ANNUAL REPORT 2016Adopted by the Spring Meeting on 26 April 2017

Annual Report 2016 1

ContentsINTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................................41 KEPA AND ITS MEMBER ORGANISATIONS WILL INFLUENCE POLITICAL DECISION-MAKING.........................6

1.1 Key policy-makers promote ambitious and sustainable development financing....................................61.2 Key policy-makers regulate the activities of large corporations to protect human rights in the Global South............................................................................................................................................................81.3 Key policy-makers promote increased financial transparency and tax justice.......................................91.4 Key policy-makers ensure adequate and transparent climate financing as well as sustainable energy policies........................................................................................................................................................10

2 KEPA AND ITS MEMBER ORGANISATIONS WILL INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION AND ACTIVITIES BY PEOPLE INFINLAND FOR A JUST WORLD.........................................................................................................................12

2.1 CSOs in Finland are active in global education.....................................................................................122.2 CSOs develop their capacity and skills in global education to promote social change.........................132.3 People in Finland act for global justice.................................................................................................142.4. Supplementary training project for teachers (under separate funding)..............................................152.5. Finnish AEPF Network (separate appropriation carried over from 2015)............................................16

3 KEPA STRENGTHENS THE CAPACITIES OF MEMBER ORGANISATIONS.........................................................173.1 Member Organisations develop their capacity and skills in development cooperation work for social change........................................................................................................................................................173.2 Key public servants recognise the various roles of civil society actors and value CSOs as independent development actors....................................................................................................................................183.3 Kepa’s Member Organisations and partners in the South defend civil society space globally.............194 KEPA IS AN EFFECTIVE ORGANISATION CHARACTERISED BY LEARNING..................................................214.1 Kepa’s Member Organisations cooperate closely with Kepa and each other to build a just world......214.2 Kepa’s organisational communications................................................................................................214.3 Learning and effectiveness are promoted by planning, monitoring and evaluation............................22

5 ADMINISTRATION........................................................................................................................................235.1 Kepa uses its resources efficiently and sustainably..............................................................................235.2 Kepa’s staff is professional and motivated and has capacity for renewal.............................................23

6 MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP...............................................................................................................25

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INTRODUCTION

The year 2016 was in many ways exceptional in the history of Kepa, the Finnish umbrella organisation fordevelopment cooperation. For Kepa the year meant adapting to changes, focusing on key functions andsupporting civil society organisations (CSO) faced with change but also new initiatives in areas such ascooperation with enterprises and the UN’s new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An addedelement was provided by Kai Mykkänen replacing Lenita Toivakka as the minister for foreign trade anddevelopment.

It was a major challenge to adapt the functions as well as human and operating resources of our organisationto match the new, significantly lower funding level as government support to Kepa in 2016 was 38% lowerthan before. The cuts resulted in the ending of programmes such as the Finnish Volunteer Programme(ETVO) and the civic influence training programme, reductions in training, online news and campaigning,and the closing down of our Mekong regional office and Nicaragua country office.

The cuts applied to almost all CSOs working in the fields of development cooperation and global education.In addition to the cut of almost 40% in the funding of CSOs receiving programme support from the Ministryfor Foreign Affairs, project support to small and medium-sized CSOs was also cut by approximately one-halfand only granted to 43 CSOs. There was a 65% collapse in appropriations for communications and globaleducation support as only €1.4 million was granted for the two-year period as opposed to the previous annuallevel of €2 million. Even many experienced actors were left without funding, and for many the negativefunding decision means the discontinuation of development cooperation or global education activities at leastfor some time. Kepa sought to support CSOs in this situation and modified its services for them to betterrespond to the changing needs.

Despite the cuts, Kepa still continued to operate nationwide in Finland: Markets of Possibilities presentingCSOs and global topics were even organised in a larger number of locations, our project increased teachers’global education competencies throughout the country, and our communications reached the public aroundFinland via online and regional press. There was a decrease in training organised by Kepa, but CSOsparticipated actively in training events and participants were highly satisfied with training quality – and, forexample, the Maailman Kuvalehti magazine managed to reach a clearly larger readership despite its resourcecuts. New initiatives were also piloted during the year. Kepa strengthened the development of cooperationbetween CSO and enterprises by setting up an expert position for the role and increasing training, events andadvocacy work relating to such cooperation. In our programme countries we tried out new types ofcooperation agreements in Cambodia and Nicaragua and operations under a lighter organisation structure inTanzania and Mozambique.

The year was significant one in international policies, which could also be seen in Kepa’s work. The entryinto force of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development created the need for broader cooperationbetween CSOs. Kepa initiated the establishment of a significant new cross-sectoral cooperation networkformed by a coalition of the umbrella organisations Kepa, Finnish Youth Cooperation – Allianssi, SOSTEFinnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health, and the Finnish Olympic Committee. Kepa broughttogether an extensive group of civil society actors to influence the national implementation plan of theAgenda, increased awareness of the Agenda and drew attention to the competencies of civil society. We alsocontinued strong advocacy work to increase development funding, participated in the preparation of policiessteering development policy and continued our strong advocacy to raise fair taxation to the core of policy-

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making. Kepa also participated actively in climate policy and was a member of the Finnish delegation to theCOP22 climate conference.

Kepa tested new tools for increased efficiency in the monitoring of CSO openness and effectiveness andtried out various ways of working in the South during the year. We also actively sought synergies withFinnish NGDO Platform to the EU Kehys and, in cooperation with Kehys, commissioned a study on the bestcooperation models available.

Annual programme support received by Kepa from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs totalled €3.68million – down approximately 38% on the year before. Kepa’s annual budget was €4.337 million. Thenumber of Kepa employees at year-end in Helsinki and the programme countries, Mozambique andTanzania, totalled 52, with some of these contractual employment relationships ending on the last day of theyear, and Kepa also had two non-military servicemen.

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1 KEPA AND ITS MEMBER ORGANISATIONS WILL INFLUENCE POLITICAL DECISION-MAKING

Kepa influences political decision-making in themes with a strong connection to poverty reduction and theUN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs): development funding, realisation of human rights throughcorporate accountability, tax justice and climate action. Kepa conducts advocacy work with its MemberOrganisations (MOs), Southern partners and international CSO networks. This work aims to increasedecision-makers’ awareness of the global impacts of policies, provide developing countries with a voice indecision-making, and strengthen the opportunities of Kepa’s Southern partner organisations to influence theircountry’s political decision-making. Communications are an important element of Kepa's advocacy work.

