Mpigi Gbenekanu Ledornu
Nationality: Nigerian
Year of entry: 2012
Background
Mpigi Gbenekanu Ledornu is from Rivers State in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Obtain his BSc in Human Anatomy from the University of Port Harcourt, have a Masters in Public Health from University of Bedfordshire and another Masters in Environment and Sustainable Development from the Development Planning Unit University College London. He is a Prince2 certified Practitioner by The Knowledge Academy London.
He is an employee of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources Nigeria where he holds the post of assistant sustainability manager in the department of Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP). He has worked with the MDGs Port Harcourt and also with the planning department of Tai LGA in Rivers State.
Mpigi also owns a Consultancy firm in Nigeria (The Sustain Consults LTD) which provide environmental, Agribusiness, Public Health, Mentoring, Local and Foreign university placement and Projects consultancy in the global South. With the aim of influencing development debate, Policy and Practice in order to archive unrivalled client success.
He has worked with the Society for Family Health on Adolescent sexual and reproductive health project. Aimed at creating awareness of the prevalence of STDs/Aids. A recent project, titled KOP-NOMI (Lovers Food), is still at an early stage and it aims to bring all Nigerian foods to a food festival.
Email: gbenekanu.mpigi.10@ucl.ac.uk
Title: Diversification as a Livelihood Strategy in the Informal Sector: The social networks of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture and the Transformation of Livelihoods.
Abstract: Mpigi's research is about livelihood choices for the urban poor. He is introducing a new policy change into the intervention strategy of the urban economy of Port Harcourt city. Formulation the introduction of urban and peri-urban agriculture, which have the tendency to provide food, improve finances and reduce poverty. Diversification which is a strategy that enhance poor people don't fall back to the poverty state that interventions try to bring them out is introduced to enable these group of people withstand shocks and vulnerabilities if and when they occur.
Main Supervisor: Colin Marx
Secondary Supervisor: Zeremarian Fre