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The phenomenal agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 – that the most vulnerable countries whose livelihoods have been crashed by climate change will receive special “loss and damage” funding – has opened a new frontier for understanding climate change and its impact on communities.
First, it has legitimised questions about beneficiaries of historical climate dividends who have fast tracked the destruction of the environment through industrialisation, warfare, and sustained Greenhouse emissions in the last century.
Second, the traditional approaches of mitigation and adaptation are no longer tenable in addressing the impact of climate change.
Most importantly, it means that the needs, vulnerability, and risks of each country will determine approaches to combating climate change. Africa has unique challenges and opportunities for combating climate change and addressing some of its impacts on African populations. Thus, any intervention on climate change in Africa should be welfare-focused and mediated by responsive legal frameworks and decentralised decision making.
This panel will offer an interface for critically discussing the vexed issues around climate finance, population science, community level needs, and macro and micro level governance that present both opportunities and threats to Africa’s 21st century needs.
This event is part of the African Leadership Centre's - Africa Week 2023 celebrations - taking place 6-10 March 2023.
This event is online only.
Speakers
Dr Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, Lecturer, University of St. Andrews
Dr Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood is a lecturer at the University of St. Andrews’ School of Geography & Sustainable Development in Scotland. Her work advances an interdisciplinary understanding of oceans’ sustainability, governance and criminality as a question of resource management, environmental justice, and the disproportionate effects of depleting marine resources on inequality, poverty, and insecurity.
She has extensive field research experience with strategic maritime stakeholders and West and Central African communities. Dr Okafor-Yarwood has contributed to high-level reports on ocean governance and security, gender and maritime security at the regional and global levels and published extensively on the blue economy, fisheries governance, marine pollution, maritime security and maritime boundary delineation.
Dr Okafor-Yarwood has a PhD in Leadership, Security and Development from King’s College London, an M.A. in Conflict, Security, and Development, a B.A. in International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, and a preparatory Diploma in Law.
Dr Theo Acheampong
Dr Theophilus Acheampong is an economist and political risk analyst with over ten years’ experience working on natural resource governance and public financial management issues. He has worked as an independent consultant on various global energy industry projects and providing economic analysis and market research covering frontier emerging markets. His areas of specialisation include energy policy formulation, taxation and investment analysis; the latter includes extractives fiscal regime design. Other areas include trade and investment promotion and financial analysis of public sector entities.
Dr Acheampong also specialises in analysing political and business risks in Sub-Saharan Africa. This includes producing forward-looking risk reports covering economic (sovereign, fiscal and monetary policy), legal (expropriation and contract risks) and operational risks (corruption and regulatory burden) for several global clients.
Dr Acheampong holds a PhD in economics and a Master of Science in petroleum, energy economics and finance from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He has over 70 research-based publications, including edited volumes, monographs, book chapters, refereed journal articles, and commissioned reports in various fields.
His recent co-edited book, Petroleum Resource Management in Africa: Examining the Lessons from Ten Years of Oil and Gas Production in Ghana (Palgrave McMillan, 2022), has received wide acclaim.
Rahma Hassan, PhD Fellow, University of Copenhagen and University of Nairobi
Rahma Hassan is a social economic researcher from Kenya and a PhD fellow from the University of Copenhagen and University of Nairobi. She has worked in social development research, in government and globally on research on health, gender, and governance.
Currently, she is researching community land rights and resilience among pastoralist’s communities in Kenya. Rahma holds a Master of Arts degree from University Nairobi (Institute for Development Studies) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Nairobi, Department of Sociology and Social Work.