1.1 Key policy-makers promote ambitious and sustainable development financing

Kepa advocacy in the field of development financing continued after the major cuts made the year earlier andthe intensive campaigning in defence of development cooperation. Kepa offered its MOs current informationand participation opportunities as regards key development policy themes, with the most important beingadvocacy concerning the parliamentary term spending limits and budget for development cooperation as wellas the preparation and parliamentary consideration of the Government Report on Development Policy. Kepa issued statements about development financing and development policy over the year to bodiesincluding the Foreign Affairs Committee, Employment and Equality Committee, and Finance Committee ofParliament. We were particularly successful in voicing the important roles in development cooperationplayed by transparency, the targeting of aid at the poorest people, and the work carried out by CSOs. Kepa’sviews were expressed in committee statements, memoranda and plenary session speeches and comments.Further information provided by Kepa for members of parliament (MPs) about development financing issuesresulted in several MPs pointing out the significance of ambitious and sustained development financing atparliamentary debates. Meetings with politicians and public servants, timely contacts and the provision of information and expertpublications still remain key tools in our advocacy work. As regards development financing, Kepa wasproactive in meeting MPs and also produced further information on request where necessary. When the Government decided to cut development financing by a further €25 million from 2018 onwards,Kepa was quick to respond and managed to get our message through in the media. We compiled CSO viewsregarding the various development cooperation instruments and conveyed the relevant messages to theMinistry for Foreign Affairs. Joint CSO meetings, information bulletins, seminars and discussion events andwell as the exchange of information through mailing lists provided MOs with current information and theopportunity to participate in advocacy concerning development financing. The year 2016 saw the entry into force of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, under Kepa’sleadership, an unprecedently broad CSO field in Finland started for the first time to cooperate towards theachievement of the SDGs. Kepa initiated the establishment of a new cross-sectoral cooperation networkformed by a coalition of the umbrella organisations Kepa, Finnish Youth Cooperation – Allianssi, SOSTEFinnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health, and the Finnish Olympic Committee. Kepa also broughttogether an extensive group of civil society actors to influence the national implementation plan of the 2030Agenda, drew attention to the messages and competencies of civil society through measures includingparticipation in stakeholder meetings and the work of the monitoring group preparing the national indicators.

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A total of 46 CSOs took part in this work to formulate recommendations for the national implementationplan. Kepa participated in the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) as a member of the Finnish delegation andpublished a shadow report on progress made by Finland in sustainable development. At the HLPF Finlandreceived international recognition and commendation for the broad-scale preparation of the work and goodcooperation with CSOs, which had been coordinated by Kepa. In addition, active communication workduring the HLPF helped create and strengthen cooperation with public officials working on SDGs, thePermanent Mission of Finland to the UN and international organisations.

During the year under review, Kepa organised 14 events with other CSOs where all 17 SDGs were covered,increased awareness of the SDGs and at the same time engaged civil society for commitment to theimplementation of the 2030 Agenda goals. Kepa managed to establish a solid position as an expert in the2030 Agenda in Finland during the year and provided decision-makers with a global perspective on policy-making. Members of parliament utilised information and messages provided by Kepa extensively in contextssuch as the current issues debate conducted in Parliament in the autumn on sustainable development. Development cooperation was not nearly as visible in Finnish public debate as during the year before whendecisions were made on major development cooperation cuts and CSOs had to conduct negotiations underthe statutory cooperation procedure due to the need to reduce human resources. Kepa did, however, manageto raise development cooperation for public discussion during the government discussion on spending limitsand budget negotiations, and the overall tone in public concerning development cooperation anddevelopment financing was more positive than before in the media. Kepa conveyed shared messages ofdevelopment CSOs in the public. Our strong communication on social media, particularly Twitter, had adirect and timely reach on decision-makers. For example, during Finland’s biggest public debate forum,SuomiAreena – where we also organised our own discussion event – Kepa was one of the most active andvisible Twitter contributors during the entire event.

Published towards the end of the year, Kepa’s current issues review on sustainable development financingalternatives and the role of private funding in development received good feedback from development policyactors and plenty of media visibility. Our aim was to provide decision-makers with new information anddraw public debate attention to topics such as the difficult debt situation of many developing countries andthe targeting of financing at the poorest groups in developing countries.

In Tanzania and Mozambique we supported CSO efforts to strengthen transparency and accountability indevelopment financing and state budgets. In Mozambique the country’s debt crisis was at the core of the work carried out by our partner GrupoMozambicano da Divida (GMD). In early 2016, information came to light about a loan amounting to aroundUSD 2 billion that the government had managed to hide from Parliament and donor countries. Thisdominated discussion about development financing during the year. The GMD organised an internationalconference on the debt issue and represented civil society at several debt-related events, and the GMD wasconsulted by bodies such as Parliament, various ministries and donors as well as the IMF. The GMD alsotook part in the creation of a monitoring system for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) togetherwith the UNDP, government and international organisations. In Tanzania the Policy Forum monitored the state budget and carried out related advocacy work. There was aspecial focus on influencing to achieve increases in the most important social sector budget items. Inaddition, Kepa supported civil society in work to mainstream the SDGs into the country’s five-year

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development plan through measures including sharing the tool developed by us to monitor theimplementation of the 2030 Agenda.

1.2 Key policy-makers regulate the activities of large corporations to protect human rights inthe Global South

Our advocacy in the field on corporate responsibility suffered from the reduction in resources caused by thefunding cuts, but we made efforts to patch things up by cooperating with partners such as Finnwatch, whichfocuses on global corporate responsibility issues. Commissioned by Kepa, Finnwatch studied the promotionof the implementation of the Ruggie principles on business and human rights.

The increased focus on the private sector in development cooperation highlighted the importance ofresponsibility aspects, and Kepa pointed out development needs and provided proposals for solutions inissues such as the systematic evaluation of the human rights impacts of projects. Kepa also had discussionsabout the safeguarding of responsibility with the development finance company Finnfund and the FinnishMinistry for Foreign Affairs. Kepa participated as a deputy member at meetings of the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, andthis way introduced the perspective of the global South to debated carried out with public officials and tradeand industry. Kepa monitored the national implementation of the Directive as regards disclosure of non-financial information and communicated CSO views on the matter. Kepa supported Member Organisations’ work by organising a corporate responsibility advocacycoordination meetup to increase the efficiency of information exchange between MOs. Kepa participated asan expert in public debate on corporate responsibility through online articles and blog posts and at severaldiscussion events including the one organised by the Finnish Business Society on economic responsibility.Public awareness of corporate responsibility issues was also increased at the World Village Festival. Many global development issues are related to the operations of the natural resources sector in developingcountries. Towards the end of the year, Kepa launched the editing of a series of online articles on theutilisation of natural resources and its development consequences, with the first two articles published in theautumn. Material was collected particularly on Mozambique, and this resulted in publications such as videocommentary on the role of development partners at the Mozambique event held in Helsinki as well as onsocial media. In Nicaragua, Kepa’s partner Centro Humboldt (CH) continued its work relating to the social andenvironmental impacts of the mining sector. CH increased understanding among local communities inmining areas about the impacts of the mining industry and people’s own opportunities for influence. In itsregional activities, CH collected material to be conveyed to the Inter-American Commission on HumanRights of the Organization of American States (OSA) and was actively involved in international cooperationof CSOs to build its capacity and explore new advocacy work methods. In Tanzania, Kepa launched new partnership with Action for Democracy and Local Governance (ADLG), asmall CSO operating in the Mwanza Region. With Kepa’s support, ADLG strengthened its advocacycompetencies and, for example, initiated public debate on the responsibility of businesses, especially miningcompanies, operating in the Mwanza Region. ADLG’s discussion events attracted a lot of interest andreceived extensive news coverage by local radio and TV stations. In Mozambique, Justiça Ambiental (JA!) continued its sustained work to defend the rights of localcommunities. Increasing investments made by major corporations have resulted in land grabbing where

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communities lose their farmland without fair compensation. JA! studied the impacts of major corporations’investments and organised an international meeting between South African, Botswanan and Mozambicancommunities living in the vicinity of large mining projects. Issues discussed included the impacts of miningcompanies on surrounding communities and potential solutions to difficult situations. Examples collectedduring the meeting on the impacts of investments on people’s lives will be utilised in JA!’s advocacy work.

