Mission East

Mission East is a Danish relief and development NGO. The organisation was founded in 1991 by Rene Hartzner, and works with emergency relief aid, rehabilitation and development in Afghanistan, Armenia, Myanmar, Iraq, Nepal, North Korea, the Syrian crisis and Tajikistan.

Mission East
Founded1991
FounderRene Hartzner
FocusEmergency relief, rehabilitation and development
Location
Area served
Eastern Europe and Asia
Websitehttps://missioneast.org/

Mission East works with a broad variety of humanitarian and developmental issues, including assistance to improve clean water supply, health and hygiene awareness, household agriculture, people with disability, infrastructure, and passing on skills to local people.

Specific projects have included a beekeeping cooperative in Afghanistan, a clubroom project in Armenia for children with and without disability, livelihood support of children in Nepal, livelihood projects in the Roma community in Romania and small-scale agriculture projects in Tajikistan. Mission East also works with an array of partner organisations and carries out disaster relief activities.

2020 controversy

In June 2020, Managing Director, Kim Hartzner, was dismissed by the then board of directors due to financial irregularities. The issue goes back to 2006 when the independent auditor, Deloitte, had criticized Mission East’s accounting practices for being unlawful. Income from the following year was included in the accounts for the current year to make it look better than it was. The board at the time demanded from Kim Hartzner to make sure the practice was changed. When that did not happen, the board resigned in 2010. At the organization’s annual meeting on June 21st 2020, Kim Hartzner’s father, René Hartzner, brought forward a vote of no confidence against the board; according to him, there was no fault to be found in the accounting practice that Deloitte had criticized. 37 out of the 38 present members passed the vote of no confidence. A new board of directors was elected with no further questions from the assembled. Encouraged by René Hartzner, the new board reinstated Kim Hartzner as Managing Director. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked for a written statement from Mission East about the course of events. In early July 2020, Kim Hartzner stepped down as Managing Director, with a new role foreseen for him as fundraiser in the organisation.

Sectoral Expertise

Mission East focuses on:

  • Rural community development
  • Disaster Response

Core sectors of operation are:

  • Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
  • Food security
  • Livelihoods
  • Disability and Inclusion
  • Disaster Risk Reduction

Institutional Funding
  • Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Danish Mission Council Development Department
  • CISU (Civil Society in Development)
  • ECHO (The Commission’s European Community Humanitarian Office)
  • EuropeAid
  • German Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)
  • UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)
  • UNOCHA (UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Aid)
  • PATRIP

Accreditations
  • CHS (Core Humanitarian Standard) – certified compliant since 2017
  • SPHERE (Humanitarian Charter & Minimum Standards in Disaster Response)
  • Red Cross Code of Conduct
  • ECHO FPA (European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department’s Framework Partnership Agreement)

Affiliations
  • EU-CORD
  • Danish Mission Council Development Department
  • CISU
  • VOICE
  • ISOBRO
  • CONCORD
  • Globalt Fokus
  • Integral Alliance
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