Intercooperation in the World
Intercooperation was created in 1982 at the initiative of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Until 1997, Intercooperation existed as an association of seven Swiss development NGOs. Priority countries since the beginning were India, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mali, Madagascar, Peru and Bolivia. In India, Pakistan and Madagascar, SDC entrusted Intercooperation with programme mandates for the entire natural resources management sector.
In the nineties, Intercooperation slowly began to accept new mandates other than from SDC. Long-term mandates were established with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco), the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) and others. Short term consultancies were conducted on behalf of the World Bank, IFAD, GtZ, the Austrian Development Agency, etc. Project funds were received from the Dutch, the Canton Vaud and after 2000 from the EU and other donors.
In 1997, Intercooperation became a Foundation under Swiss law with a broadened range of membership of 21 organisations, only 4 of them being development NGOs.
New programmes with SDC developed mainly in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, but also in Central America , Bangladesh and Tunisia . Today, Intercooperation is legally a completely autonomous organisation with still very strong business links to SDC and a policy of further broadening its financial base.