Polish aid

Non-governmental organisations are among the key partners of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in devising and implementing annual development cooperation plans. MFA is constantly communicating with them by means of correspondence, in bilateral and multilateral meetings, special panel discussions and sessions etc.

Forms of cooperation with social partners:

• Dialogue with non-governmental organisations (dropdown links)

1. Public consultation of draft documents and government positions.

The following draft documents are subject to public consultation:

•          The multiannual development cooperation programme and its modifications;

•          Proposals for amendments to legal acts on development cooperation, including the Development Cooperation Act;

•          Government positions on development cooperation in response to the EU documents published in the form of white papers, green papers and EC communications;

•          Other documents on development cooperation which will be referred by the MFA for consultation.

Document consultation procedure

Documents referred for public consultation are published at http://www.polskapomoc.gov.pl/ (and in MFA’s Public Information Bulletin at gov.pl/diplomacy).

Time for consultations should not be shorter than two weeks, as required by the Development Cooperation Act. The consultation announcement contains contact details necessary to send comments on the documents consulted. The comments submitted according to the consultation announcement will be published at http://www.polskapomoc.gov.pl/. At the end of the consultation procedure, a new version of the document will be posted. The new version will contain the adopted changes proposed in the comments and a summary of those comments with  clarification of reasons for their adoption or rejection.

2. Consultation meetings at expert level, also with MFA’s directors and staff.

Consultation meetings at expert level can be attended by directors and/or experts from the development department at the MFA and other departments implementing development measures. The meetings are less formal and can be convened ad-hoc with a selected group of experts by the MFA or at the request of one or more social partners.

• Social partners’ representatives at Development Cooperation Policy Council

Development Cooperation Policy Council at the minister for foreign affairs is composed of representatives of government administration, both chambers of parliament, non-governmental organisations, employers’ organisations and the academia. The council is chaired by the National Coordinator for Development Cooperation - a deputy minister competent for development cooperation. The council is an advisory and consultative body.

• Participation in calls for proposals

Each year, the MFA announces calls for project proposals prepared by non-governmental organisations registered in the territory of Poland under Article 3 (2) of the Act of 24 April 2003 on Public Benefit and Volunteer Work (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 688 as amended) and entities listed in Article 3 (3) of the Act, such as:

a) associations;

b) foundations;

c) legal entities and organisational units operating under the regulations on the relations between the state and the Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland, the relations between the state and other churches and religious societies and on guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion, if their statutory goals include public benefit activities;

d) joint stock companies and limited liability companies as well as sports clubs operating as companies under the Act of 25 June 2010 on sports (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1468) which do not operate for profit and use their total income to meet the statutory goals and do not distribute their profit among their members, shareholders and employees;

e) associations of local government entities;

f) social cooperatives;

g) non-public higher-education schools;

h) chambers of commerce;

i) chambers of agriculture.

The following institutions can also file their proposals with the MFA:

1. public universities;
2. research institutes;
3. the Polish Academy of Sciences and its research and organisational units.