ZEF in 2024
In 2024, ZEF celebrated the 25th Anniversary of its Doctoral Program and 25+ years of ZEF’s establishment in the second half of the 1990s (further details below and on the 25-year website).
Basics
The Center for Development Research (ZEF) is an interdisciplinary and international research and higher education institute of the Excellence University of Bonn, Germany.
ZEF's researchers aim to find science-based solutions to promote sustainable development and planetary health. ZEF’s research divisions and groups conduct inter- and transdisciplinary research in, for and with emerging economies and on global issues with its collaborating research partners around the world.
ZEF educates and trains doctoral students from all over the world in its doctoral studies program BIGS-DR (Bonn International Graduate School for Development Research). Our 124 doctoral students come from 45 countries and conduct their doctoral (field) research in about the same number of research countries.
ZEF and its Doctoral Program are supported by a wide range of donors, the major ones being: German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), and the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW).
ZEF is guided by an International Advisory Board.
ZEF's research in 2024
ZEF currently manages more than 40 projects in nearly 50 countries.
ZEF’s projects are aligned with the institute’s 10 overarching research themes: Agriculture, land use and climate change; Water resources (management); Biodiversity; Food and nutrition; Health; Gender; Migration, mobility and urbanization; Governance and conflict; Markets and services; and Innovation and science policy.
Some projects have a strong Capacity Development component, such as the Capacity Development for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Experts in West, Central & East Africa (CABES) project, which runs a Masters’ program on Science-Policy-Practice Interfaces on Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Climate Change (SPIBES) and the German-Colombian Doctoral Studies Support Program (DSSP). Doctoral students in ZEF’s transdisciplinary graduate school One Health and Urban Transformation identify risks and develop sustainable solutions, seeking integrated interventions to achieve optimal health for humans, animals, plants and the environment. The African Climate and Environment Centre - Future African Savannas (AFAS) aims to build the critical mass and expertise to develop nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation by linking science, policy and practice.
For a selection of highlights click on the slider below.
March 2024. Participants of the international symposium "The Role of Nutrition in Planetary Health" on the occasion of the inaugural lecture of
Ina Danquah, Hertz Professor in the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Innovation and Technology for a Sustainable Future" at the University of Bonn since October 2023. Photo: Barbara Frommann/Uni Bonn.
Eva Youkhana (ZEF CPC) at the conference "The challenges of the university system and internationalization", Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 2024. Read more in our blog.
June 2024. Organizers and participants of the Pluriversal dialogues held in Bonn.
Bonn University's Vice Rector for International Affairs Professor Birgit Münch opening the AFAS Summer School at ZEF in August 2024.
CABES organized its first Central African sub-regional workshop in Lubumbashi, DR Congo, in October 2024, where 84 experts from 24 countries discussed the development of multi-stakeholder biodiversity platforms.
Other projects focus on the science-policy interface, such as the Program for Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation (PARI), which brings together partners from Africa, India and Germany to conduct research on sustainable agricultural development, food systems transformation, and food and nutrition security in Africa and India. INTERFACES is also an accompanying project that supports four BMBF-funded regional research and development projects in their efforts to drive change for sustainable land management in sub-Saharan Africa. LANUSYNCON investigates the science-policy interface of land-use synergies and conflicts in the context of the 2030 Agenda.
Other examples of ZEF research projects include PRODIGY, which aims to provide a knowledge base for more sustainable land-use management based on the functional biodiversity of the soil ecosystem and its relationship to the resilience of social-ecological systems in the Amazon. The project Local Dynamics and Integration of UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Outstanding Universal focuses on cultural landscapes in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Recently launched projects include DAIV, which is supported by the CGIAR’s Standing Panel on Impact Assessment and will investigate the dynamics of agricultural innovations in Vietnam, and Changemaker, which addresses the growing epidemic of adolescent obesity in urban sub-Saharan Africa. The project aims to co-design, implement and evaluate the effects and processes of a comprehensive sustainable health intervention in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Kisumu, Kenya. ZEF's new research group Integrated System Modeling consists of "sustainability system scientists" who develop formal models of collective learning.
ZEF has transdisciplinary research groups founded by juniors and seniors on Decolonizing Knowledge, Gender, and Complex Systems.
For a selection of highlights click on the slider below.
