ESTDEV to fund events bringing an international perspective on development cooperation to Estonia

Three events received funding totalling 193,188.84 euros from this year's round.

Funded events

NGO Mondo plans to organise Estonia's first international conference focusing on environmental justice, including pre- and post-events, such as film nights and a youth program.

"Mondo has worked for over 16 years in various development cooperation target countries and communities that are already affected by environmental changes today. At the same time, for example, the carbon footprint of the average Ugandan is 0.1 tons, and the carbon footprint of the average Estonian is 78 times larger, 7.8 tons per person. With the conference, we raise the question of environmental justice — who is responsible and bears the costs when those with the smallest climate footprint suffer the most? This is a question that we see that is not asked too often in Estonia today, but where we can find solutions within the framework of development cooperation and also in other areas. It is important that we seek and implement these solutions together. The conference offers this space to create systemic changes in the field of environment and climate change together," said Egle Küngas, head of Mondo's environmental program and the lead conference organiser.

Grant amount: €74,265

The Estonian Refugee Council will organise a conference on humanitarian aid, which will bring together international humanitarian aid interest groups and high-level experts.

"Today, Estonia and Estonians are known in the world of humanitarian aid as principled digital aid providers who reach where others cannot. Last year, when we organised the first humanitarian aid conference, we brought experts from all over the world to Tallinn. Now, we will make it an annual tradition. We will bring high-level talks that are usually held in conference centres in Geneva, London and New York," said Eero Janson, director of the Estonian Refugee Council.

Grant amount: €57,923.84

The Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL) will organise fringe events on digitalisation in 2024 and 2025 as part of the Transform Africa Summit.

The main purpose of these events is to support the development of democracy and boost the economy in African countries by raising awareness of the beneficiaries' digital and e-governance competencies and the benefits of digitalisation in general. To achieve this goal, two fringe events on digitalisation will be organised at the Transform Africa Summit.

"ITL has been participating in the Transform Africa Summit, a major event for digitalisation in Africa, with its experts and has been organizing fringe events since 2019, and has a long-standing partnership with event organiser Smart Africa. With annual international events like this, it is important to be consistently involved and in the picture with the hot topics of the moment, and to keep the collaboration with the main organizer meaningful and high quality, so we are looking forward to continuing to organize the fringe events in 2024 and 2025," said Jana Silaškova, Head of Internationalization at Estonian ICT Cluster.

Grant amount: €61,000

This call for applications was designed to raise the profile of development cooperation and humanitarian aid and explain Estonia's role in supporting the development of partner countries, solving humanitarian crises and ensuring global sustainable development.

Picture: from the left Klen Jäärats, executive director of ESTDEV, Lacina Kone, CEO of SmartAfrica, and Marika Popp, GovStack project lead in Estonia. Credit: Reigo Teervalt.