Locally led development in displacement-affected regions: Perspectives from Eastern Africa and opportunities for Finnish engagement 

Saila Heinikoski is a Senior Research Fellow in The European Union and Strategic Competition research programme at FIIA. She is also an Associate Professor (Docent) in political science at the University of Turku. After completing her doctoral studies at the University of Turku she also has worked as a Researcher at the Finnish Border Guard, as a Senior Lecturer in political science at the University of Lapland, as a Post-doctoral Researcher at the EuroStorie Centre of Excellence at the University of Helsinki and as a Senior Specialist at the Migration Department of the Finnish Ministry of the Interior. In addition to numerous scientific articles on topics related to European integration and mobility in various European countries, she has written The History and Politics of Free Movement within the European Union: European Borders of Justice (Bloomsbury 2020) and co-authored, along with Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark and Pirjo Kleemola-Juntunen, Demilitarization and International Law in Context: The Åland Islands (Routledge 2018).

Johannes Tarvainen works as Human Mobility Advisor at the UNDP Resilience Hub for Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, holding the function since 2024. His responsibilities include the operationalization of UNDP’s Framework on Development Solutions to Forced Displacement in Sub-Saharan Africa, published in 2026 and applying the crisis resilience lens of UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2026-2029.

Tarvainen has versatile previous experience from the United Nations and the Government of Finland. He started his career in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 2008-2012, serving in the Units for Humanitarian Assistance and Human Rights Policy. In 2012, he joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with assignments to Rwanda, Kenya, Germany, and the Comprehensive Refugee Response, External Relations, and International Protection divisions in Headquarters. In UNDP, he worked previously in the Recovery Solutions and Human Mobility team in the Crisis Bureau, New York. Tarvainen specializes in integrating human mobility considerations into resilience, development and HDP nexus programming in East Africa and beyond on the continent. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Intercultural Communication. 

Theresa Zitting works as an Ambassador for Multilateral Cooperation at the Department for Development Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. For the past four years, she served as the Ambassador of Finland to Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Prior to that, she was the Director at the Unit for the Horn of Afrika and eastern Africa and the Team Leader for Security policy and crisis management at the MFA.  She has also worked at the permanent mission of Finland to the UN in New York and at the Finnish embassies in Nairobi, the Hague and Cairo.  Her education includes a Master’s in Political Sciences from Åbo Akademi University and a Master’s of Economics at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Birgit Nevala is Programme Director of Finnpartnership, a Finnish business partnership programme promoting sustainable business and partnerships between Finnish companies and businesses in developing markets. She graduated from the University of Helsinki, majoring in African Studies, and has also worked as a teacher at the University of Helsinki and as a researcher at the Museum of Cultures. Her diverse professional career has spanned academia, communications, entrepreneurship and design before moving into international development cooperation. Her involvement with development has lasted 27 years all together, first 13 years with more traditional development cooperation activities. In her current role, she leads Finnpartnership’s work to support Finnish companies in developing sustainable and commercially viable partnerships in emerging and developing markets.

Professor Liisa Laakso is a Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute and an expert in world politics and development, with a focus on democracy, crisis management and EU–Africa relations. She has held senior academic positions, including Rector of the University of Tampere, and served in advisory roles for governmental and non-governmental organisations. Her research at the Nordic Africa Institute has addressed the development of political science as a discipline in Africa, policy studies, electoral violence, the conditions and impact of academic freedom, academic mobility, and South African foreign policy.

Katariina Mustasilta is a Senior Research Fellow in the European Union and Strategic Competition programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Her research covers countries’ internal conflicts, the EU’s external action in the realms of conflicts and threats to peace, and international conflict prevention and peace-building efforts. Her publications include academic articles in journals such as the Journal of Peace Research and European Foreign Affairs Review as well as more policy-oriented research reports and briefings.

She recently led FIIA’s project ‘Finland in Afghanistan 2001-2021’ that examined Finland’s engagement in the stabilisation and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. At the moment she focuses on European conflict prevention and management efforts in the time of strategic competition, European strategic cultures, and conflict analysis as a tool for water diplomatic efforts.

Prior to joining FIIA, Mustasilta worked at the EUISS, where she covered conflict research relevant to the EU’s integrated approach to conflicts and crises. Mustasilta holds a PhD in Political Science from the Government Department at the University of Essex. Her PhD focused on the role of traditional governance in sub-Saharan African countries’ internal conflicts.

Mustasilta is the co-editor of Finland’s leading peer‑reviewed academic journal on peace and conflict studies and IR, Kosmopolis.