In the July edition of the ezine MOSAICQUE, we are featuring 4 Young Leaders from Africa, Europe and Latin America.  They are:

1) Dr. Kimani Munji, a Plant Breeder and Geneticist for Cereals and Legumes at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Mwea-Tebere. CURRENTLY at the International Cooperation Center for Agricultural Education (ICCAE), Nagoya University-Japan, as a Visiting Research Fellow for Cold Tolerance MAS Rice Breeding for its Adaptation Alignment to Current and Future Climate Change & Variability Scenarios, in order to Meet Future Food and Nutritional Security in Kenya and the Region.

He specializes in adaptation of crops to local production conditions and resilient to climate change and variability in order to meet sustainable food and nutritional security, while conserving the natural resource base.

2) Engr. Christopher Oluwakunmi AKINBILE Ph.D (Ibadan), Department of Agricultural Engineering,  & Associate Director, Entrepreneurship Centre for Entrepreneurship and Gender Issues in Science and Technology (CEGIST), Federal University of Technology, NIGERIA.

 

He is a member of many professional associations such as the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), registered member of Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE), American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and Fellow of African Technology Policy Strategy Network (ATPS) based in Nairobi, Kenya. He has published over forty articles in international peer-reviewed journals and attended over 27 international conferences. He has won several awards and fellowships at various times. He won the award of outstanding presentation at the first African Regional Conference on Drainage (ARCOD) in Egypt in 2004, Our Common Future (OCF) fellow 2010 by Volkswagen Foundation, Germany for partaking in the global discourse in the ‘facing climate change’ and Third World Academy of Science (TWAS) post doctoral fellowship at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Penang, Malaysia from August, 2010 through September, 2011.       

3) Alex Simalabwi, Senior Network Officer & Climate Change Focal Point, Coordinator-Water Climate Development Programme for Africa at Global Water Partnership (GWP). He is a water resources expert with extensive experience in IWRM planning, WRM, Climate Change and multistakeholder processes. He coordinates GWP’s global work on climate change and leads GWP’s contributions in global climate policy discourse.  

He is the coordinator of GWP’s Joint programme with the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW)-the Water Climate Development Program for Africa (WACDEP). He supports GWP regional partnerships in Eastern Africa, Southern Africa and the Caribbean. He has worked with several African governments providing strategic advice on the integration of water in national development plans.

 4) Dr. Oswaldo Lucon, on the MOSAICQUE's Board of Director writes a critique about the recent Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. He writes this article in assistance with two brilliant students Rodrigo Messias & Ana Maria Baccarin of International Relations working as trainee at the Foreign Affairs Advisory of the Secretariat for the Environment of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Dr. Lucon  is a senior adviser on Energy and Climate Change Policies to the São Paulo State Government, Brazil. He authored the São Paulo Climate Change Policy, the first law in the developing world to have a mandatory, economy-wide and absolute CO2 emission reduction target. Co-author of the book Energy, Environment and Development, he has several published international papers. Dr. Lucon is since 1994 a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, having coordinated the 2006 Emission Inventory Guidelines (Energy), the Special Report on Renewable Energy (Sustainable Development) and presently coordinating the Fifth Assessment Report (Buildings).

Please visit www.futureyoungleaders.org to read the articles