Our Team
Partners
Banana hill consists of three partners and two associates with varied backgrounds and skills. Short portraits of the team are displayed in alphabetical order on this page.
Flemming Nielsen
Flemming enjoys working with innovative approaches to rural development in poor countries, creating synergy between researchers, farmers and NGOs - particularly along themes of carbon financing, biofuels, agroforestry and local knowledge. With a PhD and Post-Doc in Agricultural Geography Flemming has a solid background in agricultural research and has over the years developed skills in research and project management, GIS (in particular using Open Source Software), Internet technologies - as well as photography. Originally from Denmark, he has focused on sub-Saharan Africa, living and working there for over 14 years (principally Mozambique, Uganda, the Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania). Mastering and understanding multiple disciplines and finding solutions that will lead to results under difficult circumstances in the field are Flemming's forte.
Julia Wright
From the UK, Julia's main expertise is as sustainable agriculture and food security development researcher, specialising in building capacity and resilience of vulnerable groups to natural and man-made disasters, regeneration of the natural resource base, and low-carbon systems. Her sectoral experience covers production and postharvest, agroforestry, food supply and distribution systems, urban agriculture and nutrition, organic and fair trade, bioregional development, research, extension and knowledge systems, and farmer livelihood strategies. Specific country experience in Europe – UK, Netherlands and Spain; Central and South America – Peru, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and Jamaica; Asia – Afghanistan, China, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia; and Africa – Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya and Nigeria. Besides consulting, Julia (PhD) is presently Deputy Director at the Centre for Agroecology and Food Security at Coventry University, UK.
Mundie Salm
Originally from Canada, Mundie's professional activities have focused on education and communications about sustainable development. Topics of special interest are agriculture, food security, fair trade, social justice and HIV/AIDS. She has degrees in International development (BSc) and Ecological agriculture (MSc). Mundie's work experience includes production of various publications (research, writing, editing and translating: for educational resources, websites, magazines, newspapers, policy papers and reports); and project management (proposal writing, planning and budget reporting, M&E, capacity building, and network co-ordination). She has worked in international and local NGOs, educational institutions and a UN agency, and as consultant for various clients. Countries of work experience are the Netherlands, Canada, Mozambique, Lesotho and Australia.
Associates
Darrell Huffman
Darrell’s expertise covers climate finance, carbon accounting, biofuel policy, sustainable food production systems, product labelling and corporate social responsibility. He has a master’s degree in Environmental Economics & Policy, and professional experience working for governmental as well as non-governmental organisations on sustainability issues in a research capacity. Darrell has a solid set of research skills that include both qualitative and quantitative methods. With regard to his quantitative research skills, Darrell is comfortable using SPSS for statistical research and GAMS for building quantitative models that can be used to inform and guide environmental policy. Countries of work experience are Mozambique, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Nico Bakker
From over 15 years of on-the-ground experience in Africa, SE Asia and Latin America, Nico Bakker has become a specialist in the areas of Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, Sustainable Agriculture (from practices to policies) and Food Security. Within these focus areas, Nico has in particular worked on capacity development of organisations and staff. Originally from the Netherlands, Nico is fluent in Dutch, English, Portuguese and French (with a working knowledge of Spanish). He has well-developed analytical and communication skills and routinely applies participatory approaches in his work. He is furthermore well versed in the use and training of planning and management tools like Result Based Management (RBM), Facilitation of Change Processes, Objective Oriented Project Planning (LogFrames), SWOT analysis, Participatory Rural Appraisal etc. What fascinates Nico in development work in general is the recurring cognitive dissonance in projects and programmes.