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Livelihoods and Institutions Department

Name Details
Associate Professor Ravinder Kumar
  • Qualifications: BSc, PGDFM (Equivalent to MBA)
  • Biography:

    Ravi is an Associate Professor of Monitoring and Impact at Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK. He has experiences in international development and research relating to poverty, livelihoods, agriculture, natural resource management, governance /democracy, responsible business investments, social enterprises and sustainability certification in agricultural commodities. Over two decades, he has provided monitoring and evaluation support to organisations and programmes in many sectors. He has conducted programme and performance evaluations, including evaluations of multi-partner, multi-country alliances and networks. Similarly, he has facilitated design and implementation of monitoring, evaluation and learning systems. He has led on sustainability research in many agricultural commodities such as palm oil, cotton, soybean, cocoa, cashew, sugarcane. Overall Ravi has experiences in diverse monitoring and evaluation works using both qualitative and quantitative methods, statistical analysis, outcome mapping, contribution tracing /analysis, theory of change-based impact evaluations, experimental (randomised control trials) and quasi-experimental research etc.

    R Kumar also has more than a decade of experiences in leading, advising (or being part of) projects working towards developing and upgrading agricultural and tree crop value chains. He has implemented value chain development, livelihoods, social protection and local economic development projects in India.

    R Kumar has long term experience in India and professional experiences in many other countries in Africa, Asia – Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia.
  • Selected Publications:
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:
    • Pragmatic theories of change and monitoring and evaluation frameworks, tools and approaches in different sectors of international development (agriculture, livelihoods, value chains, climate change and adaptation, private sector development, etc.)
    • How evaluations can become more impactful, including the making of a new-age evaluator
    • Practical methodologies and challenges in measuring impact of agriculture research, advocacy, policy influence, climate resilience, social business ventures, innovations and nutritional outcomes
    • Inclusive business models and private sector development approaches that aim to target and achieve poverty reduction and local economic development
    • Pro-poor /inclusive value chain development
    • Large scale transformative models for poverty alleviation and sustainable natural resource management (land, water, forest)
  • Research Projects:

    Ravi’s current research projects are:

    • 2018. Sierra Leone: Social Expert in Cashew value chain sustainability research and analysis in Sierra Leone, through Agrinatura, for European Commission Development Co-operation.
    • 2017-22. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Soloman Islands, Zambia and Tanzania: Team Leader in designing and implementing a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) system in FISH CGIAR Research Program, being implemented by World Fish.
    • 2017-2020. India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana: Deputy Team Leader in Performance Evaluation of global component of FCDO’s ‘Innovative Ventures & Technologies for Development’ (INVENT) programme, focused on affordable and inclusive innovations /social enterprises in agri-food, health and ICT sectors.
    • 2015-19. India: Team Leader for assessing social, economic and environmental impact of Sustainability Standards in Cotton through a randomised control trial in a Better Cotton Initiative project in India

    Some of Ravi’s previous research project were:

    • 2017. Sierra Leone: Social Expert in Oil Palm value chain sustainability research and analysis in Sierra Leone, through Agrinatura, for European Commission Development Co-operation.
    • 2016-17. Ghana: Team leader in Evaluation of the impacts of rainforest alliance certification on smallholder cocoa producers in Ghana.
    • 2016-17. Global: Team Leader in Contributing to the development of methodology and tool for establishing the SDG Land Tenure Indicator 1.4.2.
    • 2015. Global: Team Leader in Development of sourcebook (for statisticians and Govt. statistical and administrative agencies) for operationalisation of Global Land Indicators.
    • 2013-14. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa: Team Leader, Global Development Network: Final External Evaluation of a global research project on agriculture policies.
    • 2011-12. India: Team Leader: Oxfam, Evaluation of Ensuring Livelihoods of Small Farmers through Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change Adaptation and rights-based advocacy.
    • 2011. India: Team Leader in Evaluation of Arghyam-supported project on Integrated Rural Domestic Water Management (IDWM) being implemented by three partners in India
    • 2010-12. India: Project Director in EU funded Integrated Water Resource Management Project
    • 2010-11: India: Team Leader in large nation-wide research on social protection systems in India
    • 2009-11. India: Team Leader - Impact Evaluation of the IFC supported Sugarcane Productivity Enhancement Project – International Finance Corporation, using a quasi-experimental design.
    • 2009-10. India: Team Leader in Review of Sustainable Community Based Approaches for Livelihoods Enhancement (SCALE), funded by Aga Khan Foundation and European Union.
    • 2008-10. Cambodia: Project Advisor in design and implementation support to Govt. of Cambodia for Formative Evaluation and Outcome Monitoring of Deconcentration and Decentralisation program.
    • 2008. India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia: International M&E consultant in Final review of Downward Accountability of Oxfam Humanitarian Response to Indian Ocean Tsunami
    • 2003-07. India: Team Leader in design, development and implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) system in Poorest Areas Civil Society Programme of FCDO India.
  • Responsibilities:

