Merit Hietanen

I am Merit Hietanen and work as an advisor to the Finnish Foreign Ministry during their co-chairmanship of the Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative (GHD).

I have worked in the humanitarian sector both with the UN and with international organisations including UNRWA, UN Women, International Rescue Committee and Relief International, particularly in Middle East and Myanmar. I have specialized in gender-based violence, and diversity, gender and inclusion mainstreaming within humanitarian work. In my last role I led a gender analysis for UN Women and CARE International for the Ukraine humanitarian response.

I have studied politics and human rights in Essex University and refugee studies in the University of Oxford. My current passion is developing humanitarian work, including its localization, something the GHD project is also focused on.

During my free time I am active in the Finnish feminist advocacy work in the Finnish Women’s Union board, I dance street dances, and I am writing a book on motherhood and parenting in the aid sector, which will be published with Routledge in the Spring 2023.