Dr. Charles Omondi Olang’o

PhD in Anthropology
comondi.olango@gmail.com
P.O. Box 333-40105, Maseno, Kenya

Dr. Charles Omondi Olang’o is an Anthropologist, currently teaching in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Maseno University. Currently, Dr. Olang’o is a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) in a World Bank funded project, Enhancing Gender Mainstreaming and Social Inclusion in Validation and Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) Technologies in Kenya. The project is implemented through a collaboration between Maseno University and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), in six selected counties namely; Kajiado, Tana River, Siaya, Busia, Kisumu and Kericho couties. The research project focuses on Six selected value chains namely; Apiculture/bee keeping (Siaya, Kajiando and Tana River counties), Cassava (Kisumu and Busia counties), Indigenous Chicken (Kisumu and Siaya counties), Sorghum (in Kericho and Kisumu counties), Finger Millet (Kericho County) and Tomatoes (Siaya and Kajiado counties). The specific objectives of the research include: firstly, to find out how gender roles affect adoption of CSA TIMPS in the six selected value chains, secondly, to identify and address socio-cultural and economic barriers that affect social inclusion in the CSA selected value chains and lastly, to enhance and strengthen gender and social inclusion in the CSA selected value chains in selected counties. The project acknowledges the fact that taking a gender-responsive and social inclusion approach to Climate-Smart Agriculture ensures that the socially differentiated roles, responsibilities, priorities and resources of producers at the community and household levels, are recognized and adequately addressed in the design and application of CSA so that both men and women and other marginalized groups can equally benefit.

Prof. Erick Otieno Nyambedha

PhD in Anthropology

1.Project Title: Implementing the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework in Kenya: An Analysis of the Policy and Socio-economic implications 

This study aims at exploring the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Kenya, specifically in Kakuma/Kalobeyei and Dadaab. Although this framework has been endorsed and supported by the international community, there is little sustained analysis on the impact of the CRRF adoption in Kenya. This study therefore aims to investigate the governance and implementation of CRRF framework in Kenya with regard to how it is shaping the relationship between host and refugee communities.

Partners: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Maseno University

2.Project Title Covid-19, Universal Health Coverage and the Kenyan health system – a collaborative ethnographic study

Proffessor Erick Nyambedha is the leader of work package 3 on Covid 19 and maternal Health within the larger Project

The project’s overall objective is to explore the impact of Covid-19 on the Kenyan health system – in terms of the epidemic itself, and of anti-epidemic countermeasures – and health system responses. There are 4 secondary objectives:

1. To document immediate and long-term effects of Covid-19 on the functioning of 5 selected HS domains.

2.To chart adaptations and innovations triggered by the Covid-19 response, in and across these 5 domains.

3.To explore how Covid-19 is reconfiguring relations between the HS, patients and the community. \

4. To deliver research-based contributions to HS strengthening policies and engage in the global policy conversation on the effects of                   Covid-19 on African Health Systems.

The core project group spans four institutions: the University of Oslo’s Institute of Health and Society and Dept. of Social Anthropology, the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the University of Maseno’s Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), with advisors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Leeds University, UiO, and the Kisumu and Siaya County Departments of Health. The project co-investigators are anthropologists and public health specialists and the project builds on their years of research expertise in Kenya, on its health system, community health, epidemic response, and the social-cultural contexts of disease and disease interventions

The project is funded by Norwegian Research Council

  3.Project Title: NORHED -Medical and Environmental Anthropology for 21^st Century in East Africa.

Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Project aims at strengthening teaching and research in medical and environmental anthropology at the University of Nairobi, Maseno University and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda) and University of Dar-es-Salaam and National Institute of Medical Research (NIMRI), Tanzania.

The project is funded by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation

Dr. Fred Nyongesa IKANDA

PhD in Social Anthropology

Master of Arts in Anthropology

 Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology

Project Title: Implementing the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework in Kenya: An Analysis of the Policy and Socio-economic implications 

This study aims at exploring the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Kenya, specifically in Kakuma/Kalobeyei and Dadaab. Although this framework has been endorsed and supported by the international community, there is little sustained analysis on the impact of the CRRF adoption in Kenya. This study therefore aims to investigate the governance and implementation of CRRF framework in Kenya with regard to how it is shaping the relationship between host and refugee communities.

Partners: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Maseno University