    Ravi’s work is dedicated to improve process and performance management in international development to benefit low-income families in developing countries.  His role and responsibility at NRI and within the University includes; contributing to growing the enterprise portfolio and capacities in monitoring and evaluation, expanding NRI’s footprint and partnerships in South Asia, and leading on experimental (randomised control trials) and longitudinal research in many sectors.  Ravi’s work is also focussed on innovations in M&E and impact research.
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0157-1310

    LinkedIn

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravinder-kumar-99b94013/

    Google Scholar

    https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=_tPATGIAAAAJ&hl=en

    Research Gate

    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ravinder_Kumar27
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3054
Associate Professor of Monitoring and Impact
Richard Lamboll Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3762
Principal Scientist: Socio-Economist
Professor Valerie Nelson
  • Qualifications: BA Hons., MSc, PhD
  • Biography:

    Valerie Nelson, Professor in Sustainability and Political Ecology, currently leads the Political Ecology, Culture and Arts Research Group. She has a first degree in Social Anthropology (University of Cambridge), an MSc in Rural Resources and Environmental Policy (Wye College, University of London) and a PhD in Global Supply Chain Sustainability Initiatives: Impacts, Governance, Systemic Constraints and Regenerative Alternatives’ (University of Greenwich).

    She has worked in international development and environmental sustainability since 1992, initially conducting research in Belize on community engagement in forest planning and management, conducting field research with Mayan and migrant communities, followed by research at an agricultural research institute of the University of the State of Mexico. The latter involved research with Mazahua Indigenous Peoples in the central highlands of Mexico. Following a 6-month stint in Bavaria supporting partnership development between European, Latin American and Asian protected areas for the European Federation of Nature and National Parks, she joined Oxfam GB's policy department, working on the South-South Environment Learning Programme. Valerie joined NRI in 1996 and has since conducted social and transdisciplinary research on food and agriculture, especially agroecology, land rights and rural development, conservation, political ecology and environmental sustainability in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the UK.

    Valerie has led significant research projects and conducted action research in the following areas: Participatory rural development, including pioneering of participatory video in 1998 in Malawi and many years of experience in developing and facilitating diverse transdisciplinary, action research and social learning processes;  Sustainable livelihoods and the socio-ecological and socio-nature dimensions of agriculture, food and environment; Gender, intersectionality and climate change adaptation; Smallholder agricultural adaptation and climate change resilience; Governance and politics of sustainability in global value chains; Critical analysis of fair trade, sustainability standards, global value chains and responsible business; Land rights and governance; Agroecology and alternative food networks; post-growth economies.

    She currently co-leads the NRI Political Ecology, Culture and Arts Research Group which has the following research themes: relationality, the more-than-human, socionatures and biodiversity; politics and meanings of food and farming; ecojustice, power and land; transformative change, social movements and sustainability futures; post-growth economies and commoning; environmental intersectionalities and ethics of care. She is working increasingly with arts-based methods including Photovoice, and exploring imaginaries and speculative futures.

