Norec (from English ''Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation'') is a Norwegian

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

al body financing two-way mutual personnel exchange between companies and organisations in Norway and similar companies and organisations in the

global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

– that is countries in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

. Previous to 2018, the organisation was named FK Norway. Norec was founded as Fredskorpset (meaning ''the Peace Corps'' in Norwegian) in 1963, based on ideas of

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

's American

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

. It was relaunched in 2000 to promote mutual international exchange of young people. Norec is an administrative body, reporting to the

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Norwegian or ''Utenriksdepartementet''; or ''Utanriksdepartementet''; UD) is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway. It was established on June 7, 1905, the same day the Parliament of ...

. It funds exchange programmes between various colleges, organisations, businesses etc. in the southern and northern hemispheres. By 2018, more than 9000 participants had been posted abroad for an average period of one year. FK Norway has regional networks in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Norway. Tor Elden was

secretary general Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

and later director of FK Norway in the period 2000–2008. He was succeeded by

Nita Kapoor Nita Kapoor (born 24 November 1956) is a Norwegian cultural director. She has worked extensively with culture, media and communications as well as immigrants' issues in Norway and women's issues globally. She migrated to Norway from India in 1967. ...

, who was the director from 2009 to 2018. Jan Olav Baarøy has served as the Director General since 2018. Until 2018, the head office was located in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. That year it was moved to

Førde Førde is a former municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It was located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative center was the town of Førde which in 2016 had 10,255 inhabitants. Other villages in Før ...

as part of the national government's decentralisation policy. It also has regional offices in

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

References

External links

Official site

Social site for the global FK network
International volunteer organizations Organisations based in Oslo Government agencies of Norway Organizations established in 1963 1963 establishments in Norway {{Norway-org-stub

See also

References

External links