Poverty eradication, development and aid

It was quite a while since my last update. The toothache is now gone and I'm back to work - 120% at least! Last week a new project of mine came into the picture, namely a national event on poverty eradication, development and aid organized by Utrikespolitiska föreningen Sverige (UFS). UFS is the Federation of Swedish foreign affairs associations and works to spread knowledge and promote debate about foreign policy, international and global issues. The conventions held by UFS are considered Sweden's main forum for international debate and next convention will be held during three days in March 2010. UFS convention is a unique meeting place for those in power and young people, for discussion and exchange of knowledge on international issues.

UF Linköping is member organization of the UFS and will be responsible for the workshops held at the convention. Nine different worskhops will be given and different relevant organizations will be responsible for the discussions during each workshop. The organizations are still to be selected from the list and it comes as no surprise that many of them I already know and some of them I even had previous working experience from. The workshops will be on nine different topics; among others democracy and development, environment and poverty, female issues and development, health and security. My role, as a member of UF Linköping and generally interested in issues concerning development, will be as project manager. A functioning project team will be formed during the next two months and together we will carry out this project that will take place next year. I'm very motivated by this task and excited to put together a dynamic team, plan the workshops and see how the good discussions eventually will take shape.

Are you interested in international questions concerning poverty eradiction, development and aid? Then being part of the project team responsible for the workshops at UFS's convention next year will be the perfect thing for you!
Contact me here.

I will end this blog entry with a video from Utpost.org (UFS's web newspaper on foreign affairs) showing an interview from 25th of February 2009 by Tamuz Hidir with Azerbaijani Ambassador on the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. After more than four months in Azerbaijan it's intersting to compare what is said about the country abroad (in this case, especially about the strong relation between Azeri energy revenues and social development) and what actually is in the reality.