Estonian Foreign Ministry allocates €1.6 million for international humanitarian organisations

Text Mark Taylor
Photo Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it will contribute 1.6 million euros during 2023 to help international organisations providing humanitarian assistance and development cooperation across the world.

Foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu said that Estonia would continue to provide strong support to Ukraine, where a nearly year-long war has caused a humanitarian disaster not seen in Europe in nearly 80 years.

“In addition to military, political and economic assistance, it is key to provide humanitarian aid to help ease human suffering and support refugees who have been forced to leave their families and homes. At the same time, looking ahead, we will continue with development cooperation projects to help Ukrainians rebuild their country after the war and make it stronger than ever,” said Reinsalu.

Estonia will allocate 275,000 euros to international organisations working in Ukraine. The sum will be divided between the OCHA, the OSCE and the OHCHR. The aim of the OHCHR monitoring mission in Ukraine is to monitor the human rights situation in Ukraine and document violations of humanitarian law and human rights to ensure perpetrators are held accountable.

The foreign minister underlined that Estonia remained focused on crisis zones and the most vulnerable population groups across the world.

“We will continue providing support to help and protect refugees, mitigate humanitarian crises, assist children and young people who are suffering and advance school education,” Reinsalu emphasized.

As such, Estonia is allocating 475,000 euros to the OCHA, 100,000 euros to UNICEF for the protection of children across the world, and 50,000 euros to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, which helps to respond to sudden acute humanitarian crises by providing emergency assistance to save lives and ease human suffering.

The ministry will also support the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE) with 30,000 euros, the World Food Programme with 50,000 euros and the Global Partnership for Education with nearly 200,000 euros to help improve the availability of quality education across the world.

The foreign minister stressed the importance of the protection of human rights. “Estonia will continue to support organisations that contribute to the priorities of Estonia’s human rights diplomacy.”

This is why Estonia will continue to concentrate on supporting UN Women with 50,000 euros. The organisation, which Estonia played a central role in developing, deals with women’s rights and equality. As children are often subjected to the worst suffering during conflicts 30,000 euros has been allocated to the UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict. Estonia also considers it crucial to fight sexual violence in armed conflicts.

Support will continue to the UN’s organisations for indigenous people to help protect and advance the rights of indigenous people.

“Estonia considers it crucial to preserve the language, culture and living environment of indigenous people, including Finno-Ugric people, therefore ensuring the cultural diversity of the world,” Reinsalu concluded.

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Estonian Foreign Ministry Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Humanitarian Aid Ukraine UN UN Women Urmas Reinsalu WHO