1.3 Key policy-makers promote increased financial transparency and tax justice

Taxation as a topic has risen to a key role in development policy largely thanks to the sustained work carriedout by CSOs and Kepa, and tax justice is recognised as an important challenge faced in efforts to improvethe position of developing countries. In 2016 the Finnish Ministry for Foreign affairs formulated for the firsttime a special Tax and Development Action Programme for Finland in the preparation of which publicservants from the ministry and Kepa engaged in good cooperation and Kepa provided its expertise for use bythe ministry. Kepa played an important role in ensuring that the significance of broader tax policy andspecifically the importance of developing countries’ participation were taken into account in the programme. Kepa offered decision-makers support in the form of current and expert information about the perspective ofthe global South that was not available from other sources; without Kepa, in many cases only the views ofbusiness organisations would have been available to decision-makers. In addition to expert consultations,Kepa’s views on regulation to combat tax avoidance, the establishment of country-to-country reporting, andtransparency of ownership were expressed in the media and at various discussion events. Kepa diversifiedthe debate on international taxation and transparency of taxation by introducing the perspective of CSOs andthe global South. The information provided also influenced the views of Parliament in many tax issues, suchas the Anti Tax Avoidance Directive and public country-by-country tax reporting. Kepa submitted sevenstatements on tax issues alone to Parliament. A further four statements were given to ministries, and threeletters to a minister were sent. The Panama Papers resulted in extensive media and parliamentary attention to tax avoidance, and Kepa wasable to provide background information to the discussions as well as to present solutions. A ban ofaggressive tax planning was issued on Finnish state-owned companies, and a decision was made to updatethe tax reporting guidelines. This was an outcome of the work carried out by Kepa and other CSOs asdemands had been made by them for a long time for tax responsibility and improved reporting quality amongstate-owned companies. Kepa influenced Finland’s views in the context of the consideration of the Anti TaxAvoidance Directive and public country-by-country tax reporting and drew attention to the developmentpolicy perspective. Joint letters, exchange of information on the tax advocacy mailing list and occasional meetings withdecision-makers increased Member Organisations’ opportunities to participate more broadly in tax advocacy.The funding cuts have resulted in fewer and fewer CSOs having the resources to carry out tax advocacy ontheir own, which has emphasised the importance of Kepa’s advocacy work. Kepa has established its public status as an expert in tax justice. Kepa’s media release pickup rate on thetopic of tax has been high, and Kepa’s blogs themed on taxation have been utilised by various media outlets,such as the papers Uusi Suomi and Taloussanomat. This has contributed to the fact that critical public debatenow takes place on tax evasion and avoidance. Kepa has also achieved the participation of decision-makersin discussions such as those on Twitter under the relevant hashtags (#verotkarkaa and #verovalttely). Thiswas the case particularly after the tax seminar organised by Kepa and the trade union confederation Akava,which is when discussion on the topic continued for several days. In developing countries a major role is played by civil society in action to increase awareness so that citizenssee taxation as justified and understand taxation as an enabler of services and know how to demand value for

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their taxes. In Mozambique as well as Tanzania, Kepa supported the activities of the CSO tax justicenetwork. In both countries, Kepa played an important role as facilitator of cooperation and supporter ofadvocacy work, and the work of the networks has become more systematic and equal thanks to Kepa’ssupport. The Tanzania Tax Justice Coalition joined the pan-African Stop the Bleeding campaign aiming to put an endto illicit capital flight. Members of the coalition produced analyses, met members of parliament and publicservants, and carried out media work. Kepa supported the network by producing analyses of the MbekiReport on capital flight in Africa.

1.4 Key policy-makers ensure adequate and transparent climate financing as well as sustainable energy policies

In Finland there is broader understanding today on the impacts of climate change on developing countries,and financing of action against climate change as well as adaptation has gained strong publicity, particularlyin conjunction with UN climate conferences. Cooperation between Kepa and our Member Organisations hasplayed a key role in efforts to draw attention to the issue. Kepa has also established its status as an expert inclimate issues. Our communications have played a major role in compiling the views of environmental anddevelopment CSOs and coordination of climate advocacy, particularly during UN climate talks. The year 2016 was a significant year as regards international climate cooperation as the Paris Agreement wasratified at a record-breaking rate and entered into force in November 2016. The Paris Agreement was used inadvocacy work throughout the year to show that the level of ambition in Finland’s climate and energy policymust be increased to be able to reach the global targets adopted under the new and ground-breakingagreement. Kepa was involved in the formation of a coalition of ’changemakers’ consisting of CSOs,businesses, church, decision-makers and researchers. The collaboration continued in early 2016 when thecoalition organised a joint seminar on the effects of the Paris Agreement on Finland and Europe, and thethemes were covered by several major news outlets. Kepa’s climate work was strengthened and expanded through the formulation of common guidelines onadvocacy to influence Finland’s energy policy decisions, with Member Organisations’ expertise utilised inthis. Kepa conducted advocacy work on topics such as the government proposal on compensation of indirectcosts of emissions trading aiming to steer auctioning revenues to energy-intensive industry. Kepa objectedthe government proposal with research institutions and environmental CSOs and pointed out thedevelopment perspective of the proposal. The issue received a lot of publicity, but no amendments weremade to the government proposal in the end. Kepa submitted a statement on the matter to the Ministry ofEconomic Affairs and Employment and was heard by the Environment Committee of Parliament and thisway provided members of parliament with information about the impacts of the decision in developingcountries. In the autumn, Kepa was invited as a member of Finland’s official COP22 delegation to the MarrakechClimate Change Conference. At committee meetings before, during and after the UN Climate ChangeConference, Kepa conveyed messages relating to climate justice, the situation of developing countries, andclimate finance directly to the minister for the environment, public servants and members of parliament.During the conference, Kepa actively supported Member Organisations’ access to information aboutprogress made at the conference as well as MOs’ joint communications work and also managed to achievediverse media publicity for the topic and Kepa’s views. MOs particularly appreciate the effective mediacommunications carried out by Kepa, which has helped gain visibility for MOs’ views andrecommendations. Positive feedback has also been received from journalists: Kepa is regarded as animportant and reliable source of information in climate issues.

