Kees van der Geest

New content (2015)

• Vulnerability, coping and loss and damage from climate events
• What the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report has to say about loss and damage [under embargo]

Welcome to my website. I am a human geographer, working as a researcher at the UN University in Bonn. I coordinate a research project about Loss and Damage from climate-related stressors, with case studies in nine vulnerable countries. Between 2002 and 2012 I worked at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), first as PhD candidate and later as researcherer and lecturer. I am especially intrigued by one simple question: "how do people in poor and risk-prone areas manage to make a living?" 

In June 2011 I defended my PhD thesis, entitled "The Dagara farmer at home and away: Migration, environment and development in Ghana." Keywords are migration, environmental change, natural resources scarcity, population density, land use, agricultural intensification, deforestation, climate change, rural development and rural livelihood diversification. My supervisors were Prof. Dr. Ton Dietz (promotor) and Dr. Kees Burger (co-promotor).

Between September 2008 and 2012 I have been involved in the Participatory Assessment of Development (PADev) project, which aimed to develop a new - participatory and holistic - way of evaluating development and the role of NGOs and government agencies in the development process. Fieldwork for this project was conducted in Northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso.

For my M.A. research, entitled "We're managing!" Climate change and livelihood vulnerability in Northwest Ghana', I studied how rural households in the Upper West Region of Ghana have adapted their livelihoods to changes in the local climate and how they coped with droughts and floods. Keywords are climate change, drought, livelihood, vulnerability, preventive/insurance strategies, coping strategies, adaptation and life history.  

I have also been active as a documentary film maker. So far, this has resulted in two short documentaries: Shit and Chicks and Hunt and Play. In my current work, at UN University, I don't have time to engage in documentary film making myself, but I have been able to work with other film makers to disseminate our research findings. See the lossanddamage channel on youtube.

In 2006 I established a small company (Mudcastle Productions), dedicated to documtary film making and research consultancies. Among my first clients have been the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), UN University, CARE International and an EU-funded research project on environmentally induced migration (EACH-FOR).