CMI 15 years: This n’ that from along the way

• President Ahtisaari’s good friend Georg Soros encouraged him to found CMI after his term as President of Finland.

• In the beginning, the office only had four staff members, including CMI’s current head of programme development and coordination Meeri-Maria Jaarva. Today, CMI employs some 70 experts.

• Today, our personnel is highly diverse. Our staff members represent over 20 different nationalities and their ages range from 24 to 78. The majority of CMI’s staff are social scientists, but also include a teacher, mathematician and theologian.

• CMI has been one of the Finnish foreign ministry’s development partnership organisations since 2014.

• The Aceh peace agreement, mediated by CMI and President Ahtisaari, has lasted for 10 years.

• Currently, CMI supports the resolution of the conflicts in Ukraine, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and Yemen among others.

• CMI is a part of WWF’s Green Office programme to reduce the ecological footprint of our work.

Pictures from top left     

CMI’s Tuija Talvitie informs CMI staff about ongoing issues. Virtual meetings for all staff are regularly organised.

CMI’s representative in South Sudan, Johanna Poutanen, meets local youth.

CMI took part in the charity event RunFest in 2014 in Helsinki.

It’s all about team work. CMI’s project staff Eemeli Isoaho, Juha-Matti Seppänen and Mikko Patokallio in deep discussions.

President Ahtisaari joined forces with Angry Birds to promote peace mediation.

Elisa Tarnaala and Silja Grundström work for CMI’s gender and inclusion team.

CMI’s Yemen representative, Abdulmajid Al-Fahed, laughing with colleagues at the Helsinki office.

The Sub-Saharan Africa team gathered for a planning retreat in Finland in spring 2014.