Peter van der Werff

Dr Peter van der Werff is an international consultant in the areas of adaptation to climate change, river basin management and poverty alleviation. As such, he has long experience in liaison with donor agencies, governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society, poor households and scientific counterparts. In collaboration with these parties, Peter van der Werff provides policy advice, co-designs project proposals, conducts appraisal and evaluation missions, and develops scientific knowledge.

Content Matter

Adaptation to climate change. Global warming results in sea-level rise, changing cyclone patterns and, broadly, more floods in wet areas and more droughts in dry areas. Along with economic growth and population growth,  these effects put an increasing pressure on the conditions of the poor, as in semi-arid areas and along densely populated coasts in-between cities. This requires improved awareness and adjusted strategies at all levels of society.

River basin management. Small-scale, sustainable slope management and agro-forestry support farming upstream and reduce floods and droughts downstream. Local knowledge of proper environmental practices is often available. Their re-establishment helps the sustainable management of the entire river basin. Downstream farming, large-scale irrigation and water power generation benefit from widely implemented, small-scale slope management upstream.

Poverty alleviation. Households of landless laborers, small farmers and fishermen are often the poorest people, with females being most malnourished. These households have long-term developed strategies  to cope with ecological conditions, societal power structures and economic networks. Interactions between original, pre-modern and imported, modern elements often create extra problems. Poor households struggle hard with these interactions.

Methodologies

Thanks to his prolonged experience in the field, Peter van der Werff is familiar with the lives of poor people. He supports them in assessing changes in their social and physical environment and optimizing their coping strategies.

For projects to improve the lives of the poor as well as their environment, he applies stakeholder analysis, participatory methodologies and indicators of pre-modernity and modernity.

These techniques, along with results of environmental assessment, cost-benefit analysis and decision support systems, are being used in participatory future scenario structuring in workshops as parts of project cycles.