NordenBladet — Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the EU Arctic Forum in Brussels on 10 November.“As an Arctic Member State of the EU, Finland has made determined efforts to promote the weight of the region in the EU, because the Arctic region is important not only for Finland but also for the whole of Europe and for the entire world,” says Minister for Foreign Affairs Haavisto.The fourth EU Arctic Forum will bring together key Arctic players and stakeholders to assess recent developments in the region and to discuss future challenges. The EU’s new Arctic Strategy, which was published recently, strengthens commitment to creating a greener, more stable and more prosperous Arctic region. The Arctic Indigenous Peoples Dialogue will also be continued at the Forum. The event will be opened by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and EU Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius. Foreign Minister Haavisto will participate in a high-level panel session on international cooperation in the Arctic. The panellists aim to discuss ways to maintain the security, stability, wellbeing and vitality of the Arctic region and to ensure that it remains an area of low tensions and peaceful multilateral cooperation. In addition to attending the Arctic Forum, Foreign Minister Haavisto will meet European Commissioners Jutta Urpilainen, Janez Lenarčič, Ylva Johansson and Olivér Várhelyi as well as Stefano Sannino, Secretary-General of the European External Action Service.
NordenBladet — Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen will host a ministerial meeting on Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) in Majvik, Kirkkonummi, on 9 to 10 November 2021. The Defence Ministers of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark will attend the meeting. The ministers will discuss the results of Finland’s chairmanship, the progress made in the course of this year and the regional security situation. The programme also includes a visit to the Coastal Brigade in Upinniemi. Minister Kaikkonen will hold a bilateral meeting with Odd Roger Enoksen, Norway’s new Minister of Defence.
NordenBladet — Finland and Belgium will co-chair the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) initiative for the next two years. As co-chair, Finland will have a stronger role in improving good humanitarian donorship practices at a time when the need for humanitarian assistance is higher than ever.The GHD is one of the most important cooperation forums of collaboration for humanitarian donors. The informal group consists of 42 donor governments and organisations, including the EU, which together contribute over 80 percent of global humanitarian funding. The GHD upholds the neutral and impartial nature of humanitarian assistance and strives to find best practices for effective and accountable donor policies.“Humanitarian assistance is a target of increasingly strong demands. Due to armed conflicts, terrorism and climate change, work in the operating environment has become more and more difficult. Donors have a big responsibility for how the humanitarian system functions and how emergency relief reaches best those in distress. Finland and Belgium have an important and unique role in facilitating these discussions,” says Finland’s Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari. The GHD’s importance is highlighted in the current humanitarian situation: humanitarian needs have increased considerably, but funding is lagging behind. It is therefore important to constantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of assistance and foster cooperation among donors. The members of the GHD initiative have endorsed 24 principles to guide official humanitarian assistance, strengthen accountability towards affected populations, and increase the complementarity and efficiency of donor policies. The principles emphasise, for example, the needs-based and non-political nature of humanitarian assistance and the role of beneficiaries, strengthen the minimum standards related to humanitarian assistance, and reaffirm the responsibility of donors to provide efficient funding and monitor and evaluate the results.The Finnish and Belgian co-chairship will strive to find better practices, focusing on disability inclusion, prevention of gender-based violence, and measures to prevent and mitigate the adverse effects of counter-terrorism on principled humanitarian action. Finland will conduct, for example, a study on how humanitarian organisations should take into account the needs of persons with disabilities both in their budgeting and in their activities. The new co-chairs’ term starts in November. The first meetings will focus on systemic changes affecting humanitarian assistance, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, power relations between donor governments and local humanitarian actors, and on decreasing the environmental impact of humanitarian assistance. The environmental theme was also at the heart of Finland’s previous GHD chairship in 2013.
NordenBladet — Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will discuss the EU’s global role in the Think Corner in Helsinki on 9 November. The aim is to hear people’s thoughts and wishes about the future of Europe. The event is part of Finnish ministers’ “We are Europe” tour.Minister Haavisto will exchange views with citizens on the EU’s global role on Tuesday 9 November at 9.00 –10.30 at the Think Corner on Yliopistonkatu 4 in Helsinki. Researcher Tyyne Karjalainen from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and Inka Sylgren, Vice Chair of the Board of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki will take part in the discussion. You can attend the event in person and present questions and views at the Think Corner. It is also possible to follow a webcast of the event and present questions and comments online. This autumn and winter, Finnish ministers will tour the country and listen to people’s ideas and wishes for the future of Europe. The citizens’ messages will be passed on as part of an EU-level debate on what kind of Europe we want to build. The “We are Europe” discussion events are part of the Conference on the Future of Europe.Read more about the event at the Think Corner and the Foreign Minister’s views on a globally stronger EU on the tour website and on Facebook. You can follow the event and comment also online as the event will be streamed live.
