Africa Oxford Initative Fellows

We have hosted many researchers from the Africian continent.  This has been made possible through our close collaboration with the Africa Oxford Initative (AFOx).

AfOx Travel Grants support the establishment of new collaborations between researchers in African countries and their collaborators at the University of Oxford.  For more information on this scheme see here.

Meet our fellows:

Angelo Ramy Mandimbihasina

angelo

Angelo joined us in 2016 and again in 2018. He presented a poster at our Evidence to Action event. He also took an active part in several workshops and symposia. He also joined a partner event focusing on community voices in the context of illegal wildlife trade practices the following day and accompanied the ICCS team in attending the government’s IWT event to network with leading IWT policymakers and officials from African governments delegations.

Angelo’s fellowship was kindly supported by the Africa Oxford Initiative

 

Edson Gandiwa

Edson

Edson Gandiwa joined us in 2018. He presented a poster at our Evidence to Action event. He also took an active part in several workshops and symposia.He also participated in one of our key plenaries on the role of evidence in wildlife trade policy worldwide and was interviewed as part of the event synopsis (https://youtu.be/H0H9H8nMmwk) which aimed to represent the different voices working on IWT research. He also joined a partner event focusing on community voices in the context of illegal wildlife trade practices the following day and accompanied the ICCS team in attending the government’s IWT event to network with leading IWT policymakers and officials from African governments delegations.

Edson’s fellowship was kindly supported by the Africa Oxford Initiative

Kofi Amponsah-Mensah

Kofi

Kofi joined us in 2018. He presented a poster at our Evidence to Action event. He also took an active part in several workshops and symposia. He also joined a partner event focusing on community voices in the context of illegal wildlife trade practices the following day and accompanied the ICCS team in attending the government’s IWT event to network with leading IWT policymakers and officials from African governments delegations.

Kofi’s fellowship was kindly supported by the Africa Oxford Initiative

Vivienne Williams

viv

Vivienne joined us in 2018. She presented a poster at our Evidence to Action event. Sge also took an active part in several workshops and symposia. She also joined a partner event focusing on community voices in the context of illegal wildlife trade practices the following day and accompanied the ICCS team in attending the government’s IWT event to network with leading IWT policymakers and officials from African governments delegations.

Viv’s fellowship was kindly supported by the Africa Oxford Initiative

Medard Twinamatisiko

medard

Medard joined us in 2018. He presented a poster at our Evidence to Action event. He also took an active part in several workshops and symposia. He also joined a partner event focusing on community voices in the context of illegal wildlife trade practices the following day and accompanied the ICCS team in attending the government’s IWT event to network with leading IWT policymakers and officials from African governments delegations.

Medard’s fellowship was kindly supported by the Africa Oxford Initiative

Victor Muposhi

victor

Victor joined us in 2018.  He worked with Timothy Kuiper on his DPhil research, took courses to strengthen his research and took part in the 2018 ICN workshop.

Victor’s fellowship was kindly supported by the Africa Oxford Initiative

 

 

 

Alice Karuri

Alice

What made you want to join the Trade Hub programme as an AFOx Biodiversity fellow?

The interdisciplinary approach of the Trade Hub programme creates a space where I can seek answers to the diverse questions that arise in the study of commodity chains. I was excited to find a fellowship where all the research areas I am passionate about fit in! Sustainable agriculture and trade recognizes that the economic, social and environmental aspect of production and consumption are inextricably linked.

Is there a specific project you will be working on while you are with us?

Sustainability in global commodity chains: an institutional analysis of farmer organizations.

Can you tell us a little about it?

During my fellowship, I will be working on a project on the coffee chain. I will be analysing three aspects of coffee production and trade: institutions, chain actors and climate change action. The institutional analysis will focus on farmer organizations, particularly in terms of the differential economic benefits that accrue to farmers. A chain analysis will examine the interaction between farmers and other chain actors, including the power relations and the value addition and profit distribution along the chain. The focus on climate change action will be to identify the incentives for implementation or continuation of adaptation and mitigation measures by small-scale farmers. This will include an estimate of the cost to farmers in adopting these measures.

Krossy Mavakala Kalunseviko

krossy

What made you want to join the Trade Hub programme as an AFOx Biodiversity fellow?

After being hired as a Senior Researcher by the ERAIFT for the Trade Hub in central Africa program, then, have developed an interest to all of the topics related to the bushmeat aspect. They I had a look on the Internet and I have seen the application to the AfOx Biodiversity fellow. I have applied and things have worked well.

Is there a specific project you will be working on while you are with us? Can you tell us a little about it?

Maluku : The flow of Wildmeat from Rural DR Congo Maluku refers to a periurban commune of Kinshasa. By its beginning, Maluku regrouped three small villages. In 1968, Mobutu formed the villages into the 24th commune of Kinshasa and industrialized it. Industries, such as the iron and steel works, helped to develop the new commune as it established public services like camps for workers and other infrastructure. But, rapidly, industries, mainly the SOSIDER steel exploitation company (the main industry of Kinshasa from 1972) rapidly fell down, because of the departure of the Italians who built it, trained the first workers, and were co-managing it with Congolese until 1979. So, public services that industries were organizing also fell down. The situation led to the replacement of the State by a range of local actors who organizes public services. Today, there are around nineteen seaports (traditional and modern) owned by private actors. These are places of connection between Maluku and Kinshasa to the countryside like Bandundu, Equateur or Province Orientale, some former big provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. And from the countryside comes a numerous quantity of wildmeat. People from Maluku and from Kinshasa run every week to the seaports to look for these products.

The main objective of this project is to know how the flow of wildmeat is organized from the countryside to Kinshasa and the actors involved. Maluku is also a place of the management of the wildlife conservation because of the presence of the Bombo-Lumene Reserve. Bombo-Lumene was created by Belgians in the late 1950’s as a forest and wildlife protected area. But, from the 1990’s to recently, the protected area faced conservation problems like the destruction of the forest and illegal hunting. As a consequence, Bombo-Lumene is the second place from which wildmeat flows to support the food needs of Kinshasa. So, it is important to analyse the ways the conservator of Bombo-Lumene and his staff, custom chiefs, NGOs and other structures involved in the management of wildlife organize themselves to fight the threat against wildlife caused by the wildmeat trade. Understanding wildmeat stakeholders and the role of state officials in regulating the trade in wildmeat will be the main objectives of the topic which will lead to improved knowledge on the public services in relation to wildmeat regulation in Maluku. Some outputs of the project will be a plan of research that will consist on a review of the literature, preparation of qualitative interview guides and a research strategy.