Research Profile of GREFF
Besides having a strong development-oriented consultancy profile, GREFF is unique in its organizational ability and competence, to sucessfully combine action-oriented research and fundamental reserach approaches in service delivery.
Our research is anchored in the diverse fields of social sciences including resource analysis and mapping, rural geography, land use change, livelihoods, climate change adaptation, conflict management, migration (includng internally displaced persons), rural sociology, governance and institutions.
We draw from case study based exploratory research, combined with descriptive and explanatory designs in our scientific procedure. In this regard, we also anchor our research in the social science fields, drawing from several interlinked theories and concepts such as the socio-ecological co-evolution framework, the sustainable livelihoods framework, the Triggle-G model, institutional analysis and development lens, and the agriculture-for-development model.
Our cream of scientists have extensive experience working as Principal Investigators with major funding agencies and as reserach collaborators in interdicplinary projects. The team has excellent communication skills, they have good analytical, writing and reporting skills.
RESEARCH TEAM MEMBERS
Prof. Jude Kimengsi
Prof. Jude Kimengsi
Jude Kimengsi is an Excellence Initiative Research Fellow at the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), and an Associate Professor in Resource and Environmental Geography at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon. Between 2017 and 2019, he served as Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow at the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) where he also received the prestigious German Research Foundation (DFG) Research Grant. Prior to this, Jude Kimengsi was Senior Lecturer/Researcher and Head of Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC). He was later promoted to serve as Director of Research in the same university. From 2012 to 2015, he was Consultant on Sustainable Development and Coordinator of Research, Consultancy and Publications Division at the Pan African Institute for Development – West Africa (PAID-WA). Jude is a pioneer Fellow of the Cameroon Academy of Young Scientists (CAYS). He has over 90 publications on linked issues of rural development, natural resource management, project sustainability and conflict management, and environmental planning. His current research seeks to apply mixed-methods approaches to unbundle the (dis)connections between institutions, resource management and spatial planning. Jude Kimengsi was Expert Reviewer of the First Order Draft (FOD) Contribution to the forthcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC’s) Sixth Assessment Report (Working Group III). He is an Associate Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, and Board Member of the Global Environmental Non-Migration Network. Currently, Jude serves as Associate Editor for Nature (Social Sciences), published by Springer, and Scientific African Journal (Social Sciences and Policy Section), published by Elsevier. Under the University of Cologne (Germany), he has been serving since 2016 as DAAD/DIES Regional Expert on grant proposal writing, where he has intervened in several African countries including Namibia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania Togo and the DRC. He is reviewer for several journals including: Journal of Environmental Planning and Management (Taylor and Francis), Forest Policy and Economics (Elsevier), Environmental Research Letters (IOP Science), Sustainability (MDPI), Climatic Change (Springer), Social Sciences (MDPI) and Forests (MDPI).
Prof. Balgah Roland Azibo
Prof. Balgah Roland Azibo
Prof. Balgah Roland holds a PhD in Agriculture and Rural Development from Martin Luther University, Halle-Saale (Germany). He is Associate Professor at the College of Technology, The University of Bamenda. Prof. Balgah is a seasoned scientist who has served as Principal Investigator for a series of projects with the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany). He has over 80 scientific publications in the fields of agricultural, rural development, agribusiness, climate change and sustainable development. Prof. Balgah headed a series of consultancy projects under the Pan African Institute of Development West Africa (PAID-WA) between 2011 and 2012. He has strong expertise in the design of research instruments, the conduct of research and in scientific writing.
Ms. Njiysinyuy Elizabeth Nyuykighanse
Ms. Njiysinyuy Elizabeth Nyuykighanse
Njiysinyuy Elizabeth Nyuykighanse holds a BSc in Sociology and Anthropology (2015) and a professional Masters in Planning. She has experience working on project design, implementation, monitoring and reporting. She is grounded in baseline surveys, natural resources and rural community sensitization. She has competence in needs assessment, and in the use of participatory rapid appraisal tools. Elizabeth is a social team worker who seeks nothing but the best out of everything. She has excellent community mobilization skills, strong organizational skills and works conveniently with timelines. She is fluent in the usage of English, Pidgin English and understands French as working languages.
