Solidarity Fund PL’s Support for Democracy Programme is funded under the Polish Development Cooperation framework. Implemented since 2012, the Programme features projects aimed at supporting democracy-oriented transformations in countries that have already embraced some democratic elements as well as in the countries that are undergoing systemic transition. So far, Solidarity Fund PL has provided assistance to the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Myanmar, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Tunisia, and Tajikistan. Although the projects are implemented the countries listed above, some of their components were carried out in Poland.
The Programme is implemented through:
- open grant competitions for NGOs’ initiatives for supporting democracy in selected countries;
- the Fund’s own actions carried out in collaboration with Polish and foreign partners;
- activities of the Information Centre for Local Authorities in Moldova;
- dispatching Polish observers to parliamentary elections as a part of ODIHR/OSCE missions;
- projects in the fields defined by Solidarity Prize winners (2014-2016);
- supporting independent Ukrainian media, e.g. since 2015 through the “An objective picture of the processes related to the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in Ukrainian media” project co-financed by USAID;
- supporting self-government reform in Ukraine;
- Polish-Canadian Democracy Support Program and Polish-Danish Cooperation for Belarusian and Ukrainian Journalists programme.
The majority of the funds of the Support for Democracy Programme is provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a part of Polish Development Cooperation. Selected actions are also supported by governments of Canada, USA, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany.