Our Team

John Notoane (Just Transition – Stakeholder & Community Engagement Expert) is a stakeholder engagement and facilitation specialist, with over 20 years of experience. His key projects include his work with the USAID-funded RESILIM Program in the Limpopo River Basin, which entailed establishing a partnership with Groot Marico, leading and managing the process of supporting the Dept. of Environmental Affairs to design an integrated climate change response strategy for the national Savannah Biomes, and facilitating the stakeholder engagement process for the bilateral agreement between South Africa and Botswana.

Recently, John has facilitated stakeholder engagement for the Revitalisation of South African Mining Ghost Towns research and the Just Transition Framework, South Africa: Community and Stakeholder Engagement with OneWorld. Both project focused on enabling transitions to a green economy and climate resilient developments across sectors. John also facilitated stakeholder engagement for three other OneWorld projects: A Just Transition to a Low Carbon Economy (DPME/National Planning Commission); the State of Preparedness of Cities for Climate Change (GIZ) and the Evaluation of the Design & Implementation of the Western Cape Climate Change Response Strategy. John was also instrumental in establishing and managing transboundary relationships for the Feasibility, Design and Implementation Phases of the Southern African Regional Climate Change Programme (RCCP) for the Department for International Development of the UK (DFID), with OneWorld. During this programme, John was lead facilitator for the SADC Multi-Stakeholder Water Dialogues (from 2009-2012), responsible for facilitation, strategic advisory and technical assistance. He was also advisor and project manager for OneWorld’s support to the Africa Group of Negotiators to the UNFCCC. Other key projects include stakeholder engagement and climate governance analysis and advisory on the German Government’s IKI V-LED programme and the PPCR Zambia’s Strengthening Climate Resilience in the Kafue Sub-Basin

Arthur Chapman is an  consultant in risk assessment including hydrology, water-related matters, climate change adaptation and impacts on agriculture, food security and energy production.  He is also concerned with the frequency and intensity of extreme events, disaster risk and undertaking vulnerability assessments and developing strategies for adaptation. He holds an M.Sc. in Hydrology and has 31 years of professional experience. He works on disaster risk evaluation, strategy and development concerning adaptations to climate change in southern Africa (SADC states) that relate to water resources, agricultural value chains, energy systems, livelihoods, human health and socio-economic vulnerability.

He also has consulted elsewhere internationally, in Uruguay, Uganda, Cameroon on risks to water resources. Additional skills include developing integrated resource assessments, systems thinking, scenario planning, numerical modelling and statistical analysis. He is an occasional reviewer for a number of scientific journals and is an author of 21 papers and/or book chapters, as well as 82 reports.

David Perkins M.Soc.Sc., (Development Economist: Agriculture, Mining, and Transport Expert) Development economist with extensive experience as a regional economic development planner. Has extensive knowledge of the Southern and East African natural resource sectors gained through his experience in several counties in those regions while Programme Coordinator for the Regional Spatial Development Initiatives Programme at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and as Spatial Development Specialist at the NEPAD Planning & Coordination Agency (an agency of the African Union). He has also undertaken a variety of short-term consulting and advisory assignments principally in agriculture, mining and climate change.

Mr Perkins is experienced in supervising work programmes aimed at identifying, appraising, and facilitating interdependent private sector investments in agriculture, mining, and other natural resource sectors, in the context of related public and parastatal agency investments in large-scale transport and energy infrastructure. He has extensive experience in considering livelihood diversification strategies as a critical climate change response and has worked with emerging commercial farmers to improve water access and the efficiency of its utilisation, as a drought mitigation intervention in various southern African countries.

Mr Perkins is also keenly interested in the economics of how the agriculture and mining sectors impact on and are impacted by climate change, particularly in developing countries where economic and social impact often depends on being able to maximise exploitation of the full range of linkages in host and adjacent local economies. He has also recently project managed and co-authored a gendered analysis of employment and skills in the large-scale mining sector in South Africa as part of an 11-country Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) baseline study.

Mike de Klerk  is a senior consulting economist with a Master’s degree in Economics and extensive experience drawn from academic, parastatal, and independent bases in agricultural and rural development and management consulting assignments. Mike de Klerk’s main field of activity for more than 30 years has been agricultural development, with much of his work focusing on the public, private and NGO strategies for responding to changes in the economic, political, social, and natural environments. These changes include land reform, ‘trade shocks’, technological change, legislative change, and natural resource degradation. His key expertise lies in:

• Agriculture (strategy, evaluation, small farm development, production, finance, marketing, trade, environment, knowledge management);
• Rural development (strategy, evaluation, livelihoods, food security/gardens, community-based financial institutions, land reform, infrastructure, local economic development); and
• Agribusiness/agro-processing (sector/value chain analysis, strategy, evaluation).

Mike’s work generally involves identifying and understanding the key drivers of change and existing responses as a basis for more appropriate strategic and operational responses. This may also include an assessment of the expected socio-economic impacts of such responses. Mike has consulted widely to the public sector (South African Departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Rural Development and Land Reform; Labour; and National Treasury), and also to the Development Bank of Southern Africa, National (SA) Agricultural Marketing Council, and the SA Reserve Bank, as well as to the private sector.

He has also carried out evaluations undertaken using results-based M&E methodology (most recently for a Smallholder Sugar Cane Farmers project in Swaziland). He also has experience with GEF evaluations, having done one recently for a World Bank/NEPAD-financed project in Lesotho and Uganda.

He has carried out assignments for IFAD, the FAO, The World Bank, the ITC, UNDP, UN Capital Development Fund, GIZ, (UK) Overseas Development Agency, and SADC. Mike also has 10 years of senior management experience as General Manager: Research and Development, Land and Agricultural Bank of South Africa and Executive Director: Integrated Rural and Regional Development and then Chief Operating Officer, Human Sciences Research Council (SA), including project management.

Mike Morris holds a PhD in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and is an international expert on Global (and Regional) Value Chain dynamics, economic and social upgrading and firm level clusters in Africa, and industrial policy development. He has extensive experience in studying the dynamics of buyer-led value chains, both globally and in Sub Saharan Africa, and making policy recommendations to the public and private sectors. His work has involved extensive engagement with small and large firms, to understand their strength and weaknesses/challenges and opportunities, as well as skills and capabilities requirements to become more competitive.

He is the only non-government program steering committee member of the European Union (EU)/South Africa program to promote SMEs in South Africa entitled “Eco System Development for Small Enterprises”. He has held positions as an expert policy adviser to the South African Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Western Cape Government Economic Department as an oversight member of the Western Cape Micro-Economic Development Strategy (MEDS); the South African Clothing and Textile Business Alliance negotiating sector industrial policy; the African Clothing and Footwear Research Network (headquartered in Nairobi); and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (Geneva).

Mike has managed and led a number of multi country projects in Africa, the largest being the Making the Most of Commodities Project (MMCP), including Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya/Tanzania, among other countries. Mike Morris is Emeritus Professor in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town, an Honorary Research Associate in the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, and an Associate of OneWorld Sustainable Investments.

Dan Smit (Urban and Regional Development expert) has a PhD in urban and regional   planning, an education in economic geography and economics and a long track record of research, theory and practice on this field. He is widely experienced in ‘spatial economics’ as per the TOR’s requirement for expertise in territorial policies’” (Criterion 1 list). Dan Smit has a long history of involvement in local economic development initiatives. In the 1990s he was the first Chief Executive of the Cato Manor Development Association, which focused on both physical and local economic development within an integrated framework.

