Implementing Organisation: Sisterhood Foundation, Hungary

Total Budget: 45 000 euros

Total Request from Fund: 45 000 euros

Description of the project and Expected Results:

The main objective for applying for PF funding was the need to increase the already existing network on women’s rights not only in Hungary but also in the Balkans and CEE and CIS countries. It intended to join both the NEWW and the Women in Development (WIDE) networks. They cooperated with HAND, the Hungarian NG(D)O platform and ultimately joined them. The main focus of their policy activities was to ensure that gender and EU policy issues would appear in the national development policy by strengthening networks and maintaining a website. Before applying for the PF grant the Sisterhood Foundation had already been managing a network and running a gender focused database, sending out regular newsletters. In the last few years the Hungarian government had closed its gender focussed departments and dismissed its staff. In a conservative country such as Hungary effective women NGOs were scarce.

Please click here to download the Mid Term Report Summary to learn more about the progress of the project implementation.

Results after Implementation:

In its final report (covering a period of some 16 months instead of 12) the Sisterhood Foundation reported that it had published a brochure in Hungarian on gender aspects in development cooperation also listing best practices  and posted this on its website  www.minok.hu (which is currently not active).  It joined both NEWW and HAND, founding a gender working group within HAND. Through HAND it was also able to join the Concord WG on gender. It also functioned as an information sharing organisation, translating documentation on gender issues into Hungarian and disseminating them. In its contacts with staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it realised that if the Ministry did develop policies this was mainly on individual staff member’s initiative, not based on any government policy.

While contacts with MPs were very difficult as they were not really interested, their contacts with an MEP gave them the opportunity to present their cause within the European Parliament.

As the Sisterhood Foundation employed temporary (often self-employed) staff specifically for the PF project they were relying on additional funding through a joint application for PF funding with HAND. This obviously raises the question of the sustainability of their PF funded activities particularly in view of the fact that the cited web addresses were not active when checked for this report.