Coordinating Committee

Coordinating Committee of the Agrarian South Network (ASN)

Sandeep Chachra, Centre for Agrarian Reform and Education for South, India

Walter Chambati, The Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies, Zimbabwe

Walter Chambati is the Executive Director at the Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (SMAIAS). Before his appointment he served as the project manager and Deputy Executive Director respectively. His research interests are in agrarian labour issues and agricultural development in Africa. Over the last 15 years, his research has focused on examining the political economy of agrarian labour in Zimbabwe following Fast Track Land Reform Programme. Recent publications include: Land and agrarian reform in Zimbabwe: beyond white settler capitalism (CODESRIA, 2013), co-edited with the late Professor Sam Moyo. Walter holds a Ph.D. in Development (Agrarian Studies) obtained from the University of South Africa.

Praveen Jha, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Praveen Jha is a Professor of Economics and Chairperson at Centre for Economic Studies and Planning School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India. Prof Jha’s research focus is on Labour Economics, Agricultural economics, Development economics, Public Finance, Economics of education, History of Economic Thought. He is one of the leading experts on labour in the world.

Freedom Mazwi, The Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies, Zimbabwe

Projects Manager and Researcher with the Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (SMAIAS) based in Harare. His research over the past decade has largely focussed on agrarian transitions in Africa, with specific reference to the penetration of capital in the countryside and its implications for the peasantry. He holds a Ph.D in Development Studies obtained from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Freedom Mazwi has been a Visiting Scholar fellowship at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advancement Studies (STIAS).He is an Editorial Assistant at the Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy.

Lyn Ossome, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Lyn Ossome is Senior Research Fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University. Her specializations are in the fields of feminist political economy and feminist political theory, with research interests in gendered labour, land and agrarian studies, and the political economy of gendered violence. She is the author most recently of Gender, Ethnicity and Violence in Kenya’s Transitions to Democracy: States of Violence (2018) and co-editor of the forthcoming volume Labour Questions in the Global South (2020). She is associate editor of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy and co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies. She has been held visiting, teaching and research positions at the National Chiao Tung University, Wits University, and Yale University. She serves on several boards among them the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA).

Archana Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Archana Prasad is currently a Professor at the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, JNU. She was also the Chairperson of the Centre between 2014 and 2016.  She specializes in research on the contemporary history of adivasi livelihoods, labour and resistance, women and labour, environmental and labour history. She has also been helping many grassroots organisations in their work with homebased workers. She is also the associate editor of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy which is a tricontinental journal published by Sage Publications. Her books include Against, Ecological Romanticism: Verrier Elwin and the Making of a Tribal Identity (2011, Three Essays); Environmentalism and the Left (2004 Leftword) The Red Flag of the Warlis: A History of an Ongoing Struggle (2017 Leftword) and co authored with Sarika Chowdhury Struggling for Nation Building: History of All India Bank Officers Association (2018 Aakar).

Marcelo Rosa, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Issa Shivji, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Professor Issa Shivji is one of Africa’s leading experts on law and development issues. He has served as advocate of the high court and the Court of Appeal of Tanzania since 1977 and advocate of the high court in Zanzibar since 1989. He has taught and worked in universities all over the world, including the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Warwick, the University of Hong Kong, El Colegio De Mexico, University of Western Cape (PLAAS) and the University of Dar-es Salam (Tanzania). Following the demise of Professor Sam Moyo in 2015, Issa held fort at the Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (SMAIAS) as honorary Executive Director until 2018. He is currently a board member at SMAIAS and part of the Coordinating Committee for the Agrarian South Network (ASN). Issa is a prolific writer and researcher, producing books, monographs and articles, as well as a weekly column printed in national newspapers.

Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana, Ghana

Dzodzi Tsikata is an Associate Research Professor at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana and is also the current President of CODESRIA. Her research is in the areas of gender and development policies and practices; the politics and livelihood effects of land tenure reforms; agricultural commercialization and agrarian change; and informal labour relations and the conditions of work.

Paris Yeros, Federal University of ABC, Brazil

Professor at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC, Brazil) and member of the faculties of Economic Sciences, Sciences & Humanities, and World Political Economy. He is research associate of The Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (Zimbabwe) and member of the editorial board of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy. His research interests include: world economy and development; land, labour and agrarian questions; the national question; gender relations; and contemporary Africa and Latin America/Caribbean