Development cooperation policy in Estonia stretches back to 1998, when as part of accession negotiations with the EU development cooperation was first planned and initial projects were implemented. Around €353,000 was provided for the first voluntary donations to UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as delivering emergency aid to the flood-affected regions of Eastern Europe (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1999). The following year Estonia started reporting annually to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Since then, Estonia has systematically engaged in providing development assistance to developing countries as an increasingly important foreign policy instrument.

In January 2010, the Estonian Government approved the Strategy for Estonian Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid 2011-2015 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2010). It was drawn-up on the basis of the previous strategy for 2006-2010 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2006) and lessons learned from its implementation.

Bilateral trade has long been recognised as a major mechanism for improving the economic growth and welfare of nations, by generating significant revenue and economic activity. However, the link between trade and development assistance (including poverty eradication) has not been so well defined. This project provided a great opportunity to research that connections in Estonia and the preliminary analysis regarding trade relations and trade regimes with priority ODA recipient countries has been completed. The findings show that the historical legacy of being part of the USSR is still a key yet unspoken determinant of Estonia’s foreign policy, which has largely shaped bilateral development assistance since its beginning in 1998. Estonia has gone a long way towards fostering and Europeanising its national development assistance policy since joining the EU, with a strong framework and political structures supporting bilateral assistance. However, due to the small size of the country, Estonian trade volumes are not as large as other countries and are also concentrated on a few key products. This can potentially limit the effectiveness of trade regimes and their linkages as a mechanism for bilateral development assistance. The main challenges for Estonia are related to the lack of public articulation and campaigning regarding this topic, as well as the lack of coordinated effort between the public sector and private sector for boosting trade with developing countries. Further conclusions and policy recommendations will be presented in the final paper.

Task forces of experts, will gather April 12 to discuss the analyses and the recommendations.