Sustainable development stands for guided global and local change aimed at achieving good living conditions for the present and future generations in environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly ways.
Sustainable development refers usually to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in 2015 by the United Nations and to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by which member states are committed to goals such as ending extreme poverty. The target is to reach these goals by 2030. The 2030 Agenda includes 17 sustainable development goals and refined sub-goals, which are monitored with global and country-specific indicators. Finland is committed to reaching these goals both nationally and in its international cooperation. Many of the sustainable development goals are connected to civilian crisis management, which enables Finland to make wide contributions to sustainable development in the areas of operations. The Crisis Management Centre (CMC) has strengthened its input towards sustainable development and has published its Sustainable Development Strategy 2021-2025.. In addition, we at CMC are participating in Sitoumus 2050 -campaign. by making an operational commitment to reduce our CO2 emissions and load on the environment and to increase our personnel’s and experts’ knowledge of sustainable development.
For Crisis Management Centre the most relevant SDG goals are gender equality and full participation and leadership of women (SDG5), the reduction of inequalities within and among countries (SDG10), responsible consumption (SDG12), climate action (SDG13), peace, justice and good governance (SDG16), and partnerships for the goals (SDG17).
All civilian crisis management experts are expected to have the required knowledge and understanding of sustainable development for their work in the changing security environment. The Crisis Management Centre’s training includes a sustainable development component that complements the experts’ previous expertise. Moreover, along with the EU Climate Change and Defence Roadmap, is required to take climate and environmental issues in operational environment into consideration in EU crisis management operations.
Gender Equality SDG 5
Gender equality is a cross-cutting theme in all activities of the Crisis Management Centre and we particularly support women’s participation in crisis management and leadership opportunities according to the UN Security Council’s resolution 1325, Women, Peace and Security.
The Crisis Management Centre acknowledges the gender perspective in our contents of courses and includes a special thematic section on equality and human rights. Gender equality is considered in the composition of course participants and trainers. In principle, courses such as the Basic Course of Civilian Crisis Management, consist of an equal number of women and men. The goal is for 50 % of the civilian crisis management experts sent by Finland to be women. The Crisis Management Centre identifies challenges in women’s recruitment and supports the recruitment of women to leadership positions in operations.
The Crisis Management Centre influences also to gender mainstreaming in civilian crisis management internationally. We lead, together with Spain, a working group on the implementation of the EU’s Civilian Common Security and Defence Policy Compact, which focuses on gender mainstreaming and increasing the number of women participating in civilian crisis management operations.
For Finland, it is important that civilian crisis management affects women’s rights at all levels.
Reducing inequality within and among countries SDG 10
Although income disparities between countries have decreased over the past decades, inequality within countries has increased. In addition, the COVID 19 pandemic is seen to slow progress and further increase inequalities.
The goal of reducing inequalities within and among countries is continuously at the core of the Crisis Management Centre, as civilian crisis management aims to diminish inequalities by promoting proper legislation and other measures. Civilian crisis management can, for example, support development goals of the local governance by promoting human rights, democracy, social and gender equality and stable and sustainable development. Operations therefore seek to ensure that the activities promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all individuals and parties equally.
For example, operations focusing on security sector reform seek to support local development by endorsing the reform of laws and practices that discriminate against local governance, and by supporting economic growth. Experts from various fields such as police officers, lawyers, human rights experts and equality advisors participate in missions. Crisis Management Center aims also to consider conflict-driven migration to ensure everyone’s rights.
Responsible consumption SDG 12
Crisis Management Centre follows guidelines for procurement by the Ministry of the Interior, which encourages to consideration of the principles of sustainable development in all procurement. All purchases, including expert’s equipment are evaluated by the criteria of accountability and suitability. Equipment must be both necessary and durable, and responsibly produced. With systematic maintenance and repairing the lifetime of equipment is extended.
Environmental values are taken into account in the office of Crisis Management Centre by measures such as cautious printing, re-using training materials, avoiding unnecessary electricity consumption and recycling the garbage. In addition, we pay attention to the climate-friendliness of the food that is served at the events we organize.
Climate action SDG13
Climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss affect comprehensively the operational environment of crisis management. Climate and environmental aspects are becoming established in civilian crisis management planning and operations. For example, the EU emphasises the importance of climate security in its foreign and security policy, and seeks to develop ways by which EU actors can adapt to climate change and respond to the security threats posed by climate change.
Followed by the publication of the EU Climate Change and Defense Roadmap in late 2020, EU crisis management operations must take the climate and environmental aspects into account in their planning and implementation. Analyses from the perspective of climate security and environmental impact assessments are required from EU operations. With this in mind, special positions for environmental advisors have been set up. Responding to new challenges posed by climate change concerns also other civilian crisis management experts. There is thus a need for Finnish environmental and climate experts in civilian crisis management. The Crisis Management Centre encourages environmental experts to apply for civilian crisis management training so that Finland has suitable experts in its roster as candidates for environment advisors for counselling.
In Finland, as part of the Ministry of the Interior, we are committed to halving the carbon footprint from baseline (2021) by 2027 and reducing our carbon footprint by 75% by 2035. The Crisis Management Centre’s own carbon footprint goal is more ambitious and aims for carbon neutrality by 2035. As for concrete climate measures, Crisis Management Centre, for example, critically assesses the need for air travelling and our employees never fly on domestic business trips. Crisis Management Centre favors environmentally friendly ways of travelling on other trips as well. The need for air travelling is also being assessed in the provision of training, and remote participation is noticed to be an effective way to reduce air travelling.
Peace, justice and strong institutions SDG 16
SDG 16 is perhaps the most central goal to Crisis Management Centre, as all civilian crisis management focuses on the promotion of peaceful societies and the development of responsible institutions. At the heart of this objective is, in particular, the promotion of legal protection and ensuring access to justice. Peace, justice and good governance support the achievement of many other goals, such as SDG 10 reducing inequality.
Many civilian crisis management operations support the development of rightful and effective governance. For instance, EULEX Kosovo- operation focuses on to support relevant rule of law institutions and EUAM Ukraine supports the reform of the security sector. In addition, the realisation of good governance and rule of law are promoted by a functioning and impartial authority that focused on law enforcement. Police and criminology experts participate in operations seeking to share their know-how with locals.
Stronger support for the implementation of sustainable development and global partnerships SDG 17
Several civilian crisis management experts work together with local authorities to support local preparedness to strengthen the principle of rule of law and human rights on a local level. In particular, advisory and training missions aim to support the capacity of local authorities to strengthen the rule of law, democratic institutions and elections, human rights and equality.
Experts sent by Finland work in civilian crisis management missions under the EU, the UN, NATO, the Council of Europe or some other international coalitions. The Crisis Management Centre’s experts have a wide range of expertise, most of whom are experts in policing, justice, border security, customs, criminal justice, international politics, equality and human rights, the environment and communications. The functions of local police, border management, the judiciary or local government may also be taken over and operated on a temporary basis in crisis areas. Cooperation between the various parties supports a more holistic approach to sustainable development and crisis management in general.
Global partnerships are advanced by EU’s internal cluster working groups that promote mutual knowledge and share existing and practices lessons learned from different countries. This contributes to the positive development of civilian crisis management while strengthening cooperation between EU countries.