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Fostering digital skills in the Global South

Switzerland, Laos, Cambodia
Initial vocational education and training
30.08.2023
Swisscontact and the Dariu Foundation together are starting a long-term initiative to promote digital skills among youth. Swisscontact is a leading organization in the implementation of skills development projects in developing and emerging countries. The Dariu Foundation is a new partner that for many years has been helping young and economically disadvantaged people gain access to the digital world. The first projects will be implemented in the southeast Asian countries of Laos and Cambodia. 

Without education, young people in the Global South are often condemned to a life of poverty. Swisscontact believes that the development of skills – in particular digital skills – is crucial for social integration and economic development, thus helping to reduce poverty over the long term. Education enables young people to find jobs or start their own businesses and enhances overall employment. It reduces youth unemployment and brings stability to fragile contexts. 

"For Swisscontact, this partnership with the Dariu Foundation represents an enrichment and useful expansion of what we can offer in the field of education and entrepreneurship for young people in the global South."
Philippe Schneuwly, CEO Swisscontact 

Swisscontact has entered into a partnership with the Dariu Foundation to offer young people in southeast Asia the opportunity to learn digital skills. Across rural areas of the Global South, the foundation trains over 400,000 young men and women in programme courses, mostly in Vietnam up to now, and more recently in Bhutan and Malaysia as well.  In this manner, youth are given the opportunity to work and earn income. Laos and Cambodia are two of the new countries of focus in which the Dariu Foundation will be working with Swisscontact to offer these courses to young people. 

"The collaboration with Swisscontact is an ideal partnership for us. We can count on Swisscontact’s local know-how and concentrate on our core skills."
Thomas Trüb, Founder and Chairman of the Dariu Foundation

Swisscontact has been working around the world for decades to help young people start their professional lives through training and skills development. Our partnership with the Dariu Foundation constitutes a useful expansion of this effort and also allows us to achieve more of the Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs).