Welcome to the Right Livelihood College Campus Bonn!
Linking the Right Livelihood Award ("Alternative Nobel Prize") Laureates with applied and interdisciplinary research and education
The Right Livelihood College (RLC) is a global education and research initiative of universities and the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize". The RLC promotes and implements transdisciplinary education and research on social justice, poverty and inequality reduction, and environmental sustainability together with laureates of the “Alternative Nobel Prize”.
RLC Bonn Junior Researcher conducts field work in Egypt
Achieving food security is one of the major concerns in Egypt. Wheat is considered the most important crop in Egypt, as a strategic and political commodity, as most Egyptians depend on wheat for their daily intake in form of subsidized bread and millions of smallholders produce wheat for their livelihoods. Despite an increase of productivity in the last years, there is still a large gap between national production and consumption, mainly due to the rapid growth of the Egyptian population. Egypt still is the largest importer of wheat in the world. Simultaneously, wheat production in Egypt is increasingly challenged by environmental aspects such as water shortages, climate change, and soil deterioration.
It is in this context, RLC Bonn Junior Researcher Ahmed Abdalla works together with Heliopolis University and SEKEM which received the Right Livelihood Award in 2003, in a 3-years project on “Transition towards sustainable agriculture: The case of wheat-based production systems in Egypt”. The project aims to contribute to more sustainable agriculture in Egypt by identifying the most important internal and external drivers affecting wheat production and by recognizing the most pressing problems of smallholders in the River Nile delta.
Currently, Ahmed is conducting in-depth focus interviews with wheat producing smallholders in the River Nile delta to better understand their main social and environmental challenges and needs.
Learn more about Ahmed here as well.
Dorothy Birungi publishes article on COVID-19 and sustainability
RLC Bonn junior researcher Dorothy Birungi has written an article on “Agricultural Cooperatives and COVID-19 in Southeast Africa. The Role of Managerial Capital for Rural Resilience”, together with Nicola Franscesconi (Royal Tropical Institute KIT) and Fleur Wouterse (Global Center on Adaptation GCA), which was published in Sustainability by MDPI.
The article aims to understand how resilient smallholder-owned organizations are in light of COVID-19 related distancing measures, market closure and mobility reduction.
Download the full article here.
Dorothy’s research focusses on “Agroecological Intensification of smallholder farming systems through perennial Pigeon pea/Sorghum husbandry in Northern Uganda” and is linked to the larger project “Perennial polyculture farming in Uganda: Towards increased sustainability, resilience and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Among others, she works together with the Land Institute, Kansas, USA who received the Right Livelihood Award in 2000, and the RLC Campus Lund.
Learn more about Dorothy’s research here.
