Staff Profile:Dr Henny Osbahr

Name:

Dr Henny Osbahr

Job Title:

Lecturer in International Development

Responsibilities:

• Director Graduate Institute of International Development and Applied Economics
• Programme Director MA Social Development and Sustainable Livelihoods
• Convener for MA modules Food Security and Development, Social Policies for Development

Areas of Interest:

• Adaptation to climate change and climate-related disasters
• Rural livelihoods and food security
• Local knowledge systems, institutional governance and agricultural innovation
• Poverty-reduction
• Political ecology, natural resource management and the human-environment interface

Recent and Current Research Activities:

• Agricultural innovation, food security and perceptions of climate risk in Uganda (PI, Walker/ASACERA)
• Rural development and agricultural innovation, Sudan (Co-PI, ASACERA-World Bank, SMA)
• Rural livelihood transformations, climate change and environmental resilience in Uganda (PI, British Council)
• Workshop Adaptive governance, resilience and development: theory and frameworks for practice in development countries (Co-PI, funder Resilience Alliance)
• Climate change, DRR and institutional learning (DFID, Practical Action, Oxfam, FCO UK)
• Adaptive livelihoods and gender in dryland India (Felix, with RA)
• Integrating climate change and DRR in Bangladesh (British Red Cross)
• Adaptation and DRR (DFID)
• Adaptation mechanism and governance coordinator case studies in Kenya, Egypt, Brazil, Vietnam, Mexico (UNDP)
• Linking climate change adaptation and DRM for sustainable poverty reduction (Development Directive, EC) VARG (World Bank, DFDI, Red Cross Climate Centre, UN agencies, OECD)/implementation of EU Action Plan on Climate Change and Development - Case studies Africa, Asia and Latin America
• Adapting to Climate Change (ADAPTIVE Project) (Funded by Tyndall Centre) in South Africa and Mozambique

Current/Recent Research Students:

• Chandni Singh - Understanding the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of Indian farmers in the context of water scarcity
• Sidiqat Aderinoye-Abdulwahab - Access to Extension Services, Gender Issues and Economic Empowerment of Pastoralists' Women of Northern Nigeria
• Esther Oenga - The community perception on the role of educated women on decision making processes in Kenya
• Sarah Cooper - Rural Transformations: Livelihood Adaptation to Climate Change in Uganda
• Raj Pandey - Addressing climate change through forest carbon management in Nepal
• Aman Ramali - Incentives for water pricing in north Africa
• Naser Farid (PhD Reading) Drivers of food security in monga-prone less favoured north-west Bangladesh: analysis and implications for policy making
• Debodayita Raha (PhD Reading 2011) Women's inclusion in agricultural extension policy frameworks in India Gender and rural development policy dynamics - Case studies of Public Private Partnerships from two districts, India
• Fidea Mgina (PhD Reading 2011) Economic reforms and their impact on small farmer credit needs and food security
• Sarah Cardey (PhD Reading 2009) NGO Communication and HIV/AIDS vulnerability in Uganda
• Isaiah Okeyo (PhD Reading 2009) Land, gender and livelihoods : contestations and negotiations of land rights of women in different subject-positions in Luo land of western Kenya
• Florence Crick (PhD Oxford 2007 ) Adaptive strategies to drought in Niger and South Africa

Research groups / Centres:

Publications:

• Osbahr, H., Dorward, P., Cooper, S. and Stern, R. (2011) Supporting agricultural innovation in Uganda to respond to climate risk: linking climate change and variability with farmer perceptions. Experimental Agriculture, 47 (2): 293-316.
• Raha D., Osbahr H, and Garforth C (2011 in review) Public-Private-Partnership as a policy mechanism for mainstreaming gender equity into development initiatives: case studies from India. Special Issue Business and Enterprise, Gender and Development
• Raha D., Osbahr H, and Garforth C (2011 in press) Empowering women through public-private partnership: the case of a watershed development project in Rajasthan India. Special Issue Women and Water, Journal of Cleaner Production.
• Osbahr, H., Twyman, C., Adger, W. N. and Thomas, D. S. G. (2010) Evaluating successful livelihood adaptation to climate variability and change in Southern Africa. Ecology and Society, 15 (2): 27.
• Miller, F., Osbahr, H., Boyd, E., Thomalla, F., Bharwani, S., Ziervogel, G., Walker, B., Birkmann, J., Van der Leeuw, S.,Rockstrom, J., Hinkel, J., Downing, T., Folke, C. and Nelson, D. (2010) Resilience and vulnerability: complementary or conflicting concepts? Ecology and Society, 15 (3): 11.
• Boyd, E. and Osbahr, H. (2010) Responses to climate change: exploring organisational learning across internationally networked organisations for development. Environmental Education Research, 16 (5-6): 629-643.
• Osbahr H. (2010) Using cultural relations and reflexive governance to mainstream climate change adaptation: the example of British Council institutional learning. British Council Report.
• Osbahr H, Adger WN, Twyman C, Thomas DSG (2008) Effective livelihood adaptation to climate change disturbance: scale dimensions of practice in Mozambique. Geoforum 39: 1951-1964.
• Boyd E, Osbahr, Ericksen P, Tompkins EL, Lemos MC (2008) Resilience and climatizing development: examples and policy implications, Development 51: 395-396.
• Thomas DSG, Twyman C, Osbahr H, Hewitson B (2007) Adapting to climate change and variability in southern Africa: farmer responses to intra-seasonal precipitations trends. Climate Change 83: 301-322
• Osbahr H (2007) Building resilience: adaptation mechanisms and mainstreaming for the poor, UNDP Human Development Report on Climate Change.
• Osbahr H (2007) Links between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, Ti-Up/WSP, Briefing Note DFID.
• Lemos MC, Boyd E, Osbahr H, Tompkins EL (2007) Developing adaptation and adapting development, Ecology and Society 12(2):26 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol12/iss2/art26/
• Okereke C, Mann P, Osbahr H, Muller B, Ebeling J (2007) Assessment of key negotiating issues at Nairobi climate COP/MOP and what it means for the future of the climate regime, Tyndall Working Paper 106
• Osbahr H and Few R 2006 Linking climate change adaptation and disaster risk management for sustainable poverty reduction: Mexico Case Study, EC. Osbahr H and Viner D 2006 Linking climate change adaptation and disaster risk management for sustainable poverty reduction: Kenya Case Study, EC.
• Osbahr H, Allan C (2002) Indigenous knowledge of soil fertility management in SW Niger, Geoderma 111(3-4): 439-456.
• Warren A, Osbahr H, Batterbury S, Chappell A (2002) Indigenous views of soil erosion at Fandou Beri, south western Niger. Geoderma 111(3-4): 439-456
• Warren A, Batterbury S, Osbahr H (2001) Sustainability and Sahelian agriculture: evidence from Niger. The Geographical Journal 16(4): 324-341
• Warrren A, Batterbury S, Osbahr H (2001) Soil erosion in the West African Sahel: a review and an application of a local political ecology approach in SW Niger. Global Environmental Change 11: 79-95.

Qualifications:

BSc MRes Ph.D (University College London)