The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is Switzerland's international cooperation agency within the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). SDC supports sustainable development and seeks to improve the living conditions and quality of life of disadvantaged people in the South and East.

In India, starting with technical collaboration in livestock improvement in Kerala in 1963, SDC extended its activities to other geographical areas and to other fields such as natural resource management, rural finance and employment, rural energy and housing, decentralisation and local governance, empowerment and social justice, human and institutional strengthening and humanitarian aid.

SDC has been cooperating in these fields with a variety of partners, notably community based organisations, non-governmental organisations, research and education institutions, central, state and local governments.

As part of this, SDC collaborated with the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA). Starting with the support for the transition from a campaign mode of capacity building to an institutionalised form, the KILA-CapDecK project developed a decentralised training system under the leadership of KILA and platforms for sharing and exchanging experiences and suggestions on decentralisation.

The CapDecK Programme also supports people driven and people centred decentralised democratic governance by empowering the citizens and their democratic bodies to play a more pro-active role in local development. Strengthening Gram Sabhas, developing Panchayats as real institutions of local governance, motivating CBOs and other institutions for strengthening Panchayati Raj, mainstreaming gender in decentralisation and empowering the marginalised through Panchayati Raj form the broad framework on which the local initiatives under the CapDecK's Panchayati Raj Empowerment component are designed and implemented. These interventions are carried out through Panchayats, NGOs, academic institutions, local government associations, Kudumbashree Mission, State Women's Commission and other civil society organisations.