Switzerland - a loyal friend to Mongolians in times of dzuds For
more than a decade, Switzerland has been a loyal friend to
Mongolia in times of natural disaster. For three consecutive
years from 1999 to 2001, Mongolia was subject to an extreme
winter phenomenon known as a dzud. Faced with widespread losses
of livestock and economic ruin for many, Switzerland was among
the first countries to respond to the joint 2001 UN and
Mongolian Government appeal for assistance for dzud-affected
herders. Initially, the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation (SDC) - Switzerland’s international cooperation
agency under the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs -
provided immediate aid for dzud victims through the
implementation of a range of humanitarian assistance programmes.
In addition to such traditional aid as the provision of fodder,
medicine and clothing, SDC undertook Mongolia’s first cash
assistance for herders’ initiative for those who had lost all
their livestock - the cornerstone of their survival. The "C