MFA: Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari to attend UN General Assembly high-level week

Finland’s delegation will be led by President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö, who will deliver Finland’s address at the General Assembly on Tuesday 24 September.

Minister Ville Skinnari’s programme during the week will focus on matters related to the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the mitigation of climate change and the promotion of the position of women and girls especially with regard to sexual and reproductive health and related rights.

Minister Skinnari will host an event by Plan International discussing the impacts of climate change on the position of girls. He will also deliver addresses in a number of events, where the topics covered include ending violence against women and girls, development funding, and supporting developing countries in their efforts to collect domestic funding needed for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda goals.

“We need the UN more than ever. Finland wants to be globally influential and bear its international responsibility. Through development cooperation, humanitarian aid and international climate funding, we are working to help solve global problems and assuming our share of responsibility for the future of humanity and our planet,” Skinnari says.

Minister Skinnari will also have a number of bilateral meetings with his ministerial counterparts and the Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, among others. He will also meet heads of UN agencies that are of key importance for Finland, including UN Women, UNDP and OCHA, and attend a number of export promotion events.

Inquiries about the programme of the Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade: Pasi Pöysäri, Director, UN Development Affairs, tel. +358 50 309 8202, and Juha Niemi, Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister, tel. +358 50 478 1387.

The Foreign Ministry's email addresses are of the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.