Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung / Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Tomás León Sicard is a Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and project leader of the Doctoral Studies Support Program (DSSP) for the Colombian partners.

Read his ZEF partner statement ➡ https://bit.ly/zef25-Sicard

Adamou Rabani is Rector of the Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, Niger and Coordinator of two WASCAL Studies Programs.

Read his ZEF partner statement ➡️ https://bit.ly/zef25-Rabani

Bettina Hedden-Dunkhorst is Head of the Division for International Nature Conservation at the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz BfN) in Bonn.

Read her ZEF partner statement ➡ https://bit.ly/zef25-Hedden-Dunkhorst

Mekuria Argaw is a ZEF-alumnus and the Executive Director of the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre and Network, Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia 🇪🇹.

Read his ZEF partner statement ➡ https://bit.ly/zef25-Argaw

“My best memory of ZEF is the day I defended my PhD thesis and graduated in 2012. It was a very special and rewarding moment for me, as I had worked hard and overcome many challenges to complete my research and dissertation”, says ZEF alumnus Asghar Tahmasebi

➡️ https://bit.ly/Tahmasebi

Emmanuel Derbile completed his PhD at ZEF in 2010 & is still very connected: “When it comes to promoting internationalization, the ZEF-led West African Center for Sustainable Rural Transformation (WAC-SRT) has been at the forefront in Ghana’s universities”.

➡️ https://bit.ly/zef25-Derbile


SDD University of Business and Integrated Development Studies

"Natural disasters and migration - a correlation?" This research question is asked by our researchers Eva Youkhana & Rabia Chaudhry in the case of the 2022 floods in rural Punjab, Pakistan, analyzing the floods' impact on local population movements. Our study reveals complexities and challenges prevailing narratives.

➡ Read more in our new ZEF Working Paper: https://bit.ly/WP-234

ZEF's DSSP had its 2nd Traveling School at Universidad Nacional de Colombia campus in La Paz .
Participants from Africa and South America share impressions in ZEF's latest blog post “Exploring Global South-South Connections”.

➡️ https://blog.zef.de/?p=8700

University for Development Studies - UDS
Instituto de Estudios Ambientales - IDEA - Unal

Focusing on gender issues: Dennis Avilés Irahola is ZEF Alumna and Senior researcher at ZEF: “My doctoral education at ZEF provided me with an international profile and sharpened my analytical abilities in development issues”.

Read full interview here: https://bit.ly/zef25-Aviles

Research with real-life impact: Faisal Abbas - “I learned at ZEF that doing scientific research should aim at having an impact on real life and bring something for the people of this world”, states the ZEF Alumnus.

Interview ➡ https://bit.ly/zef25-Abbas

“ZEF has truly set me up for an interdisciplinary research career and expanded my networks” says ZEF Alumnus Hart Nadav Feuer who was part of the ZEF Doctoral Program and is currently Associate Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture at Kyoto University.

➡️ https://bit.ly/zef25-Feuer

Within the past 25 years 479 doctoral students graduated from our ZEF Doctoral Program 🎓 and are working globally in research, politics and other institutions.

Learn more about our Doctoral Program here: https://www.zef.de/doctoralprogram.html

“I wanted to contribute to strengthening the legal environmental framework in my home country Nicaragua”.
Tanja Osejo Carrillo finished her PhD at ZEF in 2015 in the field of forest economics. After graduation she joined the World Food Programme, where she is still working.

➡ https://bit.ly/zef25-Carrillo

Congratulations to ZEF junior researcher Micely Díaz Espaillat who received an award for the best poster presentation for her work titled "The Bitterness of Sugarcane" at the International Summer School Graz Seggau 2024, "Disruptive Imagination and Resistance in Europe and the Americas: State-Society-Religion," held from June 30 to July 13, 2024, at Seggau Castle in Leibnitz, Austria.
There she also took part in a panel discussion on "Conversations Across Divides."

“The emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration fostered at ZEF has equipped me with the ability to integrate diverse perspectives and methodologies into my work, facilitating innovative problem-solving during my career” says ZEF Alumna Roukayatou Zimmermann.

➡ https://bit.ly/zef25-zimmermann

“I hope that more women, especially from the Global South, will be able to follow their passion”.
Entomologist by passion is Marwa Shumo, ZEF Alumna and currently working as R&D Project Manager, BEETLEFOODS GmbH.

➡️ Read interview here: https://bit.ly/zef25-Shumo

“I am proud of the contributions I have been making to research and concrete policies.”
Shyamal Chowdhury was in the first batch of doctoral students at ZEF in 1999. What impact did ZEF have on his academic career and where is he now?

➡️ https://bit.ly/ZEF25-Chowdhury

“I was the first Afghan doctoral graduate at ZEF”, remembers ZEF senior researcher and Alumnus of the Doctoral program Fazlullah Akhtar, when he started as a doctoral student in 2013.

