Timo Voipio

Director for Implementation Strategy and Partnerships

Dr. Timo Voipio is the co-leader of the EU Social Protection Systems (EU-SPS) Programme in Helsinki, leading on the EU-SPS implementation strategy and partnerships. He is on leave of absence from his position as Senior Adviser for global social policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He is now Chief Specialist at THL, the Government of Finland’s expert institute for social and health policy.

Timo has over 20 years of experience working in social protection and development cooperation, both at country level and in global expert networks of the OECD, EU, AU, UN, World Bank, ILO, ISSA and ICSW. He worked in Tanzania in the early and late 1990s and early 2000s, and then for the ILO (International Social Security Association ISSA) in Geneva 2007-2009. He has shorter term country experience from several countries in Africa and Asia during the past 30 years. He is member of and a broker between leading international networks of academic scholars and practitioners working on global and national social policy, social protection, decent work, disability and social development.

Timo holds a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), an MA in Economic and Social History from the University of Helsinki and a Professional Diploma in Journalism from the Sanoma Corporation School of Journalism.