Minister Hautala to visit Ethiopia and Kenya
Press release 275/2011
21 October 2011
Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will be visiting Ethiopia and Kenya on October 23–30. This is the Minister’s first visit to these long-standing partners of Finnish development cooperation. In both countries the agenda includes discussions on burning current issues, such as the situation in the Horn of Africa, food security and human rights and democracy issues in the region.
In Ethiopia, Minister Hautala is scheduled to meet the country’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Foreign Minister Haile Mariam Desalegne. Discussions will focus on relations between our countries, Finnish development cooperation in Ethiopia and the situation in the African Horn. Furthermore there will be meetings with representatives of local and Finnish NGOs based in Ethiopia and with African Union leadership. Minister Hautala will also gain first-hand insight into development projects in the Amhara region in northwestern Ethiopia. For example, the community governance model developed in the local water project is emerging as standard practice in the national water sector.
In Kenya, Minister Hautala will meet the country’s top leaders and representatives of NGOs, UN and other organizations as well as people working in the aid community. Discussions will cover bilateral relations in Finnish-Kenyan development cooperation, development programmes funded by the state of Finland in Kenya and East Africa as well as various current issues, such as the human rights and democracy situation in Kenya and progress made in good governance practice. The Minister will also visit a refugee camp and a development cooperation project in a Nairobi slum. The adoption of a new Constitution in August marked a major milestone in Kenya’s development towards democracy, opening up opportunities for improvements in human rights and women’s position. Finnish cooperation lends support to implementing the new Constitution.
Further information: Milma Kettunen, Press Attaché to the Minister, tel. +358 40 522 9869, Helena Airaksinen, Head of the Unit for Eastern and Western Africa, tel. +358 40 829 3412, [email protected]