Development Cooperation Programme in 2022-2025
Fida’s Development Cooperation Programme 2022-2025 “Towards the Future – A Safe Educational Path and Living Environment for Children and Youth” focuses on two main themes: the right of children and youth to receive quality education and their right to live in a safe living environment.
The Development Cooperation Programme is comprised of 11 country programmes in Asia, Eastern Africa and the Middle East. In addition, the domestic programme in Finland includes development communication, global education and advocacy activities.
Strong partnerships with local NGOs, churches and communities
One of Fida’s unique strengths is the strong engagement with local people and partner organisations. Fida supports its partners in becoming active community-based advocates for the rights of children and youth. Through its partners, Fida also has access to regions where it may be challenging for the larger agencies to work as a genuine part of the community.
The key areas for development cooperation in 2022-2025:
Education:
- We advance quality education and inclusive teaching by training teachers.
- We promote the learning of children and young people not only in schools, but also in children’s parliaments and clubs.
- We offer vocational training and adult literacy programmes.
Safe living environment:
- We offer psychosocial support and information on sexual and reproductive health and rights..
- We empower women youth to participate in peacebuilding processes in conflict regions.
- We strengthen food security by training communities on sustainable farming.
- We support families’ livelihoods and income generation by setting up savings and loan groups and by supporting entrepreneurship skills.
Partners’ capacity building:
- We train our partners on financial and administrative practices and advocacy to strengthen their work as community-based advocates for the rights of children and youth.
- We encourage our partners to use innovation, technology and corporate collaborations (ITCC) to create new solutions to current developmental challenges.
Gender, the rights of persons with disabilities and environment & climate resilience are cross-cutting objectives which are mainstreamed into all activities in our work. The effects of Covid-19 pandemic are also reflected in all the activities in all Country Programmes
Our guiding policies and principles
Fida’s development cooperation is based on a human rights-based approach (HRBA), and we promote the rights of the people in vulnerable situations, including children, youth and persons with disabilities. We work with every individual, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
International human rights norms and principles and the guidelines issued by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland are applied in all activities. Read more about our guiding policies here.
Funding from the Finnish MFA, secondhand stores and private donors
Development Cooperation staff consist of local personnel hired in countries of operations (248), as well as expatriate staff (hired in Finland, posted in countries of operation) and staff in Finland (44).
The total budget of Fida’s Development Cooperation Programme for 2022 is 7.06 million euros, of which state aid accounts for approximately 80%.
Our main donor is the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, which has funded Fida’s development cooperation since 1974. The Finnish MFA monitors the use of the funding through regular reporting and auditing.
Additionally, our work is supported by proceeds from the Fida secondhand stores and support from Finnish sponsors, churches and private donors. Read more about our funding here.