Priority countries

Bilateral assistance is addressed to priority countries.

Priority countries are important, although not the only, beneficiaries of Polish bilateral assistance. This type of assistance covers also other selected countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (non-EU members) as well as Central Asia. Assistance funds are provided primarily to the NIS: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Poland's bilateral assistance is addressed also to the Balkan states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Serbia). Polish assistance in that region is focused on European integration, supporting the process of political transformation in the broad meaning of that word, and the planning and management of economic development processes. Assistance in the development of local governance is also vital.

The Small Grants Fund

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs finances assistance projects within the framework of the Small Grants Fund. Most often, those funds are used for subsidising small assistance projects (e.g. the renovation of a school building roof, the purchase of computers for a community centre or the construction of a well), which have a positive impact on the local community. Projects are subsidised on the request of Polish embassies in developing countries. In previous years, the Small Grants Fund assistance was provided to African countries as well as Cambodia and Mongolia.

Multilateral assistance

Multilateral assistance is assistance provided through international institutions.

Multilateral assistance consists in making contributions to multilateral assistance funds and programmes.
Poland is only starting to gain experience in providing assistance to other countries, which is why transferring development funds to specialised international institutions allows us to take advantage of their organisational and logistic potential, and thus increase the effectiveness of our aid.
We want to have the possibility of getting more involved than we have done so far in projects implemented by organisations supporting the reduction of poverty, economic and social development of the least developed countries, and the development of democracy and the civil society.
Transferring a payment to the European Union development budget is the main channel of multilateral assistance flow. It is a part of an annual contribution allotted to the EU general budget. The amount of these funds is an offshoot of a share of the EU budgetary expenses directed to development assistance provided to third countries, which in accordance with the OECD Development Assistance Committee is classified as the ODA.
In addition to the European Union, other important channels of Poland’s multilateral assistance are the United Nations System institutions and the World Bank Group.
The largest number of institutions pursuing those objectives operates within the framework of the United Nations System. Thanks to their long-standing presence in the most needy countries, the United Nations’ agencies, programmes and funds have extensive knowledge on the actual needs of given places in the world and a have a broad capacity for providing assistance. By making assistance contributions to those institutions (i.e. assistance in the multilateral form), we can be sure that we are supporting the most important initiatives from the point of view of individual beneficiaries.
Poland also makes regular contributions to UN and UNESCO. Apart from that, we support the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Multilateral assistance 2008

See voluntary payments in 2007