Activities

GREENWICH U-NRI will contribute to WP1 Task 1.3 “studies, analysis and foresight” and to Task 1.4 on “monitoring & evaluation and impact assessment”.

People

• Dr Tim Chancellor: is Director of Capacity Strengthening & Partnerships at NRI and VicePresident of AGRINATURA. He co-led a major programme on capacity strengthening in subSaharan Africa (2007-2011) and has contributed to studies on capacity strengthening for agricultural research for development for the European Union (2011) and the Department for International Development (UK) (2011 and 2012). He coordinated the work on advocacy in the EC-funded Platform for Africa-Europe Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD) and led a feasibility study to establish ARD platforms for Europe-Asia and EuropeLatin America (2011). He has conducted programme and project evaluations for the EC, DFID, USAID and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was chair of the Program Review and Monitoring panel for EC support to ASARECA. He led a study on the impact of climate change on plant diseases for the UK Foresight programme (2006) and contributed to an analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on ‘Fairtrade’ crops (2013).
• Adrienne Martin: Adrienne joined the Natural Resources Institute in 1990. She has designed and undertaken research projects on the social and institutional aspects of agricultural development and natural resource management in rural and urban locations, completed numerous consultancy assignments including project feasibility studies and evaluations; advised on the social and institutional dimensions of agricultural development and supported the training and capacity building of rural development and agricultural specialists. Prior to her current role, she was head of the Livelihoods and Institutions Group at NRI (2001-2010) responsible for the professional and business management of the group; leader of the People, Natural Resources and Livelihoods Programme (2008-2001) and head of the Social Development Group (1993-2008). Before joining NRI she worked as a freelance consultant and researcher, including work in drought affected areas of Kenya and Sudan. From 1977-1980 she worked in the Farming Systems Programme of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria, conducting studies of smallholder crop and livestock systems to support the research programmes. Prior to this she undertook intensive socio-economic studies for rural development planning in Darfur, Sudan (1975-1976) after 2 years as a volunteer teacher in Sudan (1972-1974). Her work has covered a wide range of countries, topics and clients. She has worked on DFID and formerly ODA funded projects; for the EC, and for non-government organisations. Overseas partners have included Ministries of Agriculture, research institutes, local NGOs and private enterprises. Adrienne has long term overseas experience in Sudan and Syria and professional experience in over 30 other countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Adrienne supervises several PhD students researching livelihood related topics.
• Ravi Kumar: Ravinder Kumar has experience in international development and research relating to poverty, livelihoods, agriculture, natural resource management, integrated water resource management, land tenure governance, responsible business investments, social enterprises and sustainability certification in agriculture commodities. Following are 7 areas of significant experience and expertise:
  • i. Monitoring and evaluation support to organisations and programmes in many sectors (as highlighted above) of international development, including international agricultural research through the CGIAR system (external evaluation of the Drylands Cereals CRP, M&E system for FISH CRP and consultancy work for IWMI.
  • ii. Sustainability research in different agricultural commodities (palm oil, cotton, soyabean, cocoa, cashew, sugarcane) – focusing on social, economic and environmental dimensions. 
  • iii. Design and implementation of monitoring, evaluation and learning systems, in rural livelihoods, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, integrated water resource management, social protection, social inclusion advocacy, women empowerment and Health /HIV/AIDS.
  • iv. Value chain development of agricultural commodities, building agriculture commodity supply chains for corporates, providing business development services to farm based enterprises including farmer producer groups and farmers’ co-operatives.
  • v. Strategic Review and Evaluation methodologies and approaches –range of large scale, complex /multi-country programme, process, performance and impact evaluations (including evaluations of advocacy initiatives) using both qualitative and quantitative methods– statistical analysis, outcome mapping, contribution tracing /analysis, theory of change based impact evaluations, experimental (randomised control trial) and quasi-experimental research etc. Also conducted organizational strategic reviews and institutional assessments.
  • vi. Programme design and evidence based planning processes.
  • vii. Implementation of development project: large scale implementation of integrated water resources management, agriculture value chains and local economic development projects.

    Long term experience in India; professional experience in 12+ other countries in Africa, Asia – Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia.

• Valerie Nelson: Valerie has worked in international development since 1992. Initially she worked in Belize on a forest planning and management project, conducting field research in Mayan and migrant communities and in Mexico she was a research fellow at an agricultural research institute of the University of the State of Mexico. She then joined Oxfam GB’s policy department, evaluating their South-South Environment Learning Programme, before moving to NRI in 1996. While at NRI she has worked as a social development specialist on a wide range of research and consultancy projects in agriculture and natural resources management across Latin America, Africa and Asia. In the last decade she has focused on sustainable and ethical trade, including a range of impact studies on fair trade, sustainability standards and corporate codes of conduct. Several of these studies were funded by DFID to inform policy-making in relation to ethical trade and sustainability standards, including early studies in the late 1990s on the impact of cocoa, cotton and brazil nuts comparing conventional and ethical value chains. Other impact studies have been commissioned by Fairtrade organisations and ISEAL. The methodological innovations which Valerie, in collaboration with Adrienne Martin from NRI, have developed in our DFID and Fairtrade commissioned work has influenced Fairtrade’s approach to participatory theory of change development, the use of theory based evaluation, case oriented comparative analysis and mixed impact design as well as methods. Other ESRC-DFID funded research on fair, ethical and sustainability standards focused on the politics and governance dimensions. Valerie also led an NRI study in 2010 on the climate change implications for fair trade and collaborated with Anne Tallontire at the University of Leeds on a major assessment of standards in agricultural trade. . She is currently leading a new NRI programme on Sustainable and Equitable Trade and is the leader of the evaluation unit of a new DFID trade and global value chains catalyst fund being implemented in Kenya and South Africa (horticulture) and Bangladesh (garments).