Master’s Award in Development Studies 2014

UniPID and the Finnish Society for Development Research awarded Henry O. Salas Lazo the 2014 Master's Award in Development Studies at the UniPID and FinCEAL seminar "Cooperation Across Borders - Comprehensive Responses to Transecting Global Challenges" in Helsinki on the 12th of November.

Master's Award in Development Studies 2014 to Henry O. Salas Lazo from the University of Helsinki

UniPID and the Finnish Society for Development Research awarded Henry O. Salas Lazo the 2014 Master's Award in Development Studies at the UniPID and FinCEAL seminar "Cooperation Across Borders - Comprehensive Responses to Transecting Global Challenges" in Helsinki on the 12th of November. The winner received a prize sum of 1000 euros for his Latin American studies thesis "Local Voices and Perspectives: A Study on the Contextualisation of Women's Empowerment in Lima, Peru", completed at the University of Helsinki.

In his thesis, Salas Lazo provided an interesting dialogue between the academic discourse of empowerment and the local voices of how empowerment is viewed by women living in Lima, Peru. In his acceptance speech at the award ceremony, Salas Lazo expressed that he felt humbled by the honor of receiving the award and that the subject of equality came to him naturally. Salas Lazo also felt that he could study the subject of women's empowerment without much hardship, regardless of his own gender. 

This was the third year of the Master's Award, and this year a total of 30 students participated in the competition, which was an exceptionally high amount. All works were initially evaluated by a team of representatives of UniPID and the Finnish Society for Development Research and after careful consideration, seven theses went through to the final stage, to be ranked by the award selection board. The selection board was comprised of emeritus professor Rauni Räsänen, who acted as the chair of the board, and emeritus professors Reijo E. Heinonen and Olavi Luukkanen. Using the same criteria as previous years to rank the theses, the board gave special attention to the societal applicability and impact, and innovativeness of the work. 

According to the award selection board, the winning thesis skillfully demonstrates the importance of contextualizing knowledge and theories and that Salas Lazo's argumentation is clear and logical, and based on a large amount of relevant literature as well as rich and diverse data. The winner's study results provide new and unexpected knowledge about the different ways of perceiving material, socio-political and intrapersonal aspects of empowerment by women living in Lima. The knowledge can be considered highly valuable for researchers as well as practitioners when designing and implementing various development programs. 

Two other outstanding theses were also awarded, receiving 250 euros each. The second prize was given to Kukka Ranta, also from the University of Helsinki, for her development studies thesis "Ryöstetty meri - Euroopan unioniin kalastussopimusten vaikutukset Senegalin pienkalastajien ruokaturvaan ja elinkeinoon" (Robbed sea - The effects of European Union fisheries agreements on the food security and livelihoods of Senegalese small-scale fishermen) and the third prize was given to University of Tampere graduate Lauri Heimo for his thesis in social policy, titled "The Idea of Conditional Cash Transfers". 

The award is given annually to an accomplished Master's thesis related to global development or development studies. 

Read more from the selected works:

• Henry O. Salas Lazo, Local Voices and Perspectives: A study on the Contextualisation of Women's Empowerment in Lima, Peru
• Kukka Ranta, Ryöstetty meri - Euroopan unioniin kalastussopimusten vaikutukset Senegalin pienkalastajien ruokaturvaan ja elinkeinoon
• Lauri Heimo, The Idea of Conditional Cash Transfers

 Photo credit: Tommy Stadun