Jackson Wachira

Training

Wachira completed his Bachelor’s (B.Sc. in Disaster Management and International Diplomacy) at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology and Master’s (MA in Disasters, Adaptation and Development) at King’s College London, UK. Wachira is currently completing his PhD studies in Climate Change and Adaptation at the University of Nairobi. He has undertaken independent but collaborative research on and control and how they interplay with pastoralists’ Climate Change adaptation. This research is part of a wider research project bringing together five research institutions from Kenya and Denmark (University of Nairobi, University of Copenhagen, University of Roskilde, Danish Institute for International Studies and ILRI). From this work, Jackson has produced a working paper on the interplay between large-scale land acquisition and pastoralists’ climate change adaptation and two journal articles in high-impact Journals (one submitted and the other one under review)

Career

Previously, Wachira worked as a Cluster Manager for Food for the Hungry’s (FH Kenya) North Horr region where he provided overall oversight to a multi-year humanitarian and development program between 2017 and 2019. Before then, he had been responsible for coordinating a 2-year USAID/OFDA-funded multi-sectoral resilience project implemented by FH Kenya through two local partners (Caritas Marsabit and PACIDA) across the entire Marsabit County. Between 2012 and 2015, Wachira worked as a Junior Community Development and DRR Consultant for Rural Focus Ltd. Here, he provided technical and professional inputs to and management of projects concerning: Disaster Risk Reduction, Private Water Operator Contracts; Training and capacity building for Natural Resource Management Committees; design of climate change adaptation projects, Community Engagement and Liaison. He also worked as a Graduate Research Assistant with the Centre for Training and Integrated Research in ASAL Development (CETRAD) between 2011 and 2012.

Research Interests

Wachira has research interests in rural development, with a particular bias toward pastoralism and agro-pastoralism. His current research focuses on the interplays between land control and climate change adaptation, and he has a wider research interest in conservation, and green energy among other large-scale land control imperatives. For this, he applied critical theories to understand how differentiated access to resources, power, networks and other dynamics such as gender, age and wealth influence adaptation and livelihood outcomes.