Finnish Official Development Aid for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

Authors

• Riikka Shemeikka

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.45058

Keywords:

Official Development Aid, ODA, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, SRHR, Family Planning, HIV, AIDS, ODA for Population Activities, ODA for SRHR, Finland, sub-Saharan Africa, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, NGO, INGO, , UNFPA, UNAIDS, GFATM, IPPF, decision-making

Abstract

Finland is one of the donor countries that is most supportive in family planning
(FP), Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and gender issues. This
study examines Finnish ODA for FP and SRHR: its decision-making structure, other
stakeholders and funding levels. Data consists of documents from the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs (MFA) and interviews conducted at the MFA and with other experts.
While Parliament decides on the overall level of ODA funding, the Minister for Foreign
Trade and Development has considerable autonomy. Other stakeholders such as the
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population and Development and the Family
Federation of Finland (Vestliitto) engage in advocacy work and have influenced
development policy. Although the Development Policy 2007 mentions the importance of
health and SRHR issues and HIV/AIDS is a cross-cutting issue, interviewees stated that
the importance of health and SRHR in ODA has declined and that the implementation
of cross-cutting issues is challenging. Multilateral funding for UNFPA, UNAIDS
and GFATM, and thus the proportion of SRHR funding within the health sector, is
however currently rising. Funding for population-related activities has increased
and represented 4.8% of Finlands total ODA in 2009. Almost all of this funding is
directed towards basic reproductive health and HIV/AIDS issues and the majority is
directed through multilateral channels (78% in 2009), mainly UNFPA and UNAIDS.
IPPF, Ipas and Marie Stopes International also receive support.