Ministry of Foreign Affairs

For several years now, Poland has not only been the beneficiary of foreign assistance, but also its provider. On the global scale, Poland is a developed country. According to the Human Development Index (HDI), which is produced annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Poland was rated 36th among 177 analysed countries of the world in 2005.

We are a member of the UNO and have undertaken the task of contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In 1996, Poland joined the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and since 2004, Poland became a member of the European Union, an institution that every year provides more than half of the development assistance to developing countries.

Membership of those institutions authorises and obligates Poland to share its wealth with other countries and societies that are needier. Other donors’ experience shows that foreign assistance has contributed to the acceleration of socio-economic development in many countries worldwide.

Thanks to this assistance, it was possible to increase the number of people having access to drinking water, manage infectious disease epidemics, reduce illiteracy levels, reduce infant mortality and ensure food security in many areas of the globe. Provided assistance has also resulted in the acceleration of political transformations in many countries as well as in the improvement of the system of human rights protection and observance.

Development assistance is a response of developed countries to the problem of poverty that a considerable number of countries in the 21st century face. Poor countries are not capable of developing solely on their own, therefore they rely on assistance offered by other countries and international institutions. The overcoming of the global development gap is a challenge for today. Hunger and poverty problems require global solutions on the one hand, and the individual involvement of each state on the other.

NGOs are  very important partners of MFA. Several times a year, the MFA announces call for proposals. Projects, submitted by NGOs, are addressed to priority countries and to other countries covered by the Polish foreign assistance programme. NGOs implement assistance projects (co-financed by the MFA) for countries undergoing political transformations in the area of:

• sharing knowledge on the implementation of economic and political reforms,

• presentation of Polish transformation experiences,

• technical assistance in economic, social and institutional transformation activities,

• sharing Polish EU integration process experiences,

• sharing knowledge on the activities and development of local governance,

• technical assistance for companies in building and developing the market economy.

Assistance is also provided in the form of projects for developing countries and it includes:

• water supplies

• purchase of equipment for schools, health centres, and first-aid posts,

• construction of schools and hospitals and other health care and educational institutions.

For several years MFA co-finances the assistance projects, carried out in developing countries by Polish NGO, Simba Friends Foundation:

# in 2006, within the framework of the Canadian Official Development Assistance in Central Europe the project in Kenya: “Kogere Primary School”

# in 2007, the project in Kenya: “Sega Community Empowering – IT education, eco development”

# in 2008, the projects in Kenya and Tanzania: “Maji Moto - school compound construction and gender equality promotion on Masaailand” and “TEHAMA – computer technologies as a key to Kilimanjaro region development”