Link to current funding phase (2020 – 2024)

The interdisciplinary fellowship project "Livelihood Management, Reforms and Processes of Structural Change" is part of the Volkswagen Foundation initiative "Knowledge for Tomorrow - Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa", which supports researchers who are based in sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative provides an opportunity to enhance academic qualifications and skills, and strengthens partnerships between African and German scholars by supporting the fellows to develop and extend their academic networks within Africa and beyond.
In its second phase (04-2017 to 09-2020), this project supports nine scientists from South Africa (3), Uganda (1), Kenya (2), Ethiopia (1), Burkina Faso (1), and Benin (1) to develop and conduct their own research projects during a period of three years.
The individual research projects deal with the question of how individual or collective social actors can manage and protect social-ecological resources efficiently and develop sustainable livelihood strategies under present economic, socio-political and environmental conditions and in view of locally and globally changing circumstances.
All projects have a strong focus on current questions and problems of their respective regions within Africa. Fields of interest are sustainable livelihood management strategies at communal or individual levels, thereby focusing on, e.g., non-state actors, local authorities, rural communities, farmers or micro-enterprises. Innovation processes, the conditions for success or failure of (new) resources management approaches, and the share and distribution of benefits are further questions that are addressed.





Porträt Djohy

Dr. Georges Djohy
Parakou (Benin)
Women Associations in a Pastoralist Society in Transformation: Implications for Gender-Based Livelihood Improvement Policies in Benin

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Porträt Etale

Dr. Anita Etale
Johannesburg (South Africa)
Nanotechnology for Sustainable Livelihoods through the Provision of Safe Water in Mining Communities

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Porträt Kansky

Dr. Ruth Kansky
Stellenbosch (South Africa)
Sustainable human-wildlife coexistence in the Anthropocene - The Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area in Southern Africa

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Porträt Mbeche

Dr. Robert Mbeche
Nairobi (Kenya)
Effect of payment for ecosystem services on forest governance, livelihoods and forest condition in East Africa

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Porträt Muchilwa

Dr. Isaiah Etemo Muchilwa
Eldoret (Kenya)
Empowering Jua Kali to combat mycotoxins in Kenya's maize supplies: A proactive livelihoods and human resource management approach addressing knowledge, skills, and attitudes and to forge linkages for

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Porträt Nanteza

Dr. Jamiat Nanteza
Kampala (Uganda)
An integrated assessment of groundwater resources and their sustainable use in the Lake Kyoga basin, Uganda

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Porträt Ouedraogo

Dr. Oumarou Ouédraogo
Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)
Towards an efficient management of the invasive plant Senna obtusifolia, a novel threat to West Africa's rangelands

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Porträt Postma

Dr. Ferdinand Postma
Johannesburg (South Africa)
Possible role of the South African mining industry in the establishment of a sustainable biobased economy

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Porträt Weldenegodguad

Dr. Simret Weldenegodguad
Hawassa (Ethiopia)
Capacity Building to Support in - situ Conservation of the Endangered Sheko Breed of Cattle (African Bos Taurus) in Southwestern Ethiopia