United Nation Development Program

Water Socio-Economic Specialist, Dubai office

Other Affiliations: Ifpo (Institut français du Proche-Orient), Development Studies

Associate Researcher

About

Khadija Darmame has 15 years of experience working in Environmental and Developmental Studies in the MENA region.  Her experience has been highly international and includes working in Europe (France, the UK), North Africa and the Middle East. She started her career in 1996 in Morocco as a researcher in physical geography focusing on the impact of human activities on the coastal environment in Morocco coast (Safi as a case study). In 1998 and within a Master degree programme on urbanisation in the Arab World in France, she analysed the access to urban services-mainly to water supply- in informal settlement areas in the framework of decentralisation policy in Safi, Morocco. From 2001 to 2006, Khadija Darmame settled in the Middle East in order to accomplish her PhD research on public policies reforms in the water sector, with consideration to the socio-cultural dimensions of the Jordanian society and economy.

During her last post at the University of Reading in the UK, she was a key member of the Development Studies team of the project “Water, Life and Civilisation” (WLC) from January 2007 to December 2009 investigating the urbanization and access to water in Amman, privatization of water utilities, water and gender issues, and the participatory management practices regarding land and water use in southern Jordan.

Her academic background together with her gained experience as a researcher in social sciences lead to a knowledge that allows her to assess sector needs and to conduct social and economic policy research, to identify civil society actors, and to evaluate participatory approaches.  She worked as a consultant and a volunteer in the field of developmental projects. She worked closely as a volunteer with the Association for Women Empowerment in her town Safi (Morocco) and in Amman (Jordan).  From 2005 to 2006, Khadija Darmame worked with the ECA consultancy company in Spain on local development programs that aimed at alleviating poverty in developing countries. 

Khadija Darmame is also self-employed in the field of public relations with a view to establish academic and consultancy networks in the area of local development and local governance: in Morocco;  Jordan; France; UK; Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon. This work focuses primarily on matchmaking between different organizations of development cooperation and academic institutions in the field of socio-empirical research linked to human and social development. This network includes so far: the University of Cadi Ayyad (Safi, Morocco); Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation (France); the University of Reading (Great Britain); IFPO (Institut Français du Proche-Orient; Middle East); IDRC (Egypt). 


Key words: Water- Privatisation- social practices- Urbanisation- poverty alleviation- local development strategies