In the first round of allocation of funding this year, Finland granted EUR 67 million to humanitarian aid organisations by decision of Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Anne-Mari Virolainen. The funding will be channelled via principal UN specialised agencies, the Red Cross Movement, and six Finnish civil society organisations.

Finland supports the World Food Programme (WFP) by EUR 32 million as core support for 2018–2021.

“Because of the prolonged conflicts and climate change, the number of hungry people in the world has unfortunately started to rise again. WFP has a key role in combatting hunger. This multiannual core support enables the organisation to plan its operations in a way that is more timely and cost-efficient”, says Anne-Mari Virolainen, Minister of Foreign Trade and Development of Finland.

Press release 226/2017
19 December 2017

Finland will assist areas suffering from conflicts and drought in Yemen, Northeast Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

“The focus in our aid decisions towards the end of the year is on crises where the need is currently particularly great and aid is needed urgently”, says Kai Mykkänen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development.

On 20 December, the Ministry of the Interior confirmed the decision of the ministerial working group on migration concerning the allocation of the refugee quota of 750 people for 2018.

Finland is committed to receive Syrian refugees from Turkey and Congolese refugees from Zambia in the 2018 quota. As a result of the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Syria, millions of people have been forced to leave their homes. About 33,000 Congolese refugees have fled to Zambia because of long-standing violence. Most of these refugees are women and children.

On Friday 1 December, the President of the Republic and the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy received a periodic review of the Defence Forces’ participation in international training and exercises in 2018. Decision on participation in the exercises is made from Finland’s own premises. In participation, both the significance of the exercises for the development of Finland’s defence capabilities and foreign and security policy perspectives will be taken into account. In 2018, the number of international exercises will remain at the same level as they are this year.