Three Polish organisations (as set out below) were launched by foreign donors in the 1990s to promote democratisation and the development of civil society in Poland. It soon became clear that Polish lessons of transition could serve as an inspiration for Poland’s eastern neighbours, and the organisations set out to achieve this purpose through a com-bination of granting and operational programmes. It is important to note that while the funding was of foreign origin, the process of selecting the priorities was autonomous.
From the perspective of the foreign donors, Poland’s experience of co-operation with its eastern neighbours and the lessons of Poland’s own transition positioned the country as a good location for local co-operation initiatives that could continue the work and realise the values envisaged by the original foreign donors.
Stefan Batory Foundation
Established by George Soros in 1988, the Warsaw-based Stefan Batory Foundation is the largest non-governmental domestic grantor in the field of democratic assistance. Its mission is to “support the development of an open, democratic society in Poland and other Central and East European countries” with three priorities - increasing the role and involvement of civil society, upholding civil liberties and the rule of law, and promotion of international co-operation and solidarity. It runs both grantmaking and operational prog-rammes, targeting activities in Poland and throughout the region of Central and Eastern Europe, most prominently in the direct eastern neighbourhood of Poland, Belarus, the Ka-liningrad region of Russia, and Ukraine. Its programmes in the East are funded, inter alia, by the Ford Foundation, Robert Bosch Foundation, and the Polish Foreign Ministry.
The Foundation offers three grantmaking programmes focusing on the CIS. East-East:
Partnership Beyond Borders (run in conjunction with Open Society Institute (OSI) part-ners in different countries) supports international projects implemented in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Citizens in Action assists NGOs in Belarus and Ukraine engaged in building and developing civil society in these countries, and the Comm unity Initiatives Partnership.
The perception that Ukrainian civil society has matured enough to be involved in partner-ships rather than in projects aiming to support its survival, and that government institutions (and local government structures) could be its allies, underlies some other trends in Polish assistance to NGO work in Ukraine. The projects strengthening NGOs and civil society institutions are becoming lesser priorities - while in 2005, every third project fell into this category, only one in six projects did so in 2007. The maturity of the local government structures was taken into account, as the share of projects supporting decentralisation or local government reforms dropped from 33% to 18% of the number of projects in that period.
The more advanced stage of Polish-Ukrainian relations has shifted emphasis from strict democracy assistance to transfer of Poland’s experience in specific public policy areas - focusing increasingly on EU integration, education and youth exchange, which together accounted for the majority of projects allocated in 2008. While the share of funds going to different priorities is not yet stable, the case of Ukraine shows that with the rise in the number of projects and the wider-ranging presence of NGOs, some stability is a natural evolution, leading to sustained forms of assistance.
Western Balkans
Few conclusions can be drawn about Polish priorities of assistance in the Western Bal-kans. In 2004 and 2008, only one democracy-related project per year was granted to NGOs, while the number rose to two in 2005. The region took on greater importance in 2006 and 2007, when respectively four, then five, projects were allocated that could be considered to have an impact on the development of democracy and civil society.
In the years 2004-2008, a total of 13 democracy assistance projects (accounting for 4.6% of all projects) were allocated, the majority of which (eight) concerned EU integ-ration, followed by three projects serving the development of local government and regional planning.
These issues largely matched the priorities announced by the MFA, such as the support to social transformation, promotion of the EU integration idea, and the development of local government. In 2006, the latest year for which overall data are available, a total of PLN 1,435,000 (or € 357,000) was spent on seven projects implemented by NGOs and one project undertaken by the Polish government. No projects were undertaken by the Polish embassies in the region in that year.22
Cuba
Cuba is not listed as one of the priority countries for Polish development assistance.
The few initiatives involving Polish NGOs have been carried out with foreign partners.
