NordenBladet — Drottningholm Palace will host activities for all the family, including fun and educational image hunts for children and adults alike. The image hunts will take place during regular opening hours.
Go on a journey of discovery through the rooms of the palace! Borrow a map with pictures of details from the palace’s interiors, then find out where they are located in the palace and what the images show.
Choose between the Lion Safari to hunt for a lion, Flora to find plants and flowers, Fauna to track down animals or the Gold Hunt to find gold! Suitable for children aged 4–12, but just as much fun for the whole family. All children who take part will win a reward at the end!
All the image hunts are available at the entry to the palace, and can be carried out during opening hours.
NordenBladet — Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen adopted a decision of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to grant EUR 206.8 million to Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs) for development cooperation programmes to be carried out in 2018–2021.The funding is directed to 22 programmes. The five biggest recipients are Finn Church Aid, the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission, Fida International, Plan Finland, and the Finnish Red Cross.
All the 22 organisations have received funding from the Foreign Ministry also before. Half of them were granted more funding than previously, six of them were granted the same amount of funding than in 2017, and funding for five organisations is now smaller than it was in 2017.
“The amount of development cooperation appropriations will remain at the same level as in 2017. The aim is to channel the funding to work that is as comprehensive and effective as possible. Organisations that reached the best results in the overall assessment of performance will now receive more funding than earlier,” Minister Kai Mykkänen says.
The programmes of the CSOs focus on East Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East. In Africa, the organisations’ biggest partner countries are Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and South Sudan, where they often work among the poorest people and communities in order to increase people’s opportunities for employment and livelihoods and for education and health care services. This aims to reduce inequality in societies.
In many programmes, the beneficiaries are refugees and their host communities. On the other hand, the work addresses the root causes of migration, such as poverty, lack of prospects, and challenges related to disaster resilience. The recipients include organisations that have expertise in conflict resolution and promotion of democracy. The programmes also enhance sustainable management of natural resources. Climate change is taken into account in all activities.
Programmes are implemented in cooperation with local partners in order to strengthen civil society actors’ capacity to promote human rights. Additionally, public sector actors are supported in their task as duty bearers in the implementation of human rights and the provision of public services. The organisations work mainly in challenging environments. In many countries, the space for civil society has been shrinking, making it difficult for CSOs to operate.
Programme-based support is the main form of funding granted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for the development cooperation activities of CSOs. This is the first time that all the 22 organisations applied for discretionary government transfer simultaneously and for four years at a time. The Ministry aims to organise an open call for proposals for programme-based support in 2021. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs also grants discretionary government transfers for individual projects carried out by small and medium-sized organisations.
NordenBladet — The Swedish Ambassador Mr. Anders Ljunggren had the pleasure of hosting a Total Defence Seminar on February 6 th in Tallinn. Participants from different governmental and parliamentarian offices in both Sweden and Estonia had the opportunity to meet and exchange views on topics regarding Total Defence.
The Chairman of the Swedish Defence Commission, Mr. Björn von Sydow, was one of the keynote speakers. The Estonian Minister of Defence, Mr. Jüri Luik, was also one of the distinguished guests during the event.
The seminar consisted of presentations and interesting discussions regarding the development of Total Defence concepts in each country. The ambassador Mr. Anders Ljunggren and the Embassy of Sweden would like to thank all participants for their significant contributions during the seminar and look forward to continued cooperation between Sweden and Estonia.
The event was moderated by the Swedish Defence Attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Mathias Järvare.
NordenBladet — As a part of its 100th anniversary, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will present its activities in various public events to be organised in different parts of the country. On 13 February, a public event will be organised in Pori.
The topics of the event will be the Baltic Sea and the Foreign Ministry’s consular services. Ambassadors Erja Tikka and Petri Salo and Counsellor Virpi Kankare will speak at the event. The event will be held on Tuesday, 13 February, at 12.00 noon in the University Consortium of Pori on Pohjoisranta 11 A.
NordenBladet — The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has granted EUR 4,295,000 to international non-governmental organisations for 2018–2020. Non-governmental organisations are partners engaged in international dialogue and exercise of influence, complementing the range of Finland’s foreign and developmet policy instruments taking into account the objectives of the Government Report on Development Policy and the Human Rights Strategy of the Foreign Service of Finland.
The thematic focus areas are prevention of discrimination and promotion of women’s and girls’ right to health. The funding covers the implementation of 3 projects.
For the prevention of discrimination, support was granted to two projects, one that advances the rights of persons with disabilities and another that addresses the rights of sexual minorities:
International Disability Alliance, Ensuring the realization of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (EUR 1,500,000)
International Lesbian Gay Association, Empowering LGBTI Human Rights Defenders in Global South to Advocate Effectively at the UN and National Levels Against Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics (EUR 1,500,000)
For the promotion of women’s and girls’ right to health, support was granted to one project:
World Young Women’s Christian Association, Promoting the Realization of the Right to Health for Young Women and Girls (EUR 1,295,000)
The Foreign Ministry’s support is strategically targeted to expert organisations with a broad regional and global organisational basis and impact. The organisations share their expertise and conduct advocacy work on international forums. They also significantly contribute to the promotion of human rights and equality in Finland’s partner countries at grassroots level.
