The development aid of the European Community (EC) is given to about 160 countries and it is managed by the European Commission. The funding for the EC’s development aid is received from two sources:

1. the budget of the EU and

2. The European Development Fund (EDF). NGO projects can be funded by both of these sources.

The European Development Fund is used to fund the EU’s development cooperation in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

The European Union’s external relations budget is channelled through nine funding instruments, which are further divided into multiple funding programmes. EU’s external relations budget for the period of 2007-2013 is 55,9 billion euro.

The budget’s regional programmes fund development cooperation in other than the ACP-countries and thematic programmes fund development cooperation in all developing countries.

Financing Instrument for Development Cooperation (DCI)

Around 17 billion euro have been allocated to development cooperation in the EU’s external relations budget (for 2007-1013). The sum is divided to ten programmes under the Financing Instrument for Development Cooperation (DCI), five regional and five thematic. NGOs may apply to both the thematic and regional programmes.

The regional programmes are Latin America, Asia, Central Asia, Middle-East and South Africa.

The thematic programmes are divided into human and social development (Investing in People), environment, food security, immigration and refuge issues and an actor-focused instrument, which aims to support especially the role non-state actors and local authorities in development (Non-state Actors and Local Authorities, NSA-LA).

The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs supports EU-funded projects by Finnish NGOs. NGOs receiving the European Commissions funding for development cooperation or global education may apply additional funding by the MFA.

For more information, please contact our EU-project Advisor.