Dr Penda Diallo

Penda is based in the United Kingdom and joins ASI as Qualitative Research Manager. She has over ten years of experience working in academia, research, international development, and consultancy on issues at the intersection between, sustainable development, mining, conflict, security, and development.

Before joining ASI, Penda was a Lecturer in sustainable mining at the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, for four years.  Before her academic role, Penda was Senior Resilience Advisor at CARE International-UK, providing technical support and project development assistance on resilience-building projects in various CARE country programmes, including Niger, Nepal, Somaliland, South Sudan, and Haiti. Previously, she was a livelihood and governance advisor, where she worked on natural resource management projects in Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Cameroon. Penda worked as an environmental consultant for AECOM and in research and communications roles for the Conflict, Security and Development Group in King’s College London and Helen Keller Worldwide in Guinea.

Penda’s research work has focused on the role of mining and natural resources in state formation, community mobilization, and community participation processes. Her research has been published in various outlets, including journals, policy briefs, and news analysis and books, including Regime Stability, Social Insecurity and Bauxite Mining in Guinea – Developments Since the Mid-Twentieth Century. Penda’s approach to research is interdisciplinary and she has worked with various stakeholders in the mining industry across different countries.

Penda holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, School of Social and Political Sciences, focusing on the impact of bauxite and diamond mining on development and politics in West Africa. Penda is Fulani and Zerma native speaker who is fluent in French, English, and Sussu.