In the pursuit of improving market opportunities for poor livestock keepers, the Markets, Gender and Livelihoods Theme at ILRI works to identify opportunities for the poor to benefit from increased consumer demand for livestock and livestock products. To help achieve this, ILRI is happy to announce several new additions to the Markets, Gender and Livelihoods Theme. Hikuepi (Epi) Katjiuongua, Jean Joseph (Jo) Cadilhon, Nadhem Mtimet, join the Theme as economists, and Kaathleen Colverson, as the new team leader for Poverty, Gender and Impact.  A warm welcome to all!

Markets, Gender and Livelihoods Economist (Photo Credit: ILRI).

 Jean Joseph (Jo) Cadilhon has joined ILRI effective 3 September 2012 as an Economist in the Markets, Gender and Livelihoods theme.  His work will centre on relationships within the value chain, specifically on organisational models for market entry and value addition, and for capacity building.  A trained facilitator, Jo will be active in a number of on-going projects developing, disseminating, and using tools for value chain analysis and its use in policy advocacy.  Jo holds a PhD from Imperial College London and MScs in Geography and Development Practices and in Rural Public Administration from AgroParisTech. Most recently he was working on Governance and Marketing Chains with the Centre for Studies and Strategic Foresight, the think-tank of the French Ministry of Agriculture in Paris. Jo’s language capacity includes French, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Spanish.  He has previously worked with FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok as a Marketing Officer specializing in quality Improvement. Jo will be based in ILRI     Nairobi  Campus and can be reached on email J.Cadilhon@cgiar.org

Markets, Gender and Livelihoods Theme Economist (Photo Credit: ILRI).

Nadhem Mtimet joined ILRI 04 September 2012 as an Economist in the Markets, Gender and Livelihoods theme. He will work primarily on downstream value chain issues such as trader and retail behaviour and transmission of incentives for smallholder value addition, and new methods such as the sampling of traders.  He will contribute to on-going projects in Somalia, Uganda and Tanzania, and to ReSAKSS work on value chain structure and financing of commodity flows.  Nadhem holds a Ph.D. in Applied Economics and a MSc degree in Applied Economics from University of Zaragoza, Spain. He also holds an MSc degree in Agro-Food Marketing from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza. Nadhem has a BSc in Food Technology, from Ecole Supérieure des Industries Alimentaires de Tunis, Tunisia.  He is a French, Spanish and Arabic speaker.  He has worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics,    College of Agriculture ESAM, Zaghouan, Tunisia and previously in the Inter-professional Consortium of Milk Production and Processing, GILAIT, Ministry of Agriculture, Tunis, Tunisia. Nadhem will be based in ILRI Nairobi Campus and can be reached on email:  N.Mtimet@cgiar.org

Hikuepi (Epi) Katjiuongua joined ILRI on 27 August 2012 as an Economist in the Markets, Gender and Livelihoods theme.  Her work will immediately contribute to the development and use of quantitative value chain analysis, and in issues surrounding trade and inclusive growth.  Her experience in Southern Africa will be applied in on-going projects in that region, particularly in measuring competitiveness of smallholder production and informal trading systems.  She will be working on use of existing databases to develop analytical methods for linking together datasets for agents at different points in the value chain.  She will also contribute to trade-related work with the ReSAKSS team. Epi holds a PhD and MSc from Michigan State University.  She previously worked as a trade advisor for the Agricultural Trade Forum (Namibia) where she participated in trade negotiations and advised both the private sector the government on international trade agreements. She has also worked as an independent research consultant.  A Namibian, Epi speaks Otjiherero and Afrikaans, as well as some French and German. Hikuepi will be based in ILRI Nairobi campus and can be reached on extension 3435 or on email: H.Katjiuongua@cgiar.org

Poverty, Gender and Impact Team Leader (Photo Credit: ILRI).

Kathleen Colverson has joined ILRI on 3 September as the new Team Leader for Poverty, Gender and Impact with a special interest in participatory techniques and processes. She earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University in Adult Education with a focus on Gender and Development, and an M.S. in Animal Science from Oregon State University, with a focus on dairy science. Prior to joining ILRI, she worked at the University of Florida as the Associate Director of the International Center. She brings to the position a diverse set of skills, having worked as both a professor in Animal Science for many years, and with Heifer International as a regional director and field staff.  Kathy will be based in ILRI Nairobi Campus and can be reached on email: K.Colverson@cgiar.org

The new staff will be part of driving the Theme’s goals and ILRI’s purpose of, improving the lives of poor livestock producers, consumers and their communities in the developing world, by creating and applying knowledge that enables people to use livestock more smartly to improve their lives.

To learn more on ILRI Markets, Gender and Livelihoods and the Poverty, Gender and Impacts themes log on to: http://www.ilri.org/MarketOpportunities and http://www.ilri.org/PovertyGender , respectively.