Diana Muñoz Duque is interested in the interlinkages between rural development and sustainability from a socio-ecological perspective

Muñoz Duque joined the master’s program at the SRC to explore transformative solutions for sustainable food production, natural resource management, and poverty alleviation in Latin America. She would like to assess the socio-environmental impacts of food exports with the purpose of how resource-efficient and less environmentally and socially damaging food production systems can be designed and how we can measure different aspects of sustainability in this context.

She strongly believes that to address climate change we must also tackle socio-economic inequities, which means that collaborative work between the private sector, government, and academia is critical.

Muñoz Duque is originally from Colombia and has an academic background in government, international relations, and development studies. Prior to her Master’s at SRC she worked at the Interdisciplinary Center for Development Studies- Cider at Los Andes University in Colombia where she conducted participatory land planning processes for sustainable rural development engaging local, regional, and national NGOs, governments, and the private sector. She conducted research in water governance and land-use change in peri-urban areas of Colombia and has contributed to a book on the topic.

Awards and achievements

• Co-author the book “Modes of water governance and sustainability in Colombia” (Translated from Spanish). Ediciones Uniandes. 2019
• Honor Scholarship for academic excellence, given by the Externado of Colombia University in recognition of the best GPA. 2005