We as founders of and members of the board for Another Development Foundation are Ingvar Rönnbäck (left), Ira Sundberg (middle) and Peter Söderström (right). We are all friends as well as professional partners committed to make a difference, with a focus on the coming generation of children and youth, when it comes to global sustainable development and a lot of areas included in that challenge; searching for peace by peaceful and non-violent means, support the right of freedom from violence and human rights in general, working for gender equality as well as climate justice and respect for the environment which we all depend on for our survival and wellbeing. We all have a background and foundation in psychology and social sciences working both theoretically and practically, and we all share a deep interest for social sustainability due to its fundamental importance for sustainable development. When we meet, we enjoy being together.
We are also happy to welcome Meghan Donevan as member of the board of the foundation. She accepted our invitation June 2nd, 2020. We have came to know her in the recent years duo to professional relations, and she has became a dear friend to us. She is most welcome to our team.
Ingvar Rönnbäck, chair of the board for the foundation, has worked for peace, human rights and sustainable development since the beginning of 1980´s in different organizations, for exampel as an activist in Swedish Peace and Arbitraition Society, as a teacher at several universities in Sweden but mostly at The Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences and Department of Political Science at Umeå University in Sweden. Ingvar also worked as a program officer for humanitarian assistance and conflict management at Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)for some years, and as senior advisor and consultant in his own company ADEP – Another Development Perspective Ltd (for information on the company, see: www.ingvarronnback.se) which he founded 2008. Ingvar have extensive experience of research and evaluations, as well as being the manager for international and national conferences, events and projects in collaboration with regional, national and international partners. Ingvar has also been members of and chair of several boards in civil society and universities.
Ingvar was awarded a special price by Umeå Student Union 2001 for achievements as a teacher at Umeå University and was nominated to the same price 2011, 2012 and 2013 by students when he started to teach again after some years at Sida. Ingvar was also awarded a price as the entrepreneur of the year 2010 at The Umeå Gala in competition with 300 newly established companies.
Ingvar lives in The City of Umeå together with his wife Eva-Carin. Their two creative daughters Evelina and Moa, who are young adults, share their parents interest and compassion for the world. Ingvar is most of all a family guy, but also with interest for arts, reading, music, sports and physical exercise. He has a passion for Track and Field which he practiced when he was young, even if severe injuries created difficulties during that time. His latest love is the newly bought small summer house by the ocean in the county of Norrbotten where he started to do Kayaking.
Contactinformation:
ingvar@anotherdevelopmentperspective.se
+46 70 604 72 01
Ira Sundberg studied conservation and environment before getting her master´s degree in psychology. She is a registered psychologist and psychotherapist.
Ira has been an entrepreneur and networker for most of her working life with systems-thinking and interdisciplinarity as core. She is a generalist.
For some years she worked with qualitative research and depth interviewing. She has worked more than 20 years as a psychotherapist and consultant. For a few years she worked as a project leader, building and developing a new service in Sweden in the area of human resources.
Now her focus is on the human aspects of sustainable development. She initiated “Psychologists for the Environment” in the early 1990´s, a network within the NGO “The Natural Step”. Ira focuses are on leadership, processes and communication as well as on raising the awareness and importance of the human aspect when it comes to changing the state of the world into a more desirable place for all. She has worked with the public-, private- and civil sector and has been a member of a number of boards.
Ira has been working in Kenya with sustainable development since the early 2000s. She initiated a partnership process with a municipality in Kenya and a Swedish municipality, which started in 2007 and has evolved and spread since then. She is co-founder of CASDA (Co-operation Arena for Sustainable Development in Africa) which is a NGO in Kenya.
Ira lives in Uppsala, close to her son, Marcus, daughter in law Lisa, their twins Idun and Atle, and their son Axe. She also enjoys social life, animals, nature, reading, writing, music, photography and movies. Our children, grandchildren and generations to come are what motivates her in the work for making the world a more sustainable and good place for all.
Contactinformation:
ira@anotherdevelopmentfoundation.se
+46 70 218 82 22
Peter Söderström has a Degree in Recreation Instructor Training and a Master of Social Science with a major in sociology. During the first 8 years he professionally worked with abused children at the Child and Youth Psychiatric Clinic in Boden municipality and The City of Gothenburg. He has worked since 1999 with gender equality with a focus on men´s violence against women and children. He has been employed as a project leader and investigator by the County Administrative Board in Västerbotten County, as expert and secretary at the Government Office of Sweden, as investigator and development leader at the County Council of Västerbotten, as educator at the National Centre for Knowledge on Men´s violence Against Women in Uppsala and the last five years as responsible for training and strategic development at the NGO, Men for Gender Equality in Stockholm, with a focus on development of the violence prevention field in Sweden as well as on an international level. Currently he works as a senior strategist and trainer in a new national violence prevention project – A Municipality Free from Violence. Since the beginning of 2007 Peter also have worked part-time as a consultant in gender equality related issues, both on an international, national and regional level, where one of his latest assignment was as an expert and co-author in the Government Commission on a National Strategy against violence against women and honor-related violence and oppression 2014-2015.
Peters field of expertise are gender equality and especially men´s violence against women and children, with a specific focus on gender based violence prevention. The main working areas have been strategic and analytical work, structured cooperation between authorities, developing and implementing different kinds of training activities, investigation, evaluation and supervision.
Peter lives in Stockholm – the capital city of Sweden – together with his fiancé Kicki, her son Benjamin and their loved budgys Toby and Doris. His passions are socializing with family and friends over a spicy dinner with a bottle of white wine, travelling to new destinations, exercising in all forms especially via inlines, reading fiction books and watching thrillers and a good TV-serie. Peter is born i Skellefteå municipality where he lived during his childhood and as a youth – a municipality in the county of Västerbotten.
Contactinformation:
peter@anotherdevelopmentfoundation.se
+46 70 362 35 25
Meghan Donevan is a passionate, visionary abolitionist with unique expertise in the areas of pornography and prostitution. She is the manager of research and prevention at Talita, an NGO providing support to women exploited in prostitution, pornography and sexualized purposes. Her background is in Global Development Studies, Economics and Politics, and she is now a research affiliate at the department of social sciences at Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College.
Born and raised in a small town in Canada, Meg moved to Stockholm with her husband Kirk in 2013. They recently welcomed their son Lachlan into their family. Meg’s favourite pastimes are: exercising in any form, being outside – especially out on the water on a windy day, having deep conversations with friends and family over good food, and getting creative with her acrylic paints on a blank canvas.
Contactinformation:
meghan@anotherdevelopmentfoundation.se
+46 72 538 84 50