A qualitative research in Yemen to explore the factors driving child marriage in the current humanitarian situation. Aims to understand the norms and practices surrounding child marriage as well as how the phenomenon could be addressed. Though conducting field visits to collect data on child marriage in Yemen through focus group discussions (FGDs) with community members, including affected individuals, family members, and community leaders. During the field visits a total of 16 FGDs were conducted across three governorates in Yemen (Taiz, Sana’a, and Marib governorates), involving 96 participants.

Team

Abdullah Alosaimi (Yemen, Finland). Susanne Dahlgren (Finland), Birgitta Essén (Sweden), Amal AlZahmi (United Arab Emirates), Mansoor Qaid Ebrahim (Yemen), Anu Leinonen (Finland), Nasser Yahya Al-Hantabi (Yemen), Khaled Alosaimi (United Kingdom)

Diseases have no borders. A disease anywhere in the world may become a health threat everywhere. It takes less than 36 hours for an outbreak to spread from a remote village to any major city in the world, therefore, the most effective – and cost effective – way to protect people from such health threats i.e measles, cholera and COVID-19 is to stop them before they spread to others and cross borders. Here comes the role of public health surveillance. Public health surveillance is the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data. An effective disease surveillance system is essential to detecting disease outbreaks quickly before they spread, cost lives and become difficult to control. Digital technologies can improve the ability to both detect and respond to disease outbreaks by sharing data swiftly thus helping us to understand how and where diseases are spreading. This information is crucial for deciding what health policies and strategies to make and follow. Significance of this research is not limited to one country but it has global health dimensions. It can help to address the critical issue of global health security by evaluating the impact of digital technologies on public health surveillance. Low and middle income countries (LMICs) including Pakistan have fragile health systems therefore the risk of spreading diseases, even beyond their borders, is high. Disease surveillance system in Pakistan has largely been outdated and paper based, frequently leading to delayed detection of measles, cholera and other communicable disease outbreaks. In 2017, Ministry of Health Pakistan, with support of World Health Organization (WHO), launched Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system which uses electronic health information system (District Health Information System – DHIS-2) as a platform for rapid and near real time reporting for selected diseases. From 2017 to 2022, the new system was implemented in 52 districts of the country while remaining 104 districts are still using paper based system. The dual existence of different reporting systems presents a unique opportunity for a comparative analysis, allowing for insights into the effectiveness of the digital transition. As a doctoral researcher, I will conduct an evaluation to address the existing knowledge gap regarding the effectiveness of transitioning from traditional paper-based disease data reporting systems to new digital systems. Specifically, my research will focus on evaluating the impact of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) and District Health Information System 2 (DHIS-2) initiatives in Pakistan. This evaluation aims to assess the effectiveness of new electronic infectious disease surveillance system in enhancing the country's health system capabilities. I aim to conduct a comparative analysis of the performance between DHIS-2, an electronic system, and traditional paper-based systems through cross sectional study, evaluate the effectiveness of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) framework and the District Health Information System 2 (DHIS-2) through a comprehensive assessment and explore the determinants influencing the adoption of electronic surveillance systems through a mix method study. The local research infrastructure is well-established, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pakistan under Ministry of Health serving as a central data hub for disease surveillance and public health information. The presence of this infrastructure is vital for the success of the research project, as it provides access to comprehensive and up-to-date data on disease surveillance, outbreaks, and response efforts across Pakistan. The NIH website hosts weekly epidemiological IDSR reports. These reports serve as a rich source of information, forming the foundation for the research and ensuring the reliability and relevance of the data collected. Furthermore, the International Doctoral Programme in Epidemiology and Public Health at Tampere University, drawing on its expertise and research strength, will help to improve the quality and depth of the research findings. Together, these elements of the research infrastructure will contribute to the robustness of the study. The research project is feasible as IDSR implementation, led by Ministry of Health Pakistan, is already in progress with support of WHO. I have five years of practical experience, as a public health expert, in disease surveillance, monitoring and evaluation with World Health Organization, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and UK Health Security Agency. My previous role as the Training Coordinator in the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) project has been very relevant. Research will be implemented in phased manner starting from kick off meetings, ethical approvals to data collection, data analysis, reporting and dissemination and finalization and publications. The results of this study may help to improve global health security by examining how well digital health information systems detect and respond to diseases quickly. In Pakistan, the findings might help strengthen the healthcare system, providing useful guidance to policy makers and contributing to practical strategies for better public health monitoring. My research is in line with the European Union's recent Global Health Strategy, which is a cornerstone of the EU's external policy. Addressing and mitigating health threats, particularly pandemics, is highlighted as a key priority within this strategy. Through my research, I aim to contribute to this overarching goal by examining the effectiveness of infectious disease surveillance systems, ultimately working towards a healthier and more resilient global community.

Team

MAKUTANO - means "gathering" in Swahili. The MAKUTANO research project aims to develop appropriate and new methodological and theoretical approaches for environmental collaboration and conflict resolution to be used in Tanzania and elsewhere. The action research approach will be used to find out if urban forest owners influence forest governance, and induce local conflicts over resource utilization. The project provides skills on environmental collaboration and conflict resolution to a group of small- and medium-scale forest owners and local community members in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, and traces how these skills are transformed and used in the future actions of these forest owners and the surrounding communities. The project is funded by the Develop Academy Programme (2019-2022), which is a programme jointly prepared by the Academy of Finland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. In many developing countries, there has been a transfer of public and open access land to private use. In the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, the promotion of small-scale private plantation forestry has attracted domestic investors to capture this new resource frontier to meet the increasing demand for timber. This has further increased land value and consequently also land related disputes. The main objective of MAKUTANO research project is to study skills on environmental collaboration and conflict resolution methods among a group of forest owners and local community members in Southern Highlands, and to trace how these skills are transformed and used in the future actions of these forest owners and the surrounding communities. The research idea has emerged from Tanzanian small scale forest owners. The project outcomes may influence Tanzanian-Finnish collaboration by promoting social safeguards to mitigate unexpected impacts of plantation forestry. The research collaboration involves international partners from Tanzania, Kenya, Mexico and Denmark.

