«The Development Fund is a non-governmental environment and development organisation supporting projects for small scale farmers in the South.»

Where does out funding come from?

The Development Fund relies upon various donors for its funding. The majority of our country programmes and policy work is funded through a 5 year framework agreement with Norad (The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation).  The agreement is that the Development Fund has to raise 10% of the project costs and Norad will fund the remaining 90% within the limits of the agreement. We are therefore dependent upon support and contributions from individuals, groups and businesses to have sufficient funding for our work.  

Our Ethiopia-programme is fully funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia and a small part by FOKUS (Forum for Women and Develpoment).  

Through the initiative Environmental Movements in the South (EMIS), we also receive funding for different environmental organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin- America.

In 2003 and 2007 the Development Fund was selected as the organisation to receive money collected through a campaign called Operation Days Work, where more than 200 000 students throughout Norway spend one day of their education working and raising money in order for other youth around the world to have the oportunity to receive an education. In 2003 the money went towards edcuational projects in Sri Lanka, and in 2007 the funds went to youth in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. 

How do we spend our money?

The Development Fund support local organisations and their initiatives to end hunger and poverty, improve livelihoods and secure sustainable development. We are proud to be an organisation which work is based upon the idea of "help to self help". A few important pillars for the Development Fund's work is therefore:

• Democratic development - our projects are based on local initiatives and implemented by local organisations.
• Local ownership – the poor themselves are active participants in their own and their communities  instead of being passive receivers of aid.
  
• Environmental concerns – we actively encourage environmentally friendly efforts and at the same time show respect to local culture and knowledge. 
• Long lasting results – we provide efficient aid on the terms of the local populations.

In the quest for a more just world we also believe that political advocacy work is essential and we therefore support international networks in their advocacy activities.

We believe that development is best done by locals with appropriate knowledge and experience for the differnet countries/regions. We therefore do not have our own staff employed in our partners countries (with the exception of Ethiopia where that is requirement from the embassy).  

Who can receive funding from us? 

We support local civil society organisations and initiatives working with small scale agriculture, protection of local biodiversity, sustainable natural resource management, environment protection and climate adaptation, organisation and mobilisation, advocacy and political lobbying within these areas.

Applications for new partnerships will normally not be considered for funding, unless they are highly relevant and located in one of the countries in which we focus most of our support: Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nicaragua or Honduras.