7th Class, 2013-2015
Policy Placement: Concern Worldwide, Dublin, Ireland
For his policy year Hunter worked in Concern Worldwide’s headquarters as a Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Policy Analyst. He worked with the Steering Committee of the Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (ACSAA) to develop organizational management policy and to devise strategies for the Alliance’s work to promote scale-up of CSA practices in Africa. He also developed linkages between the ACSAA and the Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) movement in Africa. This included researching and refining ways to apply demand-side thinking to nutrition and food production. Finally, he wrote a collection of briefing papers on agriculture and climate change policy, including on strategies to better integrate nutrition and gender in agriculture and climate change discussions and planning.
Field Placement: Concern Worldwide, Mumbwa, Zambia
Hunter Michelsen worked as the Agriculture and Marketing Adviser in Mumbwa, Zambia on Concern’s “Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (RAIN)” project. In this capacity, he conducted research and implemented activities aimed at providing smallholder women farmers with the necessary information and market access to promote and sell surplus, nutrient-rich produce. Hunter applied value chain analysis and market survey results to inform a project marketing strategy and trained community development facilitators on topics including farm planning, cost benefit analysis, record keeping, market research, promotion and sales.
Pre-Fellowship Education/Experience:
Hunter served as a Peace Corps Rural Aquaculture Promotion/Sustainable Agriculture volunteer in Zambia before heading to American University in Washington, DC and the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica where he received dual master’s degrees in International Affairs and Natural Resources and Sustainable Development. While in Costa Rica, Hunter completed an internship with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture. There he worked on permaculture strategies, organic gardening in local schools, and value-chain development for various bean varieties. After graduate school Hunter went to work for Chemonics International Inc. in Washington, DC as a member of project management units for several USAID and Millennium Challenge Corporation funded projects, including health behavior change communications and education projects in Zambia as well as a Feed the Future agriculture policy project based in Uganda.