Dr. Oliver Vivian Wasonga is a Dryland Ecologist with a specialization in Range Management and Pastoral Production Systems, and over 20 years of experience in work related to Sustainable Dryland Resource Management, Climate Change Adaptation, and Pastoral Livelihoods. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology (LARMAT) at the University of Nairobi . During 2011- 2014, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the German Institute for Tropical and Sub-Tropical Agriculture (DITSL) at the University of Kassel in Witzenhausen, Germany. In addition to teaching, he has supervised eleven (11) Ph.D. and fifteen (15) MSc students to completion, and currently supervising eight (7) Ph.D. and seven (6) MSc. students. He chairs the Faculty Graduate Studies Committee, and is the immediate former chair of the Faculty Timetabling Committee, and represents the University of Nairobi in the ARUA Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems Management Committee (MANCO).
He has been leading the following current and previous research projects at the University of Nairobi: i) Drought Resilience In East African dryland Regions (DRIER) project, funded by the Royal Society, UK (On-going); ii) Translation of climate information into multilevel decision support for social adaptation, policy development, and resilience to water scarcity in the Horn of Africa Drylands (DOWN2EARTH), funded by EU (On-going); iii) Climate Resilient Development Pathways for Semi-Arid Regions of Africa and Asia (CRDP-SAR) Project, funded by IDRC (On-going); iv) International Virtual Course (IVC): Tackling Climate Change through Global Learning, funded by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland (On-going); v) Economic Valuation of Sustainable Rangeland Management Practices in Northern Kenya, funded by EU& GIZ; vi) Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) funded by IDRC and DFID; vii) Fodder Production for Enhanced Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Resilience in the Drylands of Kenya (PREPARED), funded by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM); viii) Assessing the Role of Stratified Livestock Production in Reduction of Post-Harvest Losses in Pastoral meat Value Chain in Kenya, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); ix) Role of Livestock Marketing Associations in Pastoral Meat value chain, funded by BMBF; x) Foundations for climate-resilient and sustainable growing settlements (U-RES), funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF); and xi) Re-Packing Indigenous Knowledge to Inform Policy, Development, and Pastoral Community Action in Kenya (PIK), funded by the Christensen Fund.
He serves as a reviewer in 12 peer-refereed Journals (mainly Elsevier and Springer), and as an editor in three of them. Dr. Wasonga’s other experiences include consultancies with several international and national organizations such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, UNDP, WFP, GAIN, FAO, ILRI, IUCN, IIED, AU-IBAR, IGAD/ICPAC; IGAD/ICPALD; AWF/KWS, National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), AMREF, ACF, NCCK, GIZ, MS-TCDC-Action Aid, CORDAID-Netherlands, IFAW, CARE-Tanzania, VSF-Belgium, among others. He has published in diverse areas including rangeland ecology, pastoral livelihoods, climate change adaptation, natural resource management, and indigenous knowledge.