In the 2000s he undertook several local economic studies and strategy development exercises including initiatives for Johannesburg’s Region E (Sandton) and Region B (Auckland Park and Randburg). During this period, he also worked with Mondi on local economic development strategies for communities on Mondi land (and on ascertaining which land would become community land). More recently he has been involved in local economic development work in Rwanda, in Ethiopia and in RSA’s secondary cities. Local Economic generally involves all of the skills referred to under skills Criterion 2 of the TOR, and Dan Smit has skills in most of them but particularly in research, sectoral development strategies and strategic socio-economic development.

Jason Schäffler has more than 20 years of experience in techno-economic and policy analysis in the arenas of energy and electricity, and particularly renewable energy. He is Managing Director of Nano Energy, a renewable energy consulting firm in Johannesburg, specialising in renewable energy information systems. The company’s subsidiary, zaRECs (https://www.zarecs.co.za/), administers the National Renewable Energy Certificate registry on behalf of South African market participants. Jason’s particular interest lies in the benefits of the widespread application of renewable electricity generation, in particular for increased energy access applications.

Much of his work over the past years has been at the level of Southern African regional and national public policy and across the range of renewable energy technologies, with a specific focus on wind energy. He has extensive experience of working for private, public and international agencies, spanning from project development, strategy preparation and scenario modelling to project and programme evaluation. Geographically he has experience in such assignments regionally including in Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Kenya, and with regional, international and multi-national entities. Trained as a physicist, he holds an M.Sc. in Energy and Development from the University of Cape Town.

He is familiar with enterprise development and socioeconomic development criteria under consideration for attribute tracking of these in renewable energy projects using Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). Jason participated in Multiple Benefits Analyses of Low Emissions projects including renewables for the USAID SALED projects. These benefits include those beyond GHG mitigation such as job creation and women and youth participation in these projects.

Olivia Rumble  Olivia Rumble is a Director at Climate Carbon and Environmental Legal Consulting (Pty) Ltd. She is an admitted attorney and has been practicing environmental and climate change law for over nine years.  She has formerly advised the South African government in the revision of the National Water Act 1998, and has also advised regional water bodies such as ZAMCOM and OKACOM regarding their respective regional water law instruments and implications for riparian domestic laws. She was a member of the team assembled to undertake the South African policy alignment process undertaken as a precursor to the development of the Long Term Adaptation Strategy; is part of the team responsible for drafting South Africa’s Climate Change Bill; and is an expert legal advisor to the Zimbabwean and Thai governments on the development of their respective Climate Change Bills.

She has acted as a legal advisor to a number of South Africa’s largest companies, and routinely provides water related advice across a broad range of water issues including acid mine drainage, compliance directives, water tariffs and levies, water use licensing and permits, as well as the regulatory aspects of best practice water management. Olivia is also a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town and teaches the domestic and international water law regimes at a post graduate level.  She is a visiting lecturer at the African Climate and Development Institute and the co-editor and author of South Africa’s first comprehensive treatise on climate change law and governance in South Africa.

Andrew Gilder is a Director of Climate Legal, with more than twenty years’ legal practice experience specialising in climate change (mitigation and adaptation), climate finance and development, carbon markets, carbon tax, public law, environmental and energy law, policy and governance. Andrew is admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa and has practical experience which expands over a range of African jurisdictions and including advice to public and private sectors on the development and implementation of climate change, climate finance, carbon markets, carbon tax, municipal, environmental and energy law, policy and governance as well as regulatory and transactional advice to industries, foreign embassies and municipalities on the implementation of renewable energy infrastructure development projects. He has advised project developers as part of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) regarding carbon offsets and environmental regulatory compliance, and he has contributed to the transactional and environmental due diligence aspects of three projects awarded successful bidder status under the REIPPP.

His practical experience includes advising government, businesses and industries on climate change policy development and its implications, including climate change business risks and opportunities, assessing commercial relationships against evolving climate change policy and regulation and relevant contractual considerations, as well as advising on, negotiating and drafting of commercial contracts required to secure financial and logistical positions in the carbon market. He has extensively advised Municipalities (including eThekwini and the City of Cape Town) on national energy law, as well as public sector law (including administrative and constitutional law), as well as relevant local bylaws, in the context of legal advice and support for the development of Municipal renewable energy projects.

