Who's who in Finnish development policy?
Who are the main actors in Finnish development policy? Where and in what capacity do they serve? What do they consider the main priorities of the moment? Please meet some of the central figures.
A lot has happened since the founding of the Finnish Bureau for International Development Aid, headed by Jaakko Iloniemi, in 1965. His first subordinate was Martti Ahtisaari, a future president of the nation. In the following decades, many prominent and internationally known figures shaped Finland's development policy, from UN Deputy Secretary-General Helvi Sipilä to UNMIK boss and speaker of the 2001 UN General Assembly Harri Holkeri, Under-Secretary General Elisabeth Rehn and Pekka Haavisto, who held several important UN positions before being appointed the European Union's Special Representative in Sudan in 2005.
But instead of repeating past glories, let's turn the spotlight on some of today's key players.
Inside the Ministry
Paavo Väyrynen</b>, the present Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, is a veteran of the field, having been in charge of Finland's development policy already in the 1970s and 1980s while serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs. In the European Parliament, of which he was a member from 1995 to 2007, Mr Väyrynen was active in the foreign affairs committee.
"The new development policy programme, approved in October 2007, sets the framework within which we operate. As its title, 'Towards a sustainable and just world community', implies, development policy encompasses not only development aid but all the measures we undertake to improve humanity's future," he explains.
The Minister stresses that development policy must be economically, socially and ecologically sustainable. "However, ecologically sustainable development cannot be achieved unless the ways of production and consumption change also in the developed world."
"Poverty reduction continues to be the main goal of Finland's development policy, but we have to work hard to advance the achievement of the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well. The implementation and operationalisation of the development policy programme is our top priority right now."
Alongside Minister Väyrynen, Under-Secretary of State Marjatta Rasi leads the Ministry's development work. Chair of the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Group and Governor for Finland in the Asian, African and Inter-American Development Banks, Ms Rasi has been in the Foreign Service since 1970. She has previously served, for example, as Finland's Ambassador to India and Permanent Representative to the UN. In 2002–2004 she was first Vice-President and then President of the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
"I just returned from Namibia, a country that gained its independence when Finland was a member of the Security Council. After independence Namibia became one of the recipients of Finland's development aid. Now we are by mutual accord moving on to economic and commercial cooperation between two equal countries. Transitions like this strengthen one's faith in development policy," Ms Rasi says.
Ritva Koukku-Ronde has served as Director General at the Department for Development Policy as of 2005. She is also a member of the Advisory Group of the ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum that will hold its first session in July 2008.
"The year 2008 will see significant follow-ups of international development commitments. The Paris Declaration will be discussed in Accra in September, and at the end of the year development funding will be on the table in Doha."
From environmental expertise...
The importance of climate and environmental policies is recognised both in the development policy programme and by the Government.
Outi Berghäll, a Ministry of the Environment official who has represented Finland in many international negotiations and dealt with environmental and urbanization questions in the developing countries, emphasises the need to turn the principles of the development policy programme into concrete actions.
"Climate change has increased global awareness on the centrality of the environmental aspect in the achievement of the MDGs. Developing countries are also beginning to see the situation in a new light. A real window of opportunity is opening for us to support sustainable policy decisions in the South."
...to business solutions
With the mainstreaming of ecological sustainability, companies engaged in environmental technology have gained a more visible role.
Jussi Nykänen founded GreenStream Network in 2001 with the aim of making a business out of the heated academic and policy debates on environmental and energy questions. He sees curbing climate change as the most important global challenge of the moment. To succeed in this, emissions must be slashed in the rapidly growing developing countries. One concrete measure towards this end is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
"About half of all CDM projects have been undertaken in China, but other developing countries are also waking up to CDM's potential. Whereas the focus used to rest solely on major endeavours, smaller scale projects are now being realised as well. Their benefits are more concrete and easier to notice in people's everyday life."