Dr. Nyong Princely Awazi
Dr. Nyong Princely Awazi
Nyong Princely Awazi holds a Ph.D in the field of environmental management, with specialty in Agroforestry and Valuation of Ecosystem Services from the Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon. Since 2014 he has been doing research on the cross-cutting themes of agroforestry, forestry, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and natural resource management. As of July 2021, he has over 28 publications (articles, conference papers, and book chapters) in journals published by reputable publishing houses such as Elsevier, Springer, Taylor and Francis as well as Academic Journals. His research focuses on environmental management in general and agroforestry in particular. His current research dwells on bioeconomy, ecotourism, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and agroforestry. He serves as a reviewer and has reviewed over 400 papers for different journals including Agroforestry Systems, Regional Environmental Change, Scientific African, SN Social Sciences, and many other Academic Journals. He is equally an editor for “Open Journal of Forestry” published by Scientific Research. He is affiliated to different research platforms including Scopus; Google Scholar; ResearchGate; Academia; Publons; Mendeley; Web of Science; and Elsevier’s Reviewer Hub.
Dr. Joseph Tosam Ngong
Dr. Joseph Tosam Ngong
Dr. Joseph Tosam Possess excellent research qualities and as such he is capable of performing individually assigned task and can easily integrate with others in team work. He holds a Ph.D degree in Economics from University of Bamenda (UBa) and specialises in the field of Agriculture and Environmental Economics. Between 2011-2013 he served as a Teaching/Research Assistant, Department of Economics and Management, University of Buea. From 2017 – 2021 he has been a Part time lecturer with Higher Institute of Management Studies (HIMS) Buea where he teaches among others MBA courses such as Advanced Marketing Theory and Practice, Project Management and International Human Resource Management. He was recently recruited as a lecturer in the department of Economics in the University of Maroua, Cameroon. Dr Joseph Tosam has six publications to his credit with many still in progress. He has attended and presented some of his write-ups in a host of conferences at the international scene. On the 1-2 December 2016, he attended the 3rd Witten Conference on Institutional Change; Institutions in Development Research: New Buzzword or Real Impact? Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, where he presented on: Reflections on local Institutional Approaches to Economic Development. The case of some selected African countries. On the 20 – 24 November 2019, he attended the 2nd Congress of the African Scientific, Research and Innovation Council (ASRIC) Abuja – Nigeria, where he presented on: Economic Implications of Cocoa Production on the farmers’ Welfare in South West Region of Cameroon.
Mr. Abdulai Assan Nkuh
Mr. Abdulai Assan Nkuh
ABDULAI is a third year Ph.D student in the Department of Agriculture of the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Science (FASA) of the University of Dschang-Cameroon. He has over 09 scientific publications in the field of Agriculture. These scientific works revolve around pesticide use practices and pesticide residues in market gardening crops. Currently he is working on the assessment of heavy metals in soils, crop and water arising from Agrochemical usage in the Foumbot Production Basin of Cameroon. He has reviewed articles in some journals such Internal Journal of Agricultural Policy and Research.
Mrs. Gwan Solange Akhere
Mrs. Gwan Solange Akhere
Gwan Solange is currently finalizing her doctoral research on “Landscape restoration processes in the Western Highlands of Cameroon”. She is recipient of the Norwegian Quota Scheme scholarship program, where she earned a Master’s Degree in Development Geography from the University of Oslo, Norway. She is a budding researcher with 9 publications to her credit. Her interests have been centered on development activities and sustainable livelihood. Her current interest is in landscape restoration in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. She has attended and presented in some international conferences like the Herrenhausen International Conference on “Urban Agricultural Heritage -And the Shaping of Future Cities”, Organised by the Volkswagen Foundation and the University of Aachen (Germany), May 2019, Hannover, Germany. Here she presented on ‘What urban agricultural technologies for our growing cities? A Comparative analysis of West and Central African cities’. She was also speaker at the Third Witten Conference on Institutional Change: Institutions in Development Research December 2016, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany and presented on ‘Challenges and Blueprints of Building Local non-state institutions for Sustainable Development in Africa’. She has been actively involved in other virtual conferences like the global Landscape Forum. Solange has a passion for research and she combines development practice and research work. She serves as Research Assistant during the execution of Research Consultancies.