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In the autumn, Kepa joined the Coal-free Finland campaign coalition. As a member of the coalition, Kepapromotes Finland’s phasing out from fossil energy, especially coal and peat. One of the objectives of Kepa’sclimate work is for Finland to stop using coal and peat by 2050, and the achievement of this is supported bythe Coal-free Finland coalition. Reducing Finland’s climate emissions also plays a role in how climatechange affects developing countries: the faster we reduce our emissions the more we are able to curb theworst impacts of climate change on the lives of those living in poverty in developing countries. Kepa’sclimate views and the position of developing countries as climate change is advancing were covered severaltimes over the year by a variety of media outlets, and Kepa’s expertise was utilised extensively. Kepa wasinvited to speak about the climate in contexts such as events of the Global Group of the Parliament ofFinland and the Federation of Green Youth and Students. Kepa maintained contacts in climate issues withpublic servants, met several members of parliament and participated in meetings such as those of the Friendsof the Green Climate Fund group coordinated by the Unit of International Environmental Policy of theFinnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Our fruitful cooperation with Member Organisations (MOs) continued through the climate coordinationgroup. As regards international networks, we exchanged information with Climate Action Network Europe,carried out joint lobbying of Members of the European Parliament, and gained deeper expertise in thenetwork’s workshops in Brussels. Active climate policy monitoring and networking enabled us to provideup-to-date information for use by public servants, decision-makers and MOs. During the year, Kepasubmitted statements on climate and energy issues to Environment Committee of the Finnish Parliament aswell as the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. In Tanzania, our partner Tanzanian Civil Society Forum on Climate Change (Forum CC) carried out strongadvocacy relating to the state budget and climate change. Forum CC’s work attracted a lot of interest amongdecision-makers, and the Tanzanian Ministry of Finance adopted Forum CC’s proposal for a new budgetcode for the state budget. In Mozambique, JA! also conducted active advocacy relating to climate talks. Itconducted analyses of the country’s climate finance and urged the government to meet its internationalclimate finance obligations.

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2 KEPA AND ITS MEMBER ORGANISATIONS WILL INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION AND ACTIVITIES BY PEOPLE IN FINLAND FOR A JUST WORLD

Global education encourages people of various ages to become active citizens of the world. It addressesknowledge, skills and attitudes. Global education increases understanding about how each one of us is linkedwith global issues and how we can though our personal action and choices contribute to the promotion ofglobal justice. Kepa supports the visibility and competencies of CSOs providing global education by organising learningand advice events through which new ideas and operating models from international networks are alsointroduced in Finland.

2.1 CSOs in Finland are active in global education

In 2016 Kepa brought CSOs together to contribute towards societal change through global education. Cooperation in networks maintained by Kepa helped them gain access to various processes and events and,above all, to reach new people in areas outside the Helsinki region as well. A total of 18,000 unique usersvisited the global education website during the year to view pages such as the resource bank for teachersbased on Finland’s new National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. CSOs gained a major opportunity for improvements in cooperation with schools when Kepa launched a two-year project under separate funding from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs where around 20 CSOs jointlyorganise supplementary training for teachers relating to global education and the objectives set in the newcore curriculum. The project’s functions supported Kepa’s other global education work, and the project alsoincreased the use of the global education website among teachers.

Students of teacher education programmes received global education tools at World at School seminarscoordinated by Kepa in which a total of 500 future teachers participated at the departments of teachereducation in Eastern Finland, Turku, Rauma and Helsinki. The lecture theme of the seminar was humanrights and refugees, which resulted in good feedback from the students as being current topics. The studentswere provided with pedagogical tools for the coverage of global issues in accordance with the new corecurriculum in action-based workshops run by CSOs. According to feedback received from the students,global education still received low coverage in university education, and almost all respondents were goingto utilise what they learned at the seminar in their work in the future. Coordinated by Kepa, the Civic Influence Market of the annual Educa Fair for education professionalsprovided almost 30 CSOs with visibility and a channel for providing teachers and educators with support intheir work. The joint appearance also enabled the participation of small CSOs by making small, lessexpensive stands available to them at the fair. CSOs found the event useful, and the majority have alreadyregistered for next year’s cooperation. The number of actors participating at the planning meetings was,however, lower than before, which is likely to be a sign of global education CSOs suffering from reducedresources. The cooperation with the school textbook publishers SanomaPro and Otava continued, and CSOs had theopportunity to comment on three new textbook manuscripts. CSOs regarded it strategically important toinfluence textbooks and found related discussions useful. The cooperation launched by the network resultedin a few CSOs also being contacted directly by the publishers. According to the publishers, the supportprovided by the CSOs had been useful and they wanted to continue the cooperation. CSOs decided to expand

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their influence by formulating a ready-to-use tool for textbook authors on those key issues that constantlyemerged during their commentary on the manuscripts. This enables more authors to utilise CSOcompetencies and take their observations into account already at the beginning of the process. The tool wasprepared during the autumn and also attracted interest among researchers of school textbooks. Kepa supported CSO work and Finnish civic debate at the national level by organising 18 Markets ofPossibilities in cooperation with local CSOs. The events aim to present CSOs operating in the area and offeropportunities for participation as well as inspiring ways of taking action for a just world. The cuts indevelopment cooperation could not be seen at the Markets of Possibilities as the number of events increaseddue to two new towns, Forssa and Loviisa, joining in. At the events a total of more than 520 CSOs and actiongroups presented their operations to more than 26,000 visitors. The events have established their status asvisible expressions of opinion for global equity and justice during times when there has been a major focuson development cooperation cuts, closing of borders and anti-immigration sentiments. Kepa has workedsustainably to develop the communications and marketing skills of local organisers. In 2016, for example, allMarkets of Possibilities had a Facebook page with coordinated visual appearance that they utilised inmarketing, and their pre-event marketing also resulted in increased media hits in regions around Finland.

The World Village Festival

In May, the World Village Festival brought together CSOs, the public, politicians and other opinion-makersfor a weekend in Helsinki. There were a total of 391 exhibitors, of which 67% were CSOs. As many as 96%of Kepa Member Organisations participating found the festival a good forum for increasing awareness,campaigning and member acquisition. More than 40 CSOs took part in the production of the factualprogramme and that way managed to gain visibility for and provide the public with new perspective tocurrent global issues. The main theme of the event was justice, and the talk programme covered themes suchas the refugee crisis, hate talk, tax avoidance and development cooperation cuts. Due to development cooperation cuts, many CSOs confirmed their participation later than in previous years.Although CSOs regard the festival as an important event, participation requires resources for the stand,programme production as well as communications. This resulted in uncertainty as regards the funding of thefestival as well as other production aspects. The festival’s main partners were the Finnish Ministry forForeign Affairs, the European Commission and the European Parliament Information Office, Finland’s SlotMachine Association, and the Metro newspaper. The festival’s talk programme featured guests such as President Tarja Halonen and Minister for ForeignTrade and Development Lenita Toivakka. In the decision-maker panels politicians across the full spectrum ofpolitical parties sought solutions for a just world and sustainable economy. One of the main speakers wasEmmy Award-winning documentarist Deeyah Khan, who presented her documentary on radicalisation in theWest. The festival and, consequently, global issues gained major publicity and a total of 170 media hits.

