Bonn Juego
Chair of the Finnish Society for Development Research
[A commentary on the UEF Global Development Report 2024, presented to the University of Eastern Finland during the UEF Global Development Day, 18 November 2024]
Hello and congratulations from Jyväskylä! Thank you for the invitation to be part of this occasion to celebrate past accomplishments and reflect on recent and future contributions of the University of Eastern Finland in international development education, teaching, and research.
On behalf of the Finnish Society for Development Research, and having read the UEF Global Development Report 2024, I would like to express my commendation to your institution’s impressive efforts and achievements. I’m indeed impressed by how much your institution has already done for our community in Finland and our constituencies internationally. Your collaborations and presence in more than 50 countries, bilateral agreements with over 20 institutions abroad, significant funding allocations amounting to around 9 million euros, and your invaluable work in promoting the ethos, principles, and methods of development research and education are truly commendable.
The quantity of your accomplishments and the quality of your impact suggest that UEF Global Development is a large unit with numerous staff members. However, I know for a fact that these impressive results have been achieved with limited resources, and therefore showcasing your team’s dedication, skill, and efficiency. I can imagine the amount of hours and coordination work you have done to skillfully, efficiently, and effectively accomplish and implement all these impactful activities and programmes in such a short period of time.
The Finnish Society for Development Research, founded in 1986, has enjoyed a long and meaningful cooperation with the University of Eastern Finland. This partnership has been enriched by the contributions of many esteemed colleagues at UEF, including Professor Irmeli Mustalahti (who served as our organization’s Chair), former staff member Sabaheta Ramcilovik-Suominen (who once chaired our annual conference), and Ida Herdieckerhoff and Roseanna Avento (our current Board Members). Roseanna is, of course, the UEF Global Development manager. UEF’s lecturer, and my former colleague here at the University of Jyväskylä, Teppo Eskelinen, has ever since contributed as well to Finland’s development community, both in academia and in civil society.
We are thrilled to collaborate with the University of Eastern Finland for our annual Development Days Conference in Helsinki on 26-28 February 2025, and to co-host the prestigious Kapuscinski Development Lecture on the theme “Development Transitions: Amidst Waste, Wars, and Maldevelopment”.
Know that the Finnish Society for Development Research will continue to support the University of Eastern Finland, especially as you have chosen to be very relevant at this historic juncture in the sustainability of our planet, the socio-political dynamics and changing demographics in Finland, and the geopolitical economy of development in general. You have chosen to be on the right side of history – so to speak – to become Finland’s academic focal point in coordinating and facilitating development studies and development research as the upcoming university base of UniPID – the Finnish University Partnership for International Development – in the coming years.
Finally, on a personal note, I’d like to appreciate and commend the University of Eastern Finland’s Global Development endeavour for showing us and fellow universities in Finland what the buzzwords ‘internationalization’, ‘equitable and ethical partnership’, and ‘global responsibility’ should mean in today’s Finnish and world-economic contexts. Your university is setting the example and leading the way by making it clear that a Finnish and European university’s strategy and aim of ‘internationalization’ should have the view to the ‘Global South’ – indeed, you make so much sense and meaning for expressing clearly that internationalization necessarily comes with a deep sense of justice, solidarity, cooperation, care, and concern for the Global South.
It is truly inspiring, encouraging, and reinvigorating to know and feel that the University of Eastern Finland’s Global Development activity exemplifies what true internationalization, ethical cooperation, equitable partnership, progressive change, and global responsibility should look like. Your commitment to justice, solidarity, and cooperation with the Global South sets a powerful example for all of us.
Thank you, congratulations, and best wishes for your continued success!