Mulumeoderhwa Polepole is a researcher specialising in political and social sciences with a particular focus on development studies, a field in which he has been engaged since 2011. He is currently engaged in doctoral research in political and social sciences at the Institute for the Analysis of Change in Historical and Contemporary Societies (IACCHOS), within its Centre for Development Studies (DVLP) at UCLouvain. Additionally, he is a lecturer at the Institut Supérieur de Développement Rural (ISDR-Bukavu) and a research fellow at Angaza Institute (Conflict Analysis and Governance Research Centre) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). His research interests encompass autonomous and semi-autonomous public authority, gender struggles, resistance, and political ecology in rural and urban areas, including both remote and interdependent contexts. His previous research, conducted primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, with lesser emphasis on Gabon, Rwanda, and Burundi, has encompassed a range of interrelated fields, including sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, land tenure security, climate change and livelihoods, social protection, human rights, and women's access to decision-making bodies. Additionally, his research has addressed the ethical considerations inherent to the conduct of scientific inquiry. His doctoral research is centred on the nexus of customary power and gender struggles in access to natural resources in Africa, with a particular focus on the evolution of women's land access practices in Eastern DRC. Polepole was awarded the distinction of top of the 2017 cohort in tropical ecology as part of the Field School in Tropical Ecology (ECOTROP) in Gabon.
