Kadri Maasik Set to Leave the Position of CEO of ESTDEV
The CEO of the Estonian International Development Cooperation Center (ESTDEV), Kadri Maasik, is will leave her post today. Until a new leader is elected, ESTDEV’s lawyer, Andrea Kivi, will perform her duties. ESTDEV’s current goals will not change.
“When I started working as CEO of ESTDEV a year and a half ago, the task was to create a capable and efficient organization that would strengthen Estonia’s role as a partner in international development cooperation. I believe that the organization has successfully started, and we now involves several top Estonian experts in our development cooperation projects. Regarding the future of the organization, I had a different vision than the council, which is why a change of leadership is logical,” said Kadri Maasik.
Under Maasik’s leadership, ESTDEV has successfully taken over implementation of development cooperation projects from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and merged with the Estonian Centre for Eastern Partnership. ESTDEV has also launched cooperation in the direction of Africa and has begun the comprehensive European Commission accreditation process, which will create opportunities for Estonia to participate in international initiatives. ESTDEV is among the first of all organizations to have started a concrete reconstruction project in Ukraine, and also supports Ukraine in its accession to the European Union.
“I would like to thank the ESTDEV employees for their contribution. I am extremely happy that it has turned out to be possible to create a capable, motivated, and committed team,” said Maasik.
Jonatan Vseviov, Chancellor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the ESTDEV Council, recognized Kadri Maasik’s work as CEO of ESTDEV, confirming that development cooperation plays an important role in fulfilling Estonia’s foreign policy goals.
“Estonia’s development cooperation sector is much more organized and stronger today thanks to Kadri’s contribution to the launch of ESTDEV. Moving forward, it is important for the council and the board to act together, because the challenges are great. I can confirm that the goal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to enhance the policy design of development cooperation in order to more clearly target Estonia’s goals,” said Jonatan Vseviov.
“It is also important to enforce a clear division of roles between the policy maker and the implementer, which is a common interest between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ESTDEV,” Vseviov added.
The competition for recruitment of the new CEO of ESTDEV will be announced in the coming weeks.
ESTDEV is a state Foundation, established on 23.04.2021, and its purpose is to implement strategic, wide-ranging, and coherent projects in target countries and regions that are priority from the point of view of the state, as well as in important fields such as the development of democracy or the green and digital revolutions. ESTDEV’s tasks are to better link development cooperation with economic interests and to include the best expertise from Estonia, both from civil society and the public and private sectors, in projects.