    Valerie is an expert for the Inter-Governmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) acting as a contributing author for the 2022 Values Assessment, the 2022 Scoping Study on Business and Biodiversity, and is currently a lead author for the Transformative Change Assessment. She also supports its Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge dialogues. She is also currently a lead author for the UNEP Global Environmental Outlook GEO-7 State of the Environment report and is a taskforce member for the UNPE GEO 7 Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge Taskforce.

    She sat on the Scottish Government’s advisory panel for their environment strategy (2023) and has recently conducted a study for them on transformative change and sustainability to inform their Environment Strategy. She is also part of Natural England’s nature futures advisory group. She is a member of the friends of the International Land Coalition (ILC). Earlier, Valerie sat on the UK and Ireland’s Development Studies Association Council for 6 years and co-led their climate and development study group, and regularly runs DSA panels at their conferences.

    She is also an evaluation and learning specialist, leading multiple complex evaluations and research studies, including multi-country studies. High level consultancies have been undertaken for, amongst others, International Land Coalition, UNDP, EC, Irish Aid, FCDO, the Dutch Government, ISEAL, ILO, BEIS, Defra, Welthungerhilfe, Fair Trade Advocacy Office, Fairtrade International, Fairtrade Foundation, Rainforest Alliance, Oxfam, CGIAR etc.
  • Selected Publications:

    Book Section

    Edited Book

    Working Paper

    Monograph

    Other
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:

    Valerie has contributed to the establishment of new research fields, most notably gender and climate change beginning in the early 1990s and subsequently, and the impact, governance and power relations in agro-food systems, including critical analysis of hybrid governance and its limitations and governmentality, such as reform-oriented approaches (e.g. corporate codes, sustainability standards, due diligence, sector transformation). She has explored alternative food networks and agroecology movements and practices and developed new participatory, action research and transdisciplinary methodologies, e.g. pioneering participatory video in Malawi (1996-98), farmer and stakeholder climate future learning journeys in Tanzania (2010s), farmer field school evaluation in Malawi and transdisciplinary multi-stakeholder and civic engagement in learning cycles.

    Valerie currently leads the Political Ecology, Culture and Arts (PEAC) Research Group at the NRI (ADD URL), which has the following research themes:

    • Relationality and sustainability
    • The more-than-human, socionatures and biodiversity
    • Politics and meanings of food and farming
    • Ecojustice, power and land
    • Transformative change, social movements and sustainability futures.
    • Post-growth economies and communing.
    • Environmental intersectionalities and ethics of care.

    Her current work focuses upon the following: relational philosophies and sustainability; critical analysis and action research on imaginaries, socionatures and human-nature relations; colonial modernities, pluriversal conviviality and transformative change; biodiversity and equity in telecoupled agrofood system contexts; Indigenous land rights and futures; arts-based methods and speculative futuring.
  • Teaching Programmes:

    Valerie is currently teaching on the NRI Masters on Sustainable Development, leading a module on Regenerative economies, politics and societies. She is supervising several PhD students on subjects involving relational and political ecology themes, including astro-scholarship, rights of nature, More-Than-Human relations and deer, soil relationality and care ethics, and tropical futurism and imaginaries in commodity frontiers.
  • Research Projects:

    Transformative Change in telecoupled agrofood systems for biodiversity and equity (EU Horizon, 2023-26)

    Partnering with Wageningen University, Netherlands, University of the Andes, Colombia, University of Dschang, Cameroon, the University of Kabianga, Kenya, IDDRI and CIRAD, France, and Hanken University, Finland. The project explores transformative pathways in agro-food systems, moving beyond reform-oriented market-based mechanisms to explore more radical regenerative alternatives. Includes research on rural imaginaries, the more-than-human, emotional ecologies, and issues of biodiversity, equity and justice, within landscapes linked to EU consumption and biodiversity, analysis of transformative change pathways, leverage points and levers e.g. rights of nature, social movements, collective action and commoning for transformative change, as well as facilitating social learning cycles at landscape, national, EU and global scales.

    Food and Nature Futures in Medway (2023-24).

    Funded by the Regional Innovation Fund, exploring food and nature futures in Medway, Kent, though innovative arts-based approaches, social learning processes and surveys

    Social learning for people-centred land governance

    Social learning for LandCollaborative, a Global Community of Practice involving social learning cycles and co-production of learning outputs for the LandCollaborative (International Land Coalition, Mekong Delta Rural Land Governance Programme and WeltHunger Hilfe (WHH) LandforLife programme). The project involved working with 27 organisations in 13 national civil society platforms working on land rights and governance.

    Critical analysis and assessment of fair trade and sustainability market-based mechanisms and responsible business approaches.

    Multiple studies on fair and ethical trade schemes, sustainability standards and certification impacts, social impacts of corporate codes of practice, sector transformation and sustainable landscape approaches, responsible business and ethical trade schemes, trade and global value chains social and economic upgrading innovations, and sustainable finance for diverse donors and research councils (FCDO, ILO, Fairtrade International, Fairtrade Foundation, Max Havelaar, ISEAL, Better Cotton Initiative, Rainforest Alliance, Dutch government). This work led the way asking questions about the effectiveness, impact, politics and governance of private standards and alternative, solidarity trade schemes and initiatives. It generated extensive evidence on impacts, research on the politics and ethics of value chain sustainability governance, and highlighted the inherent limitations and problems associated with market-based mechanisms for sustainability and transformative change. Recent studies on human rights, environmental due diligence and rights of nature.

    Politics and governance implications of private standards initiatives in Kenyan agri-food chains (2008-2011)

    With the Universities of Leeds and Nairobi (ESRC-DFID). This research explored actor struggles over value chain sustainability governance and the emerging role of private actors in shaping narratives and practices. Looking beyond the vertical, the research explored the embedded nature of global value chains and the power inequalities infused in such agrofood chains, the contingent nature of smallholder and worker agency and participation, and the governmentality of sustainability standards and codes. The control-oriented nature of ethical governance was identified as well as areas of resistance and alternative economy narratives.

    Transdisciplinarity and participatory learning approaches in sustainable agriculture and agroecology

    Over several decades including pioneering work on participatory video to support community enquiry, communication and advocacy on livelihoods and the environment in Malawi (1996-98, DFID funded), Farms of the Future project involving facilitation of farmer and agriculture stakeholder learning journeys on climate adaptation in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania (CCAFS, 2011-13), National Learning Alliances using multi-stakeholder social learning cycles on sustainable agriculture in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia (DFID SAIRLA programme), and participatory farming learning including video documentation in evaluative learning on FAO Strengthening Climate Resilience Programme (EC Global Climate Change Alliance, Malawi, 2015-19). Recent study for Agrinatura on Agroecology and Value Chains with FIBL.
  • Research Students:
    • Lachlan Kenneally: PhD on ‘Relational and political ecology perspectives on urban food and commoning in Bristol’.
    • Riley Hickman: PhD on ‘Soil(ed) Relations: Synergies and Struggles in Soil Relations and Politics’ in collaboration with Simon Wilcox, Rothamstead.
    • Niall Readfern: PhD on ‘Niall Readfern, PhD on Power and Perspective: Investigating interactions between telecoupled agrofood systems and plural landscape meanings in biodiversity rich forest landscapes in Kenya.’
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/1927.html
  • Responsibilities:
    • Leader of the Political Ecology, Culture and Arts Research Group.
  • Awards:
    • Defra Nature Futures Framework Advisory Group (23-24). Valerie Nelson.
    • United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) GEO 7 Lead Author (2023 – 26), Chapter on Impacts, focusing on Sustainable Development Goals, Representative in the Indigenous and Local Knowledge Taskforce. Valerie Nelson
    • Global advisory group of the International Land Coalition. NRI co-representative in ILC global advisory group, (2021 – ongoing). Valerie Nelson.
    • IPBES ‘Transformative Change Assessment of Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (IPBES) (2022-24). Lead author in Chapter 4. ILK dialogue author representative. Valerie Nelson.
    • Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – Scoping Study on Business and Biodiversity. ILK dialogue author representative. Valerie Nelson
    • IPBES ‘Methodological Assessment on incorporating multiple values of nature and nature’s contributions to people for just and sustainable futures.’ Chapter 5. Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – Contributing Author. Valerie Nelson
    • Council Member, UK and Ireland Development Studies Association (6 years)
    • Global Award (IDEAS) Transformative Change Evaluation
    • Co-track chair International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS) on value chains and sustainability.
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1075-0238
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3156
Professor of Sustainability and Political Ecology
Professor Vegard Iversen
  • Qualifications: BA, MA, PhD
  • Biography:

    Vegard Iversen has a PhD in development economics from University of Cambridge and is a Professor in Development Economics and the Head of the Livelihoods and Institutions Department at NRI. He a Senior Research Fellow at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and was a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER, Helsinki from 2019 to 2023.

    Vegard joined NRI in September 2018 after 12 years of living and working in India. After starting his development career at the Agricultural University of Norway in 1992, he was a Junior Programme Officer in UNDP’s Delhi office from 1993 to 1995. Having completed his PhD in 2000, he spent six years as tenured Faculty at the School of Development Studies (now Global Development) at University of East Anglia.

    He joined the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) New Delhi office as a Research Fellow in 2006, followed by four years as a visiting Faculty at Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi). He has been a Professor and Vice Dean at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy (2012-13), an Adjunct Professor at Sanford School of Public Policy’s Duke Semester in India programme (2015-17) and a Professor in the Economics Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). He was closely involved in the drafting of the programmes and the shaping of the identities of two of India’s first Public Policy Schools - at O. P. Jindal Global University and IIMA.

    During his India years, he also took on a variety of assignments, including e.g. the India case study for the 2012 World Development Report, which had gender equality as its theme (the World Bank). He provided expert methodological feedback (through KPMG) on the Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s reviews of FCDO programmes across the developing world. He acted in a similar capacity for the Steering Committee overseeing the attempted retrospective evaluation of FCDO’s GBP 250 million investments in the rural livelihoods portfolio in India. He has taken on a variety of evaluation, replication and quality assurance assignments for 3ie.

    Vegard has extensive field, survey and other data collection experience. His applied research spans the use of modern impact evaluation techniques, mixed methods, behavioural experiments, archival work and the occasional sociological or anthropological detour. Ongoing research covers a variety of themes, including social mobility in developing countries with a landmark edited volume published by Oxford University Press in 2021; together with co-authors he uses unique and in-depth survey and behavioural experimental data to study politicians and local democracy in low-income contexts, including who gets elected for office, how to measure politician quality and whether time in office changes men and women politicians differently. Other ongoing research focuses on changes in gender norms and on the impacts of different implementation models for efforts to enhance the productivity of and increase women’s involvement in a dynamic rural sector in northwest Bangladesh.

    From 2012 to 2019 Vegard was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of South Asian Development. He received the 2009 Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article in Journal of Development Studies (jointly with Richard Palmer-Jones): his recent American Journal of Political Science article titled ‘Time in Office and the Changing Gender Gap in Dishonesty’ won a co-author the FulbrightNorway best scientific article award for 2023. He has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Development Studies since 2016.
  • Selected Publications:

    BOOKS 

    • Iversen, Vegard, Anirudh Krishna and Kunal Sen (eds, 2021): Social Mobility in Developing Countries: Concepts, Methods and Determinants. Oxford University Press.  

    JOURNAL ARTICLES

    • Bidisha Barooah, Rishabh Bhattacharya, Vegard Iversen, Adrienne Martin, Rohan Shah, Tejita Tiwari and Amanda Wendt (2025): Conservative, Fragmented, Liberal or All at Once? On Gender Norm Stability and Change in Rural Bangladesh. In progress.
    • Marcella Vigneri, Olusegun Fadare, Karen Devries, Vegard Iversen and Tilman Brück (under review): Political Violence and Interpersonal Violence against Children and Youth: Micro-Level Evidence from nine African countries.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Anustup Kundu, Rahul Lahoti and Kunal Sen (under review): Barriers or Catalysts? Traditional Institutions and Social Mobility in Rural India.
    • Chaudhuri, Ananish, Vegard Iversen, Francesca Jensenius and Pushkar Maitra (2024): Selecting the ‘Best’? Competing Dimensions of Politician Quality in the Developing World, revise & resubmit, British Journal of Political Science.    
    • Chaudhuri, Ananish, Vegard Iversen, Francesca Jensenius and Pushkar Maitra (2024): Time in office and the Changing Gender Gap in Dishonesty: Evidence from Local Politics in India, American Journal of Political Science, 68(1): 106-22. Awarded the FulbrightNorway Prizefor best scientific article in 2023.
    • Banerjee, Prasenjit, Vegard Iversen, Sandip Mitra and Kunal Sen (2023): Politicians, Institutional Incentives and Citizen Welfare: Evidence from a Lab-in-the Field Experiment in India, Oxford Economic Papers.      
    • Dhillon, Amrita, Vegard Iversen and Gaute Torsvik (2021): ‘Employee referral, social proximity and worker discipline: theory and suggestive evidence from India’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 69(3): 1003-1030.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Anirudh Krishna and Kunal Sen (2019): ‘Beyond Poverty Escapes: Social Mobility in Developing Countries: A Review Article’, World Bank Research Observer, 34(2): 239-73.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Richard Palmer-Jones (2019): ‘All you need is Cable TV?’, Journal of Development Studies, 55(5): 946-66.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Anirudh Krishna and Kunal Sen (2017): ‘Rags to Riches’? Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 52(44): 107-114.
    • Afridi, Farzana, Vegard Iversen and M. R. Sharan (2017): ‘Women political leaders, corruption and learning: Evidence from a large public program in India’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 66(1): 1-30.
    • Puri, Jyotsna, Anastasia Aladysheva, Vegard Iversen, Yashodhan Ghorpade and Tilman Brück (2017): ‘Can rigorous impact evaluations improve humanitarian assistance?’, Journal of Development Effectiveness, 9(4): 519-42.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Adriaan Kalwij, Arjan Verschoor and Amaresh Dubey (2014): ‘Caste dominance and economic performance in rural India’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 62(3): 423-57.
    • Afridi, Farzana and Vegard Iversen (2014): ‘Social audits and MGNREGA delivery: Lessons from Andhra Pradesh’, India Policy Forum 2013-14, Vol 10: 297-331.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Richard Palmer-Jones and Kunal Sen (2013): ‘On the Colonial Origins of Agricultural Development in India: A Re-examination of Banerjee and Iyer, ‘History, Institutions and Economic Performance’’, Journal of Development Studies, 49(12): 1631-46.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Cecile Jackson, Bereket Kebede, Alistair Munro and Arjan Verschoor (2011): ‘Do spouses realise cooperative gains? Experimental evidence from rural Uganda’, World Development, 39(4): 569-78.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Yashodhan Ghorpade (2011): ‘Misfortune, misfits and what the city gave and took: the stories of South-Indian child labour migrants 1935-2005’, Modern Asian Studies, 45(5): 1177-1226.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Gaute Torsvik (2010): ‘Networks, middlemen and other (urban) labour market mysteries’, Indian Growth and Development Review, 3(1): 62-80.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Kunal Sen, Arjan Verschoor and Amaresh Dubey (2009): ‘Job Recruitment Networks and Migration to Cities in India’, Journal of Development Studies, 45(4): 522-43.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Richard Palmer-Jones (2008): ‘Literacy sharing, assortative mating or what? Labour market advantages and proximate illiteracy revisited’, Journal of Development Studies, 44(6): 797-838. Awarded the Dudley Seers Memorial Prizefor the best article published by Journal of Development Studies in 2008.
