Rodrigo Mena
Rodrigo Mena is Assistant Professor of Disaster and Humanitarian Action at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research focuses on humanitarian responses and risk reduction to disasters and their interaction and nexus with other crises, such as social conflict, climate change, and migration. Before his current position, he worked with local and international NGOs, the UN, ministries, and as a consultant and researcher, particularly in disasters and conflict-affected places such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chile, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, or Yemen.
Together with serving at the Board of IHSA, Dr Mena serves as a Board member of the Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication (HumCom) and is co-convenor of the Peace and Ecology in the Anthropocene commission at the International Peace Research Association (IPRA). He also serves as a reviewer in leading journals and often takes research, monitoring and evaluation, and advisory consultancy work. In IHSA he is also part of the Safety and Security working group.
Regarding IHSA and his role as a Board member, he shares: “Humanitarian aid studies if a broad and growing field were multiple actors come together to reflect and think about how we address (or not) with conflict, disasters, and complex scenarios. I see IHSA as a platform where multiple efforts can join and be strengthened by (i) promoting knowledge exchange, (ii) encouraging humanitarian research, (iii) facilitating collaboration among the members, and (iv) linking multiple actors or facilitating networking among humanitarian and - non-humanitarian relevant for this field”.