Mr Michael FitzGibbon

Biography

Coming from a background in engineering andinformation systems in the electronics industry, I began work in development in the early 1990sin Tanzania. Returning to Ireland in 1996, I worked at both the International FamineCentre in UCC  (later the Centre forSustainable Livelihoods), and the statutory Higher Education Equality Unit until 2002. During this time, I worked as a development consultant in Ireland, leading and contributing toa range of projects in diverse areas from: the prevalence of asthma inmarginalised communities, through gender equality in engineering education, topolicy approaches to interculturalism in higher education. At this time, I also worked as an information systemsconsultant in sub-Saharan Africa. I joined the Department of FoodBusiness and Development to work both in research and teaching in 2004; involvement in the development and delivery of the joint MSc in Rural Development with Mekelle University (Ethiopia) for most of the last decade was a most rewarding and challenging activity. Icurrently teach in UCC the areas of International Development,Conflict/Peace, Gender, Humanitarian Responses, Communications and Research Methodologies. Areas that I research include those of Food Insecurity / Smallholder Livelihoods, Value Chains, Gender, Conflict, the Media, ICTs, and in particular, Digital Data Gathering; all of these are focused mainly around impacts and consequences in low-income countries. During the last decade, my research and other development interests have included work in Ethiopia, Malawi, Lesotho, Uganda, Western Sahara, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, and Afghanistan,as well as many European countries.

I also have a strong interest in human rights and development issues closer to home, particularly in relation to minority ethnic groups and other marginalised groups such as the asylum-seeking and other immigrant communities. I was party to the founding of two local non-governmental organisations, Nasc and Ethical Development Action, and have acted as director on these, and also with Cork Simon.

Research Domains

• Gender and development  
• Information systems implementations in the South 
• Famine emergency responses 
• Microfinance 
• Interculturalism/Antiracism 

Publications