This month, CONCORD spotlights the work of Ambrela. Platform for Development Organisations – Ambrela (formally launched in 2003) is an umbrella organisation of 29 mostly non-governmental organisations in Slovakia which focus on development cooperation, humanitarian aid, global education and sustainable development at home and abroad in Global South countries.

Ambrela is the most active and effective in achieving its three main goals: advocacy on the national and European level, capacity building of its members and awareness raising of the Slovak public towards solidarity, SDGs fulfilment as well as contribution to solving global challenges and humanitarian crisis in the world.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine Ambrela has been primarily active in two areas. It has been advocating towards the Slovak government (i) to secure funding for humanitarian aid for Ukraine and to enable the implementation through the civil society organisations and (ii) to put in place an effective humanitarian aid border transportation system. It has also served as the main coordination body and the interlocutor between the CSOs and the government regarding the humanitarian aid to Ukraine (including gathering and analysing data from its members in the field). 

Ambrela also responded to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine with a two-day international conference – Ambrela Development Forum (ADF) – held on 23–24 May in Bratislava. With more than 140 international development experts from 23 countries, it analysed the effects of this crisis in 5 discussion panels (available online here), 3 interactive workshops and side events, and sought solutions as well as recommendations for the humanitarian and development sector at national and EU level. The ADF conference focused not only on the development finance, innovations and migration aspects but also on emphasising the importance and the role of civil society in today’s world. 

Next month Ambrela together with its partners is planning to complete the implementation of EU funded ‘SDGs and migration‘ projects. The goal of its ‘Faces on Migration‘ campaign was to raise awareness of Slovak citizens about the reasons and ways of migration through the prism of international development. Since the end of February, there have been recorded more than 446.000 crossings through the Ukrainian-Slovak border, so the topic of migration (and particularly forced migration) cannot be avoided in public. Ambrela’s activities and shared stories of real faces of migration should help the general public to understand why people on the move as well as people on the run need our help, support, and acceptance.