Collaboration, representation, and the celebration of the diversity of cultures are among the key values of Think Africa. To enable that, an overview of the ecosystem, the players, history, and their location is essential.
Finland is home to a thriving African diaspora community that constitutes around 1% of the population (57 496, Statistics Finland 2020). Non-profit organisations like Think Africa and many others provide essential services important for the Diaspora and the Finnish Society, from supporting integration, well being, information sharing, cultural understanding, and bridging of Finland and African countries.
The mapping of the ecosystem of nonprofits in Finland reveals that there are at least 340 registered organisations in the Finnish Trade registry system. Majority of them, 69,7% (237) are focused on a specific African country. The mapping reveals a rich variety of missions, activities, presence across Finland and impact areas. Gain insights into the ecosystem players, oldest, and new. Whether you are a new-comer in Finland or seasoned, the mapping expands your networks, reach and collaboration opportunities.
The mapping has been captured in an interactive Dashboard that allows one to explore and discover all the organisations that have ever been registered, when, where, their mission and web pages where available, if they are still active, as well as whether they are transnational, regional, national, or ethnic focused.
See Dashboard here Ecosystem mapping of Africa-related non-profits in Finland | Tableau Public
Insights overview
According to the ecosystem mapping, we’ve identified 340 African diaspora and Africa-focused non-profit organisations across Finland. With the majority of the organisations being registered in Helsinki. The highest concentration of organisations can be found in Helsinki, which also has the highest concentration of the African diaspora in Finland (38,5% = 22,138). The number of transnational organisations that represent the whole continent, similarly to Think Africa are 52, the number that are still active, i.e., have a web presence are 32 (61,5%)
A majority of these, 237 (69.7%) constitute organisations that represent a specific African country or ethnicity in a specific country (40 organisations). These represent 34 African countries, out 54 that are present in Finland as per Statistics Finland 2020. The oldest of these is a Moroccan organisation called Suomalais-Marokkolainen Yhdistys ry that was registered in 1964. However it does not seem to still be active from the lack of any web presence. Moroccans constitute the fourth biggest diaspora population according to Statistics Finland 2020 and we identified 17 organisations representing Morocco. Considering that the first person of African descent was a Namibian, Rosa Lemberg, who came to Finland in 1888, it is surprising to see that the earliest Namibia-focused organisation was registered in 1975.
Expectedly, as Somalia and Nigeria constitute the biggest diaspora population, with 22,534 and 4,150 people respectively, the data shows a higher number of organisations with 68 and 25 respectively. Surprisingly Sudan which has a relatively smaller diaspora population, 2,013, has almost as high a number of organisations as Nigeria.
The data perspective also reveals the absence of representation of certain African nations, such as Burundi, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Mali, Chad, among others.
Activeness and collaboration among organisations
I have heard people say that Finland is a land of nonprofits as it is easy to start one. Just in 2023, 11 organisations were registered. Unfortunately it is not easy to also maintain operations especially as many of the non-profits are run on a volunteer basis. Out of the 340 identified registered non-profits, 117 (34,4%) have a web presence and are considered for the purpose of this analysis active. However, it does not mean that having a web presence means one is still operational and vice-versa. Looking also at the list of active organisations, many are active through Facebook pages rather than their own websites.
Organisations have been registered across 38 cities around Finland, with the majority of organisations existing in the bigger cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Turku and Tampere.
Through experience, one of the questions that often gets asked among the diaspora organisations is the need for an umbrella organisation as that would also facilitate collaboration and unity. Looking at the missions of the organisations, there are umbrella organisations, some who are country focused. However, among those with a continental focus, there has only been two that describe themselves as such; The African Civil Society (ACSF) and Finnish African Diaspora Platform for Development (FADP) ry, with the latter seeming not to be active anymore and the former not having any fresh content on their website, i.e., content within the past year. The oldest of the transnational organisations is the Finnish African Society ry that is still active as within the last year.
DATA COLLECTION
The data was collected through an initial listing of organisations within Think Africa’s network that focus on the African diaspora or Africa. The list was expanded through a search in the Finnish Trade registry system with keywords that include Africa*, Diaspora, Afrofinn*, names of African countries represented in Finland (See Tableau Dashboard). Hence it’s possible that some organisations focusing on some ethnicities that did not get returned through the search could have been missed.
Moreover, only those non-profit organisations registered were included. Other civil societies like Good Hair Day, Ubuntu Film club, or UEF Joensuu African Students Organization (ASA), among others, that focus on people of African descent in Finland but are not in the registry were not included.
CREDITS
Ecosystem mapping was produced by Myriam Munezero, Data Analyst by profession. Data collection was supported by members and volunteers of Think Africa Aderemi Fayoyiwa, Olivia Alfred, and Salma Gheita. Think Africa recently captured the actions of organisations in this video -> Celebrating the Impactful Actions of the African Diaspora in Finland. For any corrections, contact Myriam at mdoucem[at]gmail.com
Written by: Myriam Munezero, a data analytics professional, who also volunteers at Think Africa. Learn more -> https://myriammunezero.com/
