Liana Who we are

Who we are

Liana was established in April 2005 by a group of three research and development professional representing different fields of expertise. These three founder members are Richard Coe, Ari Koivu and Eija Soini. More active development professionals have joined since then.

The nature of the organisation and the way it operates determine criteria for different types of membership. In practice regular members:

	must have a desire to contribute to livelihood and environmental development and have a vision of actions which are aligned with the purpose and approach of Liana.
	must have the professional competence and experience to make those contributions.

Liana does not actively seek new members but welcomes membership of individuals who meet these criteria. Liana is an organisation which functions entirely through the efforts of its members. Much of the work of Liana members is voluntary. The organisation is a channel for these professionals for action. When necessary Liana recruits professionals from outside the organisation as short-term volunteers. These volunteers become regular members if they so wish.

At the moment Liana members have expertise in:

	Rural development and sustainable livelihoods
	Natural resource management
	GIS and remote sensing for environmental monitoring and land use planning
	Research methods
	Organisational development
	Environmental education
	Community mobilisation and empowerment
	Project cycle management, project evaluation and appraisal
	Youth development
	Textile and product design
	Adult education
	Human resources management
	Conservation and ecotourism
	Appropriate technologies for rural development in East Africa (firewood saving stoves, ferro-cement tanks, bucket drip irrigation kits and kitchen gardens, suitable tree species for the drylands of East Africa)

This is built on experience in consultancies and research and development organisations all over the world.

Members:

Anne Tarvainen

Membership fees:

Regular Northern 30 €

Regular Southern 10€

Supporting, individual 75 €

Supporting, corporate 500 €

Individuals or registered organisations who wish to support the aims of Liana but can not become members as described above can become supporting members, as described in the rules.

The Board:

Eija Soini, Development geographer (Founder member, Liana Chair)

Eija has a PhD in Development Geography from the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has also studied a range of other subjects including Biology, African studies, Cultural Anthropology, Education, and Remote Sensing and GIS. Her PhD thesis from 2006 is on Livelihoods, environment and land use interactions in the highlands of East Africa.

Eija has work experience from both private and international non-profit sectors. Work experience involves both research and leading practical development interventions.

Her research has concentrated on economic and ecological implications of land use change, land cover monitoring system methodology development, capacity building, and digital map production. Her projects have involved working with local governments, NGOs and directly with rural people. In addition to managing research projects she has management and supervisory experience from heading the World Agroforestry Centre East and Central Africa GIS unit, and acting as the GIS global coordinator.

She is currently coordinating and working as a technical advisor in Liana projects in Tanzania. These projects involve rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation for vegetable growing and tree nurseries, firewood-saving stoves, wood-lot establishment. Other volunteer duties in Liana include project development and fundraising; coordination of volunteer activities; dissemination of information to partners; administration and financial management; communications within the organisation, with its partners, donors and general public about Liana activities. Occasionally Eija does short-term consultancies.

Home page: www.iki.fi/eija.soini/

Miika Mäkelä, Human Geographer (Joined in May 2006, Liana Vice-Chair as from 2009 )

Miika has an MSc in Geography from the University of Helsinki, Finland. His study interests have focused on GIS and Remote Sensing technology. In 2004 he got his first taste of Africa, while doing his Master's Thesis in Kenya and Uganda. Currently Miika lives in Nairobi, Kenya with his wife and son. He works for the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) as a Spatial Analyst, specifically on a Payments for Environmental Services (PES) project.

Home page: www.iki.fi/miika.makela/

Richard Coe, Biometrician (Founder member, Liana Secretary)

Richard Coe has a professional background in biometrics and statistics. He trained, and later taught, at the University of Reading, UK. From there he got involved in a range of research and development projects in many countries. For the last 14 years he has been based at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya. This has allowed him to work with many R+D professionals and institutions both in the tropics and the north. At ICRAF he has provided support to scientists and development professionals working throughout the tropics. His work has gone far beyond assisting with data collection design and data analysis. He has been responsible for research quality management, for improving strategic and organization planning, for research ethics and data management policies. Recently he started sharing his time between ICRAF and the University of Reading, with the university work mainly through linkages with universities in East and Southern Africa.

