Claudia Levy (MSc Human Geography)

	PhD Student Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Skype: claudialevy07
Training	Claudia Levy specialized in society-nature relations studying fringe communities and management of Conservation Areas. Field studies were carried in the semi-arid region of Brazilian’ northeast and in Ghana. She holds an MSc on Human Geography from the São Paulo State University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil; and a Joint International MSc on Regional Development Planning and Management under the SPRING Program from the University of Dortmund, Germany and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Kumasi, Ghana.
Career	During her studies, Claudia Levy worked in the University Junior Enterprise from 2000 to 2002. From 2002-2004 she worked on an internship basis at the São Paulo Government State Secretariat on Science, Technology, Economic Development and Tourism and then with the consultancy group Indústrias Criativas Estratégias e Projetos Ltda, both in São Paulo, Brazil. For a 6-month period between 2004 and 2005 Claudia worked with fishermen and park management under a Community-Based Development Program from the Forestry Institute of Sao Paulo, in the Cardoso Island State Park, Brazil. Later, during her master studies in 2005 she worked with Popular Cooperatives within the Technologic Incubator Program (ITCP) from the UNICAMP University in Brazil. For her studies in Germany and Ghana (2006-2008) Claudia was a DAAD Scholarship holder. She joined DITSL as a PhD student in November 2009.
Experience abroad	Apart from working experience in Brazil, Claudia has conducted extensive field research in Ghana and Mozambique.
Research	Claudia’s PhD topic is on “Social learning to promote decent living and working conditions of rural households in Mozambique”. She is supervised by PD Dr. Brigitte Kaufmann, DITSL and Prof. Dr. Edward Webster, Department of Sociology at the University of Witwatersrand (WITS), South Africa in collaboration with Dr. Siboniso Moyo, ILRI’s regional office in Mozambique. She is a DAAD Scholarship holder under ICDD-Exceed Program (ICDD is a centre of excellence for development research funded by DAAD) and her field work is part of the ILRI/BMZ project: Adaptive Capacity: “Supporting the vulnerable: Increasing the adaptive capacity of agro-pastoralists to climatic change in West and Southern Africa using a transdisciplinary research approach” .