Coordinated by Lisa Marika Jokivirta <lisa.m.jokivirta[at]jyu.fi> and Henri Onodera <henri.onodera[at]helsinki.fi]
Professor Elnour Abdalla Elsiddig (University of Khartoum, Sudan): “Deforestation in Darfur isn’t simply an environmental issue – it’s also a human security issue.”
Professor Elnour Abdalla Elsiddig
Darfur is facing a serious deforestation crisis, according to Professor Elnour Abdalla Elsiddig from the University of Khartoum. This is not just an environmental issue, asserted Elsiddig, but it is also one directly impacting local livelihoods and fueling conflict within the region.
The savannah forest zone covers almost 40% of Sudan, forming the primary forestland, but much of this has been cleared in recent years, reported Elsiddig. Land clearance for agriculture is largely behind this deforestation crisis, particularly in the savannah zone which contains the most natural resources and is the most densely populated area of the country. 90% of the population in Darfur is dependent on forests as the primary source of natural resources. Fuel wood alone accounts for 70-80% of energy use in both rural and urban communities.
Deforestation can also be closely linked to growing food insecurity in Darfur. A key issue that is often overlooked, and which was raised by UniPID Chairperson Olavi Luukkanen during the group discussion, is that food in dryland Africa mainly comes from forests. This is a fact not commonly understood by the West, and one which is of central importance to understanding the link between deforestation and food security in Africa, noted Luukkanen. Within the context of Darfur, the saying that ‘a hungry man is an angry man’ has indeed proven clear, added Elsiddig.
The intensification of conflict in Darfur mainly involves two groups: the cattle herders or baggara, and the camel herders, or abdalla. These groups used to co-exist in relative harmony and had means of resolving conflicts between tribes. Some were even engaged in inter-marriage, noted Elsiddig. However, diminishing natural resources, coupled with a decrease in rainfall and drought, have lead to increasing conflicts over land use and attacks against opposing tribes. Origin and ethnicity only serve to exacerbate the conflict.
In terms of recommendations for the way forward, Elsiddig emphasized the core importance of institutional reform. Currently, there are more than a dozen institutions dealing with forestry issues in Sudan. Progressive forestry policies are already in place, but what is needed is an effective means of implementing these policies. Integrated sectoral planning and an effective forestry institutional structure linking the various institutions will undoubtedly be the key to successful reform, suggested Elsiddig.
Elsiddig concluded by calling for a more participatory approach to natural resource management. This should be based on community capacity-building and acknowledge traditional ecological perspectives, such as agroforestry based on indigenous species. “Development isn’t necessarily about introducing new innovations and technologies. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be complicated,” suggested Elsiddig. “Development can be about maintaining old traditional systems. It can be as simple as preserving or re-planting our forests and trees.”
- Written by Lisa Marika Jokivirta
Professor Aili Tripp (University of Wisconsin-Madison, US): “Women’s rights seem to be more advanced in post-conflict African countries than in countries that have not experienced conflict”
Professor Aili Tripp
Women’s rights are more likely to be addressed in post-conflict African countries than in countries that have not experienced conflict, according to Professor Aili Mari Tripp from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Moreover, the more intense the conflict, the greater the disruptions in social and gender relations.
For example, the proportion of women in African legislatures is 27% in post-conflict compared with 13% in non-conflict countries. Female representation would appear to be high even compared to Scandinavian countries, which are generally lauded for their gender equality. Finland (40%), for example, trails behind Rwanda (56%) and South Africa (45%) in terms of female representation in Parliament.
A similar trend can be discerned with regards to gender quotas. Only 1 post-conflict country versus 21 non-conflict countries in Africa has not introduced a gender quota of any kind. In post-conflict contexts, women are also more likely to be visible in ‘key’ ministries such as defense and finance, rather than merely limited to ‘soft’ areas such as health and education. Here, it is important to note that the ‘post-conflict’ does not signify the end of all violence or conflict, but a significant decrease in its intensity, cautioned Tripp.
