The Africa-EU relations, migration, development and integration (AEMDI) project, aims to bring into conversation leading academics, policy makers, political observers and practitioners from civil society to explore and examine intra-Africa migration on one hand and EU-Africa relationships vis-à-vis migration on the other hand. Efforts to integrate Africa, through the RECs, should, then, be informed by lessons and parallels drawn from across Africa, and chiefly, the integration experience of the EU—particularly the Schengen Area—in moving from free movement of labour (only) to EU citizenship, as enshrined in Article 20 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Its main activities of AEMDI will include two international workshops and one international conference. One workshop will be hosted by the University of Eastern Finland and another by the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The main output of AEMDI activities will be a scientific edited volume, based on deliberations in and papers from the workshops. The main outcome of AEMDI is the promotion of the Jean Monnet Programme and adoption of best practices from the EU`s successes in regional integration, in Africa. The impacts of AEMDI will include increased networking and expertise between/of academics, policy makers, professionals and relevant stakeholders in Africa and the EU. AEMDI responds to the need to promote development and well-being in Africa through, among other things, learned experiences from observed successes in EU integration.
Anna-Leena Toivanen (anna-leena.toivanen@uef.fi)
I am a comparative literature scholar interested in adopting a mobility studies approach to literary studies. I currently work as Academy Research Fellow and my project, “The Poetics of Afroeuropean Mobilities in Francophone African Literatures” (project number 330906), examines how Francophone African literatures from the mid-20th century to the present represent forms of human physical travel (pedestrianism, automobility, aeromobility, maritime travel, travel in public transport etc.) in the wider context of different Afroeuropean mobilities: student mobilities, tourism and exploration, professional mobilities, criminal mobilities, return travel, and clandestine travel. The project develops analytical tools for reading mobilities in literature. My book “Mobilities and Cosmopolitanisms in African and Afrodiasporic Literatures” was published in March 2021 (Brill): https://brill.com/view/title/57650
Antti Erkkilä (antti.erkkila@uef.fi)
Senior Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), 2012-2017, ALL-YOUTH and MAKUTANO research projects, 2018-2023, UEF EDUCase global pilot project, 2022, 2023.
Senior Researcher, Researcher, Coordinator for Global Sustainable Development, Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu, 1984-1994, 1997-2005.
Environmental Counsellor at the Embassy of Finland in Nairobi, Kenya, 2005-2010.
Chief Forester in Research and Forestry Adviser at the Directorate of Forestry, Namibia, 1994-1996, employed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Short-term consultancies: Cambodia, Eswatini, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia (1986-2016). Professional study tours to India (1982), Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras (1984), South Africa (1996, 2004), Uganda (2006, 2007), Rwanda (2010), Tanzania (2018, 2019), Namibia (1990, 1993, 1994-1996, 2002, 2005, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2019), Cameroon (2023).
Trainee in Canada (Pacific Forest Research Centre, British Columbia, 1983), Czechoslovakia (Faculty of Forestry, Brno, 1981) and Ireland (Forestry and Wildlife Service, 1979).
Responsive Natural Resources Governance research group, member.
Behnam Tajik (behnam.tajik@uef.fi)
A nutritionist and A Postdoc Research Fellow in Health science. My research interests lie primarily in the role of dietary factors on the cardiometabolic diseases, mainly cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes.
Coordinator of UEF/Africa Pilot – Southern African and Finnish Higher Education Institutions’ for Health and Well-being network (SAFINET) for Facilitating collaboration between Southern African and UEF’s academia in Health science.
Business and Sustainable Economic Development: African and European Perspectives (BUSEDA)
Climate crisis and religious change in Sub-Saharan Africa
Cloneria Jatileni (cloneria.jatileni@uef.fi)
I facilitate the collaborations between the University of Eastern Finland’s department of teacher education and our partner universities in the global north and south. In this collaboration, we work with the departments of education at the University of Turku in Finland, the University of Namibia in Namibia, and Stadio Higher Education in South Africa. Generally, I am involved in the GINTL African collaborations with UEF on educational research. My work includes applying for funding on GINTL projects at UEF and identifying possible research areas. Our research areas are teacher education/training, digital learning, early childhood education and educational policies. I am also a doctoral student at UEF. My dissertation focuses on digital learning for Mathematics and policy development in Namibian basic education.
Dmitry Zimin (dmitry.zimin@uef.fi)
I am a human geographer with research interests in economic development and cultural geography. In particular, I focus on economic development and education in the Global South, as well as the idea of “culturalization of natural resources” for the purposes of local development. At present I lead the project “Business and Sustainable Economic Development: African and European Perspectives” (BUSEDA) with partners in six African countries.