Advisory services for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Finland's Department for Development Policy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) employs independent consultants to assist its own in-house health and social development sector advisors.

Typical assignments are:

• preparation of background documentation
• appraisal of project proposals
• monitoring the progress of projects
• commenting on documents from international organisations
• drafting of memos and speech notes for the MFA advisors and staff.

The expert services are used both in multilateral and bilateral development co-operation, including EU and NGO work.

Since 2003 STAKES has provide these external advisory services for the MFA through a framework contract, using its in-house experts and selected external senior-level experts.

Collectively, our experts have a vast knowledge of global policy issues, operational project cycle management, public health, health systems development, primary health care, HIV/AIDS issues, reproductive health, population issues, social policy development, social assistance, and poverty reduction strategies.

The experts at STAKES have actively contributed and commented on the recent evaluation of the Finnish health sector development co-operation and participated in the preparation of the position paper on health sector co-operation under the leadership of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Useful links

Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
Development Cooperation:

• website in Finnish
• Health sector evaluation 1994-2003