Our Planet with Anthony Mugo

  Consulting as an occupation remains poorly understood in Kenya beyond a few traditional professions such as medicine, law, accounting and human resources. For other professions, tertiary training programmes generally do not emphasise the possibility of their graduates starting their own practice in their areas of specialisation. This is even though some professions can offer vital capacities that are universally required and for which companies and individuals are willing to pay a premium to build. This situation makes it doubly difficult for those trained in some professions to package themselves as consultants. This is principally because there are very few or even non-existent tailored training programmes specifically for consulting, particularly in many non-traditional fields. For those who decide to navigate the murky waters and gain the requisite consulting skills through trial and error, the journey towards success can prove to be particularly arduous. Many get discour...

As the dust settles following the freezing of the activities of the United  States Agency for International Development (USAID) globally, work supporting climate change interventions, particularly Climate Smart Agriculture in developing regions of the world will face a serious setback. Most of this  work has been going on under the flagship USAID initiative known as Feed the Future (FTF). FTF was launched in 2010 by the United States Government and the Obama Administration to address global hunger and food insecurity. Divided opinion Opinion remains divided about the abruptness of the freeze, which will officially last for three months (90 days), and which was made on President Trump’s first day in office. The point of contention is whether it bodes well or ill for beneficiary countries. Those who support the move argue that for most developing countries, particularly those in Africa, including Kenya, still rely on donor aid for essential life support services – food prod...

The historic comeback by Donald Trump to the US Presidency, a country which is the world’s second largest source of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, after China, is a major potential setback for global efforts to combat climate change. Trump, whose climate scepticism is well known globally, adopted the mantra “drill baby drill,” while on the campaign trail. The implication is that he would remove any restrictions for drilling and use of fossil fuels in the US that have so far been justified on the basis of getting America to increase its share of renewable energy and, therefore, reduce emissions that are responsible for global warming. In effect, Trump was openly denying, as he has done in the past, the scientific evidence that the climate change being experienced today is the result of human activities. This despite indisputable proof by no other than the highly respected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that most GHGs emission is as a result of use non-renewable fossil...