About ESTDEV

The Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) is a government-funded foundation responsible for managing and implementing Estonia’s international development cooperation and humanitarian assistance projects. We achieve this aim through partnerships and investments that reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, build sustainable economies, and help people emerge from humanitarian crises and progress beyond assistance.

The role of ESTDEV is to empower and inspire Estonia’s partner countries to set goals and find creative solutions for carrying out their development plans. By sharing its own successful reform experience, the ambition of Estonia’s development cooperation is to support partner countries in becoming self-reliant and capable of leading their own development journeys in ways that benefit and include all groups of society.

To become the centre of excellence for Estonian development cooperation and humanitarian aid, ESTDEV involves top experts from Estonian civil society organizations, the public sector, and private sector. In doing so, we ensure that the projects we implement are sustainable and meet the expectations and needs of the partner country.

By implementing projects that are strategic and meaningful, ESTDEV pursues three overarching goals: to enhance Estonia’s visibility as an international donor and partner, to increase the share of foreign funding, and to unite development cooperation with Estonia’s foreign policy and economic diplomacy. ESTDEV aims to become a center of competence, to create and grow expertise in development cooperation and humanitarian crisis management in Estonia. Through these acts, ESTDEV endeavours to increase the Estonians’ awareness of development cooperation as a means to promote the goals of global security and sustainable development.

Formation of the organisation

On 1 April 2021, the Government of the Republic of Estonia approved a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish the Estonian Centre for International Development. ESTDEV was formed in order to increase the impact of Estonian development cooperation and humanitarian aid projects, and to set preconditions for formulating and implementing policies. ESTDEV was founded on 23 April 2021 and registered in the Commercial Register on 30 April 2021.

The first challenge for the organisation was to merge the Estonian Centre for Eastern Partnership (ECEAP) with ESTDEV. On the basis of the ECEAP, a new unit, the Eastern Partnership Department, was created. The Africa and Emerging Markets Department was added in September 2021.

General contacts

Address: Pärnu mnt 31-43, Tallinn 10119, Estonia
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +372 629 9217