Originally trained as an environmental lawyer, Andrew has considerable expertise in all areas of environmental legal practice and his practical experience extends to advising on authorisations required for the implementation of greenhouse gas mitigation projects and providing process advice for obtaining and managing the set of authorisations required for operational projects, including numerous waste to energy projects.  He is also responsible for drafting the South African Climate Change Bill, 2018, for the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, together with related legal instruments; and was extensively involved in South Africa’s adaptation legal and policy alignment process. Andrew has been recognised as a leading lawyer by PLC Which Lawyer? 2012 – Environment (South Africa) and by Best Lawyers 2018 and 2020 – Environment; and was shortlisted for an African Legal Award, in 2015. Andrew is the co-editor and co-author of South Africa’s first comprehensive treatise on climate change law and governance, entitled Climate Change Law and Governance in South Africa (Juta, 2016).

Rob Davies (GIS Expert, Risk and Vulnerability Mapping; Drought Modelling) is a specialist in spatial data management with over 20 years of experience in applying GIS analysis to the fields of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development both in Africa and now Europe. He is currently UK-based and started his own GIS consultancy, habitat INFO, in 2011 which he has taken from strength to strength securing work with large international organisations including USAID, The World Bank and DfID. As Founder and Director of Habitat INFO, Dr Davies has worked on various projects related to the mapping of risk and vulnerability (R&V) hotspots in Africa, particularly in Southern and Eastern Africa, where climate change and population growth are expected to increase pressure on both the human and natural environments.

Habitat INFO’s highly recognised environmental risk and vulnerability analysis is utilised to identify where populations are expected to be most vulnerable to climate changes; notably in the areas of food security, water shortages, disasters, and associated health problems. He has extensive experience of the drylands of southern Africa and conducted the analysis for climate vulnerability mapping across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region (RCCP; DfID) which led on to focused analysis of the Zambezi (CKDN) and then the Limpopo (RESILIM; USAID) basins.

Dr Davies has worked across the Horn of Africa to develop a baseline data catalogue and pilot investment impact model for the region. This work involved developing seasonal forecast models and drought models for estimating livestock mortality as well as developing a spatial tool for identifying areas where investments is necessary for both generic shocks and droughts. He has also assisted the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), Conservation International and the Peace Parks Foundation with spatial data management for protected areas in southern Africa and continues to compile new Africa-wide spatial datasets needed for achieving conservation and sustainability, in the face of expected population-change and climate-change.

Prof. Kalaba holds a PhD in Environment from the University of Leeds and an MSc in Forest Science. He currently holds the post of Senior Lecturer and Dean of the School of Natural Resources at the Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia. He recently completed a consultancy with the World Bank on writing the Forest Investment Plan for Zambia, where he focused on private sector engagement. The Investment Plan is focused on implementing the REDD strategy. Dr Kalaba provides advice to the Government of Zambia on policies such as the REDD+ National Strategy. His work has a strong focus on the delivery of community benefits through REDD+ (see publications list in author’s CV, for example: Leventon et al., 2014; and Kalaba, 2016). He has also provided consultancy services on various projects, such as mapping ecosystem services in Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa, for UNCCD/Foundation for Sustainable Development.

Colleen Howell (Gender and Disability Expert,) holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cape Town. She has been extensively involved over the last 20 years in research and policy work around issues of equity and diversity and the building of inclusive societies (here). A central focus of her work and expertise is the positioning of inclusivity as a critical element in the development of a post-apartheid South Africa. This has included researching and understanding those patterns of inequality that heighten, often in complex and subtle ways, the vulnerability and marginalisation of particular groups of people in our society, especially people with disabilities, women and children. Most importantly, her work has focused on translating these understandings into enabling policy frameworks and institutional practices that seek to transform rather than assimilate into unchanged environments. Colleen has worked on these concerns for national government, within the university sector, for NGOs and international donor agencies.

