ZEF alumna wins this year's GDN award with research on micro finance
Joy Kiiru, ZEF alumna from Kenya, won this year’s “Medal for Research on Development” in the category “Innovative Sources of Development Finances”. The prize was awarded by the Global Development Network (GDN) at its 12th Annual Global Development Conference taking place in Bogotá, Colombia, from January 13-15, 2011.
Joy Kiiru won the GDN Medal for her contribution on "Impact of microfinance on rural poor households’ income and vulnerability to poverty" which she defended at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Bonn. Mrs. Kiiru is an Economist and did her PhD at ZEF from 2004 to 2007 on the topic of Microfinance. After finishing her PhD she returned to the University in Nairobi, School of Economics, as a Lecturer and Senior Researcher. She was nominated for and awarded several prizes.
The Global Development Network (GDN) is an international organization of research and policy institutes promoting the generation, sharing and application to policy of multidisciplinary knowledge for the purpose of development. It was founded on the premise that good policy research, properly applied, can accelerate development and improve people’s lives.
The Global Development Awards and Medals Competition was launched by the GDN in 2000. It is a competition for promoting research on development supported by the Government of Japan. Nearly 4,300 researchers representing more than 100 countries throughout the developing and transition world have participated in this competition to date.
Joy Kiiru is the third ZEF alumna winning this prestigious prize after Adama Konseiga from Burkina Faso (first Prize in 2005) and Bhagirath Behera from India (second Prize in 2006).
Joy Kiiru´s doctoral study at ZEF, University of Bonn, and research in Kenya was financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), via the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).
http://www.zef.de/module/register/experts_details.php?pk=423