For instance, the East European Democratic Centre (http://eedc.org.pl) organised, in
After the EU accession of Poland, the Stefan Batory Foundation established a new grant-making programme, offering support of up to € 12,000 for trilateral co-operation projects of NGOs from Poland and Germany and from Ukraine, Belarus and the Kaliningrad region. The Community Initiatives Partnership programme encourages civic education and activism through projects focusing on European integration, environmental protection, civil rights and freedoms, and common history, as well as national and cultural heritage.
Project activities should primarily benefit recipients in Belarus and Ukraine. The value of the grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation for the programme in 2007 is € 192,594.
The Stefan Batory Foundation also implements projects in Ukraine (as well as in Belarus and other CIS states) through its operational International Co-operation Programme. The projects undertaken under the programme concentrate on the implications of the EU’s poli-cies towards its eastern neighbours. Projects, such as “Enlarged EU and Ukraine: New Relations”, “European Choice for Belarus”, and “More than Neighbours”23, articulated independent ideas promoting the European integration of countries covered by the Euro-pean Neighbourhood Policy, as well as Belarus. The projects incorporated the input of Belarusian and Ukrainian NGOs, as well as highlighting the need for internal EU reforms and changes in the perception of the eastern neighbourhood in EU member states.
As part of the project targeting Ukraine in 2005-2006, activities were undertaken aimed at the dissemination of information on European integration. The project targeted individ-uals and groups involved in informing the Ukrainian public on EU issues. An important element included a three-day seminar in Kyiv and a week-long study visit to three Polish cities for 30 representatives of regional European information centres from Ukraine who acquainted themselves with the best Ukrainian, Polish and European practices in launch-ing information campaigns on European integration. Study visits to three Polish cities were offered to 27 representatives of Ukrainian authorities, universities and NGOs from nine regional centres, where seminars were later held on the Polish experience of EU acces-sion, and practical implications of EU membership for various aspects of local government and regional policy were presented.
An academic workshop, drawing researchers from regions of Ukraine, Poland and Russia, was held to discuss Ukrainian-Russian relations in light of EU integration. Two seminars and a roundtable attracted in turn diplomats, think-tanks and the media to the discussions of the impact of the Orange Revolution on EU-Ukrainian relations. The activities were conducted in co-operation with several Ukrainian partners, including the Foreign Ministry, the International Renaissance Foundation, the Centre for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy of Ukraine, and Europe XXI Foundation.
Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation – PAUCI24
Founded in 1999, The Poland-America-Ukraine Cooperation Initiative (PAUCI) was a tri-lateral initiative of Poland, Ukraine, and the US, whose objective was to provide impetus
to collaboration between Ukraine and Poland, and to share the lessons of Poland’s demo-cratic transition. Thus, the Initiative’s mission highlighted Poland’s Euro-Atlantic integration as a role model for Ukraine’s own development, while stressing the value of the estab-lished bilateral ties. Relying on USAID funding and administered by Freedom House, PAUCI extended 185 partnership grants to 424 organisations in Ukraine and Poland at a total value of over US$ 4.3m. PAUCI also arranged technical assistance visits of US and Polish experts through its American and Polish Volunteers for International Development Programmes (AVID and PVID).
In 2005, the Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation was established in Warsaw, and this Poland-based entity has continued the mission of its predecessor. Greater emphasis was placed on targeting assistance to building the capacity of Ukraine for integration into Euro-Atlantic structures. In addition, the new mission, reflecting the post-Orange Revolution landscape, envisaged Ukraine’s involvement in “active support of democratic processes in the region”, in particular Belarus, Moldova, and Russia. The Foundation set out to support activities in the fields of: (a) advocacy for closer integration with Euro-Atlantic structures, (b) administrative and local government reform, (c) international and EU business stand-ards, (d) ethical standards in public life, and (e) youth empowerment.