➡️Read more about his story and academic career: https://bit.ly/zef25-Akhtar

📢 Call for applications:
The Right Livelihood College Campus Bonn will host a transdisciplinary workshop for PhD students from Africa, Asia and Latin America on rural development and smallholder agriculture from October 22-23, 2024 in Bonn.

Application deadline: August 08, 2024

Learn more➡️ https://bit.ly/ZEF_RLCWorkshop_2024
Supported by: DAAD

New Publications Alert!

PARI has published three new papers and a policy brief on the time use of men and women in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uganda.
“Gendered Patterns of Adults’ and Children’s Time and Access to Technology and Infrastructure in Rural Uganda”: This paper analyzes the time use patterns of men, women, and children in rural areas of Uganda and assesses the influence of different technologies on time allocation. Link: https://bit.ly/3W5WZS7
“Innovations, Technology and Time Allocation: Implications for Labour Productivity and Welfare in Ghana”: This study investigates the dynamics of time allocation of men, women, and children in various types of work in rural households in Ghana. Link: https://bit.ly/3W9k3zx
“Time Use among Rural Households in Ethiopia: Implications for Household Welfare and Productivity”: This paper examines the dynamics of time allocation within Ethiopian rural households. Link: https://bit.ly/3Y7Jxib
The insights from these studies are summarized in a policy brief, which presents the distribution of men’s and women’s time use between paid work, unpaid work, and leisure, highlighting how technologies and infrastructure can reduce unpaid work and improve welfare and productivity. Link: https://bit.ly/3XOkCzF

Yesterday, a few ZEF junior and senior researchers took a trip to the Rheinische Braunkohlerevier, roughly 100 kilometers from Bonn. The area has been at the center of Germany's coal-mining activities for centuries, but is now in transition and shifting to more sustainable energy solutions.

First, they were welcomed by the mayor of the Merzenich, a municipality near the Hambach mine, where they learned about the transition of shifting from coal mining to sustainable energy solutions. A village that was demolished to make way for the expansion of an open-cast lignite mine and is now to be revitalized by the municipality served as an example. In their exchange the researchers and the mayor looked at the social and economic effects of the transition on the region and looked for ways to achieve a sustainable revitalization.

Afterwards the group took a three-hour guided tour with an employee of Rhein-Erft Tourism, who led them around the lignite site. The ZEF-group had the opportunity to visit the lignite power plant Niederaußem from the outside and afterwards, they had a look at the Hambach open pit from two different viewpoints.

Congratulations to ZEF's latest doctoral graduate Pablo Mac Clay! 🎉🎓He successfully defended his doctoral thesis on "Essays on the nexus between technological change, policies, and value chain governance for a transition towards a low-carbon economy” on June 05, 2024 at ZEF. He receives his doctoral degree from the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bonn.

Congratulations 🎉🎓to ZEF doctoral graduate Hina Amber who successfully defended her thesis on "Economics of female labor force participation: Overcoming barriers in Pakistan" on May 13, 2024 at ZEF. She receives her doctoral degree from the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bonn.

Congratulations to ZEF's Gender Group who received the Maria von Linden Prize of Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn's Gender Equality Office on April 26, 2024. The group was awarded for promoting gender-sensitive approaches and methods in sustainable development research.

Learn more➡️ https://bit.ly/vonLindenZEFGG

Congratulations to three new ZEF doctoral graduates! 🎓

Juliana Minetto Gellert Paris successfully defended her doctoral thesis on "Shifting towards sustainable and healthier dietary patterns in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolis, Germany: An extended One Health Life Cycle Assessment" on April 12, 2024.
Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/ZEF_Defense_Paris

On the same day, Makafui Isaac Dzudzor successfully defended his doctoral thesis on “Household food safety, dietary diversity and malnutrition in the urban context: Evidence from urban Ghana”.
Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/ZEF_Defense_Dzudzor

On Monday, April 15, 2024, Wyclife Agumba Oluoch successfully defended his doctoral thesis on "Availability and sustainable harvesting of wild edible plants in Turkana County, Kenya"
Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/ZEF_Defense_Oluoch

+++ New Blog post +++

"Tackling South America’s environmental challenges by strengthening international academic cooperation" by ZEF associate professor Eva Youkhana, Laura Victoria Calderón of Instituto de Estudios Ambientales - IDEA - Unal and Nicolas Alexander Pérez Forero of the Externado University of Colombia.

➡️ https://blog.zef.de/?p=8682

+++ New PARI Policy Brief No 36 +++

"How to reduce the impact of mother's time demands on children's diet - Insights from women traders in Ghana" by ZEF Senior Researcher Sundus Saleemi

Read it here 📄➡️ https://bit.ly/ZEF_PARI_PB36

The Right Livelihood College Campus Bonn offers a PhD research scholarship on "Extractivism, environmental justice and participation in Latin America" in collaboration with Juan Pablo Orrego and his organization Ecosistemas.
The 3.5-year PhD scholarship for candidates from Latin America is funded by the DAAD.

Find more information ➡️ https://bit.ly/ZEF_RLC_Scholarship