Adalbertus Kamanzi

Adalbertus Kamanzi, PhD in Development Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, was born on the 19th September 1970 in Bukoba, Tanzania. Between 1992 and 1997, he underwent philosophical and theological training in Italy. From 1997 to 2002, he studied Ethics and Development Studies at Uganda Martyrs University (BA and MA) in Uganda, where he lectured since 2002 to 2007. He has worked as lecturer in the Department of Development Studies at the University of Dodoma, Tanzania. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute of Rural Development Planning (IRDP), Dodoma, Tanzania and an Online Tutor at the Virtue University of Uganda (www.virtualuni.ac.ug) on the course Development Discourses: Theory and Practice.

Adalbertus Kamanzi has specialised in qualitative research on issues pertaining to people’s livelihoods. He has been involved in a number of research activities with different research institutions, among which OSSREA (on gender issues, 2006-2011), VICRES (on a multidisciplinary research approach on dealing with environmental issues, 2006-2009), EDI Ltd (on economic issues, 2004 until to-date), and some other researches and capacity building activities with the local development organisations in Kagera region. Adalbertus Kamanzi has been widely writing on development-related issues, particularly on Gender issues, Development Studies, HIV/AIDS, micro-finance, politics, and development cooperation.

Adalbertus Kamanzi is currently Director of the Sikiliza Project in Tanzania at the IRDP. Through a panel of 250 respondents from all over Tanzania, he is working on an evaluation of an NGO, Twaweza, whose theory of change is that interventions lead to public action, which in turn leads to improved lives of the people. The respondents are contacted regularly in order to collect high frequency data by means of mobile phones.

Adalbertus Kamanzi is finalizing a manuscript with the African Studies centre, Leiden: Accessing and letting: Lessons learnt from the Islands of Lake Victoria to go beyond the current HIV/AIDS discourse”. He is also writing on a couple of issues: “An ethnomethodological study on the influence of modernity on the ecosophies of local people”, the “state of public action” and the “state of service delivery” in Tanzania.

Adalbertus Kamanzi does not only deal with “development theory”, but with “development practice”, as well: he has registered a research institute, Tanzania Research Institute (TaRI), which aims at dealing with Development Research activities, promotion and provision of short courses in the areas of Research, Governance, and Democracy.