Polish American Freedom Foundation (Polsko-Amerykańska Fundacja Wolności)
The Polish American Freedom Foundation was set up in 2000 as a follow-up to the Polish-American Enterprise Fund, which had earlier funded Polish SMEs. The Foundation’s mission had a strong pro-democratisation content, aiming to “advance democracy, civil society, economic development and equal opportunity in Poland and, ultimately, in other Central and Eastern European countries”. While it funds Polish NGOs in several domestic public policy areas, it also runs initiatives that serve to spread the lessons of Polish reforms to other countries in transition. Two dedicated programmes realise this objective: the Lane Kirkland Grant programme, and cross-border initiatives under the RITA-Transition in the Region scheme.
Between 2000-2007, 223 grantees from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Lithua-nia, Moldova, Russia, and Slovakia benefited from the Lane Kirkland Grant programme.
They were able to study at Polish universities subjects crucial to effective economic and political transformation. Study tours to Poland were in turn organised as part of the RITA programme for academics, social activists and businesspeople - 686 participants used this opportunity to meet their Polish counterparts between 2003 and 2007. Since 2005, the formula has also included the visits of Ukrainian officials willing to learn from Poland’s experience in various aspects of EU integration.
Part I Democracy Assistance Policies - Trends and Approaches Poland: Eastern Promises and Achievements - Piotr Kaźmierkiewicz 2 See section 5.1 (p. 14) of Strategia polskiej współpracy…, op.cit.
3 Strategia polskiej współpracy …, op.cit., pp. 15-16.
4 Strategia, op.cit., p. 17.
5 The text has not been made public. General reference to the work on the draft Strategy can be found at: http://www.polskapomoc.gov.pl/Nowa,strategia,polskiej,pomocy,172.html
6 For each year, the Polish Central Bank mid-year exchange rate (30 June) was used to calculated the figures in euros.
7 The full list of members is available at: http://www.zagranica.org.pl/index.php?option=com_content
&task=blogsection&id=4&Itemid=27 8 The texts of all positions can be found at:
http://www.zagranica.org.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=6&Itemid=46 9 Polska pomoc zagraniczna 2007: raport z monitoringu przeprowadzonego przez organizacje pozarządowe, Grupa Zagranica/Polska Zielona Sieć: Warsaw/Szczecin 2008, Annex 1, p. 42.
10 Interview with Marta Pejda, Secretary of Grupa Zagranica (September 2007).
11 The term “Good Neighbourhood” refers to the countries and territories adjacent to Poland in the east - the Kaliningrad region (Russia), Belarus, and Ukraine
12 For earlier years (2004-2005), the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs published figures only in USD (not even in PLN)
13 E. Kępińska, Recent Trends in International Migration: The 2007 Sopemi Report for Poland, Warsaw 2007, Table 27, p. 78, available at: http://www.migracje.uw.edu.pl/obm/pix/029_87.pdf 14 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Polska współpraca na rzecz rozwoju: raport roczny 2004, Warsaw 2005, pp. 15-18.
15 Ibid.
16 Polska współpraca, op.cit., p. 21.
17 Polska współpraca z partnerami z Europy Wschodniej, Kaukazu Południowego i Azji Środkowej, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2007, p. 3
18 Interviews were held at the Department of Development Assistance in August 2007.
19 “Belarus” in the portal of Polish MFA development assistance, http://www.polskapomoc.gov.pl 20 Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of Development Co-operation
http://www.polskapomoc.gov.pl
21 The list follows that given by Joanna Rohozińska, the co-ordinator until mid-2008 of the programme of support for Belarus at the East European Democratic Centre, in an interview, included in the fifth edition of the Aktywność polskich organizacji pozarządowych zagranicą (Activity of Polish NGOs Abroad) CD-ROM. See http://www.zagranica.org.pl
22 Polska współpraca na rzecz rozwoju. Raport roczny 2006, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2007, p.
60.
23 http://www.batory.org.pl/english/intl/neighbour.htm 24 http://pauci.org/en/
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Endnotes
1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Strategia polskiej współpracy na rzecz rozwoju, approved by the Council of Ministers on 21 October 2003, available at: http://www.polskapomoc.gov.pl/files/dokumenty_
publikacje/Strategia_2003.doc