Demo organised programme for the guests of Ministry for Foreign Affairs, March 15, 2007

Ministry for Foreign Affairs had invited guests from different countries in Southern Africa to Finland in order to acquaint them with the way of organising general elections in Finland. The guests came from eight different African countries and they represented parties and governance in their respective countries. Demo had also prepared programme for the guests and that was held at Hotel Kalastajatorppa on March 15, 2007.

The afternoon started with varying presentations on the activities of Demo Finland, comprising personal experiences of Demo’s projects. Mari Kokko from the Finnish Centre Women shed light on the visit of Demo in Tanzania in autumn 2006; while Tuomas Korkalainen from the Left Youth of Finland told about the joint education project of Demo and UNDP which had taken a youth delegation to Tanzania in January 2007. These presentations clearly brought out the focal points of Demo’s co-operation: youth and women.

Pekka Puustinen from Ministry for Foreign Affairs was also given the floor on the topic of Partnerships and Peer Reviews in Fostering Democracy.

A joint publication of Demo Finland and Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland was also launched there. The publication is called Women’s Role in Finnish Democracy Building and it was handed out to the participants. The publication is a part of a series called Finnish Experience and the aim of it is to serve Demo as well as Finnish Embassies around the world. With the same theme, Terhi Lindqvist from the Martha Organization presented women’s role in Finland’s way from poverty to wealth.

After the presentations the African audience had an opportunity to hear views and ideas of Finnish youth politicians which were gathered together for a panel discussion. The panellist represented the youth organisations of every parliament party of Finland and the discussion on development co-operation matters was active. In spite of the varying opinions, all the panellist supported more active role of Finland to take care of and to help in solving the problems of developing countries. In the end the panel discussion the panellist got comments and questions also from the audience comprising of African listeners.