Mithika Mwenda

Last updated
Joseph Mithika Mwenda
Executive Director of Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance
Personal details
Born
Joseph Mithika Mwenda [1]

(1973-02-27) February 27, 1973 (age 51)
Meru County, Kenya
Alma mater Moi University [2]
OccupationClimate Advocate, Politician
ProfessionClimate Advocate
Website www.pacja.org

Joseph Mithika Mwenda, commonly known as Mithika Mwenda (February 27, 1973), is the Kenyan-born co-founder of the African climate change activism organisation Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). [3] He has been a climate advocate for over 10 years. [4] [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Mithika Mwenda was born in 1973 in Meru County, Kenya. Mwenda studied Education [6] at Moi University [7] where he was a student leader, before attending Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and earning a Master of Science in public policy analysis.[ citation needed ] As of 2020, Mwenda was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, School of Governance. [8] He also represents the African civil society in the committee of the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, [9] and also chairs the Collaboration Platform of Climate Research for Development in Africa. [10]

Pan African Climate Justice Alliance

Mwenda has been the executive director for Pan African Climate Justice Alliance for more than 10 years. [3] He has experience as a climate change policy advocate and was named one of the most influential people in Climate Change Policy in 2019. [5] Previously, Mwenda worked as a climate change officer with All Africa Conference Churches and Climate Network Africa. [11] Before this, he worked and volunteered in numerous governance and human rights, as well as democracy organisations in Kenya. He was a co-convener of the National Convention Executive Council in the 2000s, which influenced the 2010 draft of the Constitution of Kenya.

Notable events

Mwenda was feted for climate policy activism, [12] and represents civil society in the steering committee of Africa's flagship climate policy and practice coordination platform, ClimDev-Africa, [13] spearheaded by the African Union Commission, African Development Bank and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). He chairs Institutional Collaboration Platform Climate Research for Development in Africa, [14] run by World Meteorological Organisation, Global Framework for Climate Services, African Union and UNECA. Mwenda has advocated for accelerated implementation of the Paris Agreement, and has made that a focus at PACJA. He also helped establish the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA), to promote the shift to renewable energy, and to ensure the African Renewable Energy Initiative delivers clean energy to poor communities. [15] Under the African Climate Legislation Initiative, PACJA works with Pan African Parliament and other parliamentary institutions to drive climate laws to make climate change prevention part of national development policy. [16] [17]

Awards

Mwenda's efforts as a climate change activist have been recognised for influencing climate change policies in Kenya and other African countries. [18] As PACJA executive director, Mithika Mwenda was selected for the Sierra Club's Earth Care Award 2019 [19] for his contribution to international environmental protection and conservation. [20] [21] In 2019 and again in 2022 [22] , he was named among 100 most influential people in climate change policy in the world by Apolitical.co. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uhuru Kenyatta</span> President of Kenya from 2013 to 2022

Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. The son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, he previously served as Deputy Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Nairobi</span> Public university in Nairobi, Kenya

The University of Nairobi is a collegiate research university based in Nairobi and is the largest university in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dates back to 1956, it did not become an independent university until 1970. During that year, the University of East Africa was split into three independent universities: the Makerere University in Uganda, the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

Geoffrey William Griffin OBE was the founding director of Starehe Boys' Centre and School in Kenya. He founded the centre in November, 1959 with the help of Geoffrey Gatama Geturo and Joseph Kamiru Gikubu. He was director of the centre from its founding to his death in 2005. He was also the founding director of the National Youth Service between 1964 and 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Saitoti</span> 6th Vice President of Kenya

George Musengi Saitoti, E.G.H. was a Kenyan politician, businessman and American- and British-trained economist, mathematician and development policy thinker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Michuki</span> Kenyan politician and businessman

John Njoroge Michuki was a Kenyan politician and businessman. He was born at Muguru, village, Iyego Location, Kangema Division in Murang’a District. He was educated in Kenya and abroad. Michuki emerged as one of the prominent and long-serving civil servants and politicians as well as a businessman in Kenya. Michuki served Kenya in various capacities, including Permanent Secretary in the Finance Ministry, Chairman of the Kenya Commercial Bank, Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He was serving his 4th five-year term as a Member of Parliament for Kangema Constituency. Michuki had a reputation as a "ruthless" and efficient manager, and was widely acknowledged as among the best performing ministers in President Kibaki's Government. He was serving as the Minister for Environment and National Resources at the time of his death.