Various consultancy agencies have long played an important part in Finnish development policy. In the past few years many of them have merged with other Finnish or European companies. Tor Lundström leads Niras Finland (ex-Scanagri), the Finnish branch of the Danish Niras Group, while the forestry specialist Indufor is headed by Tapani Oksanen, a recent returnee from the World Bank. Indufor's acting management bought the company from the investment company Capman in 2007.
Finnish corporations with a global reach also carry development political weight. Says Ilkka Lakaniemi, head of global political dialogue and initiatives at Nokia Siemens Networks: "New forms of cooperation must be invented, in particular between the public and private sectors. This will also enable the use of Finnish expertise as part of international efforts."
Between public and private sectors
Finnvera, a state-owned export credit agency, is a well-established actor in public-private partnerships. Finnvera's Deputy Managing Director Topi Vesteri wants to see more visible information campaigns on development cooperation projects and their impact. He thinks that only a small elite has adopted a pro-development aid mindset, while the average Finn's attitudes could be a lot more favourable than at present.
Jaakko Kangasniemi, who had worked at the World Bank, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and as researcher in Rwanda before his appointment as Managing Director at the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (Finnfund), emphasises the private sector's lead role in improving productivity in developing countries. "We have already seen good results in many Asian countries. Similar poverty reducing forces should now be set in motion in Africa."
"The consumer is rapidly becoming the king in developing countries too. Competitive markets and private enterprises are replacing state-planning and monopolies, personal choices outweigh bureaucracy, and decision makers can no longer control information flows. In many ways the genie has come out of the bottle," Mr Kangasniemi delineates.
In his opinion it is time to rethink development assistance which continues to focus mainly on the public sector. To back the argument, he gives a practical example: "Finland has supported two development projects at the Port of Dar es Salaam. The container port has been privatised and it functions efficiently. Other parts of the Port are run by the state, in a way that poses a major hindrance to the whole country's development."
A bank for empowering women
In 2007, HRM Partners Managing Director Anni Vepsäläinen, together with a group of other prominent Finnish women, founded Women's Bank, a fund that promotes women's education and entrepreneurial opportunities in developing countries through FinnChurchAid.
Ms Vepsäläinen urges Finland to show more responsibility by raising its development aid to 0.7 percent of the GDP. She also calls for effective monitoring of aid-effectiveness and the development of new innovations facilitating sustainable development.
One of Women's Bank's best-known supporters is Sari Baldauf, former Nokia board member and Vice President who now serves, for example, in the boards of F-Secure, Hewlett-Packard, SanomaWSOY and the International Youth Foundation (IYF). IYF is an independent NGO promoting development through improvements in the conditions and prospects of young people.
Academic expertise
Within the academia, Helsinki School of Economics Professor Pertti Haaparanta is among those who influence the development policy agenda. An active public debater, Professor Haaparanta's research has focused on the effects of globalisation.
Another influential professor, Juhani Koponen, who heads the Department of Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, advocates consistency in Finnish development policy.
"The most important thing is to continue the practices that have proven effective during the past two decades and to stay clear of the methods of the 1980s. I welcome the new development policy programme and its emphasis on ecological sustainability. However, the programme's 'creative implementation' must not override the emerging practices of partnership and harmonisation that have been sought in recent years and without which good results cannot be achieved."
Finns in important international positions
Ritva Reinikka's international career began 30 years ago at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Before joining the World Bank in 1993, she had worked as researcher at Oxford University and the Helsinki School of Economics. After three years as the Country Director for all of southern Africa, she recently returned to the Bank's headquarters in Washington.
"Africa has always been a priority for Finland, and it is that for the World Bank too. While some parts of the continent have seen economic growth, fair elections and improvements in democracy, many small landlocked countries are caught in the trap of civil war, exploitation of natural resources and poor governance. In such places the standard poverty reduction measures fail to deliver results. What they need is peacekeepers, liberalisation of agricultural imports and education", Ms Reinikka urges.
