THENRGROUP - Key Persons
Alan is a geographer with over 20 years experience of information management, natural resource management, bio-geographical research and development. He is a specialist in development issues in small island developing states and shared information sources for cross-agency use, and is working currently in Africa, Caribbean, and South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. He has extensive experience in knowledge management, Geographical information Systems (GIS), database design and execution, mapping and programming, analysis and in management of corporate scale GIS. Alan has a Masters degree in remote sensing and has worked with aerial photography, low and high-resolution satellite imagery. Interests include island systems environmental management, coastal zone management, fisheries information, disaster management, land use and management, property titling, pest control and physical planning. Alan has strong teaching skills and has trained personnel in GIS, remote sensing, programming and natural resource management.
Alan was awarded an MBE in the UK 2021 New Year's Honours List for his services to International Development.
Andy is working as a consultant on DFID's Climate Smart Agriculture (VUNA) and the Embassy of Finland's Civil Society Environment Fund.
Anita has over 20 years of experience working as a remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) specialist. She has used her strong analytical skills to conduct research and consultancy projects for environmental and natural resource monitoring and assessment for developing countries (Africa and across Asia). She has particular interests in spatial and temporal analysis of vegetation and integrating spatial data for decision support. Anita also has extensive teaching and training experience and holds a PGCE in post compulsory education and training. She has developed teaching materials and delivered training courses using a variety of teaching methods. She has worked particularly with international students and has focused on teaching practical GIS and remote sensing skills using applied examples and communicating the potential of these techniques. Currently Lecturer at University of Southampton.
Anthony Pope has over 30 years' experience in practical agriculture and consultancy in many different countries. Most recently, he established an advisory service to support livestock farmers with bovine TB issues in the South West of England. This entailed working with Defra, AHVLA and other industry stakeholders in order to develop the integrity of the Service. he has a broad background in the establishment of new projects throughout the World, for the public, private and governmental sectors, including the FAO, IFAD and UNOPS, and the EU. He has the background and knowledge to identify, plan and establish new projects together with the ability to control budgets and evaluate completion against specification. he has a deep interest in Conservation Agriculture (CA) technology with its practical and sustainable solution to halt declining crop yields, and reverse soil erosion, soil degradation and the decline in soil fertility.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate of the International Institute for Environment and Development
Barbara is a highly motivated and experienced agricultural research, innovation and development specialist. Her main areas of expertise are the design, improvement and evaluation of research and development initiatives for sustainable smallholder farming systems. She has worked with and advised government agencies, research organisations, civil society organisations and donors working in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, including the WFP, FAO, CGIAR, FARA, ASARECA and EIARD. Recent work includes a lesson learning study on the "Hill Approach" of Mercy Corps in Eastern DRC and leading a major UKRI funded research project on land use trade-offs in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the drivers and impacts of agricultural expansion, including impacts on biodiversity and rural livelihoods. She also worked with African and European partners to assess the role of small farms and small food businesses for food and nutrition security.
She is particularly interested in working on and supporting initiatives that focus on capacity development in the global South and that take a longer-term perspective of development, with an emphasis on environmental and social sustainability.
Barbara is a Senior Associate of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), after 10 years as a Principal Researcher in IIED. Before that, she worked as a senior consultant for Triple Line Consulting in London, and as a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Institute in Chatham (UK), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Hyderabad (India), and the University of Hohenheim (Germany).
Carol is a social anthropologist by training and a development socio-economist in practice. She has sought to straddle the line between field research on agricultural systems, and engaging in development implementation projects, in the conviction that development work should be better informed by scientific research. Carol began her career working for 6 years in Botswana, doing field work and then on a national survey of human migration and running a research network. She became interested in extensive livestock systems in semi-arid regions and carried out field research on pastoralist household economies in western Sudan and in Somalia, interspersed with consultancies for USAID, World Bank, IFAD, EC, DANIDA, NORAD, OXFAM. She then worked for 3 years on a farming systems research programme in Zambia, followed by research on pastoralism at Overseas Development Institute, London, in Mongolia and Namibia. In the mid 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Carol obtained grants for inter-disciplinary research on the impact of decollectivisation on pastoralists, livestock and rangelands in Central Asia. For the past 15 years she has gained funding to work with Central Asian, European and American researchers and development specialists on the pastoralist systems of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and western China. Grants have been obtained from Aga Khan Foundation, UNDP, USAID, and DFID. In the past ten years, she has carried out consultancies on livestock-related issues in Africa and Asia for FAO, IFAD, EC, IUCN, IIED, USAID and Save the Children USA. Carol edited the journal Nomadic Peoples for 4 years and in 2009 started a new peer-reviewed journal Pastoralism- research, policy and practice, open access published online by Springer.
