Ministry for Foreign Affairs preparing organisational reform
Press release 246/2007
16 November 2007
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is planning an organisational reform on the threshold of its 90th anniversary year.
The project group appointed to consider development of the Ministry’s organisation submitted its report to Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen on Friday, 16 November.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs at present has 12 departments with 58 units, and for this reason the organisation has been considered fragmented. According to the project group’s report, the aim of the reform is to make the organisational structure clearer and to reduce the number of departments and units, thereby improving the manageability of the Ministry. There is the wish at the same time to strengthen policy coherence and political steering of the Ministry, to clarify financial accountability and to emphasise productivity, effectiveness and customer orientation. The organisational reform also aims at increasing the flexibility of the Ministry and ensuring the expertise and wellbeing of the personnel.
As with the central government on the whole, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs also has to review its tasks and set its priorities. The Government productivity programme in preparing for the changes caused by ageing requires that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs achieves a total reduction of 133 person-years by 2011. Simultaneously, the rapid growth in budgeted funds for development cooperation calls for increased administrative and expert resources.
The project group presented the Ministry’s senior management with three alternative models for the new organisational structure.
The golden thread in all of them is enhancing policy coordination in both the management system and the organisation. It is proposed that departments be combined, bringing about a significant reduction on the present situation. In addition, services provided by the Ministry to outside clients, such as individual citizens and private companies, are proposed to be separated from the Ministry's other core functions. All internal support services in joint use would likewise be separated from the departmental structure.
The group recommends a matrix organisational model that would encompass two regional departments and one department for multilateral affairs, as well as three Under-Secretaries of State responsible for policy coordination within the entire organisation. The fields of responsibility of the Under-Secretaries of State would be security, development and external economic relations.
Ministers and the senior management of the Ministry are expected to take a stand on the proposals and to make decisions on the main lines of the new organisational structure before Christmas. The implementation phase would be launched early next year; the details would be worked out upon hearing the personnel. It is proposed that the new organisation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs would come into effect in September next year.
Additional information: Under-Secretary of State Hannu Himanen, chairman of the project group, tel. +358 9 1605 5020; and Counsellor Olli Kantanen, secretary of the project group, tel. +358 9 1605 6039
Renewal at 90; Developing a Better Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Final Report (Opens New Window) (PDF, 214 kB)