Friday 19 July 2013

International Development Actors in Hungary: A Research Study

The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) at the Central-European University (CEU) in Budapest has carried out a research project examining Hungary’s approach to development cooperation policy. The project was funded by EuropeAid, and was also carried out in 8 partner countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia).

One of the main questions of the research was, how far new donors draw on home grown civic organisations to help implement their development policy and, secondly, how far do they involve the domestic private sector. The research found that there is a capable sector of NGDOs in Hungary surprisingly not all dependent on state or EU support, but managed to find alternative funding sources such as private sector individuals. As joint efforts between NDGOs and the Hungarian private sector, there is a clear opportunity to contribute significantly to development activities, particularly in the agricultural and food industry sectors as well as areas such as water management. Unfortunately, in Hungary the low public interest in international issues coupled with the absence of an independent development policy undermines NDGOs’ efforts working towards the clear separation of international development efforts from foreign policy interest.

In cooperation with CPS, HAND – the Hungarian NGDO platform, has also conducted a policy lab examining the interplay between Hungary’s higher education policy towards foreign students from developing countries and its migration policy. The policy lab produced an interesting paper that can provide a baseline for further PCD investigations. Both CPS and HAND are looking forward for further cooperation.

Policy Lab research document on HAND website: http://hand.org.hu/media/files/1373963707.pdf   CEU-CPS research on ODA: https://cps.ceu.hu/research/official-development-assistance

Information provided by Márton Leiszen, HAND

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