The Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry
YALE FOREST FORUM LEADERSHIP SEMINAR
Speaker Biographies -- Spring 2009
Marsh Hall Rotunda, 360 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut
January 22, 2009
John Kakonge
Deputy Director, United Nations Development Programme
Over the last twenty-five years, Dr. John Kakonge has had a long and distinguished career with UNDP. For over thirteen years, he was a UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator, in Lesotho, Liberia, The Gambia and Rwanda. During his career, he has also worked for the UNDP in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Malawi, as well as at the organization's New York Headquarters.
Dr. Kakonge comes from Kenya, where he began his academic career with a degree in Geography Honors from the University of Nairobi. Since then he has gained a Ph.D. in African studies from Howard University, USA, and an M. Phil. from Cambridge University, UK. Dr. Kakonge was for some time a research fellow at Oxford University, where he did work on the environmental impact assessment of refugee projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was a Research Scholar at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 2005-2006. He is currently Senior Deputy Director at UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation.
Throughout his career, Dr. Kakonge has maintained a strong interest in environmental impact assessment and sustainable development issues. He has published and co-authored articles and book chapters relating to other environmental concerns, including traditional environmental approaches, trans-boundary environmental issues, and the application of chaos theory to environmental issues.
