Digni received almost 168 million NOK (about 20 million USD) from the Norwegian government in 2016. It was distributed to 114 projects of our 20 member organizations and their partners. The Digni network works in 35 countries and 50 % of our portfolio is in African countries, 37 % in Asia and 13 % in Latin-America. This information is from our annual report, which was just finalized. In our annual report, you can also find stories about how societies have been transformed and people are living more dignified lives, besides systematic reports on the nine main thematic areas of our work. Read the annual report here.
Reach their goals
The most interesting part of the fresh report, is the retrospective reports from 2013-2016. This shows that the money we receive from Norad (the Norwegian government), reaches many people. In 2016, Digni-funded projects reached approximately 750 000 direct beneficiaries and 5,8 million indirect beneficiaries. This wide reach can truly transform societies and help people out of poverty. Digni cooperates with different kinds of civil society organizations, but the churches are the biggest actors in our network. The churches we are working with, have about 15 million members.
All the projects supported by Digni need to have a baseline, which means an investigation of the situation before the project starts. They also have to set specific goals. Between 2013 and 2016, 77 % of the projects report that they achieved their goal or better.
Strong local organizations
The civil society is important in order to improve any society because it can challenge the decision makers and speak up for the marginalized groups. Digni wants initiatives from the grassroots, as it prevents top-down projects which can be insensitive to local customs, and it ensures sustainability and lasting changes due to a true commitment from the society itself – even when the donors have withdrawn. Strengthening of the civil society is one of our main goals, and we will strengthen this focus further the coming years. 100 000 people received leadership training, 40 000 people have been involved in advocacy and 680 000 people learned about human rights through Digni-supported projects in 2013 to 2016. During the same period, 50 000 women were in decision making positions, because of project intervention.