Irene Karani
Director, Climate - Africa
Irene has over 28 years of experience in environment, natural resource, climate change, and monitoring and evaluation in over 13 countries in Africa. Irene has been an educator, teaching natural resource management disciplines in Kenyan public and private universities. She has developed and implemented various programmes and projects in climate, conservation, development and humanitarian sectors in non-governmental organisations, and has provided management consultancy services to African governments, bilateral, multilateral, civil society and private sector clients in Africa, Europe and the United States. She has also published papers and articles related to climate change, the measurement of resilience, and contributed to discussions seeking African solutions to climate at national, regional and international forums.
Irene holds an M.Phil in Wildlife Management from Moi University, Kenya and is currently pursuing her PhD in Climate Change Adaptation at the University of Nairobi. She also worked with the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya as the Programme Officer, managing youth environmental education programmes in Kenya. She thereafter joined Practical Action formerly known as ITDG-EA (Intermediate Technology Development Group) as the Pastoralist Project Manager.
Irene’s career as a management consultant began at Acacia Consultants Ltd. as the Rural Development Consultant, then as a Partner and Senior Consultant at Kesarine and Associates, and a Director of LTS Africa, a subsidiary of LTS International based in Scotland, UK. LTS later merged with the Niras Group based in Denmark and she became the first Niras Africa Head Office Director, where she managed seven Niras country offices in Africa.