Reducing Inequalities through Finnish Development Cooperation

The promotion of human rights has been part of the Finnish policy on development cooperation since the mid-1990s. The Finnish Development Policy Programme of 2012 explicitly articulates a human rights-based approach (HRBA) to development presupposing systematic efforts to screen all Finland’s development policy and practice through human rights. The objective of the research project is to create evidence-based knowledge and to provide recommendations on the operationalization of human rights-based approaches in the Finnish development cooperation. A team of six independent researchers from Ethiopia, Kenya and Finland investigates how the human rights-based approach to development is, and ought to be, applied in the Finnish development cooperation with a view to contributing to the reduction of inequality especially for women and persons with disabilities.