Social Security for Swiss International Civil Servants

At the request of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), cinfo mandated Soliswiss (Cooperative of Swiss Abroad) to analyse the social security of Swiss international civil servants working in multilateral organisations, particularly in the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank Group (WBG). This paper summarises the report that was submitted to SDC and SECO in March 2021.

The social security systems of Switzerland, the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank Group (WBG) all provide comprehensive social security benefits, in particular for long-term adherence. A majority of current and former Swiss WBG employees expressed overall satisfaction with the benefits provided, Swiss UN staff was somewhat less satisfied. A majority of interviewees argued that, at the time of employment, they did not pay much attention to social security issues, although it became more important to them over time. Soliswiss’ desk review and the interviews show that weaknesses appear for Swiss international civil servants primarily when there is shorter term adherence to a system and when there are gaps between appointments. Additional challenges arise for those who do not have the status of international civil servant, e.g. consultants or United Nations Volunteers.