2.2 CSOs develop their capacity and skills in global education to promote social change

Communications, advocacy and global education training organised by Kepa helped CSOs adapt to thechanging operating environment and consider their position and identity. A total of ten training events wereorganised, down five on the figure of 2015. Before the application round for funding for communication andglobal education, CSOs were provided with training in effectiveness and quality in global education.Development work was supported with training in creative implementation of the 2030 Agenda andprovision of ideas for social media use and solution-centred facilitation. The roles and identities of CSOswere addressed in SMART CSO Lab campaign training for systemic change. A new experiment was asparring group for more experienced advocacy workers where more in-depth strategic thinking was sought in

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a longer learning process. Kepa also organised two info events on communication and global educationfunding with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Follow-up on training was developed by conducting a questionnaire on three training programmes regardingthe post-training impacts, and the findings will be utilised in training planning and design. According toparticipants, the strengths of Kepa training are the ability to combine theory and practice, use of practicalexamples from CSO life, efficient use of time, competence in participatory methods as well as a goodatmosphere that allows the sharing of experiences but also learning from failures. CSOs also met up with each other to share experiences at other events as well. Key ethical codes central tothe work of sponsorship CSOs were updated and made more current as regards perspectives such as socialmedia. At the global education autumn gathering best practices were shared by CSOs. The last volunteers of the Finnish Volunteer Programme (ETVO) abolished due to funding cuts returned toFinland and were organised a meeting at the autumn. Kepa’s advice supported CSO global education project planning and design and also improved opportunitiesfor success in funding applications submitted to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Despite the cuts in appropriations, there was demand for our advice, which was provided for 22 CSOsduring the spring 2016 application round. Kepa aims to support an active role of diaspora organisations in global education. The rate of Kepa’spersonal MO advice was high among diaspora organisations. Diaspora organisations also presented theiractivities at Markets of Possibilities and took part in programme implementation. Diaspora organisations didnot participate much in training events: training was mainly utilised by individual participants from diasporaorganisations. Kepa monitored global education trends actively by participating in contexts such as the work of theSMART CSO community. International networks also opened up access to new a new type of projectcooperation: Kepa applied for European Commission funding for a global education project led by its sisterorganisation the Danish CISU, with value consistency in CSO communications and global education at thecore of the project. If implemented, the project would provide new funding and development opportunitiesfor CSO global education in the coming years.

2.3 People in Finland act for global justice

A total of 79,000 people visited the Word Village Festival during the last weekend of May, with around onein three of these (29%) attending the event for the first time. The festival offered cultural and factualprogramme for a variety of audiences, perspectives into current global issues as well as ways of influencingand opportunities for participation. Due to Kepa’s funding cuts, the music programme was cut in half, whichat least for the time being was not reflected in the audience figure but resulted in the visitors spending moretime at exhibitor stands: 86% of respondents reported that they visited exhibitor stands. Around one in fourvisitors were interested in CSO activities but had not yet found a suitable organisation. Around 90% ofexhibitors found that the event had reached a suitable target group from their perspective. The messages and contents of the festival as well Kepa were covered by the media better than before. Forexample, on nationwide TV the MTV3 news main headlines featured the festival theme of disparity (”Onepercent owns more than half of the world’s assets”) and the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle’s main newsbroadcast included an interview with the documentarist about radicalisation. The nation’s leading dailynewspaper Helsingin Sanomat and various radio stations featured news items or broadcast live coverage ofthe event. There was a significant increase in the following of all of the festival’s social media channels

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(Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Online video production took place in cooperation with partners such asthe Youth Department of the City of Helsinki. On social media a competition was also organised tochallenge the festival’s social media followers to share what they are doing for a better word. Kepa’s own website was revamped during the year to better respond to today’s users’ needs. This reinforcedthe Kepa brand and improved the user experience, speeded up information searches, clarified the sitestructure and integrated social media into online contents. The site is now responsive, which means the userexperience is improved regardless of the terminal device, and the website works better, particularly onmobile devices. In conjunction with the website reform, the site’s target groups were specified further bydecreasing the division into the general public and MOs, including critics as a target group, strengthening thewebsite’s role in referral to other Kepa websites, and contents were cut to focus on quality rather thanquantity, and the site was made a lot more visual than before. Kepa’s revamped newsletter now also betterserves the needs of CSOs, activists as well as ordinary people interested in global issues. The visitor rate of the Maailman Kuvalehti magazine website increased significantly: 244,000 annual visitorsis a new record for the site. The annual number of issues of the paper magazine was cut from 10 to 9, themagazine’s visual appearance was renewed and a small editorial board consisting of acclaimed journalistsand CSO experts meeting twice a year was founded to support the journalistic quality and work of themagazine. The number of visitors to the Maailman Kuvalehti site exceeded that to the Kepa website for thefirst time. On the other hand the number of visitors to the Kepa website decreased clearly during the year.This decrease can in part be attributed to the previous year’s peak in visitors that was largely due to thedevelopment funding cuts made in summer 2015. At the same time the cuts themselves also played a role inthis: our online editors were not able to produce news contents quite at the same rate as before. Nevertheless,content such as blogs attracted increased interest on the Kepa website: readers spent more time on the textsthan before, with the average reading time increasing from 3:13 to 4:04 minutes. In all, the number of visits to Kepa’s websites (Kepa.fi, Maailmankuvalehti.fi, Globaalikasvatus.fi andMaailmakylassa.fi) totalled 705,000 during the year, with the number of unique visitors totalling 536,000(although the statistics do not itemise the same user’s possible visits to several sites, whereby the combinedtotal number of readers in practice is a little smaller). Kepa was an active and appreciated actor in media publicity. Kepa and its activities (World Village, Marketsof Possibilities and Maailman Kuvalehti magazine) generated more than 430 media hits in 2016. The rate ofpublicity decreased in comparison with 2015, which was due to the fact the development cooperation cuts,negotiations under the statutory cooperation procedure due to the need to reduce human resources as well asthe resulting terminations of employment contracts gained major media visibility around Finland in the yearbefore. It should be noted, however, that throughout 2016 Kepa’s publicity was rather positive and inpractice there was no negative publicity at all. Organisational publicity is covered further in section 4.2. ofthis Annual Report. Kepa’s strong communications on social media also continued. There has been a solid increase in followersin various channels and, for example, the number of followers of the Kepa Facebook page increased by 17%to more than 10,000.

2.4. Supplementary training project for teachers (under separate funding)

A two-year supplementary training project for teachers was launched in March 2016. The project supportsteacher competencies in global education with the new National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. Atthe same time global education as part of the core of schools is strengthened by supporting its embeddinginto the structures and operating culture. The project organisation is formed by Kepa as the projectcoordinator, 18 participating CSOs and a broad-based steering group. The operating year was quite

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successful although some of the quantitative targets were not reached fully due to delays in schedule and thecompetitive situation in the supply of supplementary training. According to feedback collected fromparticipants, however, the events and training organised under the project were successful and served theirpurpose. The training reached 388 teachers around Finland during the year. In addition to training events, theproject helped improve CSO training quality, increased awareness of CSO expertise in schools, andincreased CSOs’ global education resources. The production of online material did not begin until theautumn when the training contents were completed, and part of the planned work had to be postponed to2017 for reasons including CSO schedules. A separate annual report on the project was drawn up for thefunding provider.

