In 1975 Helvetas was the first international development organisation to work in Bhutan. It now plans to withdraw from the Himalayan country. Many view this as the next chapter in a success story. Helvetas’s local employees agree. Cooperation between Switzerland and Bhutan blossomed from a friendship. In the 1940s the daughter of Swiss industrialists got to know a young Bhutanese woman, who would later become the king’s wife. This friendship brought the Swiss industrialist couple to Bhutan in 1952. There the king asked them for help in modernising the country. Experts from Switzerland soon travelled to the Buddhist kingdom, to advise the population on improving agriculture and building health centres. The range of projects grew ever wider, and in 1975 the Swiss industrialists decided to hand them over to a professional organisation. They chose Helvetas, an independent Swiss development organisation that was already active in neighbouring Nepal. ‘Special relationship’ Since then ...