Team

Irmeli Mustalahti, Antti Erkkilä, Ida Herdieckerhoff, Aristarik H. Maro, Ubaldus J. Tumaini, Tuyeni Heita Mwampamba, Mara I. Hernández Estrada

This study explores inequalities in access to housing. In the light of the premise "Leave no one behind", the case study on occupations and struggle against evictions in social housing estates of Lisbon metropolitan area (LMA) draws the attention to the groups of population that are excluded from access to housing. In particular, gendered and racialised aspects of housing exclusions are examined. In addition, the role of civil society in contesting housing exclusion is analysed.

Team

Saila-Maria Saaristo

Antibiotics have made it possible for people to live longer, healthier lives. Antimicrobial resistance, however, is an increasing problem, especially in low-resource settings. This project will employ a range of methods from microbiology, clinical medicine and sociology to produce new knowledge about how AMR genes spread especially in poor West African regions, in areas where local capacity to address AMR is lagging behind, and identify ways to curb the spread of AMR. This knowledge can be utilized in national and international health policy and medical research.

Team

Isidore Bonkoungou, Victorien Dougnon, Kaisa Haukka, Bourema Kouriba, Salla Sariola, Marko Virta

This research focuses on designing a smart learning environment (SLE) using virtual reality mini games to support students' computational thinking skills. Aside from enhancing the teaching and learning of CT, this research aims to support first-year students and novices of computer science with the opportunity to gain CT skills through an experiential learning approach. The goal of the research is to design and develop VR mini games through a rigorous process of the design science research methodology in order to provide artefact that allows students to learn CT concepts such as algorithmic thinking, recursive thinking, pattern recognition, and abstraction of problems. This research will measure students' learning achievement and cognitive benefits through a field experiment with first-year university students in Nigeria and Finland. Currently, we have developed a VR mini games application in the VR EdTech Lab located at the School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland. The mini games were co-designed with students from within Finland and abroad in order to achieve a student-centered learning environment. The research has produced over seven research papers published in ranked journals and conferences as shown in the link (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mSqmwdgAAAAJ&hl=en). The research is being supervised by professors from the School of Computing, University of Finland, and Luleå University of Technology (LTU) Sweden. The professors are specialists in VR technology, educational games, and ICT4D.

Team

Professor Markku Tukiainen, Dr. Jarkko Suhonen, Dr. Solomon Oyelere, MSc. Friday Joseph Agbo

Emerging technologies such as affordable smart phones with 4G access, broadband internet, and interactive interfaces employing gestures or speech, are revolutionizing the ways we access information, learn new skills and interact with the world around us. However, developing world communities - who stand to benefit from such technologies - were, until recently, largely neglected. Interactive technologies provide a means to address learning challenges such as functional illiteracy and information access barriers, and can improve learning and education, health and wellbeing, and agricultural practices.

Team

Markku Turunen, Jaakko Hakulinen, Mikko Ruohonen, Sumita Sharma, Pekka Kallioniemi, Juhani Linna

The article-based PhD thesis builds on five published articles. It explores how international human rights law regulates the prevention of honour-related violence (also called honour-based violence). The thesis analyses the obligation of the State to not only punish this form of violence but also to undertake other preventive measures. The legal discussion of honour-related violence has so far largely focused on criminalisation. This research brings to the fore the questions of whether States also should try to abolish the underlying causes of honour-related violence, above all strict gender roles and negative gender stereotypes that regard men as superior to women.

Team

Building on the successes and outcomes of the previous FinCEAL and FinCEAL Plus projects, the FinCEAL Plus Continuation project aimed to provide strategic support to enhance the cooperation between research and science policy communities in Finland, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The specific objectives of the project were to: 1. Strengthen Finnish participation in the EU STI policy dialogues with the target regions; 2. Support Finnish participation in joint research projects with partners from the target regions; 3. Enable Finnish expertise and know-how to be better known in the target regions; and 4. Gather and disseminate information on Finnish cooperation towards the regions within Finland as well as new cooperation possibilities with the target regions.

Team

Eva Kagiri, Kajsa Ekroos, Jarkko Mutanen, Melissa Plath

FinCEAL Plus started in January 2015 as an expansion and continuation of the FinCEAL Project (2012-2014), both funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The aims of the FinCEAL Plus project were to: 1. Increase and consolidate the Finnish bi-regional cooperation towards Africa, Asia, and the LAC region, with special emphasis on supporting Finnish researchers’ involvement in European bi-regional networks; 2. Support and consolidate the participation of Finnish experts in EU-Africa, EU-CELAC and EU- Asia bi-regional research and science policy dialogues; 3. Increase the knowledge about and visibility of Finnish cooperation towards the target regions within Finland; 4. Expand the awareness of Finnish expertise in the regions; and 5. Expand and consolidate the Finnish research communities’ awareness of cooperation possibilities with the EU, Africa, Asia and LAC region. 6. Throughout all the project activities, strengthening the Finnish universities’ global responsibility and making it more systematic and measurable.

Team

Eva Kagiri, Kajsa Ekroos, Jarkko Mutanen, Melissa Plath