Petition aims to raise development funds
Non-governmental organisations have handed in a petition to the government calling for an increase in Swiss development aid.
Around 201,000 people signed the Together Against Poverty petition, presented to the federal chancellery on Monday.
The NGOs behind the move say Switzerland needs to increase development aid from 0.4 to 0.7 per cent of its gross national product by 2015 if it wants to follow objectives set by the United Nations in 2000 to halve global poverty numbers.
The petition was launched last July and gained backing from religious, women's, young people's and environmental organisations.
"We want to use this petition to push Switzerland to take its commitments seriously," said a spokesman for Alliance Sud, the Swiss Alliance of Development Organisations.
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