The KIOS 2024 Annual Report has been published

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The KIOS Annual Report shows how, despite the world taking a turn from the perspective of human rights, our grantees keep defending democracy, fighting for corporate responsibility and ensuring equality and democracy through local actions. In 2024, KIOS funded 52 human rights projects or programmes in East Africa and South Asia.

2024 marked a year of both profound challenges and remarkable resilience for human rights defenders worldwide. Civil societies faced mounting restrictions, with governments imposing new regulations to suppress dissent and limit freedoms. Funding for development cooperation and civic organisations has seen major changes and cuts. Anti-gender ideologies, state-sanctioned discrimination, and the persecution of minorities intensified, while the global silence around crises like the genocide in Gaza exposed deep fractures in international solidarity.

In the face of these setbacks, new forms of cooperation and grassroots leadership have emerged. In countries like Kenya, young people took bold steps to demand justice and accountability, signaling a new generation of human rights advocates unwilling to be silenced. Across the human rights community, the necessity to focus on essential priorities and support one another’s work has become more urgent than ever.

“Our grantees and all of us working in human rights must now adapt to a new era and fight for human rights without the support that was previously available. — Now we need to consider which issues are essential and focus our efforts by supporting each other’s work.” reminds KIOS Executive Director Kim Remitz in the foreword of the report.

What did we achieve?

During the year, KIOS funded 52 human rights projects or programmes, 30 of which were in East Africa and 22 in South Asia. Last year, KIOS directed €1,254,000 to human rights work in developing countries. In the 19 projects or programmes that concluded last year:

  • 176,280 people directly benefited from KIOS-funded human rights work
  • 108,300 human rights defenders and right-holders raised their awareness about human rights
  • 31 000 people received legal aid or assistance
  • 460 public officials and political decision-makers were trained on human rights issues.

In 2024, KIOS grantees secured legal victories, influenced policies, defended communities and expanded civic space in Nepal, Uganda, Kenya and Sri Lanka – by empowering grassroots groups, advancing gender equality, and promoting environmental and human rights accountability in challenging contexts.

In Finland, KIOS strengthened human rights advocacy by participating in national policy forums, training finnish NGOs on rights-based approaches, raising public awareness through campaigns and events, and amplifying the voices of human rights defenders in Finnish media and civil society discussions.

Download the annual report (in English) and read more about our work in 2024!

For an accessible version, please read the summary here on our website.