Invitation to the launch of stakeholder consultations on Africa strategy

The stakeholder consultations on Finland’s Africa strategy will start on 30 September at 13.00–14.30 with an online event open to all.

Kuvassa on Suomen Afrikka-strategian logo eli afrikanmuotoinen, sinivalkoinen, viivoista koostuva ääriviivakuva sekä nainen lääkäriasussa.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is currently formulating the Government’s Africa strategy, which aims to develop Finland’s political and economic relations with African countries, the African Union and other regional organisations on the continent.  Finland’s relations with the sub-Saharan countries are based on effective development cooperation on which broader cooperation can be built.  Finland’s diplomatic and trade relations with the North African countries are already quite strong but the potential for more exists. 

The strategy aims to increase the goal-orientation and consistency of Finland’s Africa strategy and to decide on the number of focus areas in development cooperation. The focus areas will be selected based on the common interests of Finland and the African countries. 

However, diversifying the connections in different sectors between Finland and the countries in Africa will not succeed with the state’s measures alone. For this reason, representatives from the civil society, business and industry, educational and research institutions and Africa will be broadly consulted in formulating the strategy. 

The event will begin with speeches by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto and Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari. At the event, State Secretary Johanna Sumuvuori, who chairs the steering group on Africa strategy, will discuss the perspectives and possibilities of Finland’s Africa strategy with a group of experts in Finnish-African cooperation.

Please register for the event here(Link to another website.) by Monday 28 September at 16.00. The event will be organised as a Zoom meeting, a link to which will be sent to those registered for the event. The event will also be streamed on the Foreign Ministry’s Twitter pages.

A more detailed programme of the event will be announced closer to the date.

Read more about the preparation of Finland’s Africa strategy at um.fi/afrikka-strategia.

Follow the discussion on the Africa strategy on social media using the hashtag #afrikkastrategia.

Please join us in creating Finland’s Africa strategy!