Curriculum Vitae for
Gunnvor Berge
Updated November 2006Born: 20. September 1954, Lillehammer, Norway
Civil status: Married, three children (born in 1989, 1991 and 1994) Nationality: Norwegian
Languages: Norwegian (fluent), English (fluent), French (adequate)
Present position
Associate professor, Noragric, Department for International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Lifesciences
P.O.Box 5003, N-1432 Ås, Norway
Major topics of interest
Social and environmental change, governance, public goods, multilateralism, globalization, environmental policy, drylands, coping strategies, pastoralism, the state, exchange theory, conflicts research -- including over natural resources, human rights, property rights, interdisciplinarity.
Academic qualifications
Degrees2000 Dr. Polit (Ph.D) in Social Anthropology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Oslo (UoO) 1985 Examen Artium Magistrii in Social Anthropology, UoO
Fields of study
• Social anthropology
• Environmental studies, UoO
• The study of Oral Tradition, UoO
• Anthropological fieldwork, historical and interdisciplinary research in Mali
• Anthropological fieldwork on a coconut plantation, Seychelles
• Sociology, Social Economy, Political Science, University of Bergen
Work and research experience
Background
For the last eight years I have been working at The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This testifies to my interest in trying to use knowledge to influence international political processes. One of my responsibilities in the MFA was to be part of the team writing a white paper on globalisation. The understanding of the links between processes of change that take place globally and processes that take place nationally or locally interest me. In my view not only local and national but also international
processes need to be formed or governed. To learn more about the multilateral system and governance
issues I chose to work in the UN section, where I was responsible for FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations and the CGIAR-system (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). I also worked with the implementation of international human rights standards at the national level through the Ministry’s human rights dialogues with in Indonesia, Vietnam and China.
The interest in the multilateral system and how to improve its possibility to uphold public goods (e.g.
climate, biodiversity and human rights), tie up with my previous academic interests in ownership rights to natural resources, common property resources, conflicts over control over resources and social and economic exchanges. For a number of years I was able to collaborate on an interdisciplinary project on ways of coping with drought in drylands with Malian and Norwegian colleagues from other disciplines.
I have my PhD in anthropology from the University of Oslo, in which I focused on aspects of resource use and resource conflicts in a historical and contemporary perspective, particularly among pastoral Tuareg nomads in Northern Mali, the state, and their neighbours. For my Ph.D. I also studied coping strategies emphasizing the different uses of resources depending on social status and ethnicity, particularly the use of wild plants, or ethnobotany.
I have a mag.art. from the Seychelles, where I studied social integration through a focus on social and economic exchanges at a coconut plantation. The plantation had characteristics of a feudal system. Social exchanges and gifts in different forms characterised the plantation workers’ economic relationships.
Work and research experience
1999-2006 Adviser/Senior Adviser in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2005-2006 Senior adviser, Department of Global Affairs, Section for Human Rights. Responsible for the Norwegian human rights dialogues with Indonesia and Vietnam
2003-2005 Senior adviser, Department of Global Affairs, UN section. Responsible for agriculture, biodiversity and genetic resources within the multilateral system. FAO and CGIAR task manager
2001-2003 Adviser, Department of Trade, Resources and the environment, part of the team writing the Government’s White paper on Globalization
1999-2001 Adviser, the Policy Planning and Evaluation unit, contributing to the development of a structure for the MFA’s evaluation practice and managing evaluations
1987-2000 1) 50 % research on social change in relation to resource control, nomad-state relations and the rights of minorities, and environmental adaptation among Tuareg pastoralists in Northern Mali. The project was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and was part of the PhD-programme at the Institute and Museum for Anthropology, UoU
1987-1998 2) 50 % project leader and member of the interdisciplinary research project The use of wild plants for food and medicine, in collaboration with a Malian pharmacologist (Drissa Diallo) and a Norwegian vegetation ecologist (Britt Hveem). In addition to research and fieldwork, responsible for the elaboration of plans and budgets, reporting, development of questionnaires, training of research assistants.
programme ”Environment and Development in Mali”, financed by the Norwegian Government and NUFU.
1985-1986 Leader of the Environmental research foundation, carrying out research projects on environmental issues in Norway
1985 Research on re-use and rummage sales in Norway for the Environmental Research Foundation, funded by the Ministry of the Environment
1983 Research fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology, UoO
1981- 1982 Full time research assistant on the Ministry of Social Affair’s research project:
The adaptation of refugees to The Norwegian Society Teaching and supervising experience
1987-1998 Supervisor for students writing their master theses in anthropology at UoO
1985 Lecturer in Ecology and Economy for undergraduate students at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo (UoO)
1985 - present External examiner at UoO, UoB, UoT, UMB Selected consultancies
1999-2001 Adviser in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Unit for planning and Evaluation, responsible for managing evaluations
1998 Evaluation of Norwegian Church Aid’s humanitarian and peace-making Work in Mali 1998 Team leader for two of four case studies, and responsible for the synthesis report Gender
issues and development of an improved focus on women in Natural Resource management and agricultural projects. Drylands Coordination Group, NORAGRIC
1997 Team leader on a project evaluation of the NGO CARE-Macina’s development project in Macina
1995 Team leader on a project evaluation of the Norwegian NGO Pastor Strømme’s integrated development project in Bafoulabe, Mali
Other relevant experience
1990- 1992 Working with IWGIA and Survival International to spread information on human right issues in Northern Mali Constituted the NGO (Support group for Northern Mali), engaged in gathering and spreading information about human rights abuses and promoting peace in Northern Mali
Participation in conferences (a selection found to be of relevance)
2004-2005 Member of the Norwegian delegation to FAO council meetings, the Committee on Food Security and the FAO general conference. Member of the Norwegian delegation during the negotiations for “The Voluntary guidelines for the right to food in the national context”
2004-2005 Member of the Norwegian delegation to CGIAR annual meetings
2001 ALNAP biannual meeting, London. ALNAP is a learning network on performance and accountability in humanitarian action
2000 ALNAP biannual meeting, Geneva, Switzerland 2000 OECD/DAC working party on evaluation, Edinburgh
1999 Conference on the analysis of poverty, University of Reading, UK
1997 Conference: ”Creativity and Innovation at Grassroots for Sustainable Natural Resources Management”, in Ahmedabad, India
1995 IWGIA conference on Indigenous Peoples in Africa, Tune, Denmark
1993 International congress of pre-historic anthropology and archaeology, at Trente, Italy 1992 Third International Congress of the Society for Ethnobiology, Mexico City, Mexico