Simeon Nyachae was a Kenyan politician, government minister, and businessman from Kisii County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mo Ibrahim</span> Sudanese-British businessman (born 1946)

Sir Mohammed Fathi Ahmed Ibrahim is a Sudanese-British billionaire businessman. He worked for several telecommunications companies, before founding Celtel, which, when sold, had over 24 million mobile phone subscribers in 14 African countries. After selling Celtel in 2005 for $3.4 billion, he set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to encourage better governance in Africa, as well as creating the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, to evaluate nations' performance. He is also a member of the Africa regional advisory board of London Business School.

The United Nations Office at Nairobi in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is one of four major United Nations office sites where numerous different UN agencies have a joint presence. Established in 1996, it is the UN's official headquarters in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K M Baharul Islam</span>

K M Baharul Islam is presently the Chairperson of Centre of Excellence in Public Policy and Government at Indian Institute of Management Kashipur. He served as the Dean (Academics) during 2019-2021 at the same institute. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland on 18 March 2020. Since October 2021, he is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renewable energy in Kenya</span>

Most of Kenya's electricity is generated by renewable energy sources. Access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy is one of the 17 main goals of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Development of the energy sector is also critical to help Kenya achieve the goals in Kenya Vision 2030 to become a newly industrializing, middle-income country. With an installed power capacity of 2,819 MW, Kenya currently generates 826 MW hydroelectric power, 828 geothermal power, 749 MW thermal power, 331 MW wind power, and the rest from solar and biomass sources. Kenya is the largest geothermal energy producer in Africa and also has the largest wind farm on the continent. In March 2011, Kenya opened Africa's first carbon exchange to promote investments in renewable energy projects. Kenya has also been selected as a pilot country under the Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Programmes in Low Income Countries Programme to increase deployment of renewable energy solutions in low-income countries. Despite significant strides in renewable energy development, about a quarter of the Kenyan population still lacks access to electricity, necessitating policy changes to diversify the energy generation mix and promote public-private partnerships for financing renewable energy projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatima Denton</span> The Co-ordinator for the African Climate Policy Centre

Fatima Denton is a British-Gambian climatologist. She is the director at the Ghanaian branch of the United Nations University, at the UNU Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) in Accra. She focuses on innovation, science, technology and natural resource management. She partners with countries such as Benin and Liberia to develop and implement country needs assessment missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vanessa Nakate</span> Ugandan climate activist (born 1996)

Vanessa Nakate is an Ugandan climate justice activist. She gained international recognition for her climate activism in Uganda, where she began a solitary climate strike in January 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Wathuti</span> Kenyan environmental activist (born 1995)

Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti is a Kenyan environment and climate activist and founder of the Green Generation Initiative, which nurtures young people to love nature and be environmentally conscious at a young age and has now planted 30,000 tree seedlings in Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durwood Zaelke</span> American environmentalist

Durwood Zaelke is an American environmental litigator, professor, author, and advocate. As President and founder of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) in Washington, D.C., and Paris, he currently focuses on fast mitigation strategies to protect the climate, including strategies to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, in the context of the need for speed to limit anthropogenic warming to 1.5 °C.

Titilope Gbemisola Akosa, popularly known as Titilope Akosa, is a Nigerian environmentalist, climate justice advocate, lawyer, gender and social inclusive expert, and human rights activist. She is the founder and executive director for the non-governmental sustainability organization Centre for 21st Century Issues (C21st). She heads the law firm Titi Akosa & Co Nigeria. In 2015, she was the spokesperson for women and gender non-governmental organizations at the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty on the topic 'Towards a Gender Responsive Green climate fund in Africa'.

Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) is a network of more than 1000 organisations from 48 countries in Africa. It is based in Kenya and consists of NGOs, grassroots organisations, trusts, foundations, indigenous communities, farmers, community-based organisations, and religious organisations. It advocates for climate and environmental justice and it is a people-centered consortium. It was co-founded by climate activists Augustine B Njamnshi and Mithika Mwenda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaluki Paul Mutuku</span> Kenyan environment and climate activist

Kaluki Paul Mutuku is a Kenyan climate activist and environmentalist, working to improve youth participation in decision-making around climate justice. He is the co-founder of Kenya Environmental Activists Network (KEAN); KEAN is a NGO that provides a platform that will bring together environmental activists. His center of attention for Africa lies around environmental rejuvenation, afforestation, organic farming and youth leadership across boards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Mtai</span> Climate activist

Kevin Mtai(from Soy, Kenya) is a Kenya climate justice activist and environmentalist. A Former event coordinator at MockCop26. He is a Co-Founder and Director of Global Development for Earth Uprising International Earth Uprising where he has been advocating for climate education in Kenya and Africa. He is a member of Loss and Damage Youth Coalition and he has advocated for the conservation of Nairobi National Park. Mtai is an organiser at Climate Live which uses music concerts to raise awareness and educate people about climate change. Mtai has also been a campaigner for Food@COP.

In this article, NGOs in West Africa will be divided into three categories: African national NGOs, African international NGOs, and non-African international NGOs. NGOs stand for non-governmental organizations. These organizations are mostly non-profit and mostly work independently from the government, they have specific aims that range from human rights, finance, health, education and more. There are many non-governmental organizations in West Africa, and much activity between these countries, organizations and the rest of the world.

African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) was established as an important aspect of knowledge generation on climate change in Africa for the Climate for Development (ClimDev) Africa Programme. ACPC has two overall aims; contributing to poverty alleviation through efficient mitigation and adaptation to climate change in Africa and improving the capacity of African countries to be able effectively take part in multilateral climate negotiations.

References

  1. "PACJA |Governance & Structure". www.pacja.org.
  2. "Welcome|Moi University".
  3. 1 2 "PACJA | Welcome". www.pacja.org.
  4. "ESIPISU: Cereals are no 'food' for starving Turkana, help them". Daily Nation. 4 July 2020.
  5. 1 2 "Mithika Mwenda, 99 others named in 'most influential people in Climate Change Policy 2019'". March 20, 2019.
  6. "Mithika on ClimDev - PACJA - Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance". 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
  7. Onyango, Protus. "Kenyan in world's 100 powerful climate change ambassadors". The Standard.
  8. "Mithika on ClimDev - PACJA - Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance". 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
  9. "Kenya Forest Carbon Partnership Facility REDD+ Readiness Project". UNDP in Kenya.
  10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "Home". All Africa Conference of Churches.
  12. Otieno, Lynet. "Kenya's climate justice activist wins". The Standard.
  13. "Africa's top environment and climate change journalists honoured at climate conference | ClimDev-Africa". www.climdev-africa.org.
  14. "Speakers". Financing The Future.
  15. "Joint CSO Statement for EU-Africa Summit towards a Green and Equitable EU-Africa Partnership".
  16. "PACJA Trains PAP Members on NDC Tracking Tool".
  17. "Top conservationist calls on women to lead in tree planting". The Star. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  18. App, Daily Nation (28 June 2020). "Climate change activist wins global award". mobile.nation.co.ke.
  19. "Sierra Club Announces 2019 National Award Winners". Sierra Club. September 16, 2019.
  20. "Kenyan receives prestigious environmental conservation award". Capital News. June 27, 2019.
  21. "Yet another award for Kenyan Climate activist Mithika Mwenda – Kass Media Group".
  22. "Mithika Mwenda is once again among top 100 most influential people in the World".
  23. pm, Emmanuel Githuku on 21 March 2019-7:04. "Kenyan Activist Named Among 100 Most Influential in the World". Kenyans.co.ke.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)