Dr Tabi Kingsley Mbi
Dr Tabi Kingsley Mbi
Dr TABI KINGSLEY MBI is a crop scientist specialized in the area of crop improvement. He has a huge experience of over 10 years working with quite a number of local and International non-governmental organizations interested in the area of local development. Between 2010 and 2012 he worked with the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) in the Center, East and South Regions of Cameroon where he served as an assistant trainer to build the aptitude of farmers in production of non forest timber products like Njangsa, bush Mango and Kontri onions. Within this same period he was contracted as an assistant trainer by Association Camerounaise pour le Development Durable et Innovation (ACDDI), in a project titled “Livelihood of maize producers and environmental screening in the maize chain value in the North West and Far North Regions of Cameroon”. In 2014 he worked as field trainer with the specialized Center for oil palm research, IRAD la Dibamba, where he build farmers capacity on conception and realization of a modern oil palm nursery and palm plantation in many villages in the Sanaga maritime division. He serves Green Forest Foundation in the Capacity of an Agronomist. In this capacity, he facilitated trainings organized by Grass field Participatory and Integrated Development Project (GP-IRDP) and tge Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) on the capacity building of farmers in the production chain of some crops including cassava, maize and oil palm in four basins in the North West Region of Cameroon.
Mr. Ravenstein Awuh
Mr. Ravenstein Awuh
Ravenstein Awuh is a Strong Research Fellow of Geography and Planning at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon. Presently, He is a doctoral Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon. He has 2 publications on linked issues of rural development, natural resource management, sustainable development and conflict management, and environmental planning. His current research seeks to apply mixed-methods approaches to unbundle the gaps between stakeholders in waste management and spatial planning. Ravenstein Awuh was Expert Research fellow with SustenIpra at the institute of Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona where he Graduated with a master’s degree in Environmental Studies. While in Barcelona he undertook Research on Material flow analysis in incineration plans of Barcelona.
Dr. Gadinga Walter Forje
Dr. Gadinga Walter Forje
Gadinga Walter Forje is a Ph.D. holder in Environmental Science with specialization in Natural Resources Management, of Department of Forestry in the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Dschang. He has over 10 publications which are linked to rural development, natural resource management, and sustainable tourism. His current research seeks to apply mixed-methods approaches to uncover the state-of-the-art of ecotourism governance in sub Saharan Africa. Gadinga Walter Forje is a reviewer for several journals amongst which are: Scientific African (Elservier), International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation (Academic Journals) and Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism (Academic Journals).
Mr. Ngwa Kester Azibo
Mr. Ngwa Kester Azibo
Ngwa Kester holds a Master of Science degree in Rural development and Administration since 2014. He is currently a Doctoral researcher at the Bamenda University of Science and Technology (BUST). Kester served as data analyst in several rural development projects in the North West region of Cameroon. For instance, he was data analyst on needs assessment for the development of renewable energy sources under Social Enterprise for Environmental Development (2018), and data analyst and interpreter on the yields and impact of improved cassava varieties with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in 2017. Between 2010 and 2013, Ngwa Kester was Project staff/Data Analyst in the Agriculture and Environmental Management Department of the Strategic Humanitarian Services (SHUMAS) Cameroon. In this capacity, his focus was to develop the capacities of women and youth groups on sustainable agricultural production through the practice of organic farming and agroforestry, tree nursery establishment and protection of water catchments, life fencing feasibility studies, monitoring and reporting of projects outside the department. As consultant with Community Assistance in development (COMAID), he supported the analysis and reporting of data on the performance of Heifer Project International in the North West Region. Kester has several scientific articles to his credit.
Ms Atiekum Zipporah Enjongaya
Ms Atiekum Zipporah Enjongaya
ATIEKUM is a second year Ph.D student in the Department of Geography and Planning of the Faculty of Art (FA) of the University of Bamenda-Cameroon. She has over 02 scientific publications in different domains in the field of resource exploitation (water) in the development of Rural areas. Currently she is working on migration patterns and land resource use practices in the Mungo Corridor, Cameroon.