Iina Kaarina Soiri (born August 29, 1964) is a Finnish social scientist, former director of the

Nordic Africa Institute Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) () serves as a research, documentation and information centre on modern Africa for the Nordic countries. The Institute conducts independent, policyrelevant research, provides analysis and informs decisionmaking, with ...

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Life and work

Iina Soiri has a Master of Social Sciences from the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

. She has spent 20 years on the African continent, in various countries such as

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, as an activist, diplomat, consultant and researcher working for both civil society organizations and public sector. She worked in the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

as a senior advisor on development policy and served in the Embassy of Finland in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

as a senior expert on governance 2006-2010. She was a research fellow at the

from 1995 to 1996 and was director of the institute from March 2013 until June 2019. Her son,

Pyry Soiri Pyry Soiri (born 22 September 1994) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Super League Greece club Athens Kallithea and the Finland national team. Early life Soiri was born in Ekenäs, Finland, to a Finnish mother, ...

, is a professional footballer. She also has another son, Juri.

Selected bibliography

*Iina Soiri: ''The radical motherhood: Namibian women's independence struggle'', 1996, *Pekka Peltola and Iina Soiri:
Finland and National Liberation in Southern Africa
', 1999,

References

Sources

About Iina Soiri at the Nordic Africa Institute's websiteAbout Iina Soiri at the website of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

External links

Interview
(in Swedish only) in

Hufvudstadsbladet ''Hufvudstadsbladet'' (abbr. ''HBL'') is the highest-circulation Swedish language, Swedish-language newspaper in Finland. Its headquarters is located in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The name of the newspaper translates approximately into "Jo ...

, March 9, 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Soiri, Iina 1964 births Living people 20th-century Finnish women Finnish expatriates in Sweden Finnish social scientists Finnish women academics Finnish expatriates in Namibia 21st-century Finnish women 21st-century Finnish scientists Finnish expatriates in Angola Finnish expatriates in Mozambique Finnish expatriates in Tanzania University of Helsinki alumni