Birgit Habermann joined ILRI in March 2019. She has been working on social issues and Participatory Action Research (PAR) since 2000 in agriculture, forestry, livestock and biodiversity/conservation in different parts of World (Europe, East Africa, South, SE and Central Asia).
Her current work focuses on:
- user-centred design
- co-production for collaborative research
- social learning.
She uses different concepts and tools such as positive deviance, actor network theory, citizen science and living labs to highlight the importance of farmer-led innovations and the re-framing of the adoption paradigm.
Together with her team and many partners, she works on making farmer-led innovations available for scaling with pioneer farmers, co-designing farmer-led extension materials and record keeping tools.
Her background comprises degrees in ecology (Univ. of Vienna, Austria) and agroforestry (Bangor Univ., UK) as well as a PhD in Development Studies (IDS, Sussex Univ. , UK). Apart from her roles as a researcher, trainer and facilitator, she has experience in research management, funding and programme management as well as managing director in the non-profit sector.
