NADEL shares close ties with the Development Economics (DEC) Group at ETH Zürich. DEC works on research projects covering various topics from child health to urban inequality to the local impact of mining. We want to share that work beyond academia and get you involved. We have put together an infographic how those projects connect to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Over the coming months we will be improving the website to make it more use-friendly for all kinds of visitors. We’ve also created a portable, easy-to-share poster that describes the geographic and topical scope of our work – pick one up for yourself at future NADEL events.

The annual Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet) Conference took place at ETH on September 11-12, focusing on the theme of “Understanding national inequalities and how to address them”. PEGNet 2017 gathered development scholars, practitioners and policy makers to discuss the drivers of national economic inequalities, policies to reduce them and the role of development cooperation. For everybody who was not able to attend, we wrote a short summary of the discussions.
PEGNet 2017 was supported by the KfW Development Bank and co-organized by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), the ETH Center for Development and Cooperation (NADEL), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Should Switzerland export arms to countries with an ongoing armed civil war? So far, the Federal War Material Law doesn’t allow for that. But this September, the Swiss armament industry called the Security Commission of the upper house of parliament (Sicherheitspolitische Kommission des Ständerats) to partly remove this barrier in order to provide for a level playing field with European competitors. The outcome remains to be seen.
A group of NADEL MAS in Development and Cooperation students analysed the coherence of the Swiss arms trade policy with Swiss development policy commitments. The policy brief is an excellent read to put the current debate into context.

We are pleased to announce the call for applications for the next Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Development and Cooperation that starts in September 2018. As in previous years we aim to provide students with the theoretical background and practical experience necessary to successfully pursue a career in development cooperation. The two-year program includes 10 months of coursework at ETH Zurich and a 10 month overseas assignment with an organization working in international cooperation (financed by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation).
For the first time, NADEL will offer two MAS scholarships consisting of an exemption of tuition fees and a grant of 16’000 CHF for the 10 months of coursework in Zürich. The application period is from 01.01.2018 – 28.02.2018. Apply here!

Jennifer Brown is an ETH MAS student in Development and Cooperation. She is currently in Lesotho on an eight-month assignment supporting clinical laboratory facilities and working in the field of molecular HIV diagnostics and paediatric HIV research. The project is a joint collaboration of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), the NGO SolidarMed, the Molecular Virology group of the University of Basel, and two hospital laboratories in Lesotho. Read about her experience on the blog in the ETH Ambassadors magazine.

NADEL has finally taken the step to social media. Help us to grow by liking us on Facebook and following us on LinkedIn. If you are a MAS or CAS alumni make sure you ad the NADEL page to the Education section in your profile - thanks for helping to grow our alumni community.