2.5. Finnish AEPF Network (separate appropriation carried over from 2015)

The funding provision by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for the Asia-Europe People’s Forum’s(AEPF) Finnish Committee and Network ended at the end of 2015. Some of the functions were, however,carried over to 2016, and permission was applied from the Ministry to transfer the remaining funds for thesepurposes. Seven participants from Finnish CSOs took part in the international AEPF organised inUlaanbaatar in July. The Finnish AEPF Network also organised the ASEM 20 Years anniversary seminarwith the Finnish Parliament and other parties. The event covered the history and future of the ASEM processas well as regional integration in the Far East. Communication on all of the network’s functions took place ina Facebook group and the network’s website.

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3 KEPA STRENGTHENS THE CAPACITIES OF MEMBER ORGANISATIONS

As an umbrella organisation, Kepa operates actively to safeguard the operating conditions of our MOs. Kepaexerts influence towards the recognition of the roles and independence of diverse civil society as part ofFinland’s development policy and towards the appreciation of CSOs’ work. On the other hand, Kepasupports MOs’ competencies so that they can operate effectively in accordance with their mission.

3.1 Member Organisations develop their capacity and skills in development cooperation work for social change

Kepa has managed to renew its training provision in response to MO needs in a financing situation that haschanged. Due to the cuts in discretionary government transfers, MOs have focused increasingly onfundraising and seeking alternative funding sources. Popular measures included the crowdfunding workshop,fundraising training for small MOs, and funding info events. A total of 107 MOs (104 in 2015) and 75 other CSOs took part is some training provided by Kepa during theyear, but the overall number of event participants decreased (557 as opposed. to 711 in 2015). This is largelydue to the fact that fewer training events were organised than during the year before because of thereductions in human resources in Kepa as well as CSOs. Kepa MOs accounted for 64% of the total ofparticipants. Kepa’s learning events received good feedback from participants. The average score was 4/5 as regards theoverall score as well the score for the utility value of the learning outcomes. Process-like training improved CSOs’ opportunities to utilise what they had learned. For example, the self-study package on project management was used as a pre-training assignment in project design training,which resulted in good feedback from participants. CSOs’ own projects and campaign ideas were workedupon in training on themes including outcome mapping and in crowdfunding workshops, which meant the”transfer impact of learning from theory into practice took place immediately” (feedback from participant). According to feedback received from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the quality and particularly the resultschain thinking of CSO project support applications had improved. Kepa contributed to this by providingadvice relating to development cooperation projects and training on the results chain and effectiveness. Theproject theme days organised before the end of the application period involved comments on 31 applications,of which 13, or 42%, received a positive funding decision (the positive funding decision rate for allapplications was 33%). In Kepa’s advice provision, CSO representatives were met face to face, and they alsoreceived written comments on their application. In the autumn we were also able to provide advice to 14actors for applications for funding for cultural projects implemented in developing countries that becameavailable unexpectedly. More than half of the eight projects that received the financial support had beenadvised by Kepa. Kepa took a leap forward in the development of cooperation between CSOs and enterprises during the year.An expert position was established within Kepa for enterprise cooperation, and MOs participated actively inand sought cooperation with the private sector. Several training and other events helped increasecompetencies and challenge traditional operating models, and Kepa’s contributions included participation inthe organisation of the Slush side event for CSOs and support to Slush Impact’s Global CommunityGathering.

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Training in well-functioning cooperation between CSOs and enterprises was provided with partners such asSOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health. A persisting challenge was to find more concretecooperation opportunities between civil society and the private sector and to get CSOs to be seen moreextensively as potential partners. It was found during the year that the number of Finnish enterprises activelytargeting their business at developing countries was still relatively small. In most cases they wish to buildcooperation to, for example, solve clear problems and need quick results. As regards MO communications in the field of development cooperation, the Facebook groups maintainedby Kepa as well as blog posts offered current and easily accessible information about the operatingenvironment and generated positive comments by MOs. Kepa’s Tanzania group in particular was moreactive than before. Kepa’s country offices in Tanzania and Mozambique produced information for MOs’ use,including in the form of videos and articles. MOs were particularly interested in information relating to CSOoperating environment, registration process and the countries’ official development plans.

3.2 Key public servants recognise the various roles of civil society actors and value CSOs as independent development actors

The 43% cut in CSO development cooperation funding took effect from the beginning of 2016. No furthercuts were made in CSO funding, but its share of actual development cooperation decreased slightly as theslight increase in development funding was not targeted at the work of CSOs. The situation was particularlysevere for global education CSOs, with the future for many of them being uncertain as the 2015 applicationround was skipped and therefore only a few actors had projects underway. Kepa also drew public attention tothe fact that the appropriations of the Ministry of Education and Culture for peace organisations were underthreat because the budget line intended for them had unexpectedly been removed from the state budget. Thanks to our active information gathering and communications, we managed to raise the impacts of thefunding cuts for public debate. In a survey conducted by Kepa, CSOs reported significant changes to theiractivities and the impacts of the cuts on people in developing countries. The survey was published as part ofthe programme of Finland’s biggest public debate forum, SuomiAreena, and the findings were publishedextensive throughout the Finnish media. Several members of parliament also voiced their concern about theCSO funding cuts as part of the parliamentary debate on development policy and state budget. Published inthe autumn, the first part of the evaluation of CSOs receiving programme support commissioned by theMinistry for Foreign Affairs recommended that the cuts on programme support should be reconsidered. Inthis context, too, Kepa managed to draw public attention to the results of CSOs’ work. Kepa communicated systematically about the added value provided by small CSOs operating on the basis ofvolunteering as well as the significance of CSO global education and development communications. Supportfrom the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was, however, available to fewer CSOs, and the funding decisionsmade towards the end of the year showed that support was channelled to more professional organisations. CSOs voiced their concerns about national global education and its resourcing by proposing that, inaccordance with Target 4.7 of the 2030 Agenda and the UNESCO recommendation, a national plan for thepromotion of sustainable development education, including the human rights and equality perspectives,should be formulated for Finland. The proposal was received positively by the authorities preparing thematter. Kepa participated actively in the working group of the CSOs receiving programme support and the Ministryfor Foreign Affairs in the development of the programme support instrument. CSOs were quite satisfied withthe outcome of the work as the support type will continue to take the role and special characteristics of CSOs

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into account in development cooperation. As regards umbrella organisations and special foundations,concerns were raised due to their special characteristics being ignored in the reform. Kepa and CSOs participated actively in the preparation of the Government Report on Development Policypublished in early 2016. Thanks to CSO participation, matters such as the human rights-based approach,ownership of developing countries, and the role of civil society were expressed more clearly in the objectivesof the report. The active role of CSOs was commended by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. As regards CSO cooperation with enterprises, Kepa established its position as an active player. Kepa’sparticipation in the Team Finland visit to Tanzania and Kenya led by the minister of foreign trade anddevelopment facilitated the strengthening of Kepa’s competence and status. Kepa also contributed towardssome of the funding forms, such as support of the Finnish Business Partnership Programme(Finnpartnership), better enabling the participation of CSOs. Global education CSOs took joint action to influence the new National Core Curriculum for Pre-PrimaryEducation. According to feedback received from global education CSOs, Kepa plays a significant role as acoordinator of advocacy and interest representation. There are not many CSOs with the resources toinfluence the long and complex processes on their own. In our communications, we have strongly maintained a focus on the diversity of civil society and themultitude of CSOs’ roles in development, which has generated results in contexts such as the GovernmentReport on the implementation the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report recognises CSOs asimportant actors in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

There was a strong focus on the status of civil society in the dialogue between the Ministry for ForeignAffairs and CSOs. The ministry publicly and repeatedly voiced its concern about the narrowing of the spaceof civil society and expressed its willingness to have an increasingly active influence on the matter. Kepacontinued its strong cooperation with the Finnish embassies in Tanzania and Mozambique. Regular meetingsinvolved discussions about the operating space of civil society and the political situation of the countries.Kepa also took its own partners to meetings with embassies, and space was also provided for them in thetravel programme of the minister for foreign trade and development and the Development Policy Committee.In Tanzania, the joint seminar with the embassy on the status of civil society that has already become atradition was also organised during the year under review.

