People

Chinwe Ifejika Speranza works at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland, as a Professor of Geography and Sustainable Development since 2016. She heads the research unit on land systems and sustainable land management and is currently the director of the Institute of Geography. She serves in various capacities in commissions of the faculty of science and the university as well as in science-policy-practice platforms.

Her research also focuses on land governance and its implications for ecosystem services and human well-being. She has in-depth experience on smallholder agricultural land management, land use change, climate change adaptation, resilience, food security and food systems sustainability. She has field experience in sub-Sahara Africa, Sarawak-Malaysia, Bolivia, Germany and Switzerland.

Prior to her professorship in Bern, she served from 2013 till 2015, as Professor of Geography with a focus on "Environmental Risks and Vulnerability Research" in the joint master's programme "Geography of Environmental Risks and Human Security" of the United Nations University, Bonn and the University of Bonn, Germany. In this capacity, she contributed to setting up the curricular and to research on environmental risks and vulnerability. She worked as a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Bern Centre for Development and Environment from 2010 to 2016 in different capacities. She has served as a senior researcher at the then Department of Environmental Policy and Management of Natural Resources, German Development Institute, Bonn from 2008-2012. She has experience in public administration, having worked as a group leader at the Geo-information and Surveys Department, Government of the Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland, starting 1998 until 2008. She has trained not only students but also various professionals at both field and policy levels on topics related to land systems and sustainable land management, geographic information systems, food systems and climate change adaptation including drought risk management.

Chinwe Ifejika Speranza is a geographer and holds a PhD from the University of Bern, Switzerland, an MSc from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and a BSc from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.