Intercontinental youth work cooperation

Based on the information received from the Ministry of Education and Culture, the ministry has not recently financed projects related to intercontinental youth work.

Development cooperation activities

The ’Goals and principles of Finland’s development policy’ are published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. According to their statement, ‘development policy is seen an integral part of Finland's foreign and security policy.’ As reported in Youth Wiki Finland 9.7 Current Debates and Reforms, Finland’s National Action Plan on the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security focuses on young people’s participation in peace work both nationally and internationally. Based on the policy paper 'Theories of Change and Aggregate Indicators for Finland's Development Policy' (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2o22), one outcome of successful development policy in mentioned as ‘Increased participation and leadership of women, youth and persons with disabilities in all questions of peace and security.’ The Ministry for Foreign Affairs offers funding for development policy and cooperation for special target groups, which are defined as ‘…vulnerable group[s] of people susceptible to exclusion or discrimination whose position the programme or project will improve’. (See the funding decisions for special target groups.) As an example, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Australian Government supported, through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program, a project called ‘My body, my Future’ (2018-2021) realised by Plan International. The final report, ‘Risen tides - Mapping Youth Movements for Climate Resilience in Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Mozambique, Myanmar, Solomon Islands, Uganda and Zimbabwe’ (2022), was cooperatively written by young researchers from nine countries.

The Children and Youth Foundation had a project entitled: 'Write the lyrics for a better world: In Correspondence' (see in Finnish). The idea is that young people express and speak up about their feelings about a sustainable future and Agenda 2030 themes by writing rap-lyrics. There has been writing groups in Finland, Senegal and South-Africa that corresponded with one other. Altogether, a hundred 13-29 year olds participated in years 2021-2022. The funding for the project came from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.