"The three years I spent in Africa changed the way I see the role of mid-income countries. We have long held the view that the best way to help Africa is to direct all aid to the poorest countries, but the success of mid-income countries is also vital."
Mari Simonen, who was appointed the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2006 after some 25 years in the organisation, highlights the importance of long-term commitment to improving human and women's rights and sexual and reproductive health programmes.
Forestry, finance and labour
But not all Finns in high international positions are women. Jan Heino has been serving as Assistant Director-General at the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), where he is currently the chief of the Forestry Department.
"Finland has a great opportunity to concentrate on promoting sustainable forestry. Preventing deforestation, for example, is something in which urgent large-scale action is necessary," the ex-Director-General of Metsähallitus, the Finnish state forest enterprise, says.
Jyrki Koskela, Vice President for Financial Markets, Funds, and Africa at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), believes that an increasing share of development aid will be directed to boosting private sector growth strategies. This is due to two factors: On the one hand, a lot of development aid is not used effectively and fails to reach its goals. On the other, the pool of public funds for development is simply insufficient. Public funding can serve as a lever in attracting more private capital.
"However, money and other short-term solutions will not cure the disease. Instead, they distort the market. The only real remedy is to support scenarios in which sustainable domestic solutions help countries escape poverty", Mr Koskela asserts.
Yet another Finnish development heavyweight with international clout is Kari Tapiola, Executive Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Before joining the ILO in 1996, Mr Tapiola worked at the OECD, the UN and the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK).
Development as part of foreign policy
According to Nina Suomalainen, the newly appointed Chair of the Finnish Development Policy Committee and Senior Advisor to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities, coherence is the key word.
"To achieve consistency between our foreign and security policy and our development goals, we must take into account the impacts of all of our policies on poor countries and their people. Conflicts and crises, for instance, hinder development in many countries. Conflict prevention as well as civilian and, if necessary, military crisis management must be among Finland's foreign policy priorities. Promoting human rights is another way of advancing development."
Ms Suomalainen's predecessor at the Development Policy Committee, Gunvor Krunman, currently serves as the Chair of the Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA).
A busy couple
The home of Risto Isomäki and Jaana Airaksinen in the town of Bromarv is a genuine powerhouse of civic activism. An acclaimed non-fiction and sci-fi author, Mr Isomäki's recent activities include campaigns for an increase in development aid, the Nestlé boycott and the Coalition for Environment and Development's projects in South Asia, Vietnam, Brazil, Mexico and southern and eastern Africa.
Ms Airaksinen's resume includes campaigns relating to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), publishing Voima, a Finnish monthly, working for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Papua New Guinea, Malawi and the United States, and serving as KEPA's Vice Director.
Mr Isomäki's gravest concern at the moment is global warming: "The challenge is to find ways of fighting climate change that also help to reduce poverty and suffering from illnesses. This is not as difficult as one might think, for the list of the developing countries' worst problems has changed dramatically in the past 30 years. Air pollution may already be the most common cause of death in India and China. This can be alleviated with the same remedies that ward off global warming."
Ms Airaksinen brings up the long legacy of the war on terror, pointing out that entire generations are now being militarised. "As a result, human rights are eroded in many societies – also in the West."
Close to the people
Kristiina Kumpula, the Finnish Red Cross's Secretary-General, believes that a global movement of locally active networks is emerging that presses public and private actors to invest in basic infrastructure and sustainable development.
"It is essential to anticipate this in development policy and to seek new types of partnerships that enable long-term economic support and democratisation. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) occupy a role at the centre of development policy as promoters of participatory, communal and democratic practices.
To her, the modest visibility of development policy in Finnish public discussions is surprising, given that the majority of Finns are willing to support developing countries both through taxes and personal actions.
"Joint responsibility, solidarity and caring are the strengths of Finnish democracy," the Secretary-General states.
Text: Tiina Kirkas and Erja-Outi Heino
(Kehitys-Utveckling 1/08)