Support granted for Finnish civil society organisations linked with the UN

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has granted EUR 2 million in general grants to Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs) linked with the UN for their basic operations and for their development communications and globalisation education in 2023–2024. Support was granted to five CSOs.

The objective of the general grant for CSOs’ operations is to raise Finns’ awareness and knowledge of the UN and of its specialised agencies and their goals as well as of Finland’s activities in the UN as part of the international rules-based system. The grants will be used to advance the objectives of Finland’s development policy in a number of sectors. The support is granted from the development cooperation appropriations for Finnish CSOs’ development cooperation.

In this application round, support was granted to five CSOs, laying special emphasis on their communications and global education efforts in Finland. The selected CSOs will implement communication campaigns, produce information and learning materials for various audiences and visit schools in different parts of Finland. Through the support, the organisations will  focus their efforts on children and young people to strengthen their inclusion and participation in various activities. They also promote gender equality and highlight the rights of women and girls and matters related to sexual and reproductive health. 

“Finnish CSOs with UN links bring the multilateral international system closer to all of us. They also give Finns the opportunity to take part in discussions on how to solve global challenges. It is particularly valuable that these CSOs promote an environment where there is no tolerance for discriminatory attitudes and that they are active across Finland,” says Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari.

The call for general grant applications ended in late 2022. The combined amount of the grant applications was about EUR 2.8 million.  In this application round,  EUR 2 million was granted. This is an established call for government grant applications, taking place every two years.

Recipients of general grants in the 2022 application round:

  • Finnish Refugee Council: EUR 600,000
  • Finnish Committee for UNICEF: EUR 470,000
  • UN Association of Finland: EUR 320,000
  • UN Youth of Finland: EUR 60,000
  • UN Women Suomi: EUR 550,000

Inquiries

  • Eevamari Laaksonen, Director, Unit for Civil Society, Department for Development Policy,
  • tel. +358 295 351 383, eevamari.laaksonen@formin.fi