Dr. Samuel Ochola

Dr. Samuel O. Ochola holds a Dr. rer. nat. (MAGNA CUM LAUDE) in Geosciences from the University of Heidelberg – Germany. His doctoral work was on integrated flood risk management highlighting options for land-use planning at river basin level. He holds a M.Sc. in Geological Risks and Management from the University of Geneva – Switzerland, M.Sc. in Environmental Geology and Management from the University of Nairobi – Kenya with a dissertation on measurement of greenhouse gases’ (CH4 and CO2) emissions in Kenyan lakes and wetlands and a B.Sc. in Geology (First Class Honours) from the University of Nairobi. He further built his capacity at several international courses notably Water and Sanitation, Disaster Resilience, Resources Management and Climate Change at the Centre of Excellence for Water and Environment (CAS-TWAS CEWE), Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China; Disaster Risk Management Course at the World Bank e-Institute for Development, Facilitating Multi-Actor Collaboration for Sustainable Resources Management at HUBrussels University in Belgium, Advanced Study of Disaster and Risk 2009 Summer Institute at Beijing Normal University, METIER (METhods of Interdisciplinary Environmental Research) at Wageningen University and Multidisciplinary Tropical Lakes Studies with the University of Arizona. He has experience in project monitoring and evaluation, participatory work at all levels, environmental assessment and reporting.

He is an expert on climate change and variability, disaster resilience, facilitation of technical workshops/meetings at regional, national and community level with great emphasis on participatory and multi-stakeholder approaches. He has research interests on the nexus between Climate-Disasters-Livelihoods and Food-Energy-Water. He is skilled in the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He has been a consultant severally for many organisations: USAID – Africa Lead/DAI, UNEP-Division of Early Warning; IUCN-ESSIPS, Renewable Energy Solutions for the Lake Victoria Environment (RESOLVE); DFID/Ukaid’s Finance Innovation for Climate Change Fund (FICCF); African Collaborative Centre for Earth Systems Science (ACCESS); Century Microfinance Bank; Inuka MFI Ltd; K-Rep Microfinance Bank; African Union – Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR); Training Centre in Communication; and Development Alternatives Inc., (DAI).

He was a Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) for chapter 3: Sustainable Natural Resources Management in writing Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture’s 2019-2029 He has facilitated several meetings: Chief Rapporteur for the 1st All-Africa Postharvest Congress & Exhibition 2017, Rapporteur for USAID Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth Learning Event; Chief Rapporteur – Ministry of Agriculture’s Youth in Agribusiness Conference 2017, USAID Regional Livestock Trade Stakeholders’ Workshop for Eastern Africa, the 11th World Lakes Conference; Pan- Africa START Secretariat (START)’s Multidisciplinary Lake Victoria Training Programme; and Climate- Smart Agriculture with value chain analysis for community and farmer-based development. He developed training modules on Climate-Smart Dairy/Indigenous chicken/Sorghum/Cassava Production training manuals. He has also presented papers and participated in key international, regional and local conferences and workshops. He participated in the crafting of African position paper at the Lilongwe meeting on Bio-carbon in Agriculture, and was a member of Thematic Working Group 4: National Appropriate Mitigation and Adaptation that developed Kenya’s 2013- 1017 Climate Change Action Plan, He was a lead author of Chapter 3: Climate Change, Kenya’s State of the Environment Report and Outlook 2010 and a Lead Author of the Kenya Wetlands Atlas 2012 both under UNEP-DEWA. He has written a book on flood risk management, book chapters on ICT use in the water sector in the wake of climate change in Africa with IDRC, lightning risk in Kenya, journal papers, 9 briefing papers and several reports.