European Union is increasingly important for funding Finnish NGOs

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An increasing number of Finnish non-governmental organisations are granted funds by the European Union for their projects related to development cooperation or international education.
      Regardless of the long and bureaucratic application process, the efforts are seen to be well worthwhile.
      EU Project Advisor Saara Lehmuskoski of Kehys ry (the Finnish NGDO Platform to the EU) notes that about half of the funding applications filed by Finnish NGOs are passed, while typically below 20 percent of all applications within the EU are approved.
      The success of Finnish applications is attributed to careful preparations.
     
"Finns are serious about their applications. It takes about six months to complete a good application for EU funding", Lehmuskoski estimates.
      Particularly the smaller organisations need all the help Kehys can give them, as the process is expensive and laborious.
      Nevertheless, the number of EU applications has increased rapidly in the course of the last couple of years.
     
In 2005, EU funding was granted to seven Finnish organisations. The total budget of their projects was over EUR 5.5 million. The European Union covers 75 percent of the total funding, and 10 to 15 percent comes from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The remainder of the funding is up to the organisation's own fund-raising.
      While the European Union is the main provider of funds for all the projects that it has approved, the organisation's own finances have to be on a sound basis.
      All development cooperation projects have to have a partner in the target country, for example a local organisation or in exceptional cases the local administration.
      Finnish projects related to international education are often carried out in cooperation with a European subsidiary of the organisation in question.
     
The EU is thus encouraging NGOs to network internationally.
      It is possible to have EU funding for several years at a time, which makes it possible to plan projects for a longer period. On the other hand, this creates a tendency to fund only the long-term projects of large organisations.
      The reduction of bureaucracy is a challenge the EU will have to meet in the near future. This is to be achieved by cutting the number of various projects.
     
Kehys is to launch a campaign for the consistency of development cooperation affairs, using the opportunity afforded by Finland's EU Presidency starting on July 1st.
      Kehys also intends to organise several international discussion sessions and meetings with various development cooperation organisations during the upcoming summer and autumn.


Links:
  Kehys ry (the Finnish NGDO Platform to the EU)

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