The ESDF was part of Switzerland’s bilateral debt relief programme launched in 1991 on the occasion of Switzerland’s 700th anniversary celebrations. The programme was the first comprehensive approach to debt relief for an industrialised creditor country and served as a harbinger for the concerted international efforts that were launched in the late 1990s with the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). The Swiss debt relief programme was a joint undertaking of the SECO, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Alliance Sud, the Swiss Alliance of Development Organisations.
The ESDF was one of 12 joint development funds that were established under the Swiss debt relief programme. The ESDF was the largest of these funds in terms of fund volume and had the highest local-currency input relative to the debt relief granted. The ESDF contributed to reducing the external debt burden of Egypt and financed development projects in the fields of job creation, social services (primary healthcare and basic education) and environmental and natural resources (sanitation and water supply and waste removal programmes) for the benefit of the poorest sectors of the population. The ESDF operated in 20 out of 26 governorates and reached over two million people.
