Dr Francesca Marzatico - MRSNZ, PhD (Naples), MASt – DEA (Salamanca), LLM (Hons)(Naples), LLB-Grado (Hons)(Salamanca)
Dr Francesca Marzatico joined the University of Otago in November 2021 as a Land Tenure and Land Administration lecturer, after more than 20 years spent working in post-conflict and countries in transition on human rights, natural resources governance, indigenous people’s land rights and traditional governance.
She has worked for several United Nations (UN) agencies (UNFAO, UNDP, UNHABITAT, IOM), multilateral development banks (ADB and WB) and non-governmental organisations, in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, providing technical advice to governments and international organisations on planning, policy-making and legislative development to enhance land governance and participation of indigenous people to the decision-making.
Her research focuses on inclusive land governance through the engagement of indigenous communities in decision-making regarding their land and the inclusive participation of women, youth, and other vulnerable groups in decision-making on the land. She also researches the relationship between land, natural resources and traditional governance.
Francesca is member of several national and international networks, including the Academic Council of the United Nations System, the Pacific Resilience Partnership (PRP)’s Technical Working Group on Human Mobility, the International Federation of Surveyors Commission VII Working Group on Women’s Land Rights, the Royal Society the Apārangi in Aotearoa, Survey + Spatial New Zealand.
Francesca obtained her Laurea (LLM) in Law in 2000 and her PhD in Philosophy of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in 2004 from the University of Naples “Federico II”. Francesca moved to Aotearoa in 2019. She speaks several languages and she is now learning Te Reo and Tikanga Māori.
