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Forum and network for Northern Governance and Development
Building capacity for sustainable social and economic development in the Circumpolar North is the main objective for both the forum and the network coordinated by Finnmark University College (FiUC). New course and study programmes on both undergraduate and graduate level, reflecting the need for knowledge and competence in the region, are among the most positive results of the regional research and development work initiated through and by the network. This is achieved mainly through close and continuous cooperation with development agents and partners in both the public and private sector in the region in joint development projects, but also cooperation in research and education. The combination of these three elements is not only the ‘trade mark’ of the Forum and Network for Northern Governance and Development, but also a criterion for success in building capacity for sustainable development in the North.
Through our membership and participation in the University of the Arctic (UArctic) we have gradually extend our internal forum and network on regional development in the North to a handful of universities and university colleges in Northern Canada, Finland and Russia – with the same or a similar profile on educational and R&D projects and programmes as FiUC. Today we are participating actively in three UArctic thematic networks (TN’s), on Local and Regional Development in the North, Northern Governance and Northern Tourism. The TN’s are supposed to be the most important tools for implementing UArctic’s and the member institutions policies for Northern development. At FiUC we are in a very privileged situation, since two of the UArctic TN’s, the ones in tourism and local and regional development, are both initiated and lead by us. International cooperation is important also for capacity building in our field of work, local and regional development. To obtain more synergy effects through networking on the international level, we have got involved in several joint education and research projects and programmes with other UArctic thematic networks and the participating member institutions, first of all people in the Northern Governance network. On the top of a list of co-project of the two UArctic networks you find a joint masters degree in Northern Governance and Development, planned to start fall 2010.
The main forum or meeting-place for the FiUC based network on Northern Governance and Development, both for the regional and international dimension of the network, has been and still is the annual Gargia Conference. This forum was established already in 2004, originally to help coordinate joint development projects and programmes, such as local development workshops and partnerships, with our partners in the region, mainly municipal authorities. But another important objective for the Gargia Conference from the very beginning has been and still is knowledge and competence building. The gathering of practitioners and ‘academics’ with different educational background and life experience, but with a common interest in local and regional development, give us an unique opportunity for individual and collective learning and capacity building through integration of experience and theory based knowledge. To fill ‘black holes’ in our knowledge and to stimulate good learning processes, we have invited as key speakers, scholars and/or practitioners with special competence in the field of regional politics and development. With Jouni Ponnikas and Andra Aldea-Partanen from the Lönrot institute in Kajaani, Finland as main speakers in 2007, the Gargia Conference became the main forum also for the international dimension of the network on Northern Governance and Development. At the Gargia Conference 2008 on ‘Northern Innovation and Development’ the international participation was extended further to both Canadian and Russian partners in our UArctic Thematic Network on Local and Regional Development in the North.
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