I am doing a PhD in Environmental Policy at the University of Eastern Finland. I hold an MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Reading, UK. Research interests include the role of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in averting food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently studying online from Malawi but hope to be in Finland along the way once funding is secured.

Design and development of smart learning environment for programming education.

Projects

Design and development of a smart learning environment to support computational thinking and programming education using virtual reality technology

My research focuses on issues such as sustainable global health governance, pharmaceutical industry, stakeholder engagement, corporate responsibility, ethics among others, within the context of emerging economies of Africa.

Salla Atkins is a social scientist and professor of Public Health (especially Global Health) at the Faculty of Social Sciences. She is also a research specialist at the department of Global Public Health Sciences at Karolinska Institutet. For the past 16 years Salla has researched issues related to the social determinants of health, poverty, inequity, health systems and policy in low, middle, and high-income countries. Her interest is in mixed-methods and register research, especially multisectoral interventions to improve health and life course effects of social inequalities. Salla has coordinated large EU projects during her postdoctoral work and currently has projects in Finland in addition to collaborations with partners in Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, India, and South Africa on various projects related to health equity. Her work is situated in the space between international, national and regional policy, and individual lives.

Antti Autio is a Ph.D. student in the Doctoral Programme in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences (DENVI) at the University of Helsinki. He holds a master’s degree in Development Geography and his dissertation research focuses on smallholder farmer’s adaptation to climate change in East Africa from the perspective of political ecology.

Niti's research interests lie in the intersection between design methods, knowledge systems particularly local, traditional and indigenous knowledges, and participatory social design-driven transformation. She is currently exploring the relationship between post-colonial indigenous research paradigms (Chilisa 2019) and integrated product development strategies for holistic knowledge production that implements cognitive justice (Visvanathan 1997; 2021) for research at the Cultural Interface (Nakata 1997, 2007; Durie 2005). Over 30 years of professional creative practice in design and innovation. This includes 15 years of leading interdisciplinary teams for fieldwork using design anthropology methodologies (rapid ethnography, indepth interviews, day in the life, observations and shadowing in markets, farms, villages, borderlands and more). Fieldwork personally completed in South Africa, The Philippines, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and with local assistance in Benin and Malawi. Networks span the African continent. Public recognition of original knowledge production includes Invitation to mainstage of TED Global 2017 in Arusha Tanzania TEDTalk video https://www.ted.com/talks/niti_bhan_the_hidden_opportunities_of_the_informal_economy

(1) South Korea’s official development assistance in East Africa South Korea’s role in its recent development partnership with a focus on the Global Saema?l Undong (New Village Movement, SMU) programme. South Korea's official donor rhetoric points towards more symmetric aid relationships: emphasis on national ownership, request-based approach, notions of self-reliance and non-hierarchical relationships. Tanzania’s experience with the SMU programme has been selected for an in-depth case study. (2) International aid and institutional development in North Korea The interaction between international aid actors, the DPRK government and beneficiaries has resulted in the emergence of – what institutional theorists call – a ‘new field’. Using qualitative research methods, this research project identifies, categorizes and discusses a set of endogenously grown institutions in the DPRK that have emerged as part of the ‘new field’.

Projects

IMPLEMENTING CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION IN AFRICA: AN EVALUATION OF THE LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND CAMEROON

Africa and EU bonding

Anthropologist with a specialization in long-term social change in postcolonial Africa. Recent work focuses on the interaction between law and politics in state formation. Supplementary interests in epistemic decolonization, and in the legal frameworks around extractivist economies, especially in connection with indigenous communities.