NordenBladet — Working life in Finland is strongly divided by gender. This means that many sectors and jobs have a clear majority of either female or male employees. Segregation maintains narrow gender stereotypes, prevents the full utilisation of skills, has a detrimental effect on the functioning of the labour market and is also reflected in the pay gap and, consequently, in pensions.The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has launched a broad-based cooperation project to develop new kinds of tools for improving the situation. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is responsible for the practical implementation of the project. The aim is to reduce segregation in working life and strengthen gender equality among all genders, equal pay and everybody’s actual opportunities of working in their desired field, irrespective of the assumptions and expectations related to gender. The project will be carried out regionally in cooperation with the pilot workplaces and other working life actors as well as with schools and educational institutions. To strengthen network cooperation, the project will bring together both the existing networks in the field of work and education and workplaces that are interested in developing their activities into pilot organisations. The aim of this cooperation is to create a permanent model for dismantling segregation. The project will also take a look at research literature, gender equality projects and workplaces to find best practices for dismantling segregation. In addition, it will draw up recommendations for political decision-makers on how to dismantle segregation on a more permanent basis. One of the outcomes of the project will be a toolbox designed for workplaces and educational institutions, which will be published on the Gender equality website of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. The toolbox will be spread widely to workplaces, education and training providers and educational institutions.The development project Dismantling segregation — tools for a more equal working life will be implemented in 2021–2023, and it is part of the joint Equal Pay Programme of the Government and the central labour market organisations. The project is based on the Programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Government, which includes the commitment to reducing the gender pay gap in a number of ways, for example by dismantling segregation in working life.
NordenBladet — The Government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin has made a good start in implementing the development policy entries in the Government Programme. However, there continues to be room for improvement. At present, the main focus should be on preparing a clear roadmap, extending beyond the current government term, in order to raise development finance to the UN’s recommendation of 0.7% of gross national income (GNI). The recommendation should be achieved by 2030.The opinion was expressed by the Development Policy Committee, which is an advisory body representing Finnish parliamentary parties and society at large. The Committee’s interim review gives recommendations that will enable Finland to better fulfil its international commitments, meet its global responsibility and increase the effectiveness of development policy as part of the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.The Development Policy Committee considers that, during this government term, particular attention should be paid not only to drawing up the roadmap but also to clarifying the responsibilities and division of labour in development cooperation and development policy within external relations and more broadly in central government across policy sectors. The role, monitoring and effectiveness of international climate finance should also be clarified. The Development Policy Committee commends the Government for the Report on Development Policy across Parliamentary Terms, which was presented to Parliament in September. The Report brings continuity to the development policy priorities and encourages multi-sectoral cooperation across administrative and organisational boundaries in the spirit of sustainable development. Closer collaboration between development cooperation, humanitarian assistance and the peace promotion are among the key reforms. In addition, such themes as education, climate and biodiversity feature more strongly in the Report than before.In the Development Policy Committee’s view, development finance and upgrading its various forms are key measures and targets for monitoring across several parliamentary terms. In addition, it is important to monitor the allocation and distribution of funding, for example, to the official development cooperation (ODA) administered by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and to other development cooperation as well as to funding in the form of grants and development policy investments and loans. Different forms of funding must promote development policy priorities and complement each other consistently. In the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, sufficient human resources must be allocated to development policy priorities and to related key themes.Among the members of the Development Policy Committee, the Finns Party does not agree with the sections of the report concerning the amount of development finance. According to the Finns Party, in future, development assistance should be paid only from the budget surplus.The Development Policy Committee proposes that the monitoring of development finance be clarified and made more transparent across the board. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs must develop statistical communication for stakeholders and the wider public. The Ministry should open a development assistance portal as soon as possible and make it accessible to everyone, and statistical communication with stakeholders and the wider public should be made a key part of it.
