A majority of Finns consider international development cooperation to be important. In Guatemala, Finland helped supply educational materials for home schooling after regular instruction was cut back due to a financial crisis.
A clear majority of Finns surveyed, 78 percent, said they consider international development cooperation to be extremely or quite important. That is down from 89 percent last year.
The figures are from an annual public opinion survey published on Thursday by Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It was done by the polling organisation Taloustutkimus.
Strongest support among highly educated and the young
The strongest support was among those aged 15 to 25 and the highly educated.
One fifth of respondents said they consider development cooperation to be irrelevant or unimportant. That is the highest such figure since 2012.
Just over half of those surveyed said that the coronavirus pandemic had not affected their view of international aid. One fifth said they now consider it more important, while an equal share said they now see it as less relevant.
Just over 1,000 mainland Finns aged 15 and over took part in the survey. Taloustutkimus estimates the margin of error at three percentage points.