Welcome to Harri Porvali's homepage The main purpose of opening this home page is to keep in touch with my friends. Most of them I have come to know, while working in development projects mostly in Eastern Africa. I also want to tell you about my views mostly on issues relating to development and development cooperation and perhaps by doing that stimulate some discussion. I obtained my Master’s in Economics at the Helsinki School of Economics. After working some years in Finland both in the business and as a teacher I started my career in development work. In the course of the years I worked in projects both in Tanzania and Kenya. I also carried out a large number short term assignments for both bilateral and multilateral development agencies as well as NGOs in several countries in Africa and Asia in addition to working as Rural Development Specialist for Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and as the Managing Director for the Finnish Cooperative Development Centre. After all the years abroad and Helsinki I now live in Lappeenranta in South-Eastern Finland – the same town where I was born. This town is located beside Lake Saimaa which is the largest lake of Finland. In the summertime I mostly live on an island at the lake. At present I am semi-retired, but still carry out occasionally some interesting assignments. I am attached to a cooperative society, ProDev, which includes a number of experienced development cooperation workers specialized mostly in rural and cooperative development. During my career in development cooperation I have been mostly involved in management, identification, appraisal, planning, monitoring and evaluation of projects. My special expertise areas include:
My hobbies include photographing, especially nature photographing. In the photo gallery section I want to share a selection of photos. I would like to get your comment on any issues raised here! Send me email. |