The Economic Cooperation and Development division is part of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). We use our economic competence specifically for international cooperation, benefiting from direct access to leading economic organisations, government offices and central banks. We focus on advanced developing and transition countries facing specific challenges in regard to development policy. Our programmes are aligned with national and international development strategies. We systematically apply quality assurance, risk monitoring and resultsdriven management as part of our programmes. This is how we make sure that our measures actually have an impact. We obtained ISO 9001 certification in 2001. Since 2007 we have also contributed to efforts to reduce social and economic disparities in the enlarged EU. This contribution falls under Switzerland’s European policy and is not part of development cooperation.