Patient Mulumeoderhwa Polepole is a researcher in development studies - applied political and social sciences, since 2011. Now he is doctoral researcher in political and social sciences at the Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies (IACCHOS), at the Center for Development Studies (DVLP) of UCLouvain. He is also Assitant lecture at the Institut Supérieur de Développement Rural (ISDR-Bukavu) and fomer Program Manager at Angaza Institute (Conflict Analysis and Governance Research Centre). Her research focuses on autonomous and semi-autonomous public authority, gender, resistance and political ecology in rural and urban areas - remote or interdependent. His past work, mainly in DR Congo and Cameroon, in Gabon, Rwanda and Burundi to a lesser extent, has covered the areas of sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, land security, climate change and livelihoods, social protection, human rights and women's access to decision-making bodies, as well as research ethics. Her doctoral research focuses on “Customary power, patriarchy, gender peripheralization and struggles over access to natural resources in Africa: Understanding the evolution of practices in women's access to land in Eastern DR Congo”. Polepole received the distinction of Major of the 2017 promotion in tropical ecology as part of the Field School in Tropical Ecology (ECOTROP), in Gabon.