Minister Skinnari to attend the Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Population and Development

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will attend the Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) from 12 to 14 November. The Conference will mark the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development held in 1994 in Cairo.

The aim of the meeting is to reaffirm the commitments contained in the agenda of the ICPD, to accelerate the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and to mobilise high-level political and financial support for the agenda. The human rights-based approach was mentioned in connection with population policy for the first time at the 1994 Conference. Furthermore, the Conference brought attention to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Minister Ville Skinnari will participate in a session on financing for development policy and, at the invitation of the Kenyan Government, will speak about the funding of the prevention of gendered violence in Finland’s development cooperation. Gender equality is strongly emphasised in Finland's development policy.

“Finland's objective is to promote the realisation of human rights, that is, the right of women and girls to have control over their own body and to decide when to have children, to receive high-quality education, and to have access to health and social services and to clean water. In recent years, sexual and reproductive health and rights have met strong and growing resistance. I will travel to Nairobi to show my strong support for the advancement of these goals,” Skinnari says.

While in Nairobi, Minister Skinnari will also have a meeting with Kenya’s Foreign Minister Monica Juma and Minister of Finance Ukur Yatani. Kenya is Finland's long-term development partner in East Africa. Discussions in Kenya will focus on the relations between the two countries, in particular development cooperation, commercial cooperation and bilateral agreements.

Inquiries: Jukka Nikulainen, Unit for Sustainable Development and Climate Policy, tel. +358 295 350 485, and Tony Paso, Unit for the Horn of Africa and Eastern Africa, +358 295 350 041.

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format [email protected]