3.3 Kepa’s Member Organisations and partners in the South defend civil society space globally

The narrowing of the space of civil society was a common concern in 2016, and many CSOs participated inthe debate to defend civil society. Kepa and its MOs raised the topic in their communications, discussionevents organised by them in contexts such as the World Village Festival, and in their dialogue with theMinistry for Foreign Affairs. Visits of representatives of Kepa’s partner CSOs and CIVICUS to Finland alsointroduced the voice of the South in the debate on the restrictions made on civil society around the world. Civil society’s role in a changing world was also the theme of Kepa’s development policy day in November.Several Finnish CSOs signed the international Civic Charter, which was submitted at the event to ElinaKalkku, Under-Secretary of State for Development Policy and Cooperation of the Ministry for ForeignAffairs. The country- and region-specific meetings organised by Kepa on Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia,Cambodia, Syria and Central America (Nicaragua and Honduras) provided MOs with the opportunity toexchange information about the status of civil society in these countries and other current themes important

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to its actors. At the Syria meeting, reconstruction was covered from the perspectives of various actors (CSOs,private sector, state). The events were organised in close cooperation with MOs.

The year saw Kepa provide concrete support to civil society capacity-building in the South via its partners.In addition to financial support, Kepa engaged in dialogue with partners about the strengthening of civilsociety and, for example, the executive directors of Kepa’s partners from Tanzania (ADLG) and Cambodia(CCC) visited Finland to talk about the topic at various public events. For the Cambodian civil society theyear was marked by the narrowing space and the murder of the activist Kem Ley. CCC continued itssustained work to defend CSOs by strengthening their capacities and developed a certification toolresponding to the needs of small community-based organisations in particular. During the year, CCC carriedout active advocacy relating to the quality of public services, and corporate responsibility. In Tanzania, Kepa supported the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) in its advocacy work relating to theFreedom of Information and Media Services Bills. The Freedom of Information Bill campaign was a success,and the majority of the recommendations of the coalition coordinated by the MCT were included in the bill.The Media Services Bill, however, was adopted without the changes proposed by CSOs, and the act willincrease the state’s hold of the media considerably. Together with other CSOs, the MCT lodged a case in theEast African Court of Justice (EACJ) challenging the Media Services Act. In Mozambique, Kepa’s partnerJOINT coordinated civil society protests to bring an end to the armed conflict of the two leading parties.

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4 KEPA IS AN EFFECTIVE ORGANISATION CHARACTERISED BY LEARNING

Kepa can only succeed in its work through observation of changes in our operating environment and learningfrom the results of our work. This requires a living interface with Member Organisations, effective andstrategic communications as well as careful and results-oriented planning, monitoring and evaluation ofactivities.

4.1 Kepa’s Member Organisations cooperate closely with Kepa and each other to build a justworld

As a general rule, Kepa’s MOs still remain satisfied with Kepa’s activities and MO services. For many MOs,the year under review was spent reorganising their work, phasing out various projects and exploring newsources of funding. We managed to adapt our operations so that they remained relevant to MOs despite thedifficult situation. Opportunities were provided for support and networking between MOs to facilitatelearning and networking while at the same time acting as peer support forums. For the first time in Kepa’s history, the number of MOs leaving Kepa exceeded that of new MOs joining.Reductions in funding and capacities were also felt by those MOs that were not affected by the developmentcooperation cuts. This could be seen, for example, in large MOs operating in other sectors but having had tofocus their operations leaving Kepa. The use of the free meeting premises offered by Kepa to MOs alsoreduced during the year, which implies a lower rate of activities than before. Around 1,900 people participated in Kepa’s open events during the year, down 22% on the year earlier. Dueto the cuts, the number of events that Kepa was able to organise was smaller than before, but the difficultsituation of CSOs has also affected their ability and resources to take part in activities outside their ownorganisation. The use of the MO initiative tool has been established at the level of around 15 initiatives sincethe year of its launch. In 2016 a total of 16 MO initiatives were submitted relating to the various aspects ofCSO work and with a highly diverse range seen in terms of topics and scope.

4.2 Kepa’s organisational communications

No new survey was conducted on public awareness of Kepa in 2016. Although there was perhaps a slightlysmaller number of public interviews with Kepa experts than during the previous year and it was moredifficult to raise global development issues for public debate, it can still be assumed that on the other handawareness of Kepa has been increased by the debate on the development funding cuts. Kepa also producedseveral opinion pieces in regional newspapers and agreed on a new kind of column cooperation with theregional newspaper Karjalainen where Kepa experts produce a global issues column for the paper once amonth. These kinds of activities have increased Kepa’s visibility and familiarised new audiences withdevelopment issues. The publicity analysis on 2016 commissioned by Kepa shows that Kepa managed and influenced itspublicity in an excellent manner: we managed our publicity as the primary actor of the article in 40% of thearticles. We also influenced our publicity in 28% of the hits. In these cases the primary actor was some otherparty, but we still had influence on our publicity and on what was discussed in the public domain. Both ratescan be regarded as excellent as normally Finnish organisations manage their publicity in around one in threehits and influence their publicity in around one in ten hits.

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The publicity gained by Kepa was also mainly positive, and in practice there was no negative publicity at all.The rate of positive publicity also increased to 12% of the total publicity rate, which can be regarded as agood result as the publicity of the public and third sector is usually a lot more neutral. Our strong social media communications have been our advantage in our policy work as we have managed tohave direct discussions with policy-makers on current matters on Twitter in particular. On the other hand, ithas been challenging to create a dialogue at times. Positive feedback has been received particularly fromopposition parties about Kepa’s publications and materials supporting their work.

