Rev. Aaro Rytkönen is a peace building and facilitation professional with twenty years of experience in national and international settings. He is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and has worked in conflict settings in Somalia, Central African Republic, Mozambique among others. He has gained experience in supporting, training, facilitating, and counseling religious and traditional actors in their own context.
Rev. Rytkönen has been working in collaboration with United Nations, European Union, and MFA Finland. He was a member of The Development Policy Committee, an advisory body appointed by the Government of Finland. It follows and evaluates Finland’s activities in various policy areas, which influence the developing countries. He has been interviewed in national television and radio stations in his home country, Finland, for prevention of violent extremism, and the role of faith actors in this work. His fields of expertise include faith-based dialogue and conflict resolution, trauma-informed conflict resolution, holistic wellbeing in conflict settings, groups facilitation and group/ individual counseling.
Rev. Rytkönen is founder of Peac3 Ltd, which is combining conflict resolution, solution focused psychotherapy framework and holistic wellbeing of individuals and communities for lasting peace.