Florencia Palis

Area of Expertise:

• Agriculture, Livelihoods, Microfinance, Rural
• Capacity Building, Training, Advocacy
• Health, Doctors, Nurses, HIV/AIDS
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Policy, Research, Analysis
• Social, Education, Gender, Youth, Child

Professional Experience:

Feb 2009 to present: Scientist (Agricultural Anthropology), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
• Design and implement social science action research utilizing the innovation systems thinking to facilitate farmer adoption of technologies developed by the irrigated rice research consortium (IRRC), and achievement of impacts to farmer households and farming communities. IRRC is an international platform for multi-stakeholder partnership, cross country learning, and adaptive research for impacts;
• Foster multi-stakeholder partnerships through the IRRC Country Outreach Programs (ICOPs) by implementing participatory action research, strategies for disseminating research products, and working closely with natural resource management (NRM) scientists and partners i.e., national research and extension systems (NARES), farmers, NGOs, and private sectors;
• Document, analyze, and assess the impact pathways of NRM best practices for irrigated rice in Asia;
• Lead the Partnership and Monitoring and Evaluation Components of the Philippine Rice Self-Sufficiency Project;
• Lead the social science dimension of addressing seasonal hunger in North West Bangladesh;
• Supervise research staff engaged in data collection and analysis, and a secretary. Manage annual fixed budget allocation and project specific budgets. Engage in the international agricultural scientific research and policy arena.
• Develop proposals for submission to donors to strengthen social science research in an interdisciplinary environment.

Mar 2006 to Jan 2009: Post-doctoral Fellow and Social Scientist, IRRI.

• Manage and implement social science research in IRRC;

• Network with partner organizations and build capacity of partners in Asia;

• Provide social sciences support to NRM scientists;

• Disseminate research findings in international forum and publish in scientific arena.


April 2001 to February 2006: Associate Scientist, IRRI

• Manage and implement socio-economic and anthropological researches on: Indigenous knowledge of traditional rice varieties in Lao PDR; Water-saving technology in rice production in the Philippines; Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Vietnam, and IPM and Health in the Philippines.

• Supervise the collection and analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data through household surveys and use of various qualitative methods.


June 1997 to March 2001: Assistant Scientist, SSD, IRRI (On full time study leave)

July 1987 to May 1997: Senior Research Assistant, IRRI

• Manage the multi-disciplinary project on the Environmental and Health Impacts of Pesticide Use in Asian Rice Production,
• Assist in the economic assessment of IPM in the Philippines;
• Assist in the conduct of anthropological research on biodiversity and NRM;
• Develop computer programs, and undertake statistical and econometric analyses using statistical software such as SAS and SPSS.


January 1978 to June 1987: Researcher, Univers