Biography
Kudzanai Chimhanda is an early career Development Researcher, with six years of professional experience, cultivating a strong appreciation of rural and urban environments, societal dynamics and participatory approaches in development programming. As a development researcher and farmer at heart, being considered for the innovative program on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa, will be an honour to put my working knowledge and experience to practice. Growing up assisting her maternal grandmother cultivate with a vision to attain a bumper harvest on a piece of land granted to her after the death of her husband gave me a full appreciation of the lived dynamics women face in accessing land. Professionally, she has worked with diverse teams, carrying out robust research and writing up key findings on women’s land rights, land governance (SSA), and indigenous knowledge systems among other key areas. Further, she has been part of teams developing innovative tools which embed land within the thematic areas, including the Agriculture Policy Practice (funded by AGRA). She has also cultivated a coordinating skill, leading local and regional teams in carrying out impact-based research, including a research which primarily looked into women’s land rights in Zambia and Zimbabwe, linking with the Kilimanjaro initiative. Currently, she supports the ILC team in unpacking the impacts and conformity of African countries to VGGTs, in order to develop a matrix to track progress. This valuable opportunity resonates well with her progressive career goals on tapping into the abundant potential of impact-based research and broadening her understanding on how to strengthen land rights and governance. She believe the professional experience working in different organisational structures through learning and actual implementation of research strategies and analysis and first-hand exposure to land issues have equipped her as the best candidate.