Ongoing Projects
JUNTOS: Jovenes Unidos – Together for Solidarity
Normal Lives, Inspirational Stories: Women of Today
JUNTOS (the RISC-RISE youth branch) has launched a new initiative to inspire young people with real life stories from seemingly everyday women. Zenyram, Juliana, Claudia, Madelyn and I conduct interviews on a monthly basis in which women can share their experiences in order to support young people in achieving their dreams.
All interviews are available on the RISC-RISE YouTube Channel.
Civil Society Participation and Just Transition in European Union External Affairs
What do we do?
The Just Transition Mechanism of the New Green Deal is an EU internal mechanism meant to ensure that no one is left behind in the transition from traditional production patterns to more sustainable ones, including in farming, energy, construction, and transport. We, however, focus on the external dimension of the New Green Deal, particularly on the process of civil society consultations.
Why is it important?
The EU strongly focuses on its internal policies without recognizing the importance of third countries not only as trade partners, but first and foremost as equal partners in the transition to sustainable development.
Who are we?
Dr. Emma Hakala from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and I are collaborating in this publication-driven project. We plan to publish a co-authored article in one of the high-ranking journals on European policymaking.
Recently Completed Projects
Gender Coherence for Development in ASEAN
01. What?
Gender Coherence for Development is the coherent implementation of gender equality measures across governance levels. In this project we focus on gender coherence for development in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
06. Anything else?
We are conducting this project as a publication-centered project with the aim to publish in an internationally high-ranking journal.
05. When?
This project was concluded in May 2021
and the article submitted to the journal
Development Policy Review.
02. Why?
Assessing gender coherence for development is crucial (1) to be able to hold governments accountable to their own commitments, and (2) to identify gaps in implementation structures in order to make improvements.
03. How?
We use qualitative methods of text analysis to explore the relevance of gender equality at regional level, which in turn serves as a benchmark against which to hold member states accountable.
Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD)
and Environmental Security
Sandra Häbel & Emma Hakala
Puzzle
The European Union is striving for greener energy and has subsequently adapted its Renewable Energy Directive to remove palm oil as a source for biofuels. However, this move affects livelihoods in producing countries. The question this arises: how does the EU address the three dimensions of sustainable development (society, environment, economy) in its renwable energy policies?
Concepts and Methods
We use environmental security and policy coherence for development (PCSD) as the main concepts, which to date are two separate arenas, to show that environmental security and sustainable development actually treat very similar topics. We use qualitative text analysis to analyze policy texts as to their inclusion of a set of indicators that we defined.
Outcomes
Results show that EU renwable energy policies are incoherence with sustainable development on two accounts. First, the societal dimension lacks prevalance. Second, the impact on third countries is not taken into account. As a result, the policies undermine not only sustainable development but also environmental security.