Ahtisaari Days started in 2011 as an annual event. CMI’s founder, President Martti Ahtisaari, was a strong supporter of Ahtisaari Days activities. Due to high demand for Ahtisaari Days content in the field of education, a once annual event has now grown into a year-round national project benefiting thousands each year in Finland. The aim of Ahtisaari Days is to make conflict resolution a civic skill and to prevent disputes between young people from escalating into violence.
Our work
Ahtisaari Days create learning pathways that enable young people to understand that dialogue is a better way to resolve conflicts than violence. While Ahtisaari Days provide tools, trainings and teaching material for teachers, the project focuses also strongly on youth by conducting school collaborations at middle schools (junior high) and upper secondary schools with workshops, lectures, and conflict resolution simulations. One of the main priorities of Ahtisaari Days is to implement the national agenda of the UN resolution “Youth, Peace and Security” to strengthen internal security in Finland. Ahtisaari Days project is executed with the support of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Key results
Ahtisaari Days measure the impact of project activities widely. Feedback from thousands of young people shows that almost 70% of participants feel that they now have a better understanding of what causes conflicts and which issues are important in conflict resolution, and more than every other participant felt they had received concrete tools to use in their daily life.
Kiista
Kiista is a game-based learning platform developed by Ahtisaari Days. Kiista was created in response to schools’ need for practical tools to explore conflict-related themes. Kiista teaches young people non-violent ways to prevent and resolve conflicts through interactive and engaging methods.
During the 2025–2026 school year, a pilot version of Kiista is available for Finnish-speaking lower secondary schools in Helsinki. After the pilot year, Kiista will be launched nationwide in Finland in three languages.
Read more about Kiista (in Finnish) here.
For general inquiries, or if you would like the Ahtisaari Days to visit your educational institution in Finland, send an email to ahtisaaripaivat@cmi.fi.