Unit for Eastern and Southern Africa

The Unit for Eastern and Southern Africa handles Finland's relations with the countries, regional organisations and other bodies operating in the region. The Unit is also responsible for matters that concern the Africa policy of Finland and the European Union in general and across the continent.

The Unit is responsible for the following issues:

• prepares and coordinates Finland's political, trade political, commercial and development policy objectives, policies and positions, which concern Finland's relations with the countries, inter-regional organisations and other bodies and processes in the region;
• defines the objectives of development cooperation, prepares and presents programmes and projects and handles them in the Ministry's internal coordination system, as well as takes care of their management and supervision;
• handles matters relating to state and ministerial visits to and from the region, maintains contacts with the countries of the region through, for example, bilateral consultations, export promotion, and participation in multi-stakeholder negotiations and donor consultations that concern development cooperation;
• prepares Finland's positions and represents Finland in EU working groups and committees dealing with matters concerning the region; develops the network of Finnish missions in the region and steers their work, among other things, by organising regional meetings, assessing the heads of missions' annual plans of action and holding annual consultations with them, and assessing the missions’ annual plans;
• coordinates matters concerning the region with other departments of the Ministry, especially the Political Department, the Department for International Trade, and the Department for Development Policy, including, as required, with other state administration bodies;
• handles general questions relating to the Africa policy conducted by Finland and the European Union and to the formulation of related CFSP positions;
• deals with horizontal questions concerning the continent, such as peace and security, migration, climate issues, radicalisation, general development questions;
• regional organisations: African Union (AU), East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).