FRANCAISNorwegian Refugee Council - Comments
3) The financial resources
-Regarding the financial resources, NRC depends heavily on public funding, mainly the Norwegian Government. The organisation has tried to diversify its income by running slot machines, developing gambling on Internet and accepting subsidies from the Norwegian oil company Statoil, as in Azerbaijan. Donations by individuals are low since NRC’s fundraising competes with NGOs that are part of its organisation. The proportion of private sponsoring did not substantially raise after the Asiatic tsunami of December 2004, despite a common fundraising (Fellesaksjonen) with NCA, NPA and Save the Children. Slot machines still provide the main bulk of the private financial resources. NRC, whose governing board includes a representative from the Norwegian oil industry, has thus taken a different stance than NGOs like NCA, which condemns gambling and denounces the corporate responsibility of trans-national companies in Third-World countries where they finance dictatorships and the military. Yet the partnership NRC built with businessmen did not avoid the problem of earmarking. In 2003, for instance, Statoil decided to restrict its direct funding only to countries where it operates, as in Georgia along the pipeline that exports oil produced in Azerbaijan.
