About 71% of Finns consider development cooperation to be very important or quite important, according to a recent opinion survey commissioned by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Attitudes are more positive than in 2024 (62%). However, development cooperation still divides Finns, said the Ministry in a press release on Monday referring to the survey.
Altogether 60% of respondents to the survey believed that development assistance was either crucially important in or had a crucial impact on improving wellbeing and reducing poverty in developing countries (2024: 53%).
About 17%, however, considered that development cooperation had no impact or was harmful by creating structures that make it difficult for developing countries to improve their own economies and production.
Around one sixth (18%) of Finns do not see justification for any development cooperation. This was a slight decrease from last year (21%).
According to the survey, women consider development cooperation clearly more important than men do. The educational background is another factor that has a significant impact on attitudes: the lower the level of education, the less significance is given to development cooperation.
More than three out of four (77%) Finns regard humanitarian assistance as important (in 2024: 75%).
The majority (71%) also consider development cooperation in general important, which was 62% in the previous year.
This is a substantial increase from last year, marking an end to a years-long downward trend.
The EU’s humanitarian assistance and financing for development cooperation are seen as important by 70% of respondents.
Finns’ support for Ukraine remains strong
Finns think that Russia’s war of aggression, global humanitarian crises and the destruction of nature are the primary factors that currently influence the need for development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.
This means that 87% of Finns consider that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine increases the need for development cooperation and humanitarian assistance (in 2024: 84%).
A clear majority (91%) is of the opinion that humanitarian emergency assistance to Ukraine is important (in 2024: 90%), whereas 18% are negative towards supporting Ukraine from development cooperation funds (in 2024: 15%).
Research organisation Taloustutkimus carried out the based on data collected through online panel from May 12 to May 19.
The survey’s target group is over 15-year-old Finns, excluding Åland. Altogether 1,076 respondents took part in the survey. The margin of error is at its highest around ± 3.2 percentage points.
- Finns
- support
- Development
- Cooperation
- Ukraine
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
