Based on a report made by the Finnish Immigration Service, decisions on asylum applications largely meet the criteria laid down in the law. Deficiencies in the quality of interpretation of asylum interviews and processing of asylum applications were, however, detected. It is likely that the number of deficiencies became bigger than normal following a sudden tenfold increase in asylum seekers in 2015 and a need to quickly increase the amount of human resources required for the process.

Introduction

‘Challenging the Customary Divide’ puts together the stories of five women whose economic and social well-being were improved and later became leaders in their respective fields through their participation in the post-conflict rebuilding of Nepal under the project Strengthening Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Nepal (SIWPSAN): Towards Implementation of the National Action Plan on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820. Like the SIWPSAN project, the book is an initiative of UN Women-Nepal with the support of the Finland Government.

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.