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Xiaoxue Weng
Researcher, Natural Resources
Xiaoxue Weng's research focus on natural resources governance, the informal economy and the evolving role of Chinese and other emerging market players in Africa. As a part of her work, she engages closely with Chinese and African policymakers in the natural resource sector as well as Chinese, African and international civil society organisations. She builds partnerships in China, Africa and Europe for IIED's work on Chinese overseas investment in the global South.
Natural resource governance; forests; informal economy; Chinese investments in Africa's land-use sectors; China's overseas investment policy framework.
- Conducts research and policy engagement for the China-Africa Forest Governance Project, examining Chinese investments in the forestry and other land-use sectors that affect Africa's forests in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Uganda
- Leads the Africa-China Informal Resources Trade (PDF) research project examining the role of small-scale Chinese investment in Africa's informal economy. The research focuses on the social and environmental implications of Chinese investments and trade in informal agriculture, mining and timber trade in Eastern and South-east Africa. Watch a short video here.
- Other research work related to China's role in Africa’s economic development
- Consultant, China-Africa project, CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research)
- CSR specialist, ECOLOGIA
Education:
- MSc in Environmental Change and Management, University of Oxford; BA in International Politics and Economics, Middlebury College
English, Mandarin Chinese (native), Japanese (native), Spanish (beginner) and German (beginner)
Xiaoxue Weng's blog posts
Photo story focuses on making cotton policies work for small farmers in Zambia
A photo story on tackling illegal logging in Zambia's forests explores how the lives of villagers are affected
Can Chinese business engagement ensure sustainability and benefit the poor? Our research suggests complex factors shape their operations – of which Chinese policies play only a minor role.
Understanding Africa's burgeoning informal economy – where rural communities make their living by working with/for small-scale Chinese businesses in natural resources extraction and production – is critical for assessing China's impacts on the continent and designing policies that work for the rural poor in Africa.
Chinese journalists rarely report from Africa. As a result, the Chinese public knows little about the continent – and even less about the environmental and development challenges associated with Chinese investment and consumption decisions.