 It's wonderful to see all of you here. I'm Kunal Sen, the director of UNI-Wider. So welcome to the Wider Derpent Conference, the puzzle of peace towards inclusive development in fragile contexts. It's been three and a half years since we had a conference in person conference Helsinki. So I'm really pleased to see Sonya for here today. UNI-Wider is a policy think tank, research institute, and UN agency all rolled into one, and part of United Nations University. We work on informing economic and social policies with cutting edge research and policy analysis, especially in the global south. In 2019 to 2023, our research focused on transformation. How should economies, states, and societies be transformed if you are to see significant progress to achieving the 2030 and sustainable development goals? One of the key SDGs we work on is SDG 16, peace, justice, and strong institutions. And this conference is very much centred around the challenges of achieving SDG 16. In the 36 years of its existence, UNI-Wider has led the way on important policy debates on global development. In the late 1980s and 1990s, we pioneered the human development approach. In the 2000s, we highlighted inequality as a global policy concern much before anybody else. On research and conflict, we have a long and distinguished history. We started working on war and humanitarian agencies in the 1990s, followed by research on the causes of conflict and the transition out of conflict, which led to high impact publications. In 2004, we held the iconic making peace conference, contributing in no small part to the debates on which led to the publication of the very influential World Development Report 2011, conflict, security, and development. You see our publications, our books, and special issues that we publish in conflict outside of the public desk. And I really encourage you to go and take a look at the publication, many of them, and many books, many special issues. It's extremely exciting to see the UNI-Wider's initiative major research project in situational legacies of violent conflict led by Professor Patricia Justino in its current work program. And that we're engaging with the core issues of peace building at a time when the world is ribbon with conflict, and a lot of the large groups in the world's poor are in fragile and conflict-affected environments. Patricia has been the guiding spirit of the conference. The wider development conference series is centered around a desire to create a space for knowledge sharing, and for a debate and discussion, where scholars and policymakers from around the world come together to share the unique perspectives and insights. We encourage you to actively participate in the event, to ask questions, to meet new people, and be part of the UNI-Wider's ever-expanding global network. And I hope that you're also of the opportunity to visit our sister's site of Helsinki and enjoy its beauty at a time when the city is at its best. We will now play a short pre-recorded video of the European commissioner for international partnerships, Yuta Uplinen, who has kindly agreed to provide a welcome remarks for the conference. Following the video, Katya Alfers, director of the Peace Mediation Center at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Finland, will provide her opening remarks. We are very grateful to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Finland for their extensive participation in the conference, and for their support to the core objectives of this conference. Following this, my colleague, Patricio Dostino, will then provide us with a vision of the conference, its highlights, and some housekeeping rules. Thank you. Distinguished guests, I am honored to help kick off the 2022 Wider Development Conference. From Ukraine to Ethiopia, conflicts claim far to many lives. As the theme for this conference states, achieving peace remains a crucial challenge. We must promote diplomacy, peace, security, and human rights. We must ensure access to food and water, and most importantly, foster improved opportunities. To put it simply, we must put people, and in particular the world's youth, first. Today, the world is home to the largest generation of young people in history. In Africa, for example, almost 60% of the population is younger than 25 years old. Empowering young people is my priority as EU commissioner. We will put forward the EU's first youth action plan for external action this autumn. It will be a platform for youth to shape the decisions that impact them, including on peace and security. At the EU-EU summit, young people from Europe, Africa, and the diaspora made their opinions on violence and peace very clear. Youth want to be recognized for their active participation as peace builders and peacemakers. They already make a difference. Through the One Young World program, the EU has given a platform to more than 200 peace ambassadors around the globe. So far, the organization has strained over 5,000 youth on peace and community building. Dear friends, today, 600 million young people live in fragile and conflict-affected zones. How can we ensure they have the social, economic, and political resources to thrive? The EU is active from an initiative promoting economic opportunities for at-risk Kenyan youth to a multi-country effort to modernize juvenile criminal justice systems in South America. Together with partner countries, we work to improve vocational training, prevent violent extremism, and prepare young people for leadership roles. And I am pleased to count on the support of my new special advisor on youth in this process. Dear friends, at every opportunity, I urge you to keep youth in mind, not as victims, but as essential partners, because, in my opinion, they are the key. Ladies and gentlemen, Excellencies, Director Kunalsen, Rector David Malone. It is... I didn't plan for this, but yeah. It's an honor for Finland to host you and you wider here in Helsinki. I