His areas of expertise are:

Planning sound data collection - generating the evidence needed for decision making
Baseline surveys, monitoring and evaluation data collection, impact analysis, adaptive management, experiments
Agriculture, rural development, natural resource management, environmental sciences
Managing data and information
Data analysis, quantitative modeling and statistics
Research project planning, integrating investigations with development activities
Planning participatory enquiries to generate quantitative evidence
Quality assurance for research and investigative activities
Research project evaluation
Professional training and capacity building - short courses, on-the-job training, mentoring

Home page: www.iki.fi/r.coe/

Jarno Hämäläinen, Forester (Joined in September 2005, Selected to the Board in 2008)

Jarno Hämäläinen has completed his Master's studies with specialisation in environmental forest management at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu, Finland. His thesis (published in 2000) deals with the cost effects that originate from field storage of logging residues in large-scale procurement of forest chips. The research was conducted in the framework of the National Wood Energy Technology Programme. He has also consolidated his expertise in Geographic Information System (GIS) management by attending specialisation studies at the Agricultural University of Norway (Ås) and Häme Polytechnic (Evo/Finland).

Jarno Hämäläinen has gained long-term fieldwork experience from two African countries. In Tanzania he assisted the Rural Integrated Project Support Programme (RIPS) within the fields of IT facility and community forestry support in Mtwara and Lindi Regions. In the Province of Zambézia, Mozambique he served the Sustained Forest Resource Management Programme (PMSR) as the Provincial Forest Adviser. Both these development programmes were supported by the Government of Finland. Currently his main development interests focus on wild land fire prevention, control and management that effectively involve local communities, public institutions and private sector, and guarantees sufficient incentives for each stakeholder group. He has been actively sharing some action research based findings and fire monitoring experiences from Mozambique through regional wild land fire networks (Regional Subsahara Wildland Fire Network, Southern African Fire Network), Fire Management Unit at UN-FAO, and at Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). From 2006 to 2009 he worked as a raster production manager in a Danish ground surveying and mapping company in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He is currently working in Arbonaut Ltd, Helsinki as a Manager of REDD and Sustainable Forestry Services.

Johanna Kolehmainen, Biologist (Joined in February 2010, Selected to the Board in 2010)

Johanna has a PhD degree in Plant Biology from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her MSc and PhD thesis projects focused on the population ecology and genetics of the endangered African Violets (genus Saintpaulia) of the East Usambara Mountains in northeastern Tanzania. Her other university studies include Environmental Biology, Development Studies, Swahili language and various courses that relate to biological/environmental issues in developing countries. Recently, she has also studied Tourism Services at the Omnia Adult Education Centre, Espoo, Finland. Johanna's professional interests include Tanzania (East Africa), conservation biology, plant ecology, integrated conservation and development projects, tropical forest conservation, and ecotourism.

Johanna's earlier work history consists of miscellaneous plant biological jobs at the University of Helsinki and at the Finnish Environment Institute. From 2007 onwards, she has worked as a Planning Officer at the University of Helsinki developing biological adult training packages in the Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education, and developing teaching arrangements in Viikki Campus.

On her spare time, Johanna has engaged in voluntary NGO work and development projects in Tanzania. In 2003 she established, together with her biologist friends, the Finnish Saintpaulia Society, which aimed at promoting conservation and scientific study of the Saintpaulia. In this society, Johanna initiated a practical Saintpaulia conservation project in the East Usambara Mts., Tanzania. The society is no longer in operation, but Johanna has continued the project work in Tanzania privately. The current project (MAMCEP), which was initiated in 2007, works to enhance forest conservation and alternative livelihoods development (mainly ecotourism and sustainable agriculture) in Magoroto and Mlinga areas in the East Usambara Mts. In the near future this project will be continued as a project of Liana.

Home page: www.mamcep.org

Other Regular members:

Ari Koivu, Geographer, Youth/Sports development expert (Founder member)

Ari Koivu, is a Geographer (MSc) who has been actively involved in development research or development co-operation in Africa since 1994. Koivu has specific expertise in a relatively new field of development cooperation, Sports Development. He is one of the founding members of LiiKe which has become the leading sports development organisation in Finland. Koivu is currently leading a large physical education development programme for 11 Teachers’ Colleges in Tanzania. LiiKe also assists in creating sports environment for approximately 1 500 primary schools in Mtwara and Singida, Tanzania. In addition, he works actively in making 'Sports for Development' concept more widely known through awareness raising campaigns, development education, conferences, workshops, TV documentaries and publishing. Before and in addition to the work done through LiiKe, Koivu has been actively involved in Sports Development in Mtwara region by working as a consultant for the Finnish Sports Federation (FSF) (since 1996). Primary and secondary schools receive assistance and aid in developing schools' sports facilities and improving physical education curricula. Koivu is the Executive Director of LiiKe, based in Helsinki, Finland.

