Satu Santala appointed Associate Vice-President at the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development

NordenBladet — Satu Santala, Director General of the Department for Development Policy in the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has been appointed Associate Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). IFAD is a specialised agency of the UN. In IFAD, as Associate Vice-President, Satu Santala aims to strengthen funding base in order to advance food security in developing countries.In her new role as Associate Vice-President, Satu Santala will head IFAD’s External Relations and Governance Department.  She will take up her duties at the organisation’s headquarters in Rome in early December.IFAD is an international development finance institution and one of the UN’s specialised agencies. It is one of the world’s largest providers of funding for agriculture and rural development in the poorest countries. The organisation promotes food security and nutrition and works to reduce rural poverty in developing countries.“IFAD works to improve the food security and livelihoods of the most vulnerable people, which is important to me. From the perspective of food security, climate change, biodiversity loss and the COVID-19 pandemic are all big issues. Food links everyone on the planet together,” says Satu Santala.Santala joined the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1996. In 2013–2016, she served on the World Bank’s Board of Directors in Washington DC. For the past five years, she has served as Director General of the Department for Development Policy of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.“My aim is to strengthen IFAD’s funding base. I will seek various partnerships to improve the livelihoods of poor farmers and, on the other hand, to advance food security in developing countries,” says Santala.Finland is a long-term supporter and partner of IFAD. In 2020, more than 23 million people benefited from IFAD’s financial services and 3.7 million people received training in income-generating activities or business management. Almost 1.7 million hectares of land was brought under climate resilient practices. 

Source: Valtioneuvosto.fi