sustainable development perspective and allows its impacts to be recorded in outline terms. The guidelines are available for download in English | German | French | Italian

Local level:

Different sustainability assessment instruments are used on the local level. A guide published in 2007 in German and French by the Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE) gives cantons and municipalities an orientation.

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Indicators and Monitoring

National level:

The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO), the Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE) and the Federal Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape (SAEFL) joined forces to create the MONET measurement system. With over 100 indicators, this monitoring tool facilitates regular reporting on the status and progress of SD throughout Switzerland.

Experience gathered since the MONET indicator system went online in 2003: Some elements were in need of improvement, e.g. the system was difficult to read as it was too large, some indicators lacked relevance, there were gaps in the system and international comparability was limited. The new MONET system is now more in line with the themes of the European Union’s SD indicators system. The revised system now has 80 indicators (instead of 130), twelve of which are new. More information can be found here. The list of updated MONET indicators as of 23 June 2009 can be accessed here.

Measuring Sustainability in Switzerland (MONET)

Local level:

Cantons and municipalities created in 2003 ‘cercle indicateurs’ as a common platform for indicators and monitoring on the local level. German | French | Italian

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Participation

So far, there is no National Council for Sustainable Development in Switzerland. The development of the Swiss NSDS was based, however, on a participatory approach, including the cantons, civil society and the private sector. In the consultation process, a draft version of the NSDS was submitted to various stakeholders and comments were taken into consideration in the final version of the strategy.

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Sub-national activities

Regional SD strategies:

16 regional (canton) sustainability processes, 173 on municipality level (November 2009).

LA 21 initiatives:

173 municipalities have a sustainable development process. That’s about 6.6% of all municipalities, but 30% of the whole population. Common topics are sensitization, territory, mobility. Here are some numbers and facts: German | French | Italian
There are subsidies and support available from the national level: German | French.

Evaluation:

Background information on assessing cantonal and municipal projects can be found here.

Indicators:

Information on the SD indicators for cities and cantons can be found here: German | French | Italian.

Contact details:

The responsible persons for SD on the sub-national level can be found here.

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This Country Profile has been last updated on: Wednesday, 10 February 2010

For the sources used in the country profiles, please click here.