This week on Womanity-Women in Unity, Dr. Amaleya Goneos-Malka talks to the Ambassador of Finland to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Mauritius, Anne Lammila. Some of her previous appointments include Ambassadorships in Mexico, Cuba, Haiti and Central America; serving as  Consul General of Finland to Saint Petersburg, Russia; Deputy Chief of Mission, Minister, Embassy of Finland, Washington, USA;  and Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues and Gender Equality to mention a few. We reflect on a few of her career landmarks.

We discuss Finland’s Africa strategy, which priorities strengthening political and economic ties. We highlight some of the programmes in place to promote female development in Africa, like the Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme, as well as ecopreneur initiatives.

We consider the 2020 Global Gender Gap index results, which ranks Finland 3^rd and South Africa 17^th, out of 153 countries. We talk about some of the drivers that have contributed to Finland becoming an egalitarian state, such as education and greater participation of women in political and economic life. We also note that Finland has been recognised as the happiest nation in the world for four consecutive years, and could not have attained this status if it ignored gender equality. Tune in for more…

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