Back home from Kenya, I am assigned to teach at a course on poverty and development at The Department of Political Science, Umeå University starting March 27th. It is a course at undergraduate level within the subject Peace and Conflict Studies since this subject is connected to questions of poverty, inequality and different forms of violence as well as the meaning of development besides of studying causes of war, armed conflicts and peacebuilding.
Region Västerbotten and Elgeyo Marakwet County Government are working together for the purpose of sustainable tourism in relation to other development challenges. The partnership is funded by Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD) with me as a senior advisor. Francis Kiplagat in the picture is successful farmer in Rift Valley and one of the stakeholders with an interest in this partnership due to its relevance for agriculture as well as in other dimensions.
The work between The City of Umeå, and its company for waste and water management - Vakin - is now up and running through a first assessment of the situation in Kajiado County as well as dialogue on to move towards sustainable management of waste and water. The partnership is funded by Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD). My role is the one of senior advisor supporting the steering group and technical teams working in this project.
In December 2016 projects between The City of Umeå and Kajiado County Government in Kenya and Robertsfors Municipality and Department of Youth, Education and Social Welfare in Machakos County were approved by Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD). The projects have a focus on democratic governance at the local level even though the areas of collaboration are different; capacity building for waste and water management, and gender equality. I will be an advisor in both partnerships.
Department of Radiation Sciences, Umeå University invited me to be the moderator of a debate between students at the course Sustainable Development and Environmental Radiology. The students were divided in groups debating wether geoengineering is necessary for managing climate change or if other measures are prefered. My views are similar to those formulated by the ETC-group who have a very critical view on geoengineering of climate change. Basically - it is unacceptable.
There are a lot of people, organizations and initiatives who works hard for peace, human rights and sustainability. Besides supporting people and initiatives in different ways, ADEP has this year decided to support Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, Blank Spot Project and Help through Music (Musikhjälpen in Swedish) since these are all initiatives that deserves support and respect for the work they are doing. The support from ADEP is not big but hopefully helpful.