Alasdair Cohen

PhD Student

Education

M.Sc.  Water Science, Policy & Management - University of Oxford, 2007

B.A.  Psychology - University of North Carolina, 2002

CV (pdf)

Research Interests

Global Environmental Health; drinking water; WASH; metrics & evaluation; rural poverty; Asia/China

Research Description

My research is situated in the field of Global Environmental Health with a focus on water and sanitation. Specifically, I am interested in water quality, drinking water safety and treatment, as well as sanitation & hygiene in poor rural areas of “developing” countries. I am especially interested in household (point-of-use) water treatment and better understanding what combinations of factors may result in relatively high and sustained rates of treatment adoption in rural areas. Geographically, my focus is in rural areas of Asia, China in particular.

My PhD studies and research are an interdisciplinary blend of Environmental Science, Public Health and Behavioral/Social Science. I have four main areas of interest and research:

1. Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) and rural development policy
2. Water-related pathogens, water contamination and household drinking water treatment
3. Innovation Diffusion and attitude/behavior change theory
4. Metrics, intervention design and Impact Evaluation

Selected Publications

     -please see CV for other publications-

Journal Articles:

• Cohen, A. & Saisana, M. (under review). Quantifying the qualitative: Lessons learned from developing the Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool. Journal of Development Studies.
•  Cohen, A. (2010). The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool: A new framework for measuring rural poverty. Development in Practice, 20 (7) 887-897.
•  Cohen, A. & Sullivan, C. (2010). Water & poverty in rural China: Developing an instrument to assess the multiple dimensions of water & poverty. Ecological Economics, 69 (5) 999-1009.

 

Books:

•   Cohen, A. (2009). The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool: Design, development & application of a new framework for measuring rural poverty. Rome: IFAD. [link]

 

 

United Nations Publications & Reports:

•  Cohen, A. (2009). The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool: User's Guide. Working Paper. Rome: IFAD. [link-English] [link-Chinese] [link-Hindi]
•   Cleveringa, R., Kay, M. & Cohen, A. (Eds.) (2009). InnoWat: Water, innovations, learning & rural livelihoods, Rome: IFAD. [link]
•  Sullivan, C., Cohen, A., Faures, J. M., & Santini, G. (2009) The Rural Water Livelihoods Index. Working Paper. FAO. [link]