‘Ahead of its time’: A Swiss research partnership powers global development solutions

Some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges may seem intractable. From poverty and unemployment to expensive housing, greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, countries around the world are scrambling for answers.

But sometimes, the solutions are hiding in unlikely places.

Take the humble coconut. About a decade ago, a team of young Swiss engineers exploring sustainable building materials thought to look into the tropical fruit for answers.

Picture the shell of a coconut cracked open. To get to the edible nut inside, you’ll first have to peel off a fibre that surrounds it, called the husk. A huge volume of unused coconut husks are thrown away year after year in countries like The Philippines, where the fruit is part of every-day life. That’s where the researchers turned entrepreneurs saw potential. What if the wasted raw material could be transformed into a valuable resource?

Fast-forward to today, and their invention is now edging closer to the European market as a sustainable alternative to MDF and solid wood. An innovative material engineered with husk fibres, the Cocoboard boasts a 100% bio-based make-up designed in Switzerland and sourced sustainably in The Philippines—creating jobs, boosting low-cost housing, and supporting local farmers along the way.

The R4D programme—a joint initiative of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)—plays a pivotal part in the origins story of the Cocoboard, and in dozens other research projects designed to boost global development over the past decade.

A global vision

The reality is that most great inventions don’t materialise out of thin air. It takes years of research and practice to turn an idea into a concrete product or innovation. This means initiatives which nurture them are vital to a project’s chances of success.

That’s where the R4D programme comes in.For the Cocoboards venture, a small grant helped the inventors to set up a business plan and start-up firm, supporting a crucial step on the journey to today’s market-ready product.

On the whole, SDC and SNSF co-funded the programme with roughly CHF 100 million between 2012 and 2023. The funds offered selected research-based projects a chance to make concrete steps towards a global vision linked to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations—helping to reduce poverty, curb global risks, and contribute to sustainable development as a path to solving urgent problems in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Concrete actions

Financial support from the programme brought together researchers from the Global South and Switzerland through 57 projects that innovated, influenced policy and raised awareness about global issues that matter for people, economies and the planet.

New products were created—among them, an Android app helping to save ancient pome forests in the mountainous wilderness of Central Asia. Data collected through the app is supporting scientists, citizens and local inspectors working to shield the precious apple trees from a deadly bacterial disease.

Evidence-based solutions were pushed up the political agenda. One project persuaded government officials in Togo and Burkina Faso to renew investment in career counselling, a critical support for young graduates aspiring to decent work. In Kenya, researchers helped shape a national strategy to tackle invasive plants that threaten landscapes and livelihoods. And in Rwanda, policymakers welcomed the ‘saving agencies’ designed to financially support women in casual agricultural work, who are among the poorest in society.

Projects raised the voice of science and marginalised groups in high-level forums—among them, the case of Bolivian Indigenous peoples empowered to influence national conversations on food, including the country’s position at the UN Food Systems Summit. Other research teams presented evidence-based views on women’s rights, in some cases through input into international human rights instruments, such as the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Some initiatives tapped creativity to raise awareness about important issues. The unique ‘Food Systems Caravan’ spread knowledge on food security in West Africa over a 50-day roadshow, a journey which also produced the research documentary ‘The Green Vein’. A separate documentary film on inequality and conflict was screened at UN headquarters in New York. And one project looked into gender rights in Africa through the lens of girls’ participation in soccer clubs.

A pathway from research to impact

Support from the R4D programme can help to move the needle of change in a positive direction. But each initiative takes its own journey–starting from the production of knowledge, through to the impact that knowledge can make by guiding action. Breaking down that journey into three milestones is one way to visualise how far R4D projects have progressed along that path (see Box 1).

Through hundreds of published articles, policy briefs and workshops, more than 80% of all projects transferred the information they generated to relevant stakeholders. At least half of them succeeded at raising awareness and saw evidence of the information they generated being used. And some 75% of the projects report having some impact on policy, with more than 40% bringing their results into global debate forums.

Innovating into a ‘living lab’

Behind the scenes, the work needed to support those results took the R4D programme on its own journey.

An external evaluation found R4D was itself a product of innovation and “ahead of its time” by embracing the following principles (BSS, 2023):

• A design that supports interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research
• Focus on development and sustainability challenges
• Activities that aim for transformation—even before the UN’s 2030 Agenda took shape
• Directly involving the Global South in the effort to attain the SDGs

A decade later, these concepts may sound familiar, having been adopted since by other funding initiatives such as the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. Still, according to the evaluators, combining them into one programme remains novel to R4D.

Being ahead of the game hardly ever comes without a challenge. The programme had to work hard to define these concepts so they could be applied in practice. R4D turned into a ‘living lab’ in the process, enabling SDC and SNSF to experiment with novel ideas about how to propel research-based solutions for development.

Joint investment for a better future

The pioneering spirit hasn’t gone unnoticed. Many of the researchers who led R4D projects say they know their projects were unlikely to find support from other sources.

In coming together to create a forward-thinking programme in R4D, the SNSF and SDC produced an impact greater than the sum of its parts: according to the evaluation, each organisation would be hard pressed to achieve the same results without the other.

A decade later, transdisciplinary research that directly involves the Global South is widely seen as critical for the success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its embedded SDGs. Funding initiatives that may have once seemed unusual are now essential–and in the face of the existential challenges that humanity faces today, the principles embraced by R4D are more relevant than ever.

