Jacqueline Ashby
Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)
Director for Research, Development and Rural Innovation
Dr. Jacqueline Ashby has been Director of Research, Natural Resource
Management (now Rural Innovation and Development Research), at the International Center
for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) since 1996. She is also Coordinator for the CGIAR
Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis, convened by CIAT. After
receiving her BA Hons and Dip Ed from English universities, Dr. Ashby received a PhD
in Rural Development Sociology from the University of Cornell, NY, in 1980. Her current
research focuses on the application of participatory approaches and organizational models
to problems of agriculture and natural resource management in developing countries. During
1980-1987, she was posted at CIAT as a Rockefeller Postdoctoral Fellow and as a Senior
Staff Sociologist for the IFDC. In 1987, she was appointed Senior Scientist at CIAT,
managing a special project funded by the Kellogg Foundation and, in 1992, became Program
Leader for Hillside Agroecosystems at CIAT.
Julio Berdegué
FIDAMERICA
Coordinador FIDAMERICA / Presidente RIMISP
Dr. Julio A. Berdegué is Chairman of RIMISP, a Latin American network of private and public organizations
working to promote learning and innovation in public policies and in governmental and
nongovernmental programs and projects. Its aim is to improve their impact on rural poverty
and on the sustainable development of local rural economies. Dr. Berdegué holds a BSc in
Agricultural Sciences from the University of Arizona, an MSc in Agronomy (Plant Breeding)
from the University of California—Davis, and a PhD in Social Sciences from the
Wageningen Agricultural University. He is based in Santiago, Chile.
Michael Cernea
World Bank
Senior Advisor, Sociology/Social Policy, World Bank
Professor Michael Cernea joined the
World Bank in 1974 as the institution’s first in-house sociologist. Between 1981 and
1997, he worked as the Bank’s senior advisor for sociology and social policy. In that
capacity he was responsible for defining the social content of many of the World
Bank’s policies. He has carried out field research in numerous developing countries,
including Algeria, China, India, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Tanzania,
Thailand, Togo, Ukraine, and Yemen.
He was a founding member of the World Bank-NGO Committee and constantly
promoted the involvement of NGOs in the formulation and implementation of development
policies and programs. In 1988, he authored the first study on NGOs published by the World
Bank, which led to the definition of the Bank’s policy guidelines on cooperation with
NGOs.
He has served as an elected member on the leading bodies of numerous European
and American social science associations and on the advisory boards of various scientific
journals. He has written several books and articles on development, social change,
population resettlement, social forestry, grassroots organizations, and participation,
including Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Development (1985,
1991), Anthropological Approaches to Resettlement: Policy, Practice, Theory
(1993), Social Organization and Development Anthropology (1996), Social
Assessments for Better Development (1997), Economics of Involuntary Resettlement:
Questions and Challenges (1999), and Resettlement and Development, volumes I
and II (in Chinese, 1997 and 1998).
Professor Cernea was born in Romania and obtained a PhD in Sociology and Social
Philosophy. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and
member of the Academy of Sciences, Romania.
Sonia Davila-Poblete
Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua (IMTA)
Technical Advisory Committee, Global Water Partnership(GWP)
Sonia Davila-Poblete was born in Oruro, a mining town in
Bolivia. She obtained her B.Sc in Psychology from the New York State University, her M.Sc
in Sociology from the New School for Social Research (NY), and received her PhD in
Sociology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1992. Currently, she is
member of the Technical Advisory Committee (TEC) of the Global Water Partnership, a post
that she has held since 1999. Between 1992 and 2002, she worked, as part of the Social
Participation Team, at the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (Instituto Mexicano de
Tecnología del Agua). Most of her social research was carried out in the rural areas of
Mexico and Bolivia, where she worked with governmental officials and communities on social
and organizational issues related to the conservation of natural resources with special
emphasis on water. Sonia has also worked with different nongovernmental organizations in
Mexico and Bolivia, conducting adult-education and capacity-building programs, and
developing agricultural projects for peasants, indigenous populations, and women's
organizations. She has lived with Aymara indigenous families in the Bolivian Andes where
she gained experience in institution building and program development for indigenous
communities and social outreach; local capacity building; and leadership training among
indigenous people.
Amir Kassam
FAO
Senior Agricultural Research Officer for the CGIAR Interim Science Council Secretariat
Amir Kassam is currently Senior Agricultural Research Officer for the
CGIAR Interim Science Council Secretariat at FAO, Rome. He is responsible for
facilitating the Council’s work in research policy, priorities, and strategies.
He is also Visiting Principal Research Fellow at the School of Agriculture, Policy and
Development at the University of Reading (UK), where he offers a course of seminars in
tropical agricultural development. Previous positions include Deputy Director
General for Programmes at WARDA (Côte d’Ivoire) from 1998-2000, and Chairman of the
Aga Khan Foundation (UK) from 1995-1998. Born in Tanzania, Dr Kassam received his
BSc Hons in Agriculture and PhD in Agricultural Botany (agroecology) from the University
of Reading, and his MSc in Irrigation from the University of California—Davis.
