Finland’s Rural Development Strategy for international development

Finland's Rural Development Strategy for international development (Opens New Window) (PDF, 784 kB)

The main objective of Finland’s development policy is to eradicate extreme poverty from the world. Given the fact that three fourths of the poor in the world live in rural areas, the adoption of rural development as one of our key objectives is well grounded. This objective also contributes to the attainment of the first goal of the Millennium Declaration – to halve the proportion of people who suffer from poverty and hunger by 2015.

In this document, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs suggests that Finland address rural development in its development policy, and identify its principles, priorities and channels. The Strategy outlines the key directions to actions that should be specified and elaborated in the work that is carried out at a country level or with different organisations.