Why is it that countries coming out of conflict are more likely to address women’s representation and rights? Tripp identified several reasons that could be behind this trend. During the conflict, women might share common experiences, leading them to mobilize around a common cause in general, and a gender agenda in particular. Women also tend to be called forth to assume new positions of leadership and authority, Tripp suggested. This has the potential to disrupt traditional gender roles, and open up new opportunities for women to assert themselves. In certain post-conflict situations such as Uganda, Liberia and Mozambique, for example, women have suddenly seen themselves become the heads of universities, politicians, race car drivers, opening up businesses – achieving things that they had previously never thought possible, argued Tripp.
Tripp cautioned against resorting to any sweeping generalizations or idealizations given the diversity of women’s rights and roles across and within African countries. However, evidence would appear to suggest that post-conflict countries have adopted more women-friendly policies than their non-conflict counterparts. For example, 5 out of the 7 African countries that passed legislation on women’s rights to land were post-conflict countries. The latter also tend to be more open to gender-friendly constitutional reforms which, when implemented, are more explicitly worded from a gender perspective.
Has descriptive change translated into substantive change? Will these initial advances in female representation be sustained? Has progress in women’s rights led to progress in other minority (e.g. indigenous or gay/ lesbian) rights? More research is needed, Tripp argued, and her current research project should be seen as only one step towards bridging the significant research gap that currently exists within this field.
- Written by Lisa Marika Jokivirta and Leena Akatama
Roundtable Discussion: “How – and to what extent – might Finnish universities contribute to crisis management and peacebuilding efforts?”
The panel discussants included: Kirsi Henriksson (Head of Research and Development, Crisis Management Center Finland), Antti Häikiö (National Coordinator, Civilian Crisis Management Training, Finnish Ministry of Interior), Dr Olli Ruohomäki (Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Professor Olavi Luukkanen (UniPID Chair, University of Helsinki) and Professor Elnour Abdalla Elsiddig (University of Khartoum, Sudan). Chair: Professor Juhani Koponen (University of Helsinki).
Professor Juhani Koponen from the University of Helsinki warmly welcomed the panel members to the roundtable discussion. This was meant to bring together academics, practitioners and ministry officials to discuss the way forward for crisis management research: what are the key opportunities and challenges facing Finland’s role in international crisis management? What might be the role of academia in contributing to more effective and well-informed crisis management, and how can we best bridge the gap the exists between academics and practitioners in the field?
The discussion was rounded with Finland’s role in international crisis management, for example in the Balkans and Afghanistan. There was a general consensus amongst the panel discussants that, as development is a pre-requisite for security and vice versa, broader and more long-term development considerations need to be taken into account. According to Antti Häikiö from the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, Finnish interventions should lean more towards the side of development than security, as most conflicts generally stem from economic instability, food insecurity and scarcity of natural resources.
A conference participant responded to the ministerial officials by arguing that, in addition to ‘development support’, key issues such as arms trade and trafficking need to be addressed. According to the comments of several audience members, a potential gap in the discussions was a focus on conflict prevention rather than conflict resolution: shouldn’t conflict prevention ultimately be prioritized as the most effective peacebuilding tool, with (military) intervention used as the last resort? UniPID Chairperson Olavi Luukkanen noted that Finland should at the very least involve itself in countries where it has experience, understanding, and trust. This type of informed approach could enable Finland to develop and even export its model of international intervention in this field, added Kirsi Henriksson, Head of Research and Development at the Crisis Mangement Center in Finland.
Considerable attention was diverted to the relationship between researchers and practitioners in the crisis management field. There was a general consensus that academia has a central role to play in providing well-informed analysis about security-related issues and the broader contexts surrounding these. Dr Olli Ruohomäki from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for instance, emphasized the core importance of all Finnish intervention being grounded in solid research. What is needed, according to Ruohomäki, is widespread public debate and policy briefs featuring future-oriented trends analysis in order to inform future decision-making. Several university representatives from the panel challenged Ruohomäki’s claim by raising the question: will the need for more crisis management research be met with increased and adequate funding to undertake this research?
Antti Häikiö from the Finnish Ministry of the Interior pointed out that writing about crisis management is not equal to practicing crisis management. According to Häikiö, a large disparity between theory and the reality on the ground exists. It was acknowledged that academia has a longstanding tradition of involvement in the crisis management field. However, Häikiö and Ruohomäki argued that there is a pressing need for Finnish universities to more clearly and concisely communicate the findings of their research to policy-makers and prove the direct relevance to the crisis management field. This is simply due to growing pressures to justify to taxpayers the value of increased funding to security-related research, Häikiö remarked.
