Elizabeth Kistin (2008 - 2009)

United States of America

Born and raised in New Mexico, U.S.A., Elizabeth has sought out opportunities to live, work and study in diverse settings across the globe. Her experiences in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Mexico, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa have all augmented her commitment to poverty reduction, global development and international cooperation. She received her BA in political science and Latin American studies in 2004 from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and earned her Masters in international development studies in 2006 as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. Since 2006, Elizabeth has split her time between Oxford and southern Africa and is in the process of finishing her PhD dissertation on “The Dynamic Effects of Transboundary Water Regimes.” In 2008, she took a six-month leave from her studies to work as a field organizer in New Mexico with Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign.

As of June 2009, Liz can be found at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions of Duke University working as a research associate on issues of international water and adaptation while finishing her PhD.

Links:

• The TWO Analysis – Introducing a Methodology for the Transboundary Waters Opportunity Analysis . The report details an analytical framework for effectively developing transboundary water resources in a responsible manner and outlines an approach by which transboundary water stakeholders can collaborate on the equitable and sustainable use of their jointly held freshwater resources
  
• An overview of the content and historical context of the international freshwater agreements that South Africa has entered into with neighbouring countries