Markku Malkamäki

Senior Social Policy Expert

Dr. Markku Malkamäki is a Social Policy Expert with the EU-SPS Programme. Markku has over 15 years of experience working on financial sector development and financial inclusion, of which over 10 years in Africa. This includes working as a Microfinance Research Specialist and Project manager of MicroSave which has become a market leader in financial development consulting both in Africa and Asia. He has also held the position of Project Director with the Decentralised Financial Services specialised in savings-led financial services for the very poor people.

Markku has worked as a Manager and Principal Researcher for Financial Sector Deepening Trust in Kenya  which is well known for its successful interventions to increase financial inclusion in Kenya including M-Pesa, Equity Bank and its mobile banking services in remote rural areas that are used among others in cash transfer programmes.  

In addition, Markku has worked as a Senior Advisor at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, where he coordinated for instance a project aimed at increasing the professional capacity of the Ministry’s staff in poverty reduction related issues, as well as  worked with agencies such as the World Bank, DFID, UNDP, UNCDF, ILO. Prior to joining the EU-SPS team, Markku was Director of Project Management at NIRAS Consulting Ltd.

Markku holds an MSc in Political Science (International Relations, Social Anthropology, Economics) from University of Helsinki, an MBA from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, and a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Bath, UK.