Project Title: The Estonian Partnership for Development

Implementing Organisation: The Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation- AKU, Estonia

Total Budget: 49 163 euros

Total Request from Fund : 30 000 euros

About AKU:

AKÜ's mission is to promote and develop the Estonian State and Society's active participation and involvement in international development cooperation. The main objective of AKÜ is to promote and develop the Estonian and global policies on development cooperation and raising public awareness accordingly.

Description of the Project and Expected Results:

In its proposal AKU stated that Estonia did not have any NGOs that focussed solely on ‘relief and welfare of beneficiaries in developing countries’[1]. Estonian civil society lacked a more holistic approach to development cooperation, global issues and North-South relations according to AKU and while it saw itself as the main, albeit informal NGDO platform, it felt that its appeal for other NGOs had diminished since its establishment in 2003. With the support of the PF it hoped to employ a coordinator who could take the lead in the proposed activities: a) organise a General Strategy seminar to foster cooperation and dialogue among NGOs and with governmental organisations;  b) organise 12 Workshops/trainings for AKU working groups; and c) organise a workshop for the Terveilm (AKU’s website) editorial team. It foresaw the drafting of an Action Plan and an updated Memorandum of Understanding for AKU as a whole, together with Action Plans for the four existing working groups and for the Terveilm editorial team. The ultimate objective was to strengthen the capacities and promote the involvement and representation of Estonian non-governmental development organisations in development policy debates and awareness raising activities on Estonian and European level through increasing the capacity of AKU.

[1] P. 2 in AKU’s Main Application Form

Click here to read more details on the Project

Click here to download the Mid-Term Report Summary of the Implementation of this Project

Results after Implementation:

While it claimed in its main application form that it had 16 member organisations and four working groups, its final report stated clearly that PF funding had been used to organise AKU’s establishment seminar (December 2006) and AKU’s General Assembly (May 2007) so that thanks to the PF’s support AKU  now was an independent organisation (officially registered in February 2007, with its statute only approved on 14 May 2009) with its own budget and activities. The question could be raised whether this was fully in line with the PF criteria of the need to have a statute and a clear constituency. The PF took a risk to support AKU and while financial problems particularly caused by AKU’s partner the European movement Estonia, responsible for the financial management of the PF grant, it could be argued that the PF’s support did boost AKU’s profile as can be seen for instance by the fact that the website www.terveilm.net is currently regularly updated and even makes use of such innovative tools as the Facebook.

However, in its final report AKU had to acknowledge that it had been too ambitious in its wish to organise twelve workshops, three per working group, develop training materials, strategies and action plans not only for those working groups, but also for AKU as a whole. The workshops that were organised had to be limited to introductory courses due to the low level of the existing knowledge. The workload resulting from the need to legalise the organisation, hampered the creation of a strategy, while the financial problems mentioned above postponed the  revision and updating of the website and the publication of the ‘Handbook on Neighbourhood Policy’.