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Dr Rob Hope

• Academic Profile
• Current Research
• Current Teaching
• Publications

Academic Profile

Rob Hope is a Senior Research Fellow and Course Director of the MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management. He has a PhD in Water and Development (Newcastle) and an MSc in Environment and Development (Manchester). Prior to joining the School of Geography and the Environment in 2006, Rob worked at the Centre for Land Use and Water Resources Research at Newcastle University. His research focuses on water and human development in relation to policy, design, performance and impacts of ecosystem services initiatives and the sustainability of improved water supply services in developing countries. His research has been funded by ESRC, NERC, World Bank, UK DFID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Skoll Foundation in Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Current Research

Rob's research examines the relationship between water access and human development. He has worked on several, large interdisciplinary teams (hydrology, engineering, economics, political science, anthropology) on catchment/basin management and sustainable water supply services in India and sub-Saharan Africa. The analytical approaches that shape this work relate to how social choices influence human behaviour, project performance and developmental impacts both at the local level and in terms of shaping public policy to promote more sustainable and evidence-based interventions at scale.

1. Mobile Water for Development

Delivering a sufficient, reliable and affordable supply of safe water is an enduring public policy challenge. Rob is leading an interdisciplinary, cross-departmental research cluster that sets out to design, build and evaluate mobile technology innovations for water security called mobile/water for development. The cluster have recently completed a cross-country analysis of mobile water payment innovations in urban Africa and have started the first global studies that are testing 'smart handpumps' in rural Kenya and Zambia. They are also examining how 'smart river systems' may be designed to negotiate fairer and more sustainable outcomes in Kenya under increasing hydro-climatic risk and competing water demands.

2. Negotiating Ecosystems Services

Making informed choices about ecosystems and their services is central to the political economy of managing environmental and societal change. Understanding local uses and associated values of complex and dynamic ecosystem services (biodiversity, water, carbon) will shape potential interventions to reward or deter behavioural responses that may lead to sub-optimal outcomes for people and nature. Rob continues to work on several initiatives that conduct exploratory experimental analysis of future scenarios of ecosystem change based on empirical analysis of social preferences and priorities (ex-ante). This work includes different initiatives around payments/incentives for ecosystem services to guide policy in understanding the trade-offs in the elusive but important global initiatives for poverty reduction and ecosystem conservation (i.e. ESPA, REDD+, PES). His work also considers institutional economics and developmental impacts (ex-post) of competing models of water management in irrigation systems, wetlands and forested catchments in various countries.

Selected Research Projects (since 2001)

• New Mobile Citizens and Waterpoint Sustainability in Rural Africa
  Funded by ESRC (2012-15)
• Smart Water Systems
  Funded by UK DFID (2010-13)
• Mobile Water Payment Innovations in Urban Africa
  Funded by Skoll Foundation (2011)
• Water Security, Risk and Society
  Funded by University of Oxford John Fell Fund (2011-13)
• Negotiating Trade-Offs Making Informed Decisions about Ecosystem Services
  Funded by ESPA (NERC/ESRC/DFID) (2010-12)
• Strengthening Capacity to Alleviate Poverty through Ecosystem Services
  Funded by ESPA (NERC/ESRC/DFID) (2009-10)
• Multiple Use Water Systems for Poverty Reduction
  Financial support from World Bank - Water and Sanitation Programme; (2008-2010)
• Sustainable Rural Water Supply in Mozambique
  Financial support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; (2008-2009)
• Water Ecosystems and Poverty Reduction under Climate Change
  Financial support from UK Department for International Development (DfID); (2006-2007)
• Mopane Woodlands and Mopane Worms
  Financial support from UK Department for International Development (DfID); (2005-2006)
• Low Base Flows and Livelihoods
  Financial support from UK Department for International Development (DfID); (2004-2006)
• Negotiating Watershed Services
  Financial support from UK Department for International Development (DfID); (2002-2006)
• Catchment Management and Poverty Reduction
  Financial support from UK Department for International Development (DfID); (2001-2004)

Teaching

Postgraduate teaching for MSc and DPhil students:

• Water and Development
• Socio-political Nature of Water
• Water Economics
• Research Methods

Current graduate students include:

• Alvar Closas
  Burning water: institutions, technology, statecraft and the production of scarcity in the Las Tablas de Daimiel Wetland, Spain
• Alexandra Girard
  Socio-economic implications of traditional and non-traditional water storage systems in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, India
• Kathleen Hansen
  Cooperative transboundary water management: the cases of the Orange and Limpopo rivers
• Aaron Krolikowski
  Mobile-enabled payments for water service in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: innovations, impacts, and implications
• Alex Money
  Corporate water risk: a concept in search of consensus

