Finn Church Aid and Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy Sign MoU to Strengthen International Collaboration

Finn Church Aid (FCA) and the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA), a globally leading diplomatic centre of excellence in the UAE, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the basis for mutual collaboration. The signing ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 29th, during the AGDA leadership’s week-long visit to Finland at FCA’s invitation.  

ESTABLISHED BY the United Arab Emirates in 2014, the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy serves as the premier institution for training the nation’s diplomats. The mutual agreement will allow both parties to exchange knowledge and expertise in critical areas such as development policy, peacebuilding, and sustainable development.

Speaking on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, AGDA’s Director-General, H.E. Nickolay Mladenov, said, “At AGDA, our mission is to equip our students with unparalleled knowledge and skills, grooming them for leadership roles in diplomacy. Partnerships, such as this MoU with Finn Church Aid, are essential to enriching our academic environment with global expertise and fostering international research collaboration. Finn Church Aid’s renowned work with the world’s most vulnerable populations in fragile regions is invaluable. Their insights will profoundly enhance our training, empowering our future diplomats to adeptly navigate and address the pressing global challenges of our time.”

FCA Deputy Executive Director, Dr. Ikali Karvinen, said that the role of diplomats is increasingly challenging, requiring global knowledge and skills and a deep local contextual understanding, adding, “States and their diplomats will continue to play a key role in supporting sustainable development. FCA is excited about the opportunity to work together with AGDA, a leading diplomatic academy. We commend AGDA’s efforts to train diplomats on solving pressing development challenges in the most fragile contexts of the world.”

The collaboration with AGDA is not FCA’s first partnership in diplomat training. As part of its extensive cooperation with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Finland (MFA), FCA has supported the ministry’s international affairs training course (Kavaku) upon request. Furthermore, since 2014, the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, for which FCA acts as the secretariat, has been organising training for the diplomatic and international community in peace-making and peacebuilding processes, particularly in peace mediation.  

For more information: 

Ikali Karvinen, Deputy Executive Director, Finn Church Aid, email: ikali.karvinen@kua.fi , tel. +358 40 509 8050