February 2024. PARI Research & Partnership Meeting 2024, Accra, Ghana, with 50 PARI partners from 15 African countries, India and Germany. In addition, around 130 participants from politics, civil society and the private sector discussed future priorities for Africa’s food systems in an open hybrid session.
In May 2024, ZEF published a study and a related policy brief on how to stop the escalating costs of eradicating hunger by 2030. In November 2024, co-author Beza Beyene Chichaibelu presented an updated version of this research at the international conference "World without Hunger" in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
August 2024. As incoming President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), ZEF Director Matin Qaim organized and presided over IAAE’s Triennial Conference, held in Delhi, India. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conference, which was attended by over 1,000 delegates from 80 countries.
September 2024. Right Livelihood laureate Juan Pablo Orrego with students during a workshop on "Rural development and smallholder agriculture" at ZEF in Bonn.
October 2024. INTERFACES stakeholder workshop at University of Ghana. The workshop offered an unique opportunity to learn from experiences in diverse African contexts.
October 2024. ZEF senior researcher Renzo Guidice presenting PRODIGY research at FLARE, Rome, Italy.
October 2024. ZEF’s Nutrition and Public Health team at the World Health Summit in Berlin.
Fazlullah Akhtar (right) and Navneet Kumar (not in the photo) discussed their research on hydrological modeling at AGU24, Washington D.C., USA, in December 2024.
ZEF 2024 output and outreach
In 2024, ZEF researchers published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, 5 books and 4 book chapters.
ZEF published 11 Working Papers, 20 Discussion Papers, and 11 Policy Briefs.
ZEF organized around 50 public lectures and events in 2024. You can re-watch our lectures on our Youtube channel.
See also our News section for an overview of our news items published this year.
For more ZEF media coverage see ZEF in the press.
Click on the slider for a selection of highlights.
In 2024, ZEF researchers published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, 5 books and 4 book chapters, 11 Working Papers, 20 Discussion Papers, and 11 Policy Briefs.
The PARI project alone has published 38 policy briefs and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles such as "Productivity effects of agroecological practices in Africa: insights from a systematic review and meta-analysis". (November 2024).
January 2024. Download here.
February 2024. More on ZDFinfo here. More media coverage under ZEF in the Press.
March 2024. The ZEF Gender Group and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) co-organized a public event about Arab feminism and politics on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2024.
April 2024. Members of ZEF's Gender Group after being awarded the Maria von Linden Prize by Bonn University.
April 2024. More info here.
May 2024. Incentives for biodiversity conservation under asymmetric land ownership. Qambemeda M. Nyanghura,
Lisa Biber-Freudenberger, Jan Börner
June 2024. Download here.
July 2024. Download here.
July 2024. “When you need it quick, let us ship it right”: on the importance of port efficiency and service quality to comply with food trade standards in Ghana. Lukas Kornher, Daniel Sakyi & Linus Linnaeus Tannor
August 2024. Download here.
November 2024. Alexander Rothenberg got a lot of media attention for his doctoral thesis about professional footballers - the elite slaves of today. More media coverage under ZEF in the Press. Photo: Gregor Hübl/University of Bonn
Read more about the event here. You can watch the video recording here and read a blog post about the event here.
December 2024. Special Feature on “Sustainability of Animal-Sourced Foods and Plant-Based Alternatives” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS), guest-edited by ZEF and international partners, with 12 interdisciplinary articles on the broader topic.
ZEF Doctoral Program (BIGS-DR)
More than 120 students from more than 40 countries are currently pursuing their doctoral degrees at the Bonn International Graduate School for Development Research (BIGS-DR), which is located at, hosted by and operated by ZEF.
New Modular Course Structure at BIGS-DR. The 2024 batch of BIGS-DR doctoral students began their academic journey in October 2024. This year’s cohort is the first to experience BIGS-DR’s newly restructured course program, designed to provide a strong foundation through both compulsory and elective modules. All students start with core modules focused on ZEF’s strategic research themes, fostering an interdisciplinary perspective. Elective modules in economics, social sciences, health, system modeling, and ecology offer deeper specialization, strengthening students’ theoretical and methodological expertise in their respective fields. More info on the program here.
Last year, our students won best poster prizes, awards, wrote blog posts, and presented their research at international conferences and COPs.