4.3 Learning and effectiveness are promoted by planning, monitoring and evaluation

Kepa’s performance management system is based on the outcome mapping method. The choice of methodwas supported by the evaluation of CSOs receiving programme support from the Ministry for ForeignAffairs according to which outcome mapping provides good support to bottom-up planning and internalperformance management. Kepa employees’ competencies in the use of the method were strengthenedthrough training and mentoring during the year. Teams had a clear understanding about the importance ofperformance management and monitoring: Monitoring data is collected systematically, and the teams aredeveloping their work continuously. Kepa was active in the external evaluation process concerning CSOs receiving programme support, withKepa positioned in the third phase that began in August. Through the quality and effectiveness workinggroup of CSOs included in the Partnership Agreement scheme of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs,Kepa also provided other CSOs with support including compilation of CSO perspectives for meetings withthe ministry and the consultant. As regard’s Kepa own evaluation, the evaluation team was supported as wellas possible during the autumn. Kepa also commissioned a supplementary external evaluation concerning our work to support civil societiesin the South in 2010–16, with the British INTRAC selected for the assignment. The results can be used forthe planning of our programme for 2018–21. Kepa’s capacity to seek and create relevant partnerships in the South was strengthened with an updatedpartnership tool package. Kepa’s internal global interaction was adapted in response to our decreasedpresence in the South. During the year we worked for the development of openness, effectiveness and transparency of CSO work.For example, we tested Swedish reporting system increasing openness in CSO work, the Akvo Really SimpleReporting tool that can be used as a hub for the publication of development cooperation project data. Theaim was to examine the suitability of the system for the publication of development CSO project data inFinland and find out whether it might be useful in reporting carried out to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.Kepa tested the tool in a trial project with eight participating CSOs. It was, however, found on the basis offeedback from CSOs participating in the workshop and the testing of the tool that the tool is expensive,requires a lot of working hours and currently also results in work overlapping with other reporting. Thesystem would work well in particular to improve the flow of information between CSOs and otherdevelopment actors and, thanks to its IATI compatibility, would help meet the international opennessrequirement. On the basis of the trial use, however, it was not the best tool for the communication of resultsto the general public or reporting to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which were important aims for theCSOs.

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5 ADMINISTRATION

A lot of work for our administration was generated by the phasing out of the functions terminated due to ourfunding cuts as well as the reorganisation of the remaining functions. Two country offices were closed downas the employment contracts of their expatriate staff ended. The fixed assets of the offices were sold, andtheir archives were moved to Helsinki. A minor amount of items and books were donated to local CSOs. Theclosing down of our Nicaragua office, which had been operating for a long time, took almost six months dueto mandatory measures required by authorities.

5.1 Kepa uses its resources efficiently and sustainably

The planned subletting of our premises in Helsinki did not take place before the end of the year despitenegotiations taking place with various parties throughout the year. Demand and supply did not meet until theSosped Foundation operating in the same building expressed its need for extra space and the lease agreementwas signed with effect from the beginning of 2017. Our Procurement Rules were renewed to better reflect legislation and Kepa’s values. However, the year 2016was characterised by disposal of assets rather than new procurement. In addition to the two offices closeddown, vehicles were also sold at other offices as expatriate staff returned to Finland. Our Maputo and Dar esSalaam offices moved into lower-rent premises. In information management we had to switch to the Microsoft Office365 product family for cost reasons,with the entire personnel receiving training in its use in early autumn. Our Kepa-maintained servers werereplaced by virtual servers for cost as well as information security reasons. Our environmental programme monitoring was suspended due to human resource cuts in administration, butthe programme was implemented in accordance with the objectives set. Two interim statements of accounts were drawn up, with the transition period costs covered in the first oneby surplus from the previous year and with the second one being an ordinary mid-year budget review.

5.2 Kepa’s staff is professional and motivated and has capacity for renewal

The year 2016 was characterised by the implementation of the government cut decisions and the results ofnegotiations under the statutory cooperation procedure that resulted in the termination of several positionsand contractual employment relationships. The termination of 13 positions of our Helsinki office as well asthe closing down of two country offices and major reductions in country office administration staff was ahard process for everyone. Regardless of this, the results of the atmosphere survey conducted at the turn ofthe year show that the majority of our staff still remain committed to their work and regard their workmeaningful, and as many as 83% of them find the atmosphere good – with the figure down only 4 percentagepoints on the figure seen two year earlier. The largest drop in satisfaction took place in the experience offairness and the experience of openness in internal communications. Although parts of our functions were clearly terminated due to the funding cuts, we also had to reassign andprioritise tasks and make decisions on what else will not be done at all during the year. Some of theterminated positions continued well into the summer, which maintained a feeling of impermanence. Inaccordance with the decision made, our entire staff were laid off for two weeks during the summer, in

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addition to which some administration and management staff were laid off on a part-time basis. All thismade the year restless and caused a burden on those responsible for wellbeing at work in particular. The support measures agreed for those whose employment was terminated and other change-relatedprocesses were also reflected in occupational health care costs, which increased year-on-year. The measureswere, however, regarded as necessary for healing after the crisis faced by the workplace community andwere mostly regarded as useful. Personnel training funds were also used to support the process of change.

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6 MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Kepa’s annual meetings were held in the Kepa office in Helsinki, the Spring Meeting on 22 April and theAutumn Meeting on 25 November. A total 13.1% of MOs participated in the Spring Meeting and 10.3% inthe Autumn Meeting. The Kepa Board had eight meetings over the year, with the June meeting being alonger one relating to the evaluation of the previous strategy. Board members’ participation rate was ratherhigh at 67%, and all meetings constituted a quorum. Kepa’s strategy period 2012–17 is about to end, so preparations for the next strategy period were launched in2016. In the autumn, four analysis events on the operating environment open to all MOs were organised inpreparation for the continuation of the strategy process in 2017. A new window was, however, openedalongside the strategy process when a group of Kepa and Finnish NGDO Platform to the EU Kehys membersbrought up the synergy needs between the functions of these two development sector umbrella organisationsand the potential for more efficient cooperation. The process was MO-driven, and Fiant Consulting Oy wasselected to assess the opportunities for the combination of Kepa and Kehys into one entity, which produced areport on the alternatives available regarding the combination and conducted a survey on the matter amongMO representatives. A total of 104 CSOs responded to the Fiant survey: 101 Kepa MOs (33% of MO total) and 26 Kehysmember associations (70% of total), with 23 of these members of both umbrella organisations. The mostsupported option among members was the merger of Kepa and Kehys: this was supported by 31.4% of allrespondents and 48.5% of Kehys member associations. The CSOs believe that a merger could increaseoperational efficiency and effectiveness and the organisation’s capacity to offer more comprehensiveservices would increase. The CSOs underlined that it would be particularly important to maintain thestrengths of both organisations in the merger. Work on the organisation and operating model of the future ofKepa and Kehys continues in 2017. Kepa’s management focused particularly on Board work and the strategy process, including support to themerger negotiations of Kepa and Kehys, and, in the aftermath of the employment contract terminations, ledthe adaptation to the new programme period with reduced resources. The employee satisfaction surveyshowed that our personnel recovered surprisingly well from the stressful negotiations under the statutorycooperation procedure due to the need to reduce human resources. The year saw Kepa implement measuressupporting wellbeing at work, such as closer contacts between directors and team leaders, and training forteam leaders in team work leadership and addressing difficult issues. The management and leadership structure of our work in the South was renewed in early spring as theTanzanian and Mozambican country offices were combined under one regional director based in Dar esSalaam. The administrative management duties and relations with authorities of the Mozambican office wereassigned under the duties of the office manager. Long-term local Kepa employees were appointed to bothpositions. The position of the last director posted from Finland was terminated at the end of the year.

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