Segnestam is a researcher and PhD candidate currently working on her PhD project "Gender-differentiated vulnerability to drought in Nicaragua".  The project looks at rural households in the central parts of Nicaragua, how they are exposed to drought, and what capacities they possess to cope with and adapt to this exposure.  

The main hypothesis of the research is that the exposure and coping and adaptation capacities differ between men and women, creating a gender-differentiated vulnerability to drought. Drought being a recurrent
phenomenon in Nicaragua's Zona Seca, the research also strives to look at how vulnerability and gender differences in the same, has changed over time as a result of learning processes and implementation of various strategies to reduce vulnerability in the long- and short-term.

As PhD candidate, Lisa is enrolled at the Department of Economic History at Stockholm University.  To be able to pursue her PhD degree she is on leave of absence from the Stockholm Environment Institute where she has held a position as a Research Associate within the Policy and Institutions Programme from the year of 2000.

She has worked extensively with mainstreaming environmental issues in policies and strategies through expert-level research, technical assistance, project preparation, development and implementation of work plans, reporting, technical oversight, stakeholder involvement and client liaison, using tools such as vulnerability analysis, environmental economics, environment and sustainable development indicators, and institutional analysis.

Prior to joining SEI in 2000, Segnestam worked for the World Bank in Washington DC as well as for the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).  Currently, she is focusing on her PhD studies on gender differentiated vulnerability to drought in Nicaragua.