Project period: April 2025 – December 2025

Project donor: Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV)

Project budget: 52 690€

Estonians have the lowest support in the European Union to development cooperation, humanitarian aid, and international cooperation. Therefore, it is important to raise public awareness of Estonia’s role in international development cooperation.

According to the 2023 Eurobarometer survey, only 35% of Estonians consider poverty reduction in developing countries to be an EU priority, while the EU average is 74%. Even lower is the support for the Estonian government’s participation in development cooperation—only 18% of Estonians view it as a national priority (compared to the EU average of 62%), which is the lowest figure in the EU. Support for humanitarian aid is also the lowest.

Development cooperation and humanitarian aid are important tools for international relations between countries. It is known, however, that one of the goals of Russian influence operations is to sow doubt in the Western world about the effectiveness of these areas, thereby decreasing domestic trust and support for development cooperation and humanitarian aid. One of the aims of the project is to help counter this and to support fact-based and reliable coverage of development cooperation in the media. It is also important to raise awareness about the role of development cooperation and humanitarian aid in addressing other global crises and their contribution to promoting international stability and solidarity.

Mondo supports the coverage of development cooperation and humanitarian aid topics in Estonian media and social media by offering research grants to journalists and influencers to visit Estonia’s partner countries—Kenya, Uganda, Armenia, Lebanon, or Ukraine. The purpose of these grants is to highlight the challenges being addressed, share success stories, and showcase Estonia’s contribution to development cooperation and the resolution of humanitarian crises. In addition to quality media content, community discussions on these topics will take place across Estonia.

Contact:
Meelis Niine
meelis@mondo.org.ee