From September 22 to September 25, a course was held in Ulaanbaatar for the Dukha reindeer herding youth as part of the Arctic Innovation Lab program. In total, 20 representatives of the Dukha reindeer herding people from East Taiga (15 people) and West Taiga (5 people) participated in the course. The Arctic Innovation Lab in Ulaanbaatar is organized in the framework of the Reindeer Herding and Resilience project.
The lecturers were representatives from the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs: Jennifer Spence, Director, and Tessa Varvares, Senior Program Coordinator.
The Arctic Innovation Lab is a project designed to promote solution-oriented discussions on the changing Arctic region. First Arctic Innovation Lab was held in in 2016 at the Arctic Circle Assembly. The lab brings together young Arctic leaders with scientists, policymakers, and tech experts to discuss new ideas and policy improvements that can contribute to solving Arctic challenges, with an eye to potentially turning some of those challenges into opportunities over time. A critical component of the lab’s mission is to engage and inspire young people to join the Arctic dialogue and become innovative leaders in their communities. The Arctic Innovation Lab is an event designed to bring young and entrepreneurial voices into the Arctic debate, helping to address the diverse challenges ahead.
In addition to the main lecturers, the course participants also listened to presentations by Marina Tonkopeeva, coordinator of the Reindeer Herding and Resilience project, and Sara-Elvira Kuhmunen, representative of the Sami youth, president of the Sáminuorra (the Sámi national youth organization in the Swedish part of Sápmi).
The students were genuinely interested in the lecturers’ presentations and asked numerous questions afterwards. During the course, students participated in several discussions, workshopped their ideas and shared their concerns regarding the challenges in their community.
The last day day of the course was dedicated to the presentation of students’ pitches. All 20 students presented their 1,5 minutes speeches and got a certificates of participation in the Arctic Innovation Lab. There were diverse range of topics presented by the students. For example, students expressed their concerns on the first aid in the rural areas and in Taiga, limited pastures in the connection with the inability to use lands on the protected areas, protection the reindeer, keeping Dukha historical heritage, language and culture, developing personal skills, lack of reindeer herding youth, and other.
Below we present some of the pictures from the course.
