Marko Saarinen

Marko Saarinen is working as Counsellor for Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Finland in Pretoria since 2019. He is responsible for Finland’s regional development cooperation programme in Southern Africa, and oversees the implementation of the Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme (SAIS 2).

He has worked with private sector development programmes for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and for the United Nations for 14 years in various sectors in Southern and East Africa, as well as in Southeast Asia. Innovation systems and startup ecosystem development have been part of his programme portfolio since 2015.