Citizen’s Initiatives for Global Solidarity in Hungary

1. Citizen’s Initiatives for Global Solidarity in Hungary Balázs Szent-Iványi Lecturer, Department Of World Economy Brussels, 29-31January 2014

2. Outline • Hungary as a re-emerging aid donor • Attitudes of Hungarian citizens towards global solidarity • NGOs and CIs • Conclusions BalázsSzent-Iványi

3. Hungary as a donor of foreign aid • Hungary re-emerged as a donor between 2001-2003 • After initial growth, Hungarian ODA settled around 0.1% of GNI, about $120 million in 2012 • 80% of this is multilateral aid, the rest is mainly composed of small bilateral projects • After 2008, severe cuts due to government austerity in country programmable aid • Very low political priority, no public debates • No written aid strategy or legislation until 2013 BalázsSzent-Iványi

4. Citizen’s attitudes towards global solidarity • First representative public opinion survey carried out by DemNet Foundation in 2013 • Some highlights: • In general, solidarity is strong among Hungarians – 85% of respondents have helped someone (with donations, volunteer work, etc) in the past year • However, solidarity is mainly expressed towards family members • Solidarity towards foreigners: only in case of high-profile humanitarian catastrophes • Two thirds of Hungarians think that Hungary is in need of foreign aid • Only 10% thinks that Hungary is developed enough to provide aid and does not need to receive aid BalázsSzent-Iványi

5. Are you aware that Hungary provides long term aid in non-emergency situations to poorer countries to assist their development? Hungary currently provides 0.1% of its national income as aid to poorer countries. Hungary has pledged to triple this amount. Do you think the country should… pay more and keep it’s promise pay as much as it does currently pay less not provide aid at all no answer yes no no answer Source: Demnet 2013

6. Among the following actors, who can aid developing countries most effectively? (2 answers were possible) UN European Union World Bank Churches IMF civil society org’s Hungarian government No answer Source: Demnet 2013

7. Development NGOs • No research or mapping on CIs • About 60 development NGOs in total - thesector shows strong duality • The ‘Big 3’: large, faith based, domestic social care NGOs, • Small organizations centered around a specific issue • Many of the small organizations are one person affairs, which only do work if they manage to get a grant –closer to CIs than to traditional NGOs? • Beyond the Big 3, only a few do actual development work in the ‘field’, others engaged in DEAR • Problems of collective action: the NGDO platform, HAND, has 15 members ( and only 1 from the Big 3) BalázsSzent-Iványi

8. Development NGOs • NGO finances: • Mainly through project based grants • The state has severely cut down its grant funding, so international sources are most important • Grassroots fundraising for development work is almost totally absent • NGOs argue that they are unable to raise donations due to a lack of public willingness • But, NGOs are geared for writing project proposals, and have no capacities/expertise in other types of fundraising BalázsSzent-Iványi

9. Conclusions – What scope for CIs? • Hungarians generally do not perceive themselves as citizens of a first world country • There is little trust in civil society and not much culture of civic activism – a legacy of Communism? • (neither of these is just a question of income!) • These two perceptions need to be changed if global solidarity activism is to take greater root BalázsSzent-Iványi

10. Thank you for the attention! balazs.szentivanyi@uni-corvinus.hu