Lead City University has secured three hundred and twenty-five thousand, eight hundred and seventy-six Canadian dollars out of the five million Canadian dollars grant for the 16 institutions in Africa for the Pioneering Climate Adaptation Resilience (CLARE) project.
The Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management, Prof. Grace Oloukoi, secured the grant for the institution.
Oloukoi, who disclosed this at a press conference held at the International Conference Centre of the Institution in Ibadan, said that CLARE, a UK-Canada framework research programme, is being funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (UK-FCDO) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
She stated that Lead City University, one of the beneficiaries of the grant, would provide institutional support for the implementation of the project titled “A Pan-African and Trans-disciplinary Lens on the Margins: Tackling the Risks of Extreme Events (PALM-TREEs)’.
This project, according to her, will foster the global visibility of faculty members of Lead City University, Nigeria’’
According to her, “Palm-Trees is being implemented in six countries—Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, and the DR Congo—and 16 institutions across Africa and the United Kingdom, with the University of Cape Town as the lead organisation, where the Project Consortium Office is domiciled under the leadership of Prof. Abiodun Babatunde.
‘’Other partners include the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Lead City University, the University of Lagos, the University of Oxford, the UK Met Office, the University of Nairobi, Kwame University of Science and Technology, the Nigerian Institute for Social Economic Research (NISER), and the University of Yaoundé.
‘’The project emphasises life experiences, methodology, and the dynamics of indigenous knowledge to understand the dimensions of climate risks based on the complex social identities of the margins in local communities and to ensure inclusive adaptation policies in Africa’’.
“The project will deconstruct the dimensions of the impacts of these extremes on the livability, livelihoods, and well-being of the margins. The margins are the vulnerable—the population groups that lack representation or voice in climate adaptation discourse.
‘’These include the homeless, the elderly, the children, the women, the immigrants, and the physically challenged. The project also provides opportunities for early career scientists (ECS) who are being supported for their doctoral and postdoctoral research. Oloukoi is also serving as the focal lead for gender and social inclusion for the Palm Trees project across Africa.
‘’The interconnected work packages for the Palm Trees project are social impacts of climate extremes; physical impacts of extreme events; climate resilient solutions; and capacity strengthening’’.
The project implementation, as disclosed by Oloukoi, has commenced, and it will run for 42 months, until January 2027.
In Nigeria, Oloukoi is working with her colleagues, Prof. Mayowa Fasona from the University of Lagos and Prof. Andrew Onwuemele from the Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER).
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