Webinar: How to build resilient regions?

Participants:

• Dr. Paul BARNES, Griffith University
• Dr. Harriet LONKA, North Savo Regional Council
• Dr. Petri UUSIKYLÄ, University of Vaasa
• M.Sc. Bailey LÄHDESMÄKI, Savonia University of Applied Sciences

Briefly about the webinar:

In this webinar we discuss collaborative governance approaches and how they can enhance regional resilience in Finland, particularly in the context of the EU's cohesion policy and smart specialisation strategies. We examine how voluntary cooperation among regional stakeholders can address the challenges of poly-crises and how these cooperative structures integrate with regional governance functions. The collaborative arrangements affect regional resilience in areas such as local economy, environmental governance, security of supply, and national defense. We identify the gaps in the enablement of regional resilience and highlight the need for improved coordination and collaboration between public, private, and NGO actors. As a conclusion we suggest that Finland could enhance capabilities for crisis readiness by implementing a national approach to managing disturbances across local, regional, and national scales. We conclude that effective continuity management and multi-scale planning are essential for enhancing regional and national resilience in the face of evolving threat landscapes. The webinar underlines the importance of subsidiarity and the inclusion of institutional actors at local and regional levels in building a resilient nation.

In Finnish:

Tässä englannikielisessä webinaarissa Dr. Paul Barnes ja FT Harriet Lonka esittelevät tutkimustaan: ”Collaboration as part of security governance in resilient regions – a Specific solution for non-specific problem” (2024). Kommenttipuheenvuoron pitää FM Bailey Lähdesmäki Savonia-ammattikorkeakoulusta ja keskustelua moderoi Vaasan yliopiston tutkimusjohtaja Petri Uusikylä.

Webinaarissa tarkastellaan, miten eri sidosryhmien ja toimijoiden yhteistyöllä on mahdollista lisätä Suomen alueellista kestokykyä ja vastata erilaisten kriisien haasteisiin sekä miten nämä yhteistyörakenteet nivoutuvat aluehallinnon toimintoihin. Esille tuodaan tunnistettuja kehittämisen kohteita julkisen, yksityisen ja kolmannen sektorin toimijoiden yhteistyössä sekä korostetaan paikallis- ja aluetason toimijoiden merkitystä resilientin valtion rakentamisessa.

Presenters

Paul Barnes (PhD) is the HEAL Senior Research, Policy, and Practice Fellow within the Centre for Environment and Population Health at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Dr Barnes also serves as a visiting Professorial Fellow attached to the ‘Torrens Resilience Initiative’ at Flinders University. He has over 28 years of experience as an applied academic and as a public sector manager working on emergency and operational risk management and security policy development at State and Federal levels in Australia. He established and led the Risk and Resilience Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra where he developed contestable policy advice and published widely on options for enhancing national capabilities and capacities for disaster risk reduction and institutional resilience. Earlier government experience includes serving as the Manager of the State Community Safety Unit in the Queensland Fire & Rescue Authority, Corporate Risk Manager of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Forestry and as Director of Security Policy Development within the Defence Security Authority of the Australian Department of Defence. He has completed projects for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, acted as an expert reviewer for the European Research Agency (European Commission), served on the National Advisory Panel for the “Profiling Australia’s Vulnerability: The interconnected causes & cascading effects of systemic disaster risk” project for the Australian Department of Home Affairs, and lead a project on designing national risk assessment frameworks for the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He currently serves as a Council Member of the International Military Council on Climate and Security (Washington DC), a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network on Risk and Resilience.

Harriet Lonka (PhD) is a project lead for Comprehensive Security Cluster at North Savo Regional Council in Kuopio. She holds M.Sc. in Geology and Mineralogy, Licentiate Degree in Public Administration and PhD in Legislative Studies. Her PhD thesis at the University of Eastern Finland titles Governmental Security Strategy as a Shaper of Legislation. Ms. Lonka has over 20 years of working experience as a business director, consultant, and researcher in the fields of risk and especially environmental risk management and security studies. She has been coordinating and evaluating EU projects in the fields of risk & emergency management since late 1990’s. She was Secretary General in the EU Commission Civil Protection Action Program Project Prevention of Natural and Technological Disasters in 2000-2002. One key focus area of this project was the prevention of and response to wildfires in Europe. Ms. Lonka has been Finnish representative in the OECD and UN/ECE working groups in the fields of accident prevention and preparedness in 1998-2000. Her recent researcher duty was connected to the Academy of Finland project Information Resilience in the Wicked Environment (IRWIN). In this project her research focused on developing improved concepts for governance and regulation in the context of National Preparedness.

Petri Uusikyla (PhD) is research director at the University of Vaasa (Preparedness and Resilience platform) and a docent (adjunct professor) at the University of Eastern Finland. Previously, Dr. Uusikylä has worked as a senior advisor at the Finnish Ministry of Finance, CEO and co-founder at the Net Effect Ltd. and Frisky & ANjoy Ltd., as well as an EU Twinning adviser. He is also a board member of the Finnish Evaluation Society and former president of the IIAS/Finnish Section. He has over 25 years of experience in evaluation and applied social science research and a comprehensive list of publications in the fields of security policy, legislative systems, innovation policy, public budgeting, policy evaluation, and European Union policy-making and public management reform. His latest works in the field of comprehensive security include the IRWIN project (Information Resilience in a Wicked Environment) 2021-2023, commissioned and financed by the Academy of Finland; Civil Preparedness in Finland 2023-2024, commissioned and financed by the Prime Minister's Office; and an institutional evaluation of the NESA (National Emergency Supply Agency in Finland) 2020-2021, commissioned and financed by the Ministry of Economy and Employment. His latest publication is a co-edited book, “Information Resilience and Comprehensive Security: Challenges and Complexities in Wicked Environments,” that was published in December 2024 by Palgrave Macmillan (https://link.springer.com/book/9783031661952).

Bailey Lähdesmäki (M.Sc.) works as a Research, Development, and Innovation Expert at Savonia University of Applied Sciences in Pohjois-Savo, Finland. She has extensive experience researching and facilitating the development of innovation ecosystems, particularly clusters, in both vertical and horizontal industry domains. Her focus is on co-created value provision for ecosystem stakeholders harnessing insights gained through user-centered engagement approaches as well as sustainable operational models accounting for stakeholder types, roles, and capacities. With a background in scalable service design, international business, and innovation management, she cultivates multi-disciplinary opportunity identification and innovation valorization with and between stakeholders. Ensuring alignment between innovation ecosystems and place-based development needs and strategies, in connection with international policy frameworks and initiatives, is a cornerstone that drives her research and its practical application. She has been a co-leader of the International Society for Professional Innovation Management’s Body of Knowledge Special Interest Group since 2022.

The webinar is in English. Sign up (ilmoittaudu) by April 16th. You will receive a link to the event by email on April 17.