Joseph Bandanaa is a PhD student with particular interest in Sustainability of farming systems, food security and gender equality. Prior to enrolling at the ESP, he worked as a site manager/supervisor on the ProEco Africa project (www.proecoafrica.net) for the Humid zone 1, Ashanti region, Ghana. He has more than 5 years working experience on socio economic field data collection and analysis. He has worked as a research assistant/associate on several projects including; Developing a National Framework for Out-grower Scheme and Contract  Farming in Ghana (Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project-GCAP); USAID project in Climate Change and Agricultural Adaptation Measures in the Transition Zone of Mid-Ghana (http://repository.uneca.org/bitstream/handle/10855/23195/b11564398.pdf?sequence=1 ); Drivers of Success Study for Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Plan (CAADP) Implementation; Building capacity on climate change challenges (B4C) project: Agriculture thematic area; Analysis of gender equality issues and the role of rural women in the “FTF innovation lab for the reduction of postharvest loss” project (PHL-IL) in five municipalities in Ghana; and GIZ Gender analysis for the Market Oriented Agriculture Programme (MOAP) on three value chains in Ghana.

He holds a Master’s of Philosophy Degree (MPhil) in Climate change and Sustainable Development and a BSc. in Agriculture (Agribusiness) from the University of Ghana, Legon. Joseph was part of the ClimDev-Africa sponsored participants in the Fifth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-V) of which he presented a paper on “Cocoa farming households in Ghana consider Organic Practices as Climate smart and livelihoods enhancer”. He made a case for organic farming and food security in the African Voices on Climate Change towards COP 21 (http://www.climdev-africa.org/cop21/content/african-voices-climate-change-joseph-bandana).