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.

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

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.

Access to water and sanitation services remains low for most sub-Saharan African countries, and the progress towards achievement of this access for all by 2030, as per the SDG targets is stunted. The state of low access to water and sanitation has dire socioeconomic repercussions that scientific research can contribute to untangling. My research aims at providing recommendations for enhanced citizen participation in water and sanitation services as a remedy to accelerate water and sanitation services development, the case of Kenya.

Projects

ICT Supported Community-engaged Forestry Education in Kenya

I am doctoral researcher at the School, Education, Society and Culture (SEDUCE) program, Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki. My doctoral research project investigates how English subject pre-service teachers in Finland and Kenya learn technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) in readiness to fulfill the digitalization ethos stated in the national educational policy documents. I am a member of Foreign Language Education research group at the University of Helsinki and a participant in the Training Trainers for Teacher Education and Management in Kenya (TOTEMK) project.

Siiri Sandberg is a Ph.D. student in the Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences (SOC) at the University of Helsinki. Siiri holds master’s degrees in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Urban Studies and Planning. The Ph.D. research draws on political ecology to study youth participation in forest conservation in Taita Hills, Kenya.