Fraser Sugden, IWMI Nepal
Fraser is a social science researcher specializing in the political economy of agriculture. His specific research focus includes the impact of farm size, landlord-tenant relations, and migration on agrarian change and irrigation uptake, although he is developing an interest in the intersection between climate change, gender and class relations, as well as opportunities for equitable adaptation and collective action. With IWMI he has worked extensively in the eastern Gangetic plains, with a focus on the Nepal Tarai and Bihar. In the past he has also been engaged in research on agricultural and water management issues in Nepal’s eastern and far-western hills, the Indian Himalaya, Vietnam, Bangladesh and China.
Fraser is the leader for this research project.
Floriane Clément, IWMI Nepal
Floriane is a researcher in institutional and policy analysis. She has a multidisciplinary background, holding an Engineering Degree, an MSc in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Geography/Political Sciences. Her research has focused on the analysis of environment and development interventions, exploring the gap between institutional models and discourses on the one hand, and practices and outcomes on the other hand.
Floriane has been leading the participatory video component of the research project and has also been involved in developing a framework for gender mainstreaming within the irrigation bureaucracy in Nepal.
Niki Maskey, IWMI Nepal
Niki has 10 years of work experience in the field of environment and natural resource management projects and programs mainly in the field of community participation in water, forest and wildlife resource management. She has been involved in this sector as a planner, field implementer and evaluator. She has valuable knowledge related to socio-economic aspect of natural resource management, climate change and knowledge of understanding global, national and local environmental issues related to urban and rural environment, water and gender issues in developing countries.
For this project, Niki was involved in the literature review and conducted fieldwork on gender vulnerabilities and water conservation interventions.
Anil Philip, IWMI Hyderabad
Anil holds an M.Phil in Planning and Development from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (2008) and M.A. in Economics from University of Hyderabad (2006). He worked at IWMI on an ACIAR-funded project on the institutional performance of watershed programmes prior to joing the team for this project.
Anil particularly contributed to the review of the literature on gender and structural vulnerability to climate change with a focus on India. Anil reviewed as well the interventions which have facilitated farmers’ adaptation to climate change in North India, including government and donor programmes. Anil has also participated to two field visits for survey and collection of primary data from households as well as conducting focus group discussions and interviews with farmers in the villages of Madhubhani and Vaishali district, Bihar, India.
Vidya Ramesh, IWMI Hyderabad
Vidya Ramesh has worked with IWMI Hyderabad office as a senior scientific officer since 2007. She holds a Masters of Environmental Management and Development from the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia and an MSc in Environmental Science from Bangalore University. She has several years of experience working for NGOs on environmental issues.
For the project, Vidya contributed to the review of the literature on gender and structural vulnerability to climate change with a focus on India and was involved in fieldwork in Madhubhani and Vaishali district, Bihar, India, conducting interviews and focus group discussions on the differentiated vulnerability to climate change of men and women farmers from distinct social groups.
Sanjiv de Silva, IWMI headquarters, Sri Lanka
Sanjiv is a social scientist at IWMI with a particular interest in the role of institutions in the intersections between natural resources management, ecosystem sustainability and people’s well-being.
In this project, he looks at how environmental factors (including climate change) contribute to shaping people’s natural resource-based livelihood vulnerabilities in different regions of Bangladesh; how people adapt to these influences, and how their specific geographical location, social, economic, cultural and other contexts influence this ability to adapt.
Supporting team
Brady McCarl, IWMI intern, University of Queensland, Brisbane
Brady is a recent Master’s graduate from the International Water Centre, at the University of Queensland.
In this project, his work concentrated on power disparities present within Water User Associations, the decentralized groundwater management bodies promoted by the government. His work looked particularly at ways to better include women and individuals of low socio-economic backgrounds in groundwater-irrigated agriculture.
Adiba Karim, iDE Bangladesh
Adiba is a business graduate (MBA) from Victoria University, Melbourne. She has over 7 years of professional experience, with key competencies in impact assessments, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, economic analysis and research.
Adiba facilitated an in-depth look into the interventions of two of iDE-Bangladesh’s projects, focusing on some of the aspects of climate change impacts related to agriculture and/or water management and the subsequent coping mechanisms.
Neha Rayamajhi, IWMI intern, Clark University
Neha is a graduate student at Clark University, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
As a summer intern for IWMI, Neha has been doing a background study and on “Integrating Gender in the Irrigation Bureaucracy in Nepal: Addressing a Complex Social-Ecological Problem”. She has collected primary data using field observation, interviews, and focus groups across three irrigation system representing diverse cultural and geographical districts.
Supporting team for the participatory video project
Pawan Kumar, Freelancer
Pawan is an independent film-maker who has been working for the media and television since 2006. He has produced short films and documentaries for national and international clients in Nepal and India. Since he moved to Nepal in October 2012, he has completed three documentaries related to participation in development and water management projects. Pawan has also successfully been involved in participatory video with women and children in India and Nepal.
In this project, Pawan has trained the group of men farmers from Matchi Jhitkayia VDC in film-making and both men’s and women’s groups in video-editing in March 2013. Since the training, he has been following up the production of the 12 films with both men’s and women’s groups, providing guidance and support to the farmers in filming and editing.
Laxmi Mandal, Freelancer
Laxmi is a freelancer with experience in shooting weddings and video-editing, based in Ekrahi, Dhanusha District close to the two villages where the participatory video project has been running.
He has provided local technical support to both men and women farmers in video-editing.
Preeya Nair, Art for Change Trust
Preeya is an award winning documentary film-director and film consultant with international experience. Successfully ran an independent production house, Flying Elephant Films for 12 years in the UK (www.flyingelephant.co.uk), before moving to India. She is committed to making the medium of film and video more accessible and inclusive.
Preeya has trained the group of women from Thadhi Jhijha village in film-making in November 2012 and March 2013.
Ashok Rai, CIMMYT
Currently, Ashok is associated with CIMMYT International, a sister organisation of IWMI under the CGIAR Before joining CIMMYT, Ashok worked with the IWMI team on the participatory video project.
Ashok was involved from the very beginning of the project to liaise with Ms Lalita Sah, RSDC in Dhanusha to select villages and organize the trainings for both men and women’s group. Besides organizing all necessary logistics and arrangements for the training, Ashok also acted as a local facilitator between the project team and the communities. He also facilitated the partnership with NEFEJ for the dissemination of the films produced by the farmers on a national TV channel.
Lalita Sah, RSDC, Nepal
Lalita is District Coordinator for Rural Self Development Center (RSDC), based in Janakpur. Lalita worked earlier for RSDC in the case study villages in Dhanusha District, she notably set up cooperatives and micro-credit groups and contributed to women’s empowerment in the villages by overcoming some of the prevailing gender norms and building women’s vocational skills.
Lalita has played a key role in the participatory video project by liaising with the villages, supporting the training logistics and monthly reviewing the progress of the groups of men and women farmers in shooting and editing.
