Last year, Estonia’s development cooperation and humanitarian aid totalled 40.3 million euros, 9.7 million euros more than the year before.
Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said the objective of development cooperation and humanitarian aid is to help countries experiencing deprivation to prevent conflicts and keep crises from spreading.
“In today’s rapidly changing world, countries are ever more dependent on each other. Development problems and humanitarian disasters do not affect only the country directly hit but the whole world, Estonia included,” said Mikser. “It is human and natural for the more developed countries in the world to assist poorer countries in their development. The broader significance of development cooperation comes from the well-known aphorism that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”
Development and humanitarian aid activities can be categorised as either bilateral or multilateral cooperation. Estonia provided 18.3 million euros of funding for the former and 22 million euros for the latter.
Estonia engages in bilateral development cooperation mainly with countries to which, based on our own experiences, Estonia can offer value-added – such as support for education, development of healthcare, furthering the economy or securing peace and stability. Just like in years past, the main cooperation partners were Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus and Afghanistan, countries to which Estonia contributed 5.8 million euros last year. Cooperation projects have been carried out to a lesser degree in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, the Palestinian National Authority and other countries.
In addition to cooperation projects, Estonia provides humanitarian aid to various countries, aimed at relief in the wake of disasters – both natural and human-caused – and allowing people to be better prepared for them. Estonia provided 3.7 million euros in humanitarian aid last year. The greatest amount went to Ukraine – 1.2 million euros – and to Syria – 0.9 million euros.
As regards both development cooperation and donations, Estonia considers it important to abide by principles of human rights, gender equality and environmental conservation.
• Full figures (in Estonian)
Additional information:
Armo Vask
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Communication Department
[email protected]
+372 637 7618
+372 5666 8581