During the 1970s and 1980s, he worked with national agricultural systems in Nigeria,
Mozambique, Kenya, and Bangladesh, several CGIAR centers, and FAO either as staff member
or as consultant in the fields of agronomy, crop improvement, natural resource management,
agricultural ecology, and land resources evaluation for development planning. Dr
Kassam has also worked with NGOs in rural development in Pakistan and India, and in
humanitarian assistance in Central Asia. He is Fellow of the Institute of Biology,
London, and is cited in Who’s Who in the World. Since 1976, he has been
co-Editor of the Journal of Irrigation Science. His publications include
Agricultural Ecology of the Savannas (1978); Agroecological Zones Reports for Africa, West
Asia, Southeast Asia, and South and Central America (1978-1981); Yield Response to Water
(1979); Population-Supporting Capacity of Lands in the Developing World (1981); and the
Land Resource Appraisal for Development Planning series: Mozambique (1982), Bangladesh
(1986), and Kenya (1990).
Melissa Leach
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Professor
Melissa Leach received her PhD in Social Anthropology. She became
Professorial Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, where
she founded the Environment Group in 1990. She has worked extensively on rural
environmental change; institutions and natural resource management; gender issues; and
power, knowledge, and policy processes, mainly in West Africa and the Caribbean. Her
current research focuses on relationships between citizenship and science around
environmental and health technologies in a globalized context. Publications include
Rainforest Relations (1994); Misreading the African Landscape (1996, with James
Fairhead); Reframing Deforestation (1998, with James Fairhead), and the jointly
edited volumes, The Lie of the Land (1995, with James Currey) and Negotiating
Environmental Change (2002, with Elgar).
Ruth Meinzen-Dick
International Foos Policy research Institute (IFPRI)
Coordinator of the CGIAR System-wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi)
Ruth Meinzen-Dick joined the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in
1991 to conduct research on water policy, local organizations, property rights, and the
impact of agricultural research on poverty. She serves as Coordinator of the CGIAR’s
System-Wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi), involving 16
international agricultural research institutions and national partners.
Although she received a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University, much of
her work has been interdisciplinary research on policies for water and natural resource
management; water rights; gender analysis; local organizations; comparative analysis of
irrigation system performance, operation of water markets; relations between farmers and
governmental agencies; impact of agricultural research on poverty; and sustainable
livelihoods. Her fieldwork has been primarily in India, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri
Lanka.
She serves on several professional bodies, including the Steering Committee of the
Global Water Partnership, and has published extensively in journals and book volumes. She
is co-editor of Negotiating Water Rights and Innovation in Natural Resource
Management: The Role of Property Rights and Collective Action in Developing Countries.
Elinor Ostrom
Indiana University
Professor
Elinor Ostrom is the Arthur F. Bentley
Professor of Political Science at Indiana University (IU), Bloomington, IN. She received
her PhD in Political Science from the University of California—Los Angeles (UCLA) in
1965, and came to IU in 1966 as Assistant Professor. She became Associate Professor in
1969, Professor in 1974, and Department Chair for 1980-1984. She has also been Co-Director
for the Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis since 1973 and part-time
Professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs since 1984. She was elected a
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in spring, 1991. She is Past President
of the American Political Science Association and has been the President of the Public
Choice Society, the Midwest Political Science Association, and the International
Association for the Study of Common Property.
Professor Ostrom has served on numerous advisory boards, including International
Association of Chiefs of Police; Law Enforcement Assistance Administration; National
Academy of Public Administration; National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice
Standards and Goals, National Sheriffs’ Association, National Science Foundation; and
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.
She has been consultant for various task force committees and has been principal
investigator or co-principal investigator of externally funded research grants. Professor
Ostrom has served as member of editorial boards for the American Journal of Political
Science; American Political Science Review; Criminal Justice Review; Public Productivity
Review; Publius; Quarterly Journal of Administration; Sage Urban
Affairs Annual Review; Social Science Quarterly; and Urabn Affairs
Quarterly.
Ujjwal Pradhan
Ford Foundation
Program Officer
Dr.
Ujjwal Pradhan is Program Officer for Environment and Development with the Ford
Foundation—Jakarta Office. Previously, he was Program Officer with the
Foundation’s India Office, first for Water Resources Governance and Policy and then
for Environmental Justice and Equity. Before joining the Foundation in 1995, he was Social
Scientist and Head of the Nepal Country Program of the International Water Management
Institute (IWMI). In 1990–1991, he served as institutional development specialist
with Euroconsult for the World Bank-funded Irrigation Service Fee Project in Indonesia. He
obtained his PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University. His dissertation dealt
with property rights and relations and state intervention in water resources in Nepal.
John Vercoe
Chairman of the ILRI Board of
Trustees
Dr. John Vercoe received his PhD in Animal Science from the University of Melbourne in
1964. His research has since been in metabolism, nutrition, and genetics as related to
practical ruminant production in the tropics. He also has worked jointly with cattle
producers to improve ruminant productivity in the tropics through cross breeding, using
Brahman, Boran, and Tuli breeds. Specifically, his work has led to a much increased
understanding of the origins of genotype-by-environment interactions and of breeding and
management strategies for cattle in tropical environments. He was Director of the Tropical
Beef Centre in Rockhampton, Australia, and has served on numerous distinguished national
and international panels and committees. He has received several awards and honors.
Currently, he is Chairman of the ILRI Board of Trustees, a post he has held since 1999.
Joachim Voss
Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)
Director General
Dr Joachim Voss, a Canadian, graduated
from the University of Toronto, obtained a master’s degree in Rural Sociology from
the University of Guelph, and received his PhD in Economic Anthropology from the
University of Toronto. His considerable research experience led him to become Manager of
the Research Division of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), based in
Canada. He also has broad experience in organizing and administering interdisciplinary
teams focused on problems in natural resource management, the environment, and information
and communications. Dr Voss became Director General of CIAT in April 2000.
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