The Association

Association of Finnish Cities and Municipalities

The directors

A powerful advocate for all Finnish municipalities, the Association of Finnish Cities and Municipalities (AFCM) promotes local self-government and the modernisation of municipal services.  

The AFCM's core tasks are to advance the interests and development of municipalities and their partner organisations and to provide services for them. The Association brings the voice of municipalities and the entire local government sector to social debate and decision-making. We have a wide range of specialist expertise and a broad understanding of all aspects of local government work.

The AFCM employs over 140 experts. We have two office locations: our headquarters, the House of Municipalities, in Helsinki and an office in Brussels. We provide services in Finland’s two national languages – Finnish and Swedish.

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Membership

All Finnish municipalities, in total 309 (2021), are members of the Association of Finnish Cities and Municipalities — the AFCM. We also provide services to and cooperate with Finnish hospital districts, regional councils and joint municipal authorities.

Administration

The AFCM has a chief executive officer and two deputy managing directors, who together with the unit directors and HR and strategy managers form the extended executive board.

  • Minna Karhunen, CEO
  • Timo Reina, Deputy Managing Director
  • Hanna Tainio, Deputy Managing Director

Decision-making

The AFCM’s decision-making bodies are the Delegation and the Board. The Delegation elects the Board and approves the AFCM's budget and financial statements. The Board manages the AFCM's activities and has a steering committee for preparing the matters to be handled for the Board and taking care of any other matters assigned to it by the Board. The Delegation and the Board consist of representatives of local authorities and have 76 and 15 members, respectively. The Delegation is elected every four years by a vote by the members.

  • Chair of the Board: Lauri Lyly (Social Democratic Party)
  • 1st Deputy Chair: Henrik Vuornos (National Coalition Party)
  • 2nd Deputy Chair: Markku Rossi (Centre Party)

We have an advisory committee to ensure that we take account of the special needs of small municipalities in our work, and another one to oversee that we provide services in Swedish to Finland’s Swedish-speaking and bilingual local authorities.

Subsidiaries

The AFCM's subsidiaries engaged in business activity: