MARK LEWIS

ELLA Programme Director
Mark Lewis, MSc Economics (LSE, UK), is a development professional with 25 years’ experience. An economist by profession, he has also worked extensively on governance and social issues. His career has spanned Latin America, Asia and Africa, most of this working for the UK Department for International Development. He joined Practical Action Consulting in 2010, to lead the ELLA programme.

ALICIA QUEZADA

ELLA Project Coordinator
Alicia, MSc in Development Management (LSE, UK), is a communications and development specialist. She has worked on communication, public impact and citizen participation component of projects in thematic areas including governance, citizenship, health and rural development. She has implemented research projects about media, childhood and gender in Peru and co-authored a number of publications in those topics. Alicia is responsible for ELLA project management issues.

MARK TURNER

ELLA Website Manager
Mark Turner, BSc Business Studies and Politics (Edinburgh, UK), post-graduate Diploma Social Projects (Catholic University, Peru) has 15 years’ experience in the private sector, planning, setting up and running new businesses. Mark joined Practical Action Consulting in 2010 to design, develop and manage the ELLA website.

JULIE ANNE WEAVER

ELLA Knowledge Communications Manager
Julie, MA International Development and International Economics (Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, USA), has a background in governance, primarily in issues of citizen participation, civil society, transparency, budgeting, and gender. She has worked in both research and programme management, including a strong focus on communication for development. She has long-term experience in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Julie is responsible for overseeing the production of ELLA knowledge and learning materials.

GERARDO DAMONTE

Senior Researcher
Gerardo Damonte, PhD Anthropology (Cornell, USA), works as a Senior Researcher at GRADE, and a Professor of Social Sciences at the Catholic University of Peru.

Gerardo leads projects in three interrelated thematic areas: extractive industries and rural society, local knowledge and climate change, and territories and social movements. His work is geographically focused on Latin America, particularly in the Central Andes.

His publications include the book 'Constitution of Political Actors, Communities and Peasant Mobilization in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes' (2008) as well as articles on the social consequences of extractive development in the Andes.

MANUEL GLAVE

Senior Researcher
Manuel Glave, PhD. in Economics (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA), is a Senior Researcher at GRADE and a Professor at the Catholic University of Peru. He is a specialist in rural development, environmental and natural resources economy, and the analysis of public policies on agriculture and the environment. Among his principal investigations are those related to peasant production systems in mountainous ecosystems, community participation in protected nature areas, the social impact of large-scale mining in rural development, and the economic evaluation of biological diversity and environmental services.

MIGUEL JARAMILLO

Senior Researcher
Miguel Jaramillo, PhD History (University of California, USA), is a Senior Researcher at GRADE. His areas of research are labour economics, social policy and institutional analysis.

Miguel has carried out research and consultancies for numerous international and Peruvian agencies. He has served in national and regional labour organisations and was founding President of the Peruvian Fund for Employment Promotion (FONDOEMPLEO). He is currently a member of the National Labour Council and a member of the Network on Inequality and Poverty (as a member of the Executive Committee for 2009-2011).

CARMEN VILLEGAS

ELLA Project Coordinator
Carmen has a Masters in Management of International Cooperation Programmes from Sorbonne University, France. She has held various positions, recently working as programme coordinator for the Fundación Portal del Desarrollo (Zunia.org), as a project manager for the French NGO Tradiciones para el Mañana and as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and others.

She joined GRADE in February 2011 to become the ELLA project coordinator.

ROCIO MORENO

ELLA Consultant
Rocio Moreno, BA in Economics from the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), is studying an MSc in Development at University College London. Rocío has worked for Fundar for eight years, as a researcher and manager of revenue and budget programmes. In 2008, she became Fundar’s Coordinator of the 'Budgets and Public Policy' area, responsible for overseeing all of Fundar’s budget analysis projects. During her time with Fundar, she has participated in projects on oil revenue, budget analysis, and budget transparency, and she has led national strategies to promote budget transparency.

JANET OROPEZA ENG

ELLA Project Coordinator
Janet Oropeza, MA in Political Science (University of Waterloo, Canada), has expertise in institutional strengthening, governance, democratisation, public management, poverty alleviation, and evaluation. She has worked for several organisations including the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the United Nations Development Programme (Mexico) and the Mexican Ministry of Labour. Janet joined Fundar in 2011 to coordinate Fundar's contribution to ELLA.

MIGUEL PULIDO

Executive Director, Fundar
Miguel Pulido Jiménez is the Executive Director of Fundar, Centre for Research and Analysis. He has a BA in Law from the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey and pursued graduate studies at the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He is a professor of Right to Information at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico. His areas of expertise include human rights, access to information, and comparative accountability systems. He has published extensively in various Mexican newspapers such as El Universal and La Jornada. He is the author of the book El Acceso a la Información es un Derecho Humano (The Right to Information is a Human Right), as well as the co-author of Responsabilidad y Reparación, un Enfoque de Derechos Humanos (Liability and Redress, a Human Rights Approach). He has written articles for journals and books on access to information and accountability.

MARTHA BARATA

ELLA Researcher
Martha is a researcher at the Health Research Institute (Instituto Oswaldo Cruz) and the CentroClima laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and is a member of the Urban Climate Change Network. Her research focuses on sustainable development, cost-benefit analyses, and vulnerability and social adaptation to climate change in cities. She has experience in coordinating research for public and private sectors. She holds a Masters and PhD in Environmental and Energy Planning.

DANIELE CESANO

ELLA Researcher
Daniele is the Technical Coordinator of Adapta Sertão, a grassroots initiative that promotes climate change adaptation of small farmers in semi-arid Brazil. Previously, he worked as carbon market specialist, capacity building coordinator on climate change adaptation/mitigation and consultant in green energy and green architecture projects. He holds a PhD in land and Water Resources Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

THAIS CORRAL

ELLA Senior Researcher and Communications Specialist
Thais is a social entrepreneur with two decades of experience in the field of sustainability and human development. She trained as a journalist, and has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University. She is the founder of two non-profit organisations in Brazil, REDEH (Network for Human Development) and CEMINA (Communication, Education and Information); and one international NGO, WEDO. She was the capacity-building director of the South South North collaboration that leapfrogged projects on mitigation and adaptation to climate change with poverty reduction in six countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

CHARLOTTE HEFFER

ELLA Project Coordinator
Charlotte graduated in International Management from Manchester Business School, UK. She moved to Brazil to coordinate the ELLA project and other projects related to climate change mitigation and the environment. She is based at the Environmental Sciences Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

EMILIO LÈBRE LA ROVERE

ELLA Team Leader, Director SSN
Emilio has a background in systems engineering and economics. He is currently Professor of the Energy Planning Program, and Coordinator of the Environmental Sciences Laboratory and the Center for Integrated Studies on Climate Change and the Environment, at the Postgraduate School of Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE/UFRJ).  He has been serving as a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, and is the author of several reports prepared for the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

DANIEL OBERLING

ELLA Researcher
Daniel joined the Environmental Sciences Laboratory in 2005, working in the capacity of researcher. He works on projects related to environmental management, sustainable production chains, strategic environmental assessments, and liquid biofuels. He graduated in Industrial Engineering and is currently pursuing his PhD in Energy and Environmental Planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

MARTIN OBERMAIER

ELLA Researcher
Martin is a trained economist, and recently obtained his PhD in Energy Planning from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro where he focused on adaptation in semi-arid regions of Brazil. He has been working as a researcher on climate change adaptation & social vulnerabilities in risk areas, and biofuels for five years.

DENISE SILVA DE SOUSA

ELLA Researcher
Denise is an architect with a doctorate in Energy and Environmental Planning. She is a full-time researcher at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Environment (LIMA) of Post-graduate School of Engineering (COPPE) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).  Denise coordinated studies and research related to environmental planning and management, social responsibility in cities and climate change.

FLORENCIA ALMANSI

ELLA Researcher
Florencia trained as an architect, holds a Masters degree in Social Policies from FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana en Ciencias Sociales) and is currently pursuing her Doctoral degree at FLACSO. She is an IIED International Fellow. Her main areas of work are related to habitat improvement in low-income settlements, specialising in land tenure and up-grading programmes. She joined IIED-America Latina in 1996 and at present is the IIED–AL Coordinator. She is an active member and promoter of the Forum for Organisations working on Land, Housing and Infrastructure of the Province of Buenos Aires and the Movement for Urban Reform for Argentina.

ANA HARDOY

ELLA Researcher, President IIED-AL
Ana trained as an architect, and has been working in the improvement of informal settlements since 1986. She joined IIED-AL in 1990 and became its Executive Director in 1993. She has led several programmes, both national and international, related to urban poverty, strengthening and training of CBOs and NGOs, infrastructure provisions (water and sanitation) in informal settlements, partnerships between local governments, communities, private sector and NGOs, and the integral improvement of low–income settlements.

JORGELINA HARDOY

ELLA Project Coordinator and Researcher
Jorgelina has a degree in Geography and an MA from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA. She has been a member of IIED–America Latina since 1994 and her work focuses on developing multi-stakeholder partnerships to improve environmental conditions and reduce social vulnerability and risk in low-income neighbourhoods, including those related to climate change. She is currently working as an environmental consultant involved in the Neighbourhood Improvement Programme (Programa de Mejoramiento Barrial PROMEBA II) in the San Fernando Municipality (Buenos Aires)

JULIETA DEL VALLE

ELLA Researcher
Julieta is a sociologist. Since 1999 she has been working as a researcher at IIED–America Latina. Her main areas of work are urban poverty, local development and habitat improvement. She has worked in several programmes promoting partnerships between local government and NGOs. She also works as professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

AILSA BUCKLEY

Manager, Practical Action Consulting, East Africa
Ailsa is responsible for leading the PAC team for East Africa. She is skilled in research and has extensive experience in project management. Her key area of expertise is in enterprise development in Africa, on which she has 20 years' experience. This includes SME development, value chain development, access to and the provision of business development services, market development, and business reform.

