PR TIMES AFRICA PRTimesAfrica (March 2016) | Page 26

May we know you?
I am Finnish career diplomat, born 51 years ago
in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland,to a very
nice and rather ordinary Finnish family.I had a
happy childhood and youth, with good memories
from my school years. Like all Finnish children,
I attended the public school system - schools
in Finland are pretty much the same all over
the country and in different neighbourhoods,
with high quality teaching andwell planned and
standardized curriculum. I also worked a fair bit-
during my teenage years, it is quite common in
Finland for youngsters to work especially during
the summers, which is what I did, too,since I was
about sixteen. I did my University degree in Fin-
land in International Relations, and worked for a
short while at the University. After marrying my
French-British husband we lived for about five
years in the UK where our son was born and my
husband did his degree.
How did you find yourself in the Diplomatic
world?
I never consciously planned to become a dip-
lomat, even when I chose to study International
Relations – but as soon as I started in this career,
I immediately knew it was the right thing for me,
and I was in the right place. At the same time,
I feel I could have done other kind of careers,
too, and can imagine working for many different
kinds or organizations – as long as they have a
strong international aspect, and constantly put
me in contact with people from different parts of
the world.When I decided to apply to the diplo-
matic career at the Foreign Ministry - we have
an annual recruitment system for that - I went
through the different stages of the selection with
tests and interviews, and in 1997 joined the dip-
lomatic career. I have loved it ever since.
How many languages do you speak?
Finnishis my mother tongue, and I have also
studied many years of Swedish which is the sec-
ond official language in Finland, spoken by about
5% of the Finnish population.I speak English of
course which is very widely spoken in Finland as
a foreign language, I also useit with my husband
and have spoken English for many years in the
UK and the US. In Santiago de Chile where I was
posted for four years I used Spanish every day
of course. French is the language I always plan
get to the next level, there a fair bit of work is still
needed.
What has the experience been?
For my first three years in the foreign ministry, I
was mostly working with United Nations issues.
Actually my first big project was the official visit
of the then Secretary-General of the United Na-
tions, Kofi Annan to Finland. Preparing that visit
is what I started working withon my first day of
in my first job in the ministry. Later I was post-
ed to our embassy in China, I was in Beijing for
three and a half years - a very interesting time
in a fascinating country, and professionally very
satisfying. My family was very happy there, too.
Subsequently I worked for four years in Chile in
our Embassy as deputy head of mission, before
being posted back to the ministry in Finland in
2007. In Helsinki I worked again with UN issues,
and then EU development policy. Before I took
up my present job, I was director for United Na-
tions development affairs for four years, with my
team of about twelve peoplewe were responsi-
ble for Finland’s funding to UN agencies and
programmes like UNDP, UN Women, UNFPA and
UNICEF.
Any highlight in your career that stands out?
Any moments that have shaped your world view?
Ifind itactually quite difficult to point to individ-
ual moments. Maybe more than particular mo-
ments, it is about what you absorb and experi-
ence, and the way your thinking is shaped over
a long time.The wonderful thing about this job is
the incredible amount of experiences you have,
the people you meet, and the places you have the
opportunity to see in different parts of the world.
The more I see of this world, the more I feel that
so many things are universal – people are more
or less the same everywhere. I remember from
many years ago a Finnish journalist with a lot of
experience in different parts of the world in her
book saying that people are more or less the
26 | PRTIMES AFRICA MARCH 2016