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Ivar Tallo Received OEF's Concord Award

The Open Estonia Foundation yesterday announced the laureate of the traditional Concord award, which is dedicated to OEF’s 20th anniversary this year. 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 Carribean country – a project currently on hold due to the earthquake in January.

OEF’s Executive Director Mall Hellam characterizes Tallo as a person always able to see the bigger picture and make his knowledge about new technologies work for the benefit of the 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 yesterday.

Tallo has been a professor 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 to 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 the courageous support campaign to their partner school in Gori, Georgia, which had been damaged in Russia’s bomb attacks.