Staff
Dr Richards
Technical Advisor/Senior Researcher
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Professional Career
Joanne wrote her PhD on demobilization and desertion in the Democratic Republic of Congo. During her doctoral candidacy she also worked as a consultant with the Small Arms Survey in Geneva, and as an intern with the DDR section of UNDP in Goma, North Kivu. Joanne has conducted over one hundred interviews with former members of militia and rebel groups in the DRC, and has conducted additional fieldwork in Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste. Since joining BICC, her focus has broadened to include small arms control in the Sahel region, and Countering Violent Extremism in Somalia. She is also currently seconded as a Technical Advisor to the African Union Defense and Security Division.
Publications
The evolving nature of DDR. Study on engaging armed groups across the peace continuum
UN Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI) & BICC (2021)
OpenTowards a continental strategy for countering violent extremism in Africa. In Global Peace Operations Review.
(2016)
OpenImplementing DDR in settings of ongoing conflict: The organization and fragmentation of armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
(2016)
OpenMatching needs and resources: Small arms control initiatives in the Greater Sahel, 2015–2016
BICC , Bonn (2016)
OpenAn institutional history of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). (CCDP Working Paper series No. 10).
Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding , Geneva, Switzerland (2015)
OpenForced, coerced, and voluntary recruitment into rebel and militia groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Cambridge University Press , Cambridge (2014)
OpenDDR in the DRC: The impact of command and control.
United States Institute of Peace , Washington, DC (2013)
OpenDemobilization in the DRC: Armed groups and the role of organizational control (Armed Actors Issue Brief series No. 1).
Small Arms Survey , Geneva, Switzerland (2013)
Open