    • Iversen, Vegard and P. S. Raghavendra (2006): ‘What the signboard hides: Food, caste and employability in small South-Indian eating places’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, 40 (3): 311-41.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Godfrey Bahiigwa, Frank Ellis and Robert James (2006): ‘Private tax collection - remnant of the past or a way forward? Evidence from Rural Uganda’, Public Administration and Development, 26: 317-28.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Birkha Chettry, Paul Francis, Madhu Gurung, Ghanendra Kafle, Adam Pain and Janet Seeley (2006): ‘High value forests, hidden economies and elite capture: Evidence from forest user groups in Nepal’s Terai’, Ecological Economics,58(1): 93-107.
    • Chettry, Birkha, Paul Francis, Madhu Gurung, Vegard Iversen, Ghanendra Kafle, Adam Pain and Janet Seeley (2005): ‘A Framework for the Analysis of Community Forest Performance in the Terai’, Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 4 (2): 1-16.
    • Iversen, Vegard (2003): ‘Intrahousehold inequality – A challenge for the capability approach?’, Feminist Economics, 9 (2-3): 93-115 (Special issue on the Work and Ideas of Amartya Sen). 23) Iversen, Vegard (2002): ‘Autonomy in Child Labor Migrants’, World Development, 30 (5): 817-34.
    • Wiig, Henrik, Jens B. Aune, Solveig Glomsrød and Vegard Iversen (2001): ‘Structural Adjustment and Soil Degradation in Tanzania - A CGE-model approach with Endogenous Soil Productivity’, Agricultural Economics, 24: 263-87.
    • Brekke, Kjell Arne, Vegard Iversen and Jens B. Aune (1999): ‘Tanzania's soil wealth’, Environment and Development Economics,4: 333-56.
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:
    • Dams, irrigation and development;
    • Migration (rural-urban and other);
    • Labour markets and social networks;
    • Social mobility;
    • Social accountability;
    • Identity and discrimination;
    • The impacts of women’s representation (in politics; decentralised natural resource management);
    • Impact Evaluation
  • Research Projects:
    • 2018-21: FutureDAMS, University of Manchester. Research Grant. The impacts of large dams on agricultural productivity and poverty.
    • 2017-18: University of Auckland and Monash University: Research grants (small) for joint research project on the impact of time in office on women (and other) politicians.
    • 2014-16: Evaluation (through Oxford Policy Management/EDOREN - https://edorennigeria.wordpress.com/) of FCDO’s comprehensive support (the DEEPEN programme) to innovative regulation to improve learning in low-cost, private schools in Lagos, Nigeria; 2014-16. The baseline study covered 360 private schools with numeracy and literacy tests administered to 2,450 3rd standard children.
    • 2012: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). Research Grant: Replicaton of Jensen and Oster’s research on cable TV and women’s status in rural India.
    • 2011-2012: International Growth Centre (IGC). Research Grant: Does Female Leadership Impact on the Quality of Public Goods? Evidence from a Public Poverty Alleviation Programme in Andhra Pradesh, India. Survey covering 300 Gram Panchayats and 1,500 MNREGA beneficiary households: extraction from and translation (from Telugu) of more than 700 official social audit reports.
    • 2008-2009: Norwegian Research Council. Research Grant: Social networks, labour transactions and outcomes: A theoretical and empirical study of migrant workers and their employers in South-Asia.
    • 2008-2010: ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council, UK)-FCDO joint scheme. Research Grant: The intra-household allocation of resources: cross-cultural tests, methodological innovations and policy implications”, a collaboration between economists and anthropologists using behavioual experiments with married couples to test economic theories of household behaviour in Nigeria, Ethiopia and India (Left project later 2008).
    • 2008-2009: The World Bank, New Delhi. Research grant: Institutional and network-driven barriers to labour market entry: a small, exploratory study of low and unskilled labour markets for youths in (and around) Delhi. In-depth interviews of household and manufacturing employers, workers and recruitment agencies.
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/6483.html
  • Awards:
    • Awarded (together with co-author Richard Palmer-Jones) the Annual Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article in Journal of Development Studies in 2008.               
    • Editor-in Chief, Journal of South Asian Development, 2012-ongoing.
    • Editorial Board Member, Journal of Development Studies, 2016-ongoing.
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0425-2286

    Google Scholar

    https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6jNNybwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

    Academia

    https://greenwich2.academia.edu/VegardIversen
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3225
Professor of Development Economics, Head of Livelihoods and Institutions Department
Dr Henrike Neuhaus Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Indigenous Studies

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