2009: Dutch Charity Lottery extends working field with ‘Democracy'.
Dutch Charity Lottery extends working field with ‘Democracy'.
The European Partnership for Democracy
(EPD) is very fortunate to have the Nationale Postcode Loterij from The
Netherlands as its main funder during
the establishment phase of the organisation. This private Charity
Lottery donates half of its income to 66 charities, of which the EPD became one
in 2008. Their gift of €1.5 million in a three years beneficiary relation,
gives our organization the financial confidence to plan strategically for the
coming period and at the same time to respond flexibly to needs of democracy
activists around the world. This is vital for an organization like EPD, which
works in countries where the opportunity to support democratic transition can
occur in a limited time-frame.
The EPD is delighted to cooperate with the
Lottery, as they are known to be an enlightened supporter of innovative
branches of global development. As a matter of fact the Lottery was amongst the
first to invest in the issue of Climate change, which with their help became a
world-wide priority. The EPD would like to work towards making Democracy an
equally big global priority by using the early investments of the Lottery in a
clever way. Because support for democracy directly changes the life of these
people, and because poor countries perform better in reaching the Millennium
Development Goals: This means that people's life expectancy is on average 10
years longer in democratizing countries, 50% more children enjoy education and
child mortality before the age of 5 decreases by 50% as well. Investing in
democratic governance fertilizes the efficient reception capacity of countries
for international aid.
Lotteries
have always played an important role in European societies: In the earliest democracy, there was no voting: the
Athenian Greeks had an annual lottery,
and every (male and free) citizen was in the pool. Dutch governors used Lotteries from the 17th century to raise
extra money from the people to implement infrastructural works. And also today, the Dutch participants in the
National Postcode Loterij raise €244 million annually for the support of good
causes concerning support for global human rights and the environment, which is
an incredible sign of solidarity with and private investment in the private
needs of people overseas.
An example of the work supported by the
Lottery in this area is the ‘Blair event' in the Hague on 8 May, organized by
the Climate Group, with the financial support of the Lottery. More
about this event.