Isabelle Baltenweck, Program Leader (acting), Policies Institutions and Livelihoods - Dr. Baltenweck has more than 15 years of post-doctoral experience in livestock Research & Development activities. She has a wide experience in adoption and impact assessment studies, especially looking at farmers’ decisions to adopt newly introduced or disruptive technologies, understanding the drivers as well as the livelihood impacts. Her research approach uses in many instances mixed methods approaches, to be able to measure quantitatively impact as well as understanding reasons and drivers of change through qualitative approaches. She has increasingly sharpened her skills in gender and social equity research, looking at how women and men’s needs and capabilities are different in terms of accessing and using technologies and practices, also resulting in varied and sometimes opposite impact. The same type of analysis is used with other groups, e.g. youths or members of marginal communities. The other component of Dr. Baltenweck’s research deals with institutional arrangements that link value chain actors, like innovation platforms, hubs or contract farming at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Kenya. Her work is looking at different types of institutional arrangements and the possible impact on value chain performance and individual actors’ livelihood (including gender disaggregated impact). This work has a direct relevance to the activities of development practitioners and the private sector, and resulted in publications targeted at that audience. For more information: Email: i.baltenweck@cgiar.org, Telephone +254 20 422 3402.
Emily Awuor Ouma, Senior Scientist, Agricultural Economist - Emily Ouma is a Senior Scientist, Agricultural Economist working with the Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods Program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Uganda. She works in a multidisciplinary team of scientists to design, test and evaluate technical and institutional interventions to improve livelihoods, incomes and assets of smallholder pig value chain actors in Uganda. She leads a USAID-Feed the Future funded Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems project in Rwanda that focusses on enhancing the quality and consumption of milk in Rwanda through, behaviour change nutrition communication, and strengthening of dairy cooperatives capacities. She has vast experience working with crop-livestock farmers in Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DRC through a DGDC funded CIALCA project, led by IITA.
Emily's research areas and fields of interest include smallholder farm level competitiveness, agri-food value chain analysis, ex-ante and ex-post impact assessment of agricultural technologies and institutional arrangements, consumer economics, non-market valuation methods, gender, and environmental and resource economics. She holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Kiel in Germany. For more information: Email: e.a.ouma@cgiar.org, Telephone: +256781573978