Lizah Makombore
Affiliation: PhD candidate and a Leadership for the Ecozoic fellow. Further to this, I am also a Gund Institute for the Environment at the University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
USSEE, United States
My career has led me to work in multiple sectors and roles, but mostly in the following sectors: Ngo, public, private, international development sector, and recently in academia. Having ‘development’ experience from the grassroots to the global level, I can navigate multiple governance structures with humility and agility. This experience has managed to see first-hand the impact of poverty, injustice, violence, and disasters. I’ve always found the courage to contribute positively towards transforming complex and diverse socio-nature challenges. My journey to development and ecological economics has led me to my current position as a PhD candidate and a Fellow in Leadership for the Ecozoic. Further to this, I am also a Gund Institute for the Environment at the University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
I will include some of the following roles and projects to demonstrate my skill set and illustrate my suitability for the position.
- I worked as a foreign direct investment analyst for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, where I was exposed to banking regulations and learned to perform national due diligence assessments. I also sharpened my negotiation, monitoring, and evaluation skills for national projects.
- Business Linkages Specialist for the South African International Business Linkages project, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project. I was involved in the grassroots development of small-scale farmers, miners, and businesses and linked them to local and international markets. In this role, I managed to understand trade rules and inequities and had firsthand experience with grassroots ‘development’.
- I was the Project Manager for the National Business Initiative, a national NGO based in South Africa. At the NBI, I contributed to multifaceted projects at the regional and local levels in the following sectors: climate change, water sustainability, regenerative agriculture, public-private partnerships, equity and justice, and local economic development.
- Junior Lecturer at The Independent Institute of Education in South Africa. I have spent the last 6 years of my life as a research assistant, lecturer, curriculum developer, and reviewer of assessments in Economics, Environmental Economics, and Development Finance.
I am very excited about my current PhD candidature, supervised by Josh Farley, and my fellowship positions, where I am immersed in Ecological Economics, The Commons, Degrowth, just transitions, and other leading ecological economics frameworks. I envision that if I am selected for the International Society for Ecological Economics board, I will be able to contribute significantly.
I am still learning about EE, and by being a member and board member of ISEE, I will broaden my EE knowledge, which should translate into my research initiatives. Ultimately, I look forward to bringing diverse perspectives to the board, but I also want to find sufficiency in this community of practice.
Today, the fight against traditional neoclassical economics and other extractive logic is more relevant than ever; I am honored to partner with the ISEE team.