Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic

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PROGRES REPORT to The Sustainable Development
Working Group, SDWG - Khanty-Mansiyesk, October
10, 2005 SURVEY OF LIVING CONDITIONS IN THE
ARCTIC Inuit, Sámi and the Indigenous Peoples
of Chukotka and the Kola Peninsula Supported
by Inuit Circumpolar Conference, ICC Russian
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North,
RAIPON Sámi Council Adopted as an Arctic Council
project under the auspices of the Sustainable
Development Working Group, SDWG at the
Ministerial meeting in Barrow, October 2000.
Included in the Sustainable Development Action
Plan, SDAP 2004-2006.
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• Status, Preliminary Results and Future of SLiCA

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Measuring living conditions and individual
well-being

• Around the world, a growing number of
  economists, social scientists, corporate leaders
  and bureaucrats are trying to develop
  measurements that take into account not just the
  flow of money but also access to health care,
  free time with family, conservation of natural
  resources and other noneconomic factors.
• The goal, according to many involved in this
  effort, is in part to return to a richer
  definition of the word happiness, more like what
  the signers of the Declaration of Independence
  had in mind when they included the pursuit of
  happiness as an inalienable right equal to
  liberty and life itself.
• Andrew C. Revkin, The New Yourk Times, October
  4, 2005

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What is SLiCA?

• An international survey comparing living
  conditions among Inuit and Saami peoples and the
  indigenous peoples of Chukotka.

www.arcticlivingconditions.org
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SLiCAs objectives are

• For Arctic Native peoples and researchers to work
  together
• To include living conditions most relevant to
  Arctic peoples
• To compile data and perform causal analyses
• To advance our understanding of how living
  conditions are interrelated
• To improve the basis for decision-making
• To educate students and researchers and establish
  networks.

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What is the status of the project?

• Interviewing is complete in Canada, the United
  States and Chukotka
• Interviewing close to be comleted in Greenland
• Interviewing is temporarily stopped due to lack
  of funding in Sweden, Norway and the Kola
  Peninsula
• Inteviewing was never started due to lack of
  funding in Finland
• The international team has identified a set of
  five analysis themes
• We have used Alaska data to provide examples of
  analysis results.

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Preliminary analysis themes

• The importance of social relationships and the
  standard of living to settlement patterns
• The importance of a mixed cash- and harvest/
  herding- based economy to living in the Arctic
• Relationships between the likelihood of a major
  depression and different dimensions of living
  conditions
• The influence of educators and missionaries
• The influence of policies on living conditions

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Status på dataindsamling/ interviewing
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Sample analysis results based on 663 interviews
in the Iñupiat settlement region of Alaska
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Hypothesized relationships between the likelihood
of a major depression and different dimensions of
living conditions
Social support
Traditional Skills
Social Well-being
Standard of Living
Hunting - Herding
Cultural Values
Likelihood of a major depression
Environment
Sense of local control
Employment
Western Education
Civic Participation
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Preliminary results from Alaska

• When we looked at the relative importance of 22
  different dimensions of living conditions to
  overall well-being, satisfaction with
  opportunities to hunt and fish was most
  important.
• And these four factors best explain likelihood of
  major depression
• Satisfaction with life as a whole
• Importance of traditional values
• Western education level
• Participation in domestic production activities
  like hunting, herding, and processing

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• The results in the table are preliminary (from
  80 of the total Greenland sample) and not yet to
  be published.
• The interval covers regional variations in the
  responses

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The fututre of SLiCA 2005 - ?

• Conclude datacollection/interviewing and data
  entry procedures
• Carry out analyses regionally and by country
• Publish results continuously
• Compare data and analyses between
  regions/countries
• Report to the Arctic Council Ministerial in
  Russia 2006 on the circumpolar comparisons
• Make the SLiCA-data available to the scientific
  and indigenous communities of the Arctic as well
  as to political and administrative decision
  makers at the local, regional, national and
  international levels. An IPY proposal A SLiCA
  Remote Access Analysis System, RAAS has been
  submitted September 30.
• Make SLiCA a practicable survey instrument in
  other Arctic regions
• Offer SLiCA as an instrument to conduct surveys
  among other indigenous peoples in cooperation
  with the peoples in question and e.g. United
  Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
  (UNPFII) and the World Bank
• Utilize data and carry out analyses in
  cooperation with other research projects,
  partners and stakeholders (e.g. the indigenous
  peoples organisations and public authorities at
  different levels within the Arctic).

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Funded by Nordic Council of Ministers, NMR, The
Greenland Home Rule Government, The Commission
for Scientific Research in Greenland, KVUG, The
Barents Secretariat, Nordic Arctic Research
Program, NARP, Danish Research Council for the
Social Sciences, SSF, Swedish Research Council
for the Social Sciences, Ministry of the interior
Dept. of municipalities, Norway, The Joint
Committee on Research Councils for Nordic
Countries, NOSS, Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, SSHRC, National
Science Foundation, NSF, Statistics
Canada. International coordinator Statistics
Greenland www.statgreen.gl SLiCA contact
Project Chief Birger Poppel bipo_at_ilisimatusarfi
k.gl Project website www.arcticlivingcond
itions.org
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We have much more to learn and much more to learn
from
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www.arcticlivingconditions.org