FinCEAL+ BRIDGES Seminar: Sustainable Development Goals and Partnerships for Transformation to be held on 20 November 2019
FinCEAL Plus BRIDGES will organize a seminar entitled, "Sustainable Development Goals and Partnerships for Transformation: Finnish Research and Innovation with Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean", on 20 November 2019 at Think Corner Lounge, University of Helsinki Think Corner.
Date: 20 November 2019
Time: 08:30 – 11:45 (including breakfast) Programme
Place: Think Corner Lounge, University of Helsinki Think Corner (2nd floor)
Registration is now Closed!
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out an ambitious set of global targets for “ending all forms of poverty, fighting inequalities and tackling climate change, while ensuring no one is left behind”. Finland has made significant progress toward the achievement of the SDGs nationally, but for Finland to become a leader in the global efforts to achieve the SDGs, pathways and approaches for transformation must be identified.
Finland’s substantial expertise and innovation in areas such as health, biodiversity, food security, forestry and sustainable agriculture are contributing to the global efforts to meet the targets set in the Agenda 2030. However, even if this expertise is having localised impacts, long-term transformation requires joint knowledge creation within multi-sectoral, international partnerships. Scientific and innovation collaboration with counterparts in countries in Africa, Asia, and LAC can be the basis for transformative knowledge partnerships. Contextually, the recent political and socio-economic developments in Finland, Europe and the world present an opportunity for renewed policy analysis and strategic alignment with regional and global policy trends.
On a regular basis, FinCEAL convenes a national multi-sector policy seminar to facilitate evidence-based policy discussion and to advance Finnish science policy. The seminar is a timely and strategic national science policy event, taking place at the crossroads of regional and national occasions, specifically: Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU; the global rise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030 to policy prominence; and the inception of a new government in Finland. Harnessing this momentum, the BRIDGES Seminar aims to bring together stakeholders from academia, government, civil society and the private sector, to discuss how to mobilise Finland’s expertise in research and innovation in support of global partnerships (involving academia, government, civil society and the private sector) towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the Seminar, the following questions will be considered:
-
What key sectoral actors can be identified and what roles could they play to mainstream Finnish involvement in transformative partnerships and international policy dialogues towards achieving the SDGs?
-
What are the best ways to influence national, EU, and global policy discussions to maintain focus on the SDGs in the Global South based on the collective Finnish expertise in Africa, Asia, and LAC countries?
-
What concrete actions are needed to facilitate and mainstream partnerships between Finland and countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean in support of the SDGs?
Based on the discussion, a joint vision will be formulated and published as a green paper by FinCEAL Plus BRIDGES. The event is free of charge but requires registration by 15th November. Registration is done via a link on the UniPID website.
The FinCEAL Initiative is a national programme for the internationalization of Finnish research, funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and implemented by the Finnish University Partnership for international Development (UniPID). Since 2013, FinCEAL has made significant contributions to the process of internationalizing Finnish science by supporting partnership development and collaborative research activities between the Finnish research community and the research communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