In 2024, 10 doctoral students successfully defended their theses and received their doctoral degrees - most of them from a Faculty of the University of Bonn.
For our highlights please click on the slider below.
January 2024. Salamatu Joana Tannor defended her thesis on climate-mining interactions and the effects on rural resilience in southwestern Ghana successfully.
January 2024. Jéssica Felappi defended her thesis on the role of green infrastructure quality for healthier and biodiverse cities from Brazil.
March 2024. ZEF alumna Denise Matias was among six recipients of the 2024 Planet Earth Award by the Alliance of World Scientists (AWS). More info here.
April 2024. Two new doctors (front row): Juliana Minetto, who conducted research on sustainable diets in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolis, Germany, and Makafui Isaac Dzudzor, whose research looked into Household food safety, dietary diversity and malnutrition in urban Ghana.
April 2024. Wyclife Agumba Oluoch wrote his thesis on the availability and sustainable harvesting of wild edible plants in Turkana County, Kenya.
May 2024. Download here.
May 2024. Hina Amber with her supervisor, Professor Joachim von Braun. Hina researched how to overcome barriers to female labor force participation in Pakistan.
June 2024. Pablo Mac Clay: For his doctoral thesis, he composed essays on the nexus between technological change, policies, and value chain governance for a transition towards a low-carbon economy.
July 2024. ZEF junior researcher Hendrik Zeddies presenting his research on societal opinions on autonomous crop farming in Germany at the 16th International Conference on Precision Agriculture in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. Read Hendrik's journal article on Positive public attitudes towards agricultural robots. July 2024. Hendrik Hilmar Zeddies, Gesa Busch & Matin Qaim.
November 2024. Felipe Quartucci wrote his doctoral thesis about deep soil carbon accrual after land restoration in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil.
November 2024. ZEF Discussion Paper 354. Rice-aquaculture systems and dietary quality in Bangladesh.
November 2024. ZEF junior researcher Fatima Ali with her award for the best presentation by a PhD student at the Global Landscape Project meeting in Mexico.
December 2024. ZEF Discussion Paper 356. Links between rural electrification and gendered off-farm employment in sub-Saharan Africa.
ZEF 25 years
Celebrating 25 years of interdisciplinary research and doctoral education
ZEF's international conference Sustainable Solutions, Shared Futures: Development Research for the 21st Century marked the 25th anniversary of interdisciplinary development research at ZEF and its doctoral program BIGS-DR.
More than 200 people analyzed, synthesized and discussed topics presented at 12 sessions and 2 plenary panel discussions during the three-day event (September 30-October 2, 2024) held in Bonn.
Keynotes
Keynotes were given by Prof. Dr. Jakob Zinsstag, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland; Professor Ina Danquah, Hertz-Professor “Innovation for Planetary Health”, Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) “Sustainable Futures”, University of Bonn & ZEF-Director; Dr. Jessica Thorn, School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews, UK.
Find more info on all speakers here.
Photo impressions of the conference in the slider below and on the website here.
From left to right: Andrea Fadani (fiat panis) Christian Borgemeister (ZEF Director) Birgit Münch (Vice Rector for International Affairs, Uni Bonn), Manfred Denich (former ZEF Senior Researcher) and Matin Qaim (ZEF Director).
Members of the ZEF International Advisory Board
Silke Toensjost (BIGS-DR coordinator) and Andrea Fadani (fiat panis foundation).
ZEF Director Ina Danquah
ZEF Director Matin Qaim
Facts & figures 25 years
Nearly 500 alumni from around 80 countries have participated in ZEF's Doctoral Program since 1999.
Read Alumni portraits in our gallery here.
Over the past 25 years, ZEF has conducted nearly 100 projects in 83 research countries funded by 42 different donors.
Policy briefs on ZEF's major research themes
In a series of special Policy Briefs, ZEF has explored its major research themes:
Agriculture and Nutrition; Poverty and Inequality; Land Use Conflicts And Nature; Climate and Health; Capacity Development and South-South Cooperation.
Click on the slider for our social cards of the series.
For more impressions from the 25th anniversary conference, visit https://zef25years.de/
ZEF thanks its partners for their support and cooperation during the past year and wishes you a happy and successful new year!