News

New Projects in Kenya

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.

Geoengineering of Climate Change?

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.

Contributions

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.

RCE North Sweden on International Meetings

Assigned by The City of Umeå, Umeå University and Region Västerbotten I attended SWEDESD international conference Bridging the Gap in August 2016, and The Global RCE Conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in November 2016 for the purpose of clarifying how RCEs could enhance the work with the new sustainble development agenda through The Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

African Partnerships

Assigned by Robertsfors Municipality and Region Västerbotten as a project-leader and as an expert, me and the teams hosted two african groups from Busia Municipality Uganda and Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya in October and November 2016 in order for the partners to work for sustainable livelihood through different entry-points. These partnerships are funded by Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD).

Peace and Conflict Studies

Once again assigned as a teacher in Peace and Conflict Studies at Umeå University on special programme in September 2016. I prepared a lot, for example by participating at seminar on non-violence at PRIO in Oslo, Norway. A key-note speacker was Sdrja Popovic (in the picture), a well known activist from Serbia working in Otpor and founder of CANVAS. Together with others we discussed policy implications of non-violent actions.