Catherine is a multi-disciplinary development specialist, with degrees in social anthropology, forestry and zoology. She has over 35 years' experience in rural development and natural resources management, particularly the social dimensions of forestry, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The "development industry" threatens to turn Catherine into a grumpy old woman. She has an aversion to quick fixes and box-tickers, and a specialty in telling people, especially managers, things they don't want to hear. But she remains highly committed to objectives of sustainable development and still seeks to inform and inspire her analysis through evidence from real field work, especially talking to people. Her talents are best used in participatory and innovative planning and problem solving. Some people do like working with her!
Her last major assignment before COVID-19 was with the EU's Value Chain Analysis for Development https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/value-chain-analysis-for-development-vca4d. (VCA4D) study of palm oil in Indonesia. As the sociologist on the team, she was responsible for examining issues of social sustainability (labour, land, gender, food and nutrition, living conditions and social capital), as well as contributing to stakeholder, governance and inclusivity analyses. The study, which also examines economic and environmental sustainability, aimed to help create a shared understanding between the EU and Indonesia on critical palm oil issues.
She also participated in the development of management plans for mangrove forest reserves in Guyana, under EU funding.
Since COVID, her only work has been with the UK's Darwin Initiative, conducting a home-based mid-term review of a conservation project in Guinea Bissau, which included ecological and community-oriented interventions related to the recent discovery of leprosy in chimpanzees.
Prior to this, Catherine was involved on a part-time basis on two long-term German-funded (KfW) conservation projects in Indonesia: Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Protection in the Gunung Leuser Ecosystem (Aceh, Sumatra) and Forest Programme III in Lore Lindu National Park (Central Sulawesi).
Charles is an entomologist, with more than 40 years experience, primarily with multidisciplinary and multi-cultural projects on pest management (including African armyworm, desert locust and oil palm pests), consultancy, operational logistics and project evaluation. For the last 8 years Charles was working in Papua New Guinea as Head of Entomology and latterly Director of Research of the Papua New Guinea Oil Palm Research Association. His role as HoE was passed to a local entomologist who had been working closely with Charles for the previous year and a half. Charles is principally a terrestrial entomologist, and he also has experience with aquatic entomology, environmental (biodiversity) monitoring, ornithology, and animal myiasis, and in addition has curatorial experience. Charles has wide-ranging field experience in more than 22 countries. English is his mother tongue, but he also speaks working Swahili, French, and "tok pigin"
David is a Senior Meat Technologist with over 30 years experience in the development of meat industries in less developed countries. He has experience of undertaking development projects while working alone or in multi-disciplinary teams on both long and short term assignments in UK and overseas. His key skills include: Feasibility studies, project identification, implementation, management and appraisal of the meat production industry in less developed countries; Advice on abattoir and other meat infrastructure design, rehabilitation and management, meat production and marketing, carcase classification and quality control; Training overseas personnel and drafting technical and consultative documents. He has experience in approx 50 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, the Far East and SE Asia.
Elizabeth Kiff is a trained agriculturalist, natural resource manager and environmentalist, with over 30 years practical engagement at project and programme level. She has experience at all stages of programme formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation with specific inputs to project design, proposal preparation, programme implementation and results-based management. This has been with a range of clients including government, international donor organisations, NGOs, private consulting firms and research institutions. Experience with funders includes ADB, CONCERN, DfID, EU, FAO, FINNIDA, IFAD, OXFAM, UNDP, UNEP, WFP. Long-term assignments include agricultural extension in community development programmes, implementation of sustainable farming systems in watershed management project, research programme management, and the communication of outputs and training. Recent assignments include integrating climate change mitigation priorities within agriculture and forestry projects, under GEF funding. With long-term overseas experience in the Philippines, Nepal, India and Ghana, she has particular experience of issues relating to climate change adaptation, livelihood enhancement, farm intensification, crop-livestock interactions, nutrient management, crop diversification and the farm-forest interface.
Job Titles:
- Team Leader of the Market Development Programme for Northern Ghana
Geoff Norman is team leader of the Market Development Programme for Northern Ghana (MADE), funded by the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) and managed by Nathan Associates UK. MADE acts as a "market systems facilitator" to support and incentivise private sector actors to improve the functioning of value chains. The programme was launched in 2014 and for the first four years helped build the capacity of small rural enterprises to deliver affordable agricultural inputs and services to small-holder farmers. In December 2017, MADE was granted a two-year, no-cost extension to deepen and widen the impacts of its market systems approach and to mainstream those impacts.