Luukkanen challenged ministry officials by noting that many examples already exist attesting to the more practice-oriented contributions of Finnish universities to the crisis management field. The potential of initiatives such as the Higher Education-focused Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HE-ICI), for example, should not be overlooked in terms of longer-term capacity-building in the South, added Luukkanen. Professor Elnour Abdalla Elsiddig supported Luukkanen’s claim, drawing on the example of the longstanding cooperation between the University of Khartoum, Sudan, and the University of Helsinki in terms of local capacity-building and shared knowledge about the links that exist between natural resource management and conflict in Darfur.
Overall, the university panelists left ministry officials with a key challenge: how might the Finnish government best maximize the potential contributions of academia to crisis management and peacebuilding activities, and will more research funding be made available for Finnish universities to rise up to this potential role?
- Written by Lisa Marika Jokivirta and Leena Akatama
Interview with Ville-Veikko Pitkänen (CMC Finland): “Gender mainstreaming can be a challenging task in a country like Finland, where gender equality is often taken for granted.”
Ville-Veikko Pitkänen
Ville-Veikko Pitkänen, gender specialist and researcher at Crisis Management Center (CMC) Finland, Pitkänen spoke about his experiences of gender mainstreaming within the activities of CMC, recognizing the positive work being carried out by CMC as well as the challenges that still remain in the field.
Pitkänen strongly feels that this conference had a positive outcome. He found the debates held at the end of every presentation in the ‘Gender Equality, Peacebuilding and Development’ working group that he was coordinating to be particularly engaging. Pitkänen reiterated that gender and peacebuilding are themes still needing to be further developed within the development and international cooperation field, and in this sense conferences such as this one very much represent a step in the right direction.
Pitkänen described his work of gender mainstreaming within the activities and organization of CMC Finland as a challenging task, mainly because gender is an abstract concept and an aspect that involves every action in our everyday lives. He particularly spoke about the difficulties he has encountered as a trainer for civilian crisis management personnel in Finland, where gender issues are often taken for granted due to the country’s reputation and inherited assumptions about gender equality. According to Pitkänen, “you might be very aware and even a strong advocate of equality between women and men, but the real practice of gender equality becomes more complicated when analyzing how you act in your everyday life, for instance at home. Gender values permeate our lives from a very early age, and this is why it is very difficult to change such deeply engrained and internalized ideas.”
CMC has diverted considerable attention to tackling the challenge of gender mainstreaming across its personnel training, activities and organization. At present, CMC recruits female civilian crisis management experts in order to increase and equalize female participation within the organization, and has adopted a more broad perspective concerning the issue. CMC has developed a socio-constructive approach to training in order to make this a participatory experience whereby each participant can provide special input into the training and is able to analyze the gender biases within his or her own experience of gender. This is not an easy task, Pitkänen reiterated, as it is often difficult to measure our gender sensitivities, but this is what CMC is trying to improve. “Developing a gender perspective, Pitkänen added, means that we must come to view gender as concerning both men and women, and the whole society, and peace-building activities should be no an exception to this broader and more inclusive view.”
- Interviewed by Juanita Rojas
Concluding Remarks by Dr Lauri Siitonen, Chair of the Finnish Society for Development Research
Dr Lauri Siitonen
“Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, ten years after the UN Millennium Declaration, and where do we stand? Well, in the middle of global economic crises – but, hopefully, now with a better understanding of the need for global economic regulation.
It is true that violent conflicts continue in a large number of poor countries. Yet, by now we should know to better appreciate the potential of women’s movements in peacebuilding and democratization.
The sad fact is that development still remains a distant hope for at least a billion people. But we should already have learned something about how natural resources management affects the choices of poor people, and thereby the chances for peaceful solutions.
Above I have listed some lessons that I feel having learned from some of the key note lectures. They all bear witness to the possibility that development research can make a change in how we understand – and react to – challenges posed by global unequal development. So does the large number of young students and scholars actively participating in the conference.
Altogether, my impression is that over the past two conference days, we had thought-provoking lectures, inspiring presentations and vibrant discussions, all in the best academic manners. Thanks to all the participants for making it true!”