Civil Society in Portugal Non-Governmental Organisations

There are more than 260 NGOs in Portugal several of them are especially focused on the field of Cooperation for Development. Regarding the funding received, this differs among the organisations and their projects. Certain NGO’s are funded by the State, some mainly by donations, some by the European Union or other. For the 4 Portuguese NGO’s that will be presented in the following, I will show different sources of funding.

AMI – website -  AMI – created in 1984 is a Portuguese innovative humanitarian NGO which intervenes in crisis and emergency situations fighting against hunger, poverty, social exclusion and underdevelopment and providing medical assistance also in post-conflict/war societies. It has already been active in dozens of countries worldwide. Its main pillars are the medical, social and environmental assistance and awareness raising.  Funding – AMI’s main funding (24%) comes from the Portuguese state and public entities, followed in lower percentages by donations, specialized donations, financial gains of the organization, other incomes and by private entities (only 2%). This organization does not receive international funding.

APAV – website -  APAV – Created in 1990, it is the most important victim support service in Portugal. Besides providing free and quality support to victims it contributes to the bettering of public and social policies regarding the statute of victims and carries out several important awareness raising campaigns, namely in what concerns domestic violence. It is only active within Portugal but it has vast partnerships with the main Victim support services of several European countries.  Funding APAV is financed by the government ( less then 49%) and also by donations, quotations paid by associates, other protocols with institutions and by the co-financing of other institutions, namely the European Commission.

OIKOS - website -  OIKOS –created in 1988, is an NGO dealing with cooperation for development- its goal is the worldwide development. Its sectors of activity go from the emergency and humanitarian action to development, education, social mobilization and public influence. It is currently actively working in Portugal, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Peru although it has developed previous projects in all 5 continents.  Funding - OIKOS works with projects which are financed in various forms and from different entities, each project can receive and individual and diferent funding or co- funding.  According to the 2013 accounts report, some projects of that year were financed by the European Union ( EuropeAid ) others by Instituto Camões from Portugal ( Portuguese Public Institute ) and Operational Program for Human Potential ( POPH ) which is largely funded by the European Social Fund. It has also received funding from certain States directly as Mozambique and Qatar.

ONGD Platform website -  ONGD Platform is an NGO platform created in 1985 that today represents 66 Portuguese NGOs dealing with cooperation for development, registered in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It supports and represents these NGOs which act both in Portugal and abroad within the scope of cooperation for development, humanitarian assistance, emergency and education for development.  Funding - The Portuguese state via Ministry of Foreign affairs has to allocate each year certain considerable amount to the ONGD Platform on the basis of a protocol of cooperation signed between them recognizing the importance of civil society for development. Besides this, the ONGD platform is also funded by diverse entities depending on the projects and locations.

Corruption in Portugal  TIAC “Transparency and Integrity” – created in 2010, is the main organization for combating corruption in Portugal and is part of the network of Transparency International. It is active in a variety of fields such as Municipal transparency, Justice, Football and match fixing, Politics and Government, Lobbies, transparency on Facebook, transparency on Twitter, among others. TIAC supplies free information on how to report corruption, supports the formulation of complaints, can forward complaints to competent authorities, forwards citizens to specialized legal support, presents reports and statistical information on the information gathered and promotes dialogue and cooperation.  Regarding corruption, in 2014 Portugal was listed number 31 out of 175 countries – according to Transparency International. One of the most serious issues within the topic of corruption in Portugal is that there is limited or very few protection for those who denounce corruption, since some might even get into criminal procedures due to possible defamation.

Freedom of Press/Media  In terms of freedom of press/media Portugal was in 2014 considered FREE according to Freedom House, having a score of 18 in which 0 is best and 100 the worst situation.  The World Press Freedom Index of 2014 of The Reporters Without Borders placed Portugal in place 30 out of 180 countries. Currently, there are no registered NGOs in Portugal with a particular focus on this topic.

 Thank you for attention