Kenya's Rural Women: Sustainability, Climate Change and Arid Lands Challenges

A lecture by Dr. Agnes Wakesho Mwang’ombe
Director of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Foundation Nairobi, Kenya

Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 4 p.m.

Co-sponsored by Wheelock College and the Colleges of the Fenway Environmental Science Program

Dr. Agnes Wakesho Mwang'ombe, feminist, scholar and activist, is Principal of the University of Nairobi College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences. She is also the founder of the Kenya-based non-governmental organization (NGO) the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Foundation (ASALFO) in 2000, and serves as its director. Trained as a botanist, her scientific research is in plant pathology, agricultural development and arid lands sustainability.

She has published in numerous scientific journals, including the Kenya Journal of Sciences, European Journal of Plant Pathology and the East African Agriculture and Forestry Journal. She has served as officer, director, and board member of many Kenyan and African professional societies and organizations, including the Kenya Professional Association of Women in Agriculture and Environment (KEPAWAE), of which she was its first chairperson.

She also serves as consultant to NGOs related to agriculture technology transfer, higher education program development and access, climate change in Africa, AIDS and its impact on agriculture and indigenous farming initiatives. She is particularly interested in connecting women's issues—higher education access, health and welfare—with development and sustainability issues.