Alisa is experienced in adult facilitation and organisational mentoring, including designing training materials and implementing training programmes, training trainers and team building.

VICTOR ESENDI

Researcher, Practical Action Consulting East Africa
Victor Esendi has five years’ experience in research and evaluation consulting in the East Africa region. He has managed large research and evaluation projects, supervised multidisciplinary teams of researchers and provided technical support for evaluation design, evidence based policy development and knowledge sharing. He has worked widely in the region with a wide range of organisations. He holds a Bachelors’ degree in Sociology and Masters in Population Studies from University of Nairobi, Kenya.

GRACE MUSARURWA

Manager, Practical Action Consulting Southern Africa
Grace is the Manager for Practical Action Consulting Southern Africa (PAC SnA), and is the lead on ELLA. She is a social scientist with long experience in managing developmental projects in the Southern Africa Region focusing on climate change, renewable energy, agriculture, and agricultural marketing for the poor. . She is an expert in community based approaches and is experienced in training development staff and communities in participatory approaches. Grace holds an MSc Degree in International Relations and a BSc Degree in Politics and Administration both obtained from the University of Zimbabwe.

TENDAYI MUTIMUKURU-MARAVANYIKA

Practical Action Consulting (PAC) Southern Africa Coordinator, ELLA Project
Tendayi is the Coordinator of the ELLA Project for Practical Action Consulting (PAC) Southern Africa, based in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is a natural resource management and climate change adaptation expert with long experience in conducting participatory action research. Tendayi’s research interests include community-based natural resource management, adaptive management, participatory action research, and climate change and adaption. Tendayi has a PhD in natural resource management from Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, where she also obtained an MSc Degree in Management of Agriculture Knowledge and Information Systems.

JACQUELINE COBBOLD

ELLA Researcher, KITE Project Officer
Since joining KITE, Jacqueline has been involved in low-carbon development activities such as the Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) curves for the Demand-Side Energy Use in Ghana project. She also has expertise in event organising and management, playing a key role in Kite’s Annual Energy Event which seeks to create a multi-sectoral platform for discussing pressing issues in Ghana’s energy sector. Previously, she worked in the environmental and resource consultancy field in Berlin, Germany. Jacqueline graduated from Murdoch University, Perth, Australia with an MSc in Renewable Energy. She also holds a BSc in Oceanography and Fisheries from the University of Ghana, Legon. She is currently the KITE focal point person for climate change issues and the KITE coordinator for the Coordinated Low Emissions Assistance Network (CLEAN).

ISHMAEL EDJEKUMHENE

ELLA Project Coordinator, Director KITE
Ishmael has over ten years working/research experience in KITE. He holds a Masters degree in Economics (Public Policy) from the University of Hull, the UK and Bachelor’s degree in Land Economy from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.  He has undertaken several energy and environment research projects with funding from international organisations such as DFID, the World Bank/ESMAP and the UNDP. Ishmael has several publications to his credit including a recent one titled “Ghana’s Emerging Petroleum Industry: What Stakeholders Need to Know”, published in March 2010, which he co-authored with some colleagues. He has eight years managerial experience in KITE and has served as Director since October, 2009. He also had a year’s stint with Kumasi Polytechnic where he taught Financial Mathematics in the HND Estate Management Department.

MOUSHUMI SHRESTHA

Manager, Practical Action Consulting. South Asia
Moushumi Shrestha is the Manager for PAC South Asia and the lead on ELLA South Asia.

She has more than 14 years of experience in the field of management and economic development, working as a consultant on strategy and institutional development organisational strengthening, markets, livelihoods and value chains. Moushumi’s strengths are in advisory services, knowledge management, advocacy and strengthening local capacity.

ELLA Guides present a general overview of a theme, offering a window on the evidence and lessons coming from Latin America’s experiences. They highlight how the theme and evidence are relevant to Asian and African contexts. Guides help orientate the reader to the key sub-issues related to the theme and offer quick links to other relevant ELLA Knowledge Products.

ELLA Briefs focus on the concrete details of the experiences and lessons highlighted in the Guide. Briefs present policy initiatives, reviews of practice and implementation, and case studies. The Briefs draw out the contextual and enabling factors underlying the Latin American experiences, to facilitate a critical review of the likely transferability of the Latin American experiences to other contexts.

Spotlights on Knowledge orientate the reader to the key publications (such as original research, policy analysis, and programme evaluations) and main arguments and ways of thinking related to the issues presented in the Guides or Briefs. Spotlights on Knowledge offer a quick analysis of the publication or argument with links to the original text.

Spotlights on Organisations orientate the reader to the key organisations relevant to the particular themes, specifically highlighting areas of expertise and main contributions to the field, and drawing out what that organisation can offer to Asian and African readers.

The Multimedia category includes podcasts and short videos that have been produced to complement the different thematic Guides and Briefs and to highlight specific issues raised.