NordenBladet — The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is launching a project to ensure the availability of skilled labour in all sectors throughout Finland. Sectoral working groups will seek short- and long-term solutions to improve the match between job vacancies and unemployed job seekers. They will also take steps to identify ways of guaranteeing that the objectives set for labour migration can be met.The working groups tasked with preparing the roadmaps seek ways of improving methods of collecting data on sector-specific and regional labour needs. They will also prepare foresight scenarios. The objective of the roadmaps is to give the central government a clear picture of labour supply and demand, and to propose concrete solutions to labour availability problems in the short and long term. “Shortage of skilled workforce is already an obstacle to growth and investment in many sectors across Finland. With the roadmaps we aim to identify solutions that will address the skilled labour needs in different sectors and thereby to safeguard business growth and a continued positive employment trend,” says Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen, leader of the project steering group. Data gathered for the roadmap work will help to build foresight models on the sectoral skills demands across Finland, which in turn helps to identify and meet training and education needs. This makes it easier to form a clearer picture of the need for international recruitment and to identify the measures required to promote labour migration. Project to continue until the end of 2022 The project to identify sectoral and regional workforce needs will be launched on 8 November 2021, when the steering group and sectoral working groups begin their work. The sectoral groups and the steering group work under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Skills, competence, and mobility are essential for ensuring labour market matching, which is why the Ministry of Education and Culture will be closely involved in the preparations. In addition to specialists from the ministries, steering group members include labour market and business representatives (Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK, Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland, Confederation of Finnish Industries, Federation of Finnish Enterprises and Local Government and County Employers KT). The steering group will discuss the reports and proposals of the sectoral groups and make decisions on further action by the end of 2022. Giving a voice to employers and employeesEmployers and employees play a crucial role in the preparation of sectoral roadmaps by ensuring that the roadmaps optimally cater to the needs of each sector.“Those involved in the sector are naturally the best experts to say what their labour needs are. Some viewpoints have already been expressed on these themes. Preparing individual roadmaps for each sector will ensure employer engagement in the process and encourages genuine commitment on their part,” Minister Haatainen notes. Roadmaps will be prepared for nine sectors:1. Natural resources, food production and the environment 2. Business and administration 3. Education, culture and communication 4. Transport and logistics 5. Accommodation, food and beverage, travel and tourism 6. Built environment (7. Health, social and wellbeing services sector, sector group led by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in accordance with the decisions of the government budget session) 8. Technology industries and services 9. Process industry and production
NordenBladet — The Parties to the UN Climate Change Agreement will meet in Glasgow, Great Britain on 31 October–12 November. One of the conference’s key themes is adaptation to climate change and its funding, especially in developing countries. The least developed countries and the poorest people suffer the most from the impacts of climate change even though they contribute to it the least.Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will address the side events of the Adaptation Fund and REAP (Risk-informed Early Action Partnership) in a video greeting. During the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), Finland will announce a EUR 30 million funding package for new projects to develop weather and early warning services in developing countries. Cooperation in meteorology is an important part of Finland’s adaptation finance. The ongoing projects will indirectly benefit nearly 300 million people by improving weather and early warning services.Finland’s EUR 7 million contribution to the Adaptation Fund will be announced at the Fund’s side event. The Fund, which is an official financial mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC), finances climate change adaptation in vulnerable communities in developing countries. So far, more than 31 million people have benefited from the Fund’s projects that focus on climate-sustainable agriculture, food security, water resources management and forests. New tools include innovation funding windows that support adaptation innovations, including commercial ones.Minister Skinnari also took part in the launch of the new HIPCA fund of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. HIPCA (High Impact Partnership on Climate Action) is a multilateral multi-donor fund that aims to direct funds to projects that mitigate climate change and its impacts in the target countries and increase their climate resilience. Finland will invest approximately EUR 40 million in the fund, in addition to a EUR 2 million donation.The Champions Group on Adaptation Finance, which was launched at the UN General Assembly in September, will organise a side event of its own. The group consists of Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany. At the event, they discuss next steps for cooperation and welcome new members. Finland’s representative at the discussion will be Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Krista Mikkonen. During the event, Finland will launch the Lahti Adaptation Finance Dialogue, where climate financiers, the least developed countries and small developing island nations can discuss adaptation funding, facilitated by Finland.Rights of women and persons with disabilities on the agendaMinister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will take part as a panellist in a virtual side event of the COP26 named Sustainability, Equality, Peace: Integrating Climate Change & Women, Peace and Security Agendas. The panel will discuss the impact that climate change and conflicts have on the realisation of women’s rights.Climate Ambassador Jan Wahlberg will attend the Conference in Glasgow. Wahlberg’s agenda includes several bilateral meetings and speeches on climate themes that are important to Finland. Change. Wahlberg will give a keynote speech at a side event promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in climate action. Wahlberg will meet Wanjira Mathai, Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute and Kim Hyo-eun, South Korea’s Ambassador for Climate.