Kirsi Saaristo, Geographer, Education specialist (Joined Liana in September 2005)

Kirsi is an Educationalist and an Environmentalist with MSc degree in Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture in the Tropics (NORAGRIC/ Agricultural University of Norway) and a post graduate diploma in Practical Pedagogic. Her masters theses focused on Livelihoods and Risk Management Strategies of Pastoral Communities in Ethiopia. Kirsi has almost twenty years of experience from education sector including teaching Geography and Environmental Science, improving quality of basic education, education management and research. She has worked nine years in Africa .

Recently she worked in Somalia/ Somaliland as a primary education project manager employed by Save the Children UK. 1999-2003 she was contracted as a programme advisor for District Based Support to Education Programme in Tanzania, and in 1993-1995 she worked at Macha Secondary School in Zambia, employed by the Norwegian Volunteer Service. In Norway she taught Science and Geography in 1986-1993 , and in 1996-1997 she worked as a District Education Counselor. Moreover in 2003 she was employed as a researcher at the Department of Social and Moral Philosophy, University of Helsinki, focusing on education in Africa in general, and especially on primary education and child’s right to open future in Eastern Africa. In 2005-2008 she worked in Kenya, first for Life and Peace Institute and then for Save the Children Finland. Currently she is back in Finland where she works as free lance trainer and illustrator supporting newly arrived immigrants by giving training in Finnish language and in practical and cultural issues.

Her areas of expertise are Environmental Education, community mobilisation and empowerment, participatory methods, training needs assessment and project cycle management.

Aichi Kitalyi, Agricultural scientist (Joined in February 2008)

Aichi Kitalyi (PhD Agriculture), a Tanzanian citizen, is an international research and development specialist, with over three decades of working experience in rural Africa. She worked with the government of Tanzania in agricultural extension and livestock research from mid 1970's to mid 1990's. From there she joined the international development cooperation sector, where she first worked with a Sida Regional land management unit (RELMA) as Animal husbandry advisor. She moved to World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in 2004 to strengthen the farming systems and intensification component of integrated land management program. As from mid 2006 Aichi is managing the ICRAF Tanzania country program, working with national and international development partners to contribute to ICRAF's vision of advancing both science and practice of agroforestry to tackle the global challenges of poverty and environment protection. Aichi is well travelled in Africa and has been impressed by the few champion farmers who have transformed their lives and conserved the environment through adoption of profitable and sustainable land management practices. Her dream for rural Africa is for a massive adoption of good practices by smallholder farmers so as to have villages, districts, regions… where champion farmers outnumber the non-adopters. Once in that situation and with strong capacity building and supportive institutional, policy and legal framework, she is convinced poverty will be history in Africa.

Istamil Msangi, Agricultural extensionist (Joined in March 2008)

Msangi is a Tanzanin citizen and has a Certificate in Animal health & production and a Diploma in Animal production. He has extensive work experience especially in the field of Soil and Water management development and research projects from the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SWMRG, i.e. Soil and Water Management Research Group). Msangi worked for the University for over ten years. Since 2006 October he has worked as a project overseer for Liana.

Erja-Riitta Alander, Surface designer

Erja came to Liana as a volunteer. Erja's task was to lead a one-month basketry workshop in Kapedo village in the northern semi-desert area of Kenya. The Kikapu workshop (Kikapu=basket in Swa), Kapedo basketry workshop for women to create new designs and products for improved marketing and income generation was implemented together with the local CBO KEDA (Kapedo Educational and Development Association). The workshop took place in April-May 2008.

Erja is a textile artist, designer and illustrator who currently works in Helsinki as a designer. She studied in the Seinäjoki polytechnic (BA) and University of Art and Design Helsinki (MA). She works with textiles as a versatile medium and applies it in a diverse range of fashion and interior design needs.

As a designer she has a keen interest in using recycled materials. She is also passionate about using textiles as a medium in socioeconomic projects with handloom weavers in Asia and Africa, where she has been working as a consultant providing support and advice on design and strategy. Her emphasis lies in utilizing the unique skills, eco-friendly processes and fair-trade transactions that mass manufacturing currently strives to provide.

Her approach to design reflects her bright outlook on life. Indicative of her Finnish background, she utilizes simple shapes with color harmony but mixing it with bold forms, resulting in design that captures her positive personality.

Susanna Mäkelä, Human Resources Management Specialist

Susanna came to Liana as a volunteer in October 2008. She compiled a review on Firewood/Energy saving stoves based on the documentation available on the Internet. This has guided us in the selection of models for further testing and introduction in our projects in Tanzania.

Supporting members:

Marja Färm (Joined February 2006)

Matti Jalonen (Joined February 2006)

Anneli Soini (Joined February 2006)

Reijo Soini (Joined February 2006)

JSu (Joined October 2007)

Pia Rinne (Joined October 2007)

Ritva Stenberg (Joined December 2008)