Yvonne Githiora

Yvonne is a project assistant in the Development Corridors Partnership project in Kenya where she supports administrative and research functions at the University of Nairobi. Yvonne has several years’ experience in environment, climate change and policy research as well as programme administration. She has previously worked in capacity building and programme administration at Act, Change Transform (Act!), specifically supporting implementing partners working on mainstreaming climate change into county policies and processes. She has also engaged in multi-disciplinary policy research in the environment and agricultural sectors at the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPRA), and has been involved in a number of short term research studies on climate change vulnerability and ecosystem services in South Africa and Namibia.

Yvonne’s main research interests are in water and ecosystem services, and how scientific information can be used to inform development planning and processes. She is currently a PhD student at the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation at the University of Nairobi where her research focuses on participatory modelling of the impacts of changes in land use and climate in Yala Wetland, Western Kenya.  She holds an M.Sc. degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Cape Town, and a B.Sc. degree in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.