ARUA-CD Researcher Attends 65th Session of the African Studies Association Conference

ARUA-CD affiliated researcher, Prof George Odera-Outa, hosted a panel based on the, “The Sustainability Transitions Debate: Requisite Reforms and Innovations for Africa” at the  65th session of the African Studies Association (ASA) Conference in the Pennsylvania, USA.

Prof George Odera-Outa, an ARUA-CD affiliated researcher attended the  65^th session of the African Studies Association (ASA) Conference held in the historic City of Philadelphia, USA, from November 15-21, 2022. The ASA is one of the largest  single annual gathering of scholars who are either studying or simply interested in developments within the wider continent of Africa and its diaspora domiciled in various continents. The mission to the conference was generously supported by a grant from a project entitled, “ARUA CD: Building African capacity  for climate and  Development challenges.”

At the ASA 2022: From Left, Prof James Ogude (UP), Prof Outa and Prof Simon Gikandi (Princeton)

“The ASA is a global show case of Africa’s knowledge bases” remarked Prof Outa, further stating that “the large global conference every year presents an opportunity to hear Africa being analysed, dissected, and interrogated from hundreds of perspectives. It is an excellent forum at which as Africa-based scholars, we can build bridges and connections with the African scholarly community from all over the world”

At the conference, Prof Outa hosted a panel based on the, “The Sustainability Transitions Debate: Requisite Reforms and Innovations for Africa” which reviewed and analysed the stormy question of sustainability in the African continent. The paper proposes the adoption of “an economy-wide and regional approach” as opposed to earlier analyses which have tended to focus more on specific sectors and geographic areas at national and sub-national levels. The discussion paper was jointly drafted with Mr Ojijo Odhiambo (Economic Advisor for Zimbabwe and Regional Support, based in Harare, Zimbabwe) and Mr Tinashe Magane, a freelance Economist). At the ASA 2022, Prof Outa also participated in the launch session of the recently published, Environmental Humanities of Extraction in Africa (Ogude and Tafadzwa (eds, Routledge London 2022), in which  he has contributed a chapter on, “International Environment Law, the Humanities Nexus  and some reflections on Creative legal solutions.”

Prof Outa is presently at the Centre for Science, Technology and Society Studies of the Technical University of Kenya and immediately before, at the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Nairobi where together with colleagues from the University of Cape Town and University of Ghana, pioneered the ongoing ARUA CD research project on, Transforming Social Inequalities Through Inclusive Climate Action (TSITICA).

By: Prof George Outa and Dr Michelle Shields