Resource Persons
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Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) One of SDC's thematic priorities is poverty, with a focus on empowerment, pro poor policy and equity. The thematic responsibility for poverty and well-being is currently held by Laurent Ruedin, Advisor to the Regional Cooperation Department. Additional support is provided by other resource persons, including Reto Wieser (Head of SDC's Knowledge Management Division). | |
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Laurent Ruedin is a social anthropologist (and mathematical physicist) who joined SDC in 2003. He worked previously as a consultant - mainly in Mozambique on community development, empowerment and health promotion. Formerly Advisor in the Social Development Division, Laurent is currently Adviser to the Regional Cooperation Department, working on poverty, social justice and empowerment issues. Laurent represents SDC in the DAC/POVNET and the focus of his advisory work is on putting poor people at the centre of development and on assuring the quality of SDC's operational work from a poverty perspective. Contact: laurent.ruedin@deza.admin.ch |
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Reto Wieser is a biologist by background. He joined SDC in 1989 and worked for more than five years in Nepal as deputy and country director. His geographical focus has been, for many years, South Asia. He worked for six years in different positions in Evaluation and Controlling. Formerly a Senior Advisor in Social Development Division, Reto is now Head of SDC's Knowledge Management Division. Reto works on linking state-of-the-art knowledge and know-how on poverty and wellbeing with operational challenges in implementing poverty reduction strategies. Contact: reto.wieser@deza.admin.ch |
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SDC has mandated Intercooperation (IC) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) to provide back-stopping services. The IC-ODI consortium combines expertise in international development research and policy development with expertise in the planning and implementation of rural development programmes. | |
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Intercooperation (IC) As a leading Swiss foundation engaged in development and international cooperation, Intercooperation implements development projects and supports partners in thematic and methodological issues. IC’s strengths lie in the combination of thematic expertise and process competence, combined with practical field experiences across four continents. IC can draw on a wide network of Swiss based and international organizations including its delegation offices in three continents. The resource persons at Intercooperation’s head office are: | |
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Jane Carter has been a member of Intercooperation's staff since 1997, and recently returned to Head Office from the position of Senior Adviser to the IC Delegation, India. In her current position of Knowledge Coordinator, she supports knowledge management throughout the organisation, with a particular interest in addressing poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods and gender. Having a background in participatory natural resource management, particularly community forestry, her main geographical focus lies in Asia (notably Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan), although she has also worked in Africa. Jane has a first class bachelors degree in agricultural and forest sciences from Oxford University, UK, and a doctorate in rural development forestry from the same university. Contact: jane.carter@intercooperation.ch |
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Annet Witteveen began work with Intercooperation in 1997 as an Advisor in an NRM programme in Orissa, India. Leaving this post in 2000, she re-joined IC in 2005 as part-time IC representative in Tanzania. She is currently Team Leader of the Agriculture team in the Head Office. Annet Witteveen has a wide field-based experience in NRM and livestock development, having worked for different international organisations (SNV, DGIS, FAO, IC) in North-Yemen, Burkino Faso, Cape Verde, Tanzania, India and Pakistan. Her interests lie in sustainable livelihoods, local capacity building and organisational development. She holds an MSc in Tropical Animal Husbandry from the Agricultural University in Wageningen for which she did a one year research and field work in Zimbabwe. Contact: annet.witteveen@intercooperation.ch |
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Sarah Byrne joined Intercooperation in 2006 as part of the Municipal and Local Development Team at IC Head Office. With a background in research on decentralisation and local governance, Sarah is currently working on several knowledge management activities in the field of local governance. She is particularly interested in socio-political analyses of local governance spaces, and the implications for equity and empowerment. Sarah has working experience in India and in South Eastern Europe. She holds an M.Phil (DEA) in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Geneva. Contact: sarah.byrne@intercooperation.ch |
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Overseas Development Institute (ODI) The Overseas Development Institute is Britain's leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. ODI is engaged in applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. ODI is contributing through research based concept development and brings in the experiences of the other donors with whom it works. The main resource persons of ODI involved in this mandate are: | |
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Kate Bird is a micro-economist with a particular interest in poverty and chronic poverty, rural livelihoods, coping strategies and diversification. Kate has considerable experience in evaluating the household and intra-household impacts of pro-poor projects, programs and policies. She is currently leading interdisciplinary and multi-country research within the Chronic Poverty Research Centre into chronic poverty in remote rural areas. She has particular experience in sub-Saharan Africa and India, but has worked elsewhere in Asia and in transitional economies. Contact: k.bird@odi.org.uk |
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Cecilia Luttrell’s research interest focus on access rights to natural resources, issues of livelihood vulnerability, poverty and adaptation, common property situations and the impacts of policy change on natural resource management and equity. In recent years she has been involved in the development of management and planning systems for land and forest use in Vietnam and Ghana. Cecilia has also worked for DFID in the Forestry Planning Department in Ghana, Wetlands International in Indonesia and for various conservation and participatory community development projects in Ghana, Indonesia, the Cook Islands and Tanzania. She is a holder of BA Geography, MSc in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use, and a doctorate in Environmental Sciences. Contact: c.luttrell@odi.org.uk |
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Eva Ludi is a geographer by training. She focuses specially on the socio-economic dimensions of sustainable rural development and sustainable natural resource management. She has done extensive research on sustainable soil and land management in the Ethiopian highlands, and has done field research in other East African countries and Central Asia. A recent focus of her research has been on environmental conflicts and on reconciling nature protection and rural development in protected areas. Current research interests center around poverty and environment linkages, value-chains for agro-commodities, and impacts of climate change on rural livelihoods. Contact: e.ludi@odi.org.uk |
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Harry Jones graduated from |