Hannah is specialist in agrobiodiversity and related subjects, spanning agroforestry, horticulture, nutrition and health, plant propagation, product marketing and integrated rural development. She is a dynamic programme manager and team leader with nearly 30 years professional experience in Europe, Africa and Asia. After starting as a plant researcher with a doctorate in tree physiology, she focussed on an international career in international development, concentrating on programme management in increasingly responsible positions, e.g. as Deputy Manager of the DFID Forestry Research Programme and the Director of the International Centre for Underutilized Crops/Crops for the Future. Amongst other project, Hannah currently coordinates the German Horticulture Competence Centre, where she manages several interdisciplinary resarch and development Projects.
Hannah integrates academic and development expertise with a focus on alleviating hunger and poverty and improving livelihoods. She spent 10 years living in Africa and five in Asia, has great interest in the training and mentoring of younger people, and provides strategic leadership to R&D partners. She also has a keen eye for communication of research and development results to enhance impact at several levels and is experienced in proposal writing and evaluation as well as commissioning projects. She was the Chair of the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources (2010-2014) and the Vice-Chair of the Section Tropical and Subtropical Plants (2014-2018) of the International Society for Horticultural Sciences.
With over 15 years experience in Rural Development and Agribusiness, in addition to 10 years team leadership and project management experience. A team player, using a multi-disciplinary approach, his experience includes farmer institutional development, agricultural extension in both a privatised and publicly funded context, institutional change, soil fertility management, natural resource management, soil and water conservation, on-farm and on station research, agri-business development, agri-business planning, community development, participatory appraisal in a rural livelihoods context. He has extensive project management and project management cycle experience specifically in project preparation, log frame development, strategy formulation, work plan development monitoring and project evaluation, reporting, basic accountancy and budgeting. He has worked for DFID, EU, World Bank, FAO, African Development Bank and private enterprise. Worked in India, Eastern and Southern Africa (Uganda, Kenya and Namibia), South East Asia (Indonesia), Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. Has published over 50 reports and 12 papers.
Ian Corker has over 30 years experience working a wide range of land related issues, including both rural and urban sectors. He is a chartered surveyor and chartered arbitrator with sound practical experience in land management and administration, land use planning, dispute resolution, project management, design and evaluation, mainly in developing counties of Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and the Middle East and along route he picked up Arabic and Kiswahili. He was Registrar of Lands in Anguilla, Team Leader for the first land registration exercise in Palestine since the 1930's and Team Leader on a project to automate Egypt's cadastral records and processors. His current areas of interest include the use of modelling systems to understand land administration systems and the use of low cost, appropriate, GIS and land information management systems as viable alternatives to expensive commercial systems. Despite working in what are often very specialist areas, Ian is a generalist, with perhaps his greatest skill being the application of common sense to technical problems, thus providing an interface between the users and developers of systems.
Ian Watson has over 30 years' experience, overseas and UK mainly in the delivery of support services to access to international markets: food safety (RSPH Level 3 HACCP), business training, marketing, product development, handling and distribution. He has provided support to institutional strengthening and policy development for government, mainly to Competent Authorities with a focus on fishery product food safety and the application of EU regulations for Third Countries, including dealing with EU IUU requirements. He also has extensive experience of the ornamental fish trade, focusing mainly on the role of ornamental fish collection in supporting livelihoods and ecolabelling of ornamental aquatics. Ian has experience of project identification, development and management, including post-project evaluation. He is involved in a range of research, centred on the ornamental fish trade but has previously worked on institutional development for research institutes and on molecular biological techniques for the detection of fish-borne trematodes.
Jonathan is now retired, but in good health and may be available in some cases.
He has assisted over thirty developing countries in the development of agricultural value chains, making findings more widely available through public presentations and publications. Has worked extensively in Sub-Saharan Africa (anglo- franco- luso-phone and Horn of Africa), Latin America and southern Asia, for clients including the World Bank group, EU, DFID, UNCTAD, FAO, CFC, USAID, French, Swiss and Dutch Cooperation, FINNIDA, TechnoServe, CARE and various consulting companies. Has advised on policies and tested approaches through practical initiatives to improve the performance of marketing systems. His main areas of expertise are: policies and practicalities of developing agricultural commodity markets in southern countries; the organisation of warehouse receipt systems and inventory credit; farmer access to input supplies, financial services and markets, and; the economics of post-harvest handling. His educational background covers economics, business management and marketing, and he is experienced in the preparation, financial and economic appraisal, management and evaluation of projects. Speaks Spanish (bilingual), French (fluent) and Portuguese (‘good enough to speak in public').