Selected Publications

• Hope, R.A., Foster, T., Money, A. and Rouse, M. (2012) Harnessing mobile communications innovations for water security. Global Policy.
• Hope, R.A. (2012) Mobile Water for Development and Growth. Global Policy, Comment and Opinion Blog, Wiley-Blackwell.
• Thomson, P., Hope, R.A. and Foster, T. (in press, 2012) GSM-enabled remote monitoring of rural handpumps. Journal of Hydroinformatics.
• Vira, B., Adams, W., Agarwal, C., Badiger, S., Hope, R.A., Krishnaswamy, J. and Kumar, C. (2012) Negotiating trade-offs: making informed choices for ecosystem services. Economic and Political Weekly, XLVII(9): 67-75.
• Hope, R.A. (in press, 2012) A poor choice? Public policy, social choice and the human right to water. In, Langford, M. and A. Russell (eds.) The International Right to Water: Theory, Practice and Prospects. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Hope, R.A., Foster, T., Krowlikowski, A. and Cohen, I. (2011) Mobile Water Payment Innovations in Urban Africa. Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University.
• Edmunds, W.M. and Hope, R.A. (2010) Water sustainability and security in Africa. Chapter 7, in Agyeman-Duah, I. (ed.) (2010) Pilgrims of the Night: Development challenges and opportunities in Africa. Ayebia Clarke Publishing Limited. ISBN: 9780956240156.
• Mayers, J., Hope, R.A., et al. (2009) Water ecosystem services and poverty under climate change: key issues and research priorities. Natural Resource Issues, 17. International Institute for Environment and Development, London, UK.
• Hope, R.A., Frost, P.G.H., Gardiner, A. and Ghazoul, J. (2009) Experimental analysis of adoption of domestic mopane worm farming technology in Zimbabwe. Development Southern Africa, 26(1): 29-46.
• Hope, R.A., Borgoyary, M. and Agarwal, C. (2009) Incentives that work for farmers and wetlands. In, Kumar, P. and Muradian, R. (eds.) Payment for Ecosystem Services. Oxford University Press, Delhi.
• Hope, R.A., Borgoyary, M. and Agarwal, C. (2008) Small-holder farmer preferences for agri-environmental change at the Bhoj wetland, India. Development Policy Review, 26(5): 585-602.
• Hope, R.A., Jewitt, G.P.W. and Gowing, J.W. (2008) The contested future of irrigation in African rural livelihoods - analysis from a water scarce catchment in South Africa. Water Policy, 10(2): 173-192.
• Hope, R.A. (2007) Evaluating Social Impacts of Watershed Development in India. World Development, 35(8): 1436-1449.
• Hope, R.A., Porras, I., Borgoyary, M., Miranda, M., Agarwal, C., Tiwari, S., and J.M. Amezaga (2007) Negotiating Watershed Services. Markets for Environmental Services series, No. 11. London: IIED.
• Hope, R.A. (2006) Evaluating water policy scenarios against the priorities of the rural poor. World Development, 34(1): 167-179.
• Hope, R.A. (2006) Water, workfare and poverty: the impact of the Working for Water Programme on rural poverty reduction. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 8: 139-156.
• Hope, R.A., Porras, I.T., Bergkamp, G. and Smith, M. (2006) Learning from Partners and Experience. In, IUCN (eds.) PAY - A practitioners' guide for financing ecosystem services for water. World Conservation Union, Gland.
• Greiber, T., Hope, R.A. and Iza, A. (2006) Rules at Work. In, IUCN (eds.) PAY - A practitioners' guide for financing ecosystem services for water. World Conservation Union, Gland.
• Porras, I.T. and Hope, R.A. (2006) Roadmap to Agreement. In, IUCN (eds.) PAY - A practitioners' guide for financing ecosystem services for water. World Conservation Union, Gland.
• Hope, R.A., Porras, I.T., Miranda, M., Agarwal, C. and Amezaga, J. (2005) Are the poor benefiting from environmental service reward schemes? European Tropical Forestry Research Network, 45-46: 36-39.
• Hope, R.A., Jewitt, G.P.W. and Gowing, J.W. (2004) Linking the hydrological cycle and rural livelihoods: A case study in the Luvuvhu catchment, South Africa. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 29: 1209-1217.
• Hope, R.A. and Garrod, G.D. (2004) Household preferences to water policy interventions in rural South Africa. Water Policy, 6: 487-499.
• Hope, R.A. (2002) Wildlife harvesting, conservation and poverty: the economics of olive ridley egg exploitation. Environmental Conservation, 29(3): 375-384.