A day in the life of...
Isabelle Do Régo Atindéhou

I live just 10 minutes away from the Swiss cooperation office, which helps a lot with balancing my work and family. I have a daughter who is eight and a son who is 13 years old. My day begins like that of most families. I get up early and see to the children. I ensure that they eat their breakfast, dress properly, take along their morning snack and don't forget anything. Once I have sent them off to school, which is quite near, I drive to work. It may sound odd, but I feel more relaxed knowing that I can reach them in a few minutes if there is an emergency.

At work I have two designations: I am both consular assistant and executive assistant. I help my boss in planning her daily schedule and manage various administrative tasks. I organise appointments, meetings and events locally and abroad. I am also responsible for office correspondence and for writing the minutes of weekly and monthly meetings. In the consular section, I assist Swiss nationals if they are relocating to Benin or wish to stay in the country for a limited period of time – they require all kinds of information, for instance about family reunification or marriage formalities – or if they have lost their passport. I also assist Beninese citizens who ask me how to obtain a visa, get a diploma certified or enrol at a Swiss university.

My workload is heavy and since I have to manage the entire household as well I am quite exhausted by the end of the week. On weekends I enjoy going to the beach with my children. They swim while I relax with yoga. In Switzerland I am familiar with Bern, where I had gone on an official trip some years ago. That is where I was introduced to raclette, a dish I'm very fond of. We usually have it on 1 August, which is the national day of both Switzerland and Benin.

Most of the Swiss cooperation and development programmes are concentrated in the northern border regions where the security situation has been deteriorating because of attacks by armed jihadist groups from Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria. This region has always been very fragile due to severe poverty, rapid population growth, recurring farmer-herder conflicts and climate change impacts. And now it is also facing a terrorist threat.

As an executive assistant I don't follow-up on projects locally but I know the situation quite well because I am familiar with the programme staff. For instance, the SDC supports a programme to enhance the quality of school education. The school system has several shortcomings: there is a shortage of teachers and the current teachers are poorly trained. Teaching materials are also in short supply and there is no uniform curriculum. Another SDC programme supports smallholder farmers through a national development fund. The objective is to promote public and private investment in agriculture and livestock farming to boost agricultural production and improve food security while also creating jobs for young people.