The programme’s successor, SOR4D, has adopted an even stronger focus on solutions, heeding a call for more research-based knowledge to advance sustainable development goals in this UN-designated “Decade of Action”.

It builds on a solid foundation. R4D’s results show that transformative research can deliver both scientific excellence, and real-world impact.

Box 1: Signs of impact identified by an external evaluation of the R4D programme (BSS, December 2023)

Box 2: Global impact highlights: How r4d projects are making a difference around the world

CREATING A PRODUCT

An app to fight disease in Central Asia’s ancient forests

• The problem | In Central Asia, home to the original apple tree, pome fruits are under threat by fireblight—a bacterial disease that can turn a healthy tree pitch-black, killing it within one season.
• The solution | The R4D project created a smartphone app which helps raise awareness about the disease and monitor its spread. Any local person who spots an afflicted tree can upload its location on a map through the app. A rapid test was also developed to detect fireblight.
• The impact | The app is available for Android phones in European and local languages. The rapid test is now integrated in a training programme for fireblight inspectors.
• The big picture | Before the R4D project there was no plan in place to manage fireblight and prevent spread of a disease that could decimate ancient apple varieties.

Sustainable building material made with coconut sourced in The Philippines

Vocational training to access work in Nepal and Costa Rica

A tool to assess food sustainability in Kenya and Bolivia

INFLUENCING POLICY

Career guidance tools for aspiring entrepreneurs in West Africa

A national strategy to root out invasive trees in Kenya

National strategies to manage oil palm sustainably

• The problem | Palm oil is lucrative for countries, corporations and smallholders in the tropics. But cultivating it harms the environment through deforestation and biodiversity loss.
• The solution | The r4d project integrated different types of knowledge and backed a collaborative approach to inform countries’ palm oil strategies.
• The impact | The project attracted interest from policymakers in Indonesia and Cameroon, and helped to establish local cooperatives that strengthened the agency of smallholders. It also contributed to managing oil palm-related conflicts in Colombia.
• The big picture | Palm oil policy often needs to bridge the opposing objectives of economic development and environmental conservation.

Better policies on taxation of natural resources

Better HIV care in Lesotho

• The problem | In Lesotho, one out of four adults are living with HIV. But access to testing and care is a big challenge for people living in small villages scattered across the mountains.
• The solution | The R4D project provided HIV testing to more than 10,000 people in at least 60 villages door-to-door. It also established an HIV database and supported local healthcare infrastructure.
• The impact | The work was widely cited, and then incorporated into WHO guidelines as well as Lesotho’s national policy. A follow-up collaboration between Lesotho and Switzerland aims to develop an expanded programme for quality care in rural Africa.
• The big picture | HIV testing and care is key to keeping the virus under control in countries affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Savings to lift rural women out of poverty in Rwanda

HAVING A VOICE IN GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS

Consultations with global economic institutions | The R4D project on illicit finance flows consulted with think tanks such as the T20 (ThinkTwenty) in advance of G20 meetings, and its results were discussed at prominent conferences such as the World Resource Forum, UNCTAD, and the OECD.

Influence on national conversations | The R4D project on food sustainability took advantage of a favourable policy environment to empower Indigenous groups and small farms in Bolivia, which helped apply its results to influence the country’s position for the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.

Input into UN principles on rural women and human rights | An R4D project, which investigated how to ensure the right to food and gender equality, contributed to several global discussions, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

A documentary screened at UN headquarters | Three R4D projects that examined conflict and social cohesion came together to produce a documentary film, “Inequality and conflict – Beyond Us and Them”. The film was screened at a side event of a UN high-level forum meeting in New York, where the relevant SDG16 was discussed.

RAISING AWARENESS AND SUPPORTING CHANGEMAKERS

Changing the narrative on invasive species in East Africa | Knowledge generated and shared by the R4D project on tackling invasive plant species raised awareness of the risks, counteracting a positive narrative in the region: despite the damage they cause, invasive plants are sometimes seen as useful.

Upgrading waste management in South Asia | An R4D project on improving municipal solid waste management helped local NGOs to justify their work and boosted their advocacy to policymakers. Fresh ideas and new motivation to push for change followed a field visit to a pioneering location on solid waste management in India.

Advocating for gender equality through football in Africa | Girls and coaches participating in an R4D project, which examined girls’ participation in social life through youth soccer clubs, took part in a virtual conference to raise awareness of why gender rights matter for the continent.

Bringing Indigenous voices into power circles in Guatemala | An R4D project on tackling exclusion and discrimination of ethnic groups included Indigenous people as researchers, placing them in a rare position to raise awareness about the topic through interactions with members of Congress and businessmen.

A unique food security roadshow in West Africa | The R4D initiative Food Systems Caravan toured as a 50-day roadshow and communication campaign through five countries in West Africa. The goal: to bring key messages emerging from food security projects to a range of local institutions and the general public. This special journey produced the research documentary The Green Vein, and many other videos and documentaries.

Pushing change for women and peace in Indonesia | Through an R4D project on how gender informs conflict management and peacebuilding practices, a doctoral student became an influential advocate for women’s rights in Indonesia. She contributed to national action plans on gender and peace, initiated projects to support women living in poverty, and joined the ASEAN Women For Peace Registry.