Emma Blackmore

Associate, Shaping Sustainable Markets

Full biography

Emma Blackmore is a associate with the Shaping Sustainable Markets group at IIED. She manages IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets initiative and has carried out research on how certification can benefit the poor, carbon emission labels, contract farming and integrating small-scale farmers into global value chains.

Expertise

Emma's work has focused on the design, implementation and impacts of a number of market governance mechanisms, particularly the use and impacts of standards and certification. Most recently her work has focused on sector-wide approaches to sustainability and the informal economy in agriculture.

Before IIED

Emma worked as a researcher for IIED between 2009-12, focusing on the design, implementation and impacts of market governance mechanisms, particularly the use and impacts of standards and certification in agriculture.

She led IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets initiative. Following a move to Hong Kong, she worked as a full-time consultant for SSM, engaging in research and project management, and representing IIED in Hong Kong and East Asia when required.

Current work

Emma is now based in Nairobi and is working on a number of IIED projects focusing on East Africa including sector governance (Sustainable Food Lab), Fairness in the tea sector (Fairtrade and Malawi 2020) and ESRC-funded research into the role of Chinese players, informality and sector governance in shaping the sustainability of African cotton sectors.

She is also engaged in a four-year (ILRI and Gates) project to explore the enablers of, and constraints to, the inclusive formalisation of dairy traders in Kenya, Tanzania and India.