“We continue to emphasise how important it is to ensure that people with disabilities and organisations representing them participate in climate work and to take into consideration their rights in climate measures,” Wahlberg says. Making Finland’s climate expertise visible on the Until We Act platformThe Until We Act platform, which presents Finnish climate expertise to the international audience, was also launched during the COP26. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Unit for Public Diplomacy, which serves as the secretariat of the Finland Promotion Board, is in charge of the platform.The international climate communications aims is to raise Finland’s climate profile abroad and to tell about Finnish expertise and solution-oriented approach in climate work.The President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö focused on these key messages in his speech at the World Leaders Summit in Glasgow. He emphasised that commitments alone are no longer enough in international climate cooperation: “Change may seem inconceivable but only until we act.”The Until We Act platform is available at https://untilweact.fi/
NordenBladet — Information on the advance polling stations for the 2022 county elections to be held in January is now available on the Electionsfinland.fi website of the Ministry of Justice. The website contains the addresses and opening hours of all advance polling stations in Finland and abroad.County elections will be held on Sunday 23 January 2022. The advance voting period will be in Finland from 12 to 18 January and abroad from 12 to 15 January 2022.The number of general advance polling stations in Finland is 900. Advance polling stations are mainly located at town halls, libraries and shopping centres. Abroad, a possibility for advance voting will be provided in 96 places in 71 different countries. Some of the advance polling stations will be open only on certain days during the advance voting period.Eligible voters staying abroad during the advance voting period and on election day may also vote in advance by post from abroad. The postal voting instructions are available on the Electionsfinland.fi website.There will be 1,664 election day polling stations around the country. Municipalities will also inform their residents about the polling stations themselves.Briefly about county electionsThe new wellbeing services counties will constitute the electoral districts for the county elections. In the elections, the members and deputy members of county councils will be elected in each wellbeing services county. The county councils will be responsible for organising health, social and rescue services tasks in the wellbeing services counties. No county elections will be conducted in Helsinki.
NordenBladet — At the Climate Change Conference today, Finland signed the Glasgow Declaration for Fair Water Footprints. This is the first international commitment concerning responsible use of water. Water is in a key position in climate change adaptation, as well as in the mitigation efforts Finland was asked to sign the declaration as one of the leading countries in water responsibility.Our water footprint has impacts on millions of people around the world. More than half of the water footprint of us Finns originates from abroad through the value and supply chains of companies and their international branch offices. For example, it takes 1,000 litres of water to produce a litre of milk, and 8,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans. Households account for only three per cent of the total water consumption of Finns.Responsible use of water has a critical role in the efforts to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to adapt to the droughts and floods that will be increasing as climate change proceeds. Water responsibility means using water in a way that is environmentally sustainable while making sure that the use of water is also socially and culturally just and economically profitable. The objectives of the Declaration and the commitments targeted to the states are well in line with Finland’s national policy, legislation and the work done to promote water responsibility. The objective of Finland’s International Water Strategy is to make Finland and the Finnish companies the most responsible water stewards in the world by 2030. The aim is also to promote responsible production and consumption with respect to use of water.In addition, the Finnish Water Stewardship Commitment launched in 2017 challenges companies to identify water-related risks in their value chains and to make sure that their places of business and subcontractors use water in a way that is sustainable. The Water Stewardship Commitment has been signed by a large number of major Finnish companies. Finland wants to promote and advocate water responsibility very strongly in international contexts as well. The Declaration for Fair Water Footprints is an important step forward in this work. Among the signatories are states, companies and NGOs. On behalf of Finland, the Declaration was signed by Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Jari Leppä and Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Krista Mikkonen. Water responsibility is promoted in extensive cooperation among the different stakeholders, both nationally and internationally. The Glasgow Declaration for Fair Water Footprints for climate resilient, inclusive, and sustainable development