I am a doctoral candidate in the Political, Societal and Regional Change programme experienced in qualitative research and implementation of development cooperation projects in Finland and Latin America. My doctoral research focuses on how the focus of women’s empowerment shifts when Finland’s development aid has been increasingly transferred from traditional development cooperation to the private sector through cross-sectoral partnerships with Kenya. My professional work has been focused on using research to inform project design and implementation in development cooperation initiatives for gender-based violence, gender equality, peacebuilding, psychosocial support, and migration. Previously I have conducted research on Women, Peace and Security, and feminism in Colombia, and refugees, agency, and gender-based violence in Norway.

I am a doctoral researcher in peace and conflict studies at Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere University. My doctoral research focuses on transnational women’s rights activism, solidarity, and working across differences in the case of Iran. My professional work has been focused on women’s rights activism in Iran and in the diaspora from the feminist peace studies and intersectionality perspective. Previously I have conducted research on the characteristics of the Iranian women’s movement and the peaceful transformation of Iranian society. Besides, I am a journalist, and I have been working as a journalist for more than 10 years. I am a co-founder of the first news agency for Persian-speaking immigrants in Finland.

I work in capacity building projects in Asia, LAC and Africa.

Projects

Capacity Building for Renewable Energy Planning in Cuban Higher Education Institutions (CRECE)

Myanmar Energy and Environment Education (MEEE)

Cuban Energy Transformation: Integration of Renewable Intermittent Sources in the Power System (IRIS)

I am a postdoctoral researcher at University of Eastern Finland, School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education. In my dissertation (2023) I examined how liminality affected asylum seekers’ subjective well-being, the negotiation of agency, and participatory barriers in pre-integrational education.

UN WOMEN Project (Preventing Forced Migration and Trafficking of Women and Girls in Nigeria: Build Resilience, Promote Sustainable Development), Development of a NAPTIP Gender Policy and Capacity building on the Implementation of the Policy. February– August 2021. UNHCR Global Compact on Refugees (National Focal Person), February 2019– December 2020. Kolo, L. Ladidi (2009) “Building more effective work teams at Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons”. A thesis written in fulfillment of an MSc in Human Resources Development (International Development). University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Published by University of Manchester Press Kolo, L. Ladidi (2019) “Statelessness. Nigeria’s realities and implications”. A paper presented at the Regional Strategic Meeting on Statelessness in Abidjan, 9th May 2019. Kolo, L. Ladidi (2019) “Mitigating Protection Concerns in Mixed Movements”. A paper presented at the UNHCR Regional Protection Dialogue 2 held in Abuja, 29th January 2019. https://reliefweb.int>report>niger Kolo, L. Ladidi (2020) “Implementing a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework in Nigeria”. A paper presented at the Country Meeting for the Implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees, 9th December 2020.

My PhD research revolves around how teacher education programs can nurture student teacher professional agency in two countries: Brazil and Finland. The two study cases have different personal and environmental elements that influence student teacher professional development: curriculum coherence between theory and practice, pedagogical interactions of the learning environment, and negotiation of professional identity.

Lahara is a doctoral researcher at the Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku. Her research looks at how transformative futures of development cooperation are imagined and narrated by different actors, through a comparative study of donor and recipient perspectives in Finland and Sri Lanka. Bringing together futures research and development studies, she explores how narratives shape ideas of transformation, power, and agency in development cooperation, and what alternative futures might emerge from these perspectives.

Projects

Creative indigenous actors: Integration of Indigenous Studies at the University of Helsinki

New Native Leaderships and Forms of Power in Amazonia

Transforming the future in Brazil: ritual and indigenous agencies

United in Diversity: Monumental Landscapes, Regionality, and Cultural Dynamism in Pre-Columbian Western Amazonia

Passado e Presente de Povos Aruák na Amazônia Ocidental

As a Chief Expert in mineral processing he has been working at Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) since 2011. As the project manager he has leaded two European Union funded projects, two EIT RM funded projects, one Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation) funded project and one the Academy of Finland funded project which focus on primary ores and secondary tailings processing. He has participated one international cooperation project funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland to provide the training for the engineers from Mongolia in mineral processing.