have personally noted many times how highly considered why there is worldwide. At the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, we have the privilege to be your neighbors and we truly value our many opportunities to benefit from your expertise. Recent years have seen the UN family in Finland grow. This is a sign of Finland's strong support to the multilateral system, more important today than ever. The theme of this year's conference, The Puzzle of Peace, is highly relevant and especially welcome from our perspective. Conflict resolution and peace mediation are long-term priorities in Finland's foreign and security policy. I'm glad to see Finnish expertise well represented in the program, with speakers not only from MFA, but also from CMI Martti Attisari Foundation, Finnish Institute of International Affairs and the newly established Center for Rule of Law. When the theme of this year's conference was announced, it was topical. Unfortunately, the relevance has increased to a degree few could have imagined. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally changed the security environment in Europe. The implications on global peace and prosperity are significantly wider. In our interconnected world, the building blocks for sustainable development are trembling as a consequence of this aggression. In most parts of the world, the situation was already constrained due to more than two years with pandemic and its multiple effects on societies. The puzzle of peace is truly a puzzle in times like these. We have an urgent need to increase our understanding of these complexities in order to enhance our efforts to support economic recovery, to strengthen democratic institutions and to contribute to peace and prosperity worldwide. This conference provides a valuable possibility to address these topics with high-level policymakers, distinguished academics, practitioners and other colleagues. I understand we have hundreds of participants from all around the world attending either in person or virtually. It's an honor and a delight to welcome you all to Helsinki and Widers Annual Conference. Ladies and gentlemen, while fragile and conflict-affected states will be at the core of the debates, the guiding principle of the discussions must be leave no one behind, the principle enshrined in the Agenda 2030. As we all know, the goals of the agenda are closely interlinked. Poverty eradication cannot be achieved without creating jobs, increasing trade, making progress in human development and equality, and most importantly, without ensuring sustainable peace and resilience at all levels of societies. Peace and development go hand in hand. I wish to highlight three topics that are especially important in Finland's support to conflict resolution, peace building and peace mediation. My first point concerns democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. These are fundamental enablers of sustainable development. Lack of democratic governance and the rule of law is often a root cause and a key driver of conflict and fertility. My second point concerns the rights of women, and in particular, the critical role of women in building peaceful democratic societies. Without the inclusion of women, without the inclusion of half of the world's population, there can be no sustainable peace. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on both international peace and security and on gender equality has been devastating. We must make sure that women are included at all stages in our efforts to build back from these multiple crises. My third point concerns the role of youth. As Commissioner Urupilainen just said, globally we have 600 million young people or a quarter of the world's youth living in fragile countries or countries affected by conflict. The future is in the hands of the young ones. They are the driving force for tomorrow's development. However, young people are often excluded from official decision-making and peace processes. Instead, they are often labeled as victims or security risks in these contexts. Young people should be addressed as positive resources and their contribution to conflict prevention and peace building need to be utilized more effectively. Finland was the first country in the world to adopt in 2019 a national action plan on implementing the youth peace and security agenda. Our ambition is to continue being a champion for this agenda in all of our international cooperation. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, I would like to thank you all, organizers, speakers and other participants for convening in Helsinki. I expect two days of enriching discussions on pathways towards sustainable peace and inclusive development. In addition, I really look forward to two days of in-person meetings with colleagues from around the world. Let's make the best of the coffee breaks as well. Thank you for your attention. And let me extend also my welcome to everyone in this room. Many old friends, new friends, familiar faces. It's a great pleasure to welcome you to Waida and to Helsinki. I wanted to say a few brief words about the conference and I wanted to start with some numbers that previous speakers already mentioned. Almost two billion people currently live in fragile and conflict affected countries and this is an increase of almost 30% over the last decade. And while poverty has been reducing the globe since 1990, it has increased in conflict affected countries. We may well end poverty by 2030 in most parts of the world but not in countries affected by violent conflict. And in fact, the World Bank estimates that two thirds of the world's extreme poor will live in fragile and conflict affected countries by 2030. These numbers really show that conflict, peace and development are closely interlinked and we really cannot solve the problem of one without solving the problem of the others. This is the main premise of this conference and it's the idea that solving