NordenBladet – Nordic Council of Ministers is introducing subsidy programs for cooperation with the Nordic countries, by carrying out information meetings in various towns around Estonia. Yesterday, 6 February there was an information day in Võru cultural house Kannel (Liiva 13). NordenBladet reflects on the event, conveying to you a resume of what took place at the workshops, together with an exclusive gallery about the information day.
During the information day the following issues were tackled:
– what are the Nordic Council of Ministers subsidy programs for the public sector, NGOs and the culture domain;
– what are the criteria for applying for a subsidy;
– how to apply;
– introduction to the Nordic Council of Ministers and an overview of its representational structure and function in Estonia in 2018.
The opening speeches were given by Anti Allas, mayor of Võru city, and the head of Nordic Council of Ministers branch in Estonia, Tartu, Madis Kanarbik, and the director of the Nordic Council of Ministers local agency, Christer Haglund, introducing the Nordic Council of Ministers mission for the year 2018.
There was a speech by Võru municipality development advisor Tiina Hallimäe about best practices, via Skype connection there was also an overview about best practices by Piret Talur, head of Tartu municipality culture department youth service, and Eda Veeroja, head of the NGO Sann and Süük, gave an overview about the Nordic and Baltic NGO program.
The workshops were enriched by beneficial guidelines by the Nordic Council of Ministers officers Eha Vain (culture), Merle Kuusk (NGOs and study visits for officials to branch offices of NCM), and Madis Kanarbik (public administration).
Photography and text by: NordenBladet/Helena-Reet Ennet
NordenBladet — Princess Madeleine and Mr Christopher O’Neill have decided that their third child will be born in Sweden. The Princess will arrive in Sweden in mid-February and the birth is expected to take place in March 2018.
As Princess Madeleine and her family are not registered residents in Sweden, all hospital care costs associated with the birth of their third child will be paid for using personal funds.
NordenBladet — The Foreign Ministry will invite CSOs to submit proposals for funding development communications and global education projects in 2018, like before.
Last autumn, the Ministry studied if it was possible to transfer the management of the support under the administration of the Finnish National Agency for Education. In that case the funding could have been applied by the organisers of education, and these organisations would have become partners of cooperation in the projects to be funded.
The Foreign Ministry also consulted CSOs and explored other options for the development of the form of support. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen noted that the reform will not be implemented this year but discussion about the reforms and their implementation should be continued. The dates and criteria concerning the Call for Proposals for the period 2019–2020 will be informed later.
NordenBladet — Minister for Nordic Cooperation Anne Berner will attend a meeting of the Ministers for Nordic Cooperation in Stockholm on 8 February 2018. This is the first meeting of the year during Sweden’s Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Ministers are expected to decide about the budget proposal for 2019 and about some of the projects under the Arctic Cooperation Programme.
The Ministers for Nordic Cooperation will also discuss the study of Nordic legislative cooperation, commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers, and handle the Freedom of Movement Council’s report on 2017.
NordenBladet – A new method of calculating wealth has resulted in the World Bank ranking Norway as the richest country in the world. The World Bank based its ranking on wealth per capita and thus beat out Qatar, which earlier held the top spot.
Instead of simply assessing wealth in terms of currency earned, though, the bank translated wealth into the various nations’ available resources both now and for the future. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported over the weekend that expected income for residents of the countries in the course of their lifetimes was also taken into the equation.
Qatar now ranks second on the list, with Switzerland third, followed by Luxembourg and Kuwait. The five poorest countries were listed as Gambia, Burundi, Mozambique, Guinea and the Comores, an island state off of southern Africa.
Ingvild Almås, an economics professor at business school NHH in Bergen and the University of Stockholm, called the World Bank’s new calculations “interesting,” but worries that Norway may score higher than it should. She also warns that Norway’s economic dependence on oil can lead to major swings, given how oil prices rise and fall and how oil resources can run empty.
The wealth of natural resources like oil is part of the calculation in determining countries’ wealth. Almås also noted how oil prices can affect Norwegians’ expected earnings in the future. That makes Norway’s relative wealth vulnerable.
“One reason that we score so high can be that (Norway’s) oil wealth is counted two times,” Almås told NRK, both as a resource and as a factor responsible for relatively high incomes. She also cautioned that “in other countries with a lots of oil, but where the resource is privately owned without such a high degree of taxation as in Norway, oil resources won’t influence personal income to such a degree.”
Oil prices, meanwhile have recovered to around the USD 70-per-barrel mark in recent days, but they can dive again and take with them many jobs. It’s worth noting, though, that the numbers used in the World Bank study are from 2014, when oil prices collapsed. Norway’s economy held up relatively well during the oil price shock and has been recovering for the past year.
The World Bank study points out sharp differences among countries in the world. Norway’s total wealth per capita was set at USD 1.67 million, for example, as opposed to just USD 5,208 per resident in Gambia.
