Dr Camilla Toulmin is Senior Associate at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and its former Director (2003-2015). She also holds a professorship at Lancaster University where she focuses on linking research and practice on environment and development in Africa. An economist by training, she has worked mainly in Africa on agriculture, land tenure, climate and livelihoods. This has combined field research, policy analysis and advocacy. Her work has aimed at understanding how environmental, economic and political change impact on people’s lives, and how policy reform can bring real change on the ground. This has combined field research, policy analysis, capacity building and advocacy. It has involved engaging with people at many different levels from farmers and researchers, to national governments, NGOs, donor agencies and international bodies.

A Fellow of the Open Society Foundations (2016-2017) she has recently completed a longitudinal study of her former field-work sites in central Mali, to document change over 35 years in farming livelihoods in this dry, risk-prone environment. This has been published in January 2020.

Camilla studied Economics at Cambridge and London, before gaining her doctorate in Economics at Oxford. Her doctoral thesis was published by OUP: Cattle, women and wells: Managing household survival in the Sahel. Camilla is fluent in English and French. She is Chair of tve, and the Advisory Board of the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), trustee of Little Sparta, Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, the St Andrews University Prize for the Environment, and the Institut Français d’Ecosse.

Her new book – Land, Investment and Migration: Thirty-five years of village life in Mali – was published by Oxford University Press in January 2020.

Recent publications include:

Desertification in the Sahel: Local Practice meets Global Narrative, Toulmin, C and Karen Brock. In (Eds) Behnke, R. and Mortimore, M. (2016). The End of Desertification, Springer Verlag, Berlin.

Investing in institutional software to build climate resilience. C Toulmin, C Hesse, D Tari and C King-Okumu (June 2015). http://anglejournal.com/articl…

What can the social sciences bring to an understanding of food security? (Eds) Cooper, C and Michie, J (2014) Why the social sciences matter. Palgrave.

Climate change in Africa (Zed Books, 2009).

By this expert

Mossadeck Bally, CEO Azalaï Hotels Group : « Le secteur privé africain doit faire partie intégrante des plans de relance économique »

Article | Oct 13, 2020

Dans le cadre de cet entretien, Mr. Mossadeck Bally, C.E.O, Azalai Hotels Group et membre du GRAIN (Groupe de Réflexion, d’Actions et d’Initiatives Novatrices) revient sur les impacts économiques de la pandémie du COVID-19 sur son groupe hôtelier, le rôle du secteur privé malien dans le plan de relance économique, l’emploi des jeunes et les solutions qui doivent être apportées à la crise politique au Mali.

Mossadeck Bally, CEO Azalaï Hotels group: "Africa’s Economic Recovery Plans Must Involve the Private Sector as an Integral Part"

Article | Oct 13, 2020

In this interview, Mr. Mossadeck Bally, a Malian businessman and CEO of Azalai Hotels Group and member of GRAIN (Group of Reflection, Actions and Innovative Initiatives) discusses the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on his hotel group, the role of the Malian private sector in the economic recovery plan, youth employment and the solutions that must be provided to the political crisis in Mali.

Edward Brown: “Growth with ‘DEPTH’ should guide economic transformation in Africa”

Article | Oct 2, 2020

In this interview, Folashadé Soulé and Camilla Toulmin discuss with Edward K. Brown, Senior Director, Research and Advisory services at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) based in Accra, Ghana, on the effects of COVID-19 on regional integration and economic transformation in Africa, and the role of ACET and African think tanks in advising African governments respond to the crisis.

Professor Kako Nubukpo: COVID-19 Shows that Global Value Chains Shouldn’t Keep Africa in Chains of Dependence

Article | Sep 1, 2020

During this interview, Professor Kako Nubukpo, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Lomé, Togo and former Minister of Prospective and Evaluation of Public Policy of Togo considers the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis and its repercussions on monetary policy and fiscal reforms underway in West and Central Africa today.