OEF celebrates its good work

TALLINN - On April 20, the Open Estonia Foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary. A brand new book, ‘Becoming Estonia’ was published on April 20, which discusses OEF’s history through stories and photos.

The foundation was established in April 1990, with support from philanthropist George Soros, to help Estonia build a free society and develop relations with the democratic world. One of OEF’s first initiatives was a training program for Estonian farmers in the U.S. OEF also organized seminars on privatization and media freedom, gave travel grants to Estonian experts to participate in international meetings, and supported young people’s studies at universities in the West.
In two decades the foundation has carried out and supported initiatives for more than 500 million kroons (32 million euros) in tens of different fields, from medicine to media and from modern art to e-governance. “We believe we have managed to do our best to initiate social changes in Estonia, but it seems we will have enough work for the next 20 years as well,” said OEF’s Executive Director Mall Hellam, who has been leading OEF since its first days.

Several new ideas and programs initiated by the Open Estonia Foundation have by now developed into independent organizations, such as Debate Estonia, Estonian Center for Contemporary Arts, Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations, Center for Policy Studies Praxis, and the pre-school education program Head Start. Moreover, the Open Estonia Foundation announced the laureate of the traditional Concord award, which is dedicated to OEF’s 20th anniversary. Ivar Tallo, political scientist and former politician, received the award for promoting open governance, freedom of speech and electronic democracy in Estonia and abroad. He is also leading Estonia’s cooperation with Haiti on building e-democracy in the Caribbean country, a project currently on hold due to the earthquake in January.
OEF’s Executive Director Mall Hellam characterizes Tallo as a person always positive about the future who makes his knowledge about new technologies work for the benefit of society as a whole. “With his open mind and vision for the future, Tallo is a true citizen of the world, while being an Estonian patriot,” Hellam said.

Tallo has been a professor and foreign policy adviser to the former Estonian president Lennart Meri, the author of the Public Service Code of Ethics, and one of the authors of the Public Information Act. As one of the founders and a board member of the e-Governance Academy, he has shared Estonian e-democracy experience with governments and civil society organizations in more than 40 countries.

The Concord award was established in 1997 to honor people who have helped create a more open society. Among previous laureates are many influential opinion leaders, journalists, professors and civic activists. Last year’s prize was awarded to Kolga Secondary School for its courageous support campaign to their partner school in Gori, Georgia, which had been damaged in Russia’s bomb attacks.