No Funds for Local Cooperation in 2018 due to budget constraints

The Finnish Embassy announced on Monday that there will be no new Funds for Local Cooperation (FLC) in 2018. The announcement came during the annual experience sharing workshop for local NGOs that have received a grant from the Embassy’s FLC and local NGOs funded by Finnish NGOs.
“With regret, I have to inform you that there are no new funds for the FLC for 2018 due to budget constraints, but we hope to have some more resources next year. The situation is the same in all Finnish Embassies,” stated Finnish Ambassador to Ethiopia Helena Airaksinen.
The FLC is a grant awarded by the Embassy of Finland to local NGOs whose activities are in line with Finland’s development cooperation agenda. Last year the agenda centered around empowering women and people with disabilities, promoting good governance and civil society, a green economy and private sector promotion. The grant awardees work in all the regions of the country.
“Rights of women and girls are one of the main objectives of our cooperation in Ethiopia. Women and girls in Ethiopia have been deprived of access to social services, resources and political power. In rural areas women have little access and control of the resources and the number of educated women is also low. The women’s and girls’ dependence on the male head of the household has often lead to domestic violence and abuse of women’s and girl’s rights,” the ambassador said speaking about some of the Embassy’s areas of focus.
The Ethio-Finnish development cooperation is 50 years old from the perspective of the civil society organizations. The development cooperation of Finland in Ethiopia started in 1967. However, there has been cooperation even before that; the Finnish Red Cross has been in Ethiopia since the 1930s. We assume that it is the oldest Finnish civil society organization in Ethiopia.