Judith has specialised in applying biogeographical techniques to a range of research areas, including migrant insect pests and vectors of disease. She has designed and implemented Geographical Information Systems to address data management and analysis in subjects such as the development of locust information management systems, research into the effects of tsetse fly control on land use, the management of natural resources in peri urban areas in relation to water resources and rat infestation problems and land land use of contaminated land. She has over 40 years experience in sub-Saharan Africa , Middle East , China and Central Asia , and speaks some French and Russian.
Job Titles:
- Social Development Consultant
Social Development Consultant, has over twenty years experience in social protection (social impact assessments) and social development (sustainable, socio-economic -community- development). Experience gained working worldwide (including 21 African countries; Anglophone and Francophone) with the United Nations, European Union, World Bank, DFID, African Governments, African and Asian Development Banks, NGOs, the corporate sector (transport, energy and mining), education establishments and the media. With a PhD in Social Analysis of Post Apartheid Community Development her skills developed include: Social Impact Assessments and socio-economic baselines for Resettlement Action Plans - using a community consultation/stakeholder empowerment and risks/benefits approach; Community Social Development and Livelihoods Analysis focus on environment and rural development; Participatory Appraisal and Community Needs Assessments; Socio-economic and Community Analysis; Poverty, situation and policy analysisincluding stakeholder assessment, identification of interest groups, human rights issues and government and community liaison; Governance Assessment and Institutional Strengthening; Policy Advice for Poverty Reduction Strategies(mainstreaming gender and environmental issues); Teaching, training and capacity building - workshops and lectures as well as dissemination of information through radio, video, CD Rom and publications ranging from academic to public relations and policy guidelines for governments and multilateral organizations.
Keith is a consultant with over 25 years of supporting & leading complex projects and multi-functional, cross-cultural teams in 21* countries for 9 different donors. Current Role: Senior Strategic Advisor to the Resident Representative of UNDP in Afghanistan responsible for introducing systems approaches and articulating a new strategic vision for the Country Office. Previous Role: Country Program Manager for UNEP in Afghanistan. Bulk of career: Working in an advisory capacity with senior government leaders and NGOs to promote and support organizational change processes. Core skills: 1) Organisational sensemaking using a systems thinking approach and creative methods such as the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method; 2) Support for policy development (strategic planning, policy analysis, processes & procedures, policy review & drafting); 3) Analysis of complex social and technical information for senior decision-makers with a particular emphasis on biodiversity and natural resources management planning.
An environment, GIS and information system specialist with over 30 years experience. Takes a holistic viewpoint integrating environmental, social and economic information. Experienced in the design of web-sites/CDs for information and project support, in Environmental Assessment (EIA), GIS, remote sensing, protected areas, and evaluation of research and project proposals for international agencies. Activities have also included: Analysis of illegal hunting in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania; Environmental assessment of water supplies and hydropower in Indonesia and Kenya; GIS and National Park planning in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Contaminated land assessment in UK; CD-ROM toolboxes on Livestock in Development; Adviser on knowledge management. Interests include Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, and the impacts of Peak Oil. Also has experience in woodland management and monitoring of Hazel Dormouse populations. Now retired, UK-based but available for home-based assessments.
Lynne is an environmental specialist with over 25 years experience of working in tropical environments throughout the world and specialising in marine projects in the Middle East. Projects have ranged from environmental impacts of coastal developments, public awareness projects, education projects and tourism master planning. She has also been involved in a number of projects in the Caribbean, South East Asia, South Asia and Africa, mostly associated with marine environmental management and planning. Since becoming independent she has focussed on the provision of short-term services to a variety of clients both in the private and government sectors. Although still specialising in marine issues, she has also been involved in more terrestrial projects including a number related to the tourism industry. She has worked fairly extensively for DFID in Africa looking at change management in the government sector using the provision of environmental services as an issues-based project to promote transparency and accountability in government. She is currently working on four projects in Bahrain, all concerned with environmental assessment, development of environmental management plans and the identification of compensation packages associated with major dredging and reclamation projects. She is also using environmental sustainability concepts to inform the master plan designs. She is also a project monitor and evaluator for the EU LIFE Environment and Nature Programmes.