the puzzle of peace which is fundamental to ensure sustainment development means also understanding why, how and where conflicts happen, how do they evolve and how they transform also societies and economies. So essentially, sustaining peace and building states in conflict affected countries means understanding the conflict itself. However, often conflict and peace building are addressed in silos. So the objective of this conference is bring together these two communities across research and policy to look and try to understand these complex interactions. And while doing that, we'll also try to address a few important points. And there are three points that I would like to make which sort of unite the sessions of the conference. First, we need to acknowledge that conflicts are not just a problem of developing failed fragile states. The ongoing war on Ukraine has brought that home quite substantially and showed how conflicts impact globally via refugee movements, global trade, natural resources and so forth. Also violent conflict and high levels of political and criminal violence exist outside the so-called fragile failed states. And several of the sessions are going to look at some of these issues. Also, it's important that while we all concentrated on what's happening in Ukraine and the historical moments that we're living today as we speak in Finland and over the last few days, it's also important that we do not forget other many other conflicts that are happening in the world at this moment too. And we will hear from many of the experts in this room about that too. Second, it's important to realize that conflicts are not contained within borders and they interact with other global challenges as well. We know that inequality and justice are at the heart of many conflicts and are affected by them. Conflicts arise often from political weakness but lead to also further political instability. And we'll hear also about the complex links between conflict and climate change. And the final point that I wanted to make is when we talk about conflict, it's natural that we focus on its negative aspects and there are many of those. But sometimes by doing so, we also forget the opportunities. Conflicts break but also generate new social contracts and it is important that we really understand them because often that's the clue for breaking vicious cycles of violence. And as we heard from both Katya and Yuta Upline and just before, conflicts also give rise often to politically engaged communities which are intended as sustaining peace often at great cost as we see in Ukraine, in the news almost every day. And these include groups of young people, women and various community members. And conflicts destroy but also generate institutional change. And often we forget that in our rush to build states and build new economies in post-conflict situations but we should not forget that there's a reason why we got to that moment and it's important to understand that. So these are many of the topics we will address throughout the conference. Many sessions will touch upon these points and I really hope you find this engaging and this inspire you and all of us to think through ways of disentangling the puzzle of peace. And I welcome you again and I hope we have time to discuss these during the sessions, during the coffee breaks and the various events. So welcome once more. Thank you. And now it's my duty to talk through a few housekeeping issues. So for everyone, there is no familiar with this conference centers. We're going to hold all keynote panels here in Europe here. So in this place, the next one will be shortly started. Parallel sessions, one of the streams will take place here. The other ones in the other rooms which are indicated in the corridors. We have, I wanted to call your special attention for a poster session which are organized jointly with our colleagues from Corn West Africa. And this is being held during the afternoon coffee break. So I would urge you to please approach the researchers, all young researchers with really interesting work and they've put a lot of effort into their posters which are in the coffee break. So please do approach them and learn about their work. The coffee breaks, lunches, dinner will be held in the foyer just across outside those doors. We also have a network cafe with nice comfortable seating areas for those that want to have one-to-one discussions. Please go there and there are refreshments throughout the conference. And I think we'll know that there will be a dinner tonight at City Hall kindly hosted by the City of Helsinki. There will be signs and there will be people helping everyone move from here to the City Hall at 6.30 PM outside the Congress. So all welcome to attend. Our colleagues online, I think there are quite a lot of people joining us online. Please take advantage of the various opportunities to network and we hope that you enjoy the conference also from far. Also a note for everyone, the conference sessions are going to be streamed and video recorded and they'll be available on Widers YouTube's channel. And a few more, we have questions and for the answers and questions sessions, there will be microphones going around the audience. So if anyone needs to speak, just please raise your hand. Someone will come to you with a microphone. You don't need to do anything else. And finally, security. We would really appreciate if you could leave code speak backs etc. in the cloakroom just for security reasons and not leave anything unattended. And there will be several UN Widers staff with I think colorful badges around so feel free to approach them to ask for help. And of course, please contribute to the debate and approach us if you need any help. And I am told to remember to tag us at UNWider and use the hashtag at puzzle of peace. So that's it from me. I think all of us keeping any other questions, please just approach any of us. Enjoy the next two days.