She is presently employed by the University College London, in the Institute of Education in the Centre for International Education and Development (CEID) working as a Research Associate on a large ESRC/Newton Fund project on Higher Education and the Public Good in four African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa (here), and works closely with researchers and stakeholders in each of the countries. She is also undertaking some consultancy work for the World Bank around the development of inclusive education in Africa and recently completed a project with a colleague at CEID for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) on gender equality in education. Her work involved mapping research on gender and education in the low-income countries that GPE works with.

Dr. Randall Spalding-Fecher has more than 20 years’ experience in energy and climate change policy, program and project development, following 3½ years of strategic management consulting experience. He has special expertise in results-based climate finance and carbon crediting program methodology and project development under the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement. His experience includes preparing the program assessment framework documents for results-based climate finance facilities, as well as developing several of the earliest pilot activities that could inform future crediting under the Paris Agreement.

He has supported the Transformative Carbon Asset Facility (TCAF), Carbon Partnership Facility (CPF) and the Carbon Initiative for Development (CiDev) in program development, taking into consideration the potential elaboration of rules for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. He led the “Impact of CDM” research for the High-Level Panel on the CDM Policy Dialogue, reviewed and consolidated more than 40 CDM baseline and monitoring methodologies, and served as a consultant to the UNFCCC on additionality testing, technical guidelines for baseline methodologies, and analysing requests for registration of CDM projects. He co-developed GHG accounting methodologies and guidance documents for the World Bank, AfDB and ADB. He develops carbon market methodologies and projects for private and public-sector clients, has served as a policy advisor to governments on climate change and energy and has led capacity building programmes to support governments, NGO’s and the private sector.

Dr. Jean Pierre Hakizimana has expertise in ecosystems management, agriculture, climate resilience, value-chain development for food security, rural livelihoods diversification, training and institutional capacity development. Dr. Hakizimana holds an MA in Social Sciences (Demography) and has completed a PhD in Economist Development. He is also a university lecturer in IWRM and Environmental Resources Management. He has worked with local and international NGOs as well as development cooperation agencies, nationally and sub-nationally, in agriculture, food security, water security and climate resilience programs, action–research and policy advocacy.

Jean Pierre has occupied various high-level positions in Rwanda, and acted as National Technical Adviser on Local Economic Development to the Ministry of Local Governance/MINALOC LODA.  He was the Rwanda Country Manager for the Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa, Water & Climate Development Programme (WACDEP) for AMCOW, in 8 pilot countries across Africa, to mainstream water security and climate resilience into national development processes. Regionally he has worked in climate resilience, integrated water resource management, agroforestry and food security. Jean is currently part of a Rwanda national assignment on WASH/menstrual management with Water Aid.

Laurie Barwell (Coastal and Rural Infrastructure Engineer) holds a Masters degree in Civil Engineering  from the University  of  Stellenbosch and has  over  38 years of  experience  in civil engineering (water, sanitation and coastal infrastructure), Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) and Environmental Impact Assessments projects. He worked for the South African Department of Water Affairs (from 1979 to 1985) gaining experience in the planning, design and construction of large integrated water supply schemes at a national level. From 1986 to 2014 he worked for South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as a Coastal Engineer, participating in research and implementation projects related to the design, construction and management of regional (SADC), national, provincial and municipal coastal infrastructure.

During the period January 2009 to July 2012 Mr Barwell was the co-principal investigator on an international multi-disciplinary specialist team that developed the coastal infrastructure protection specialist report as part of the Mozambique Climate Change Adaptation and Response strategy. The learnings from this project enabled the CSIR to carry out a strategic assessment of the risk and vulnerability of infrastructure (e.g roads, pipelines, electricity supply, pumping stations, and port infrastructure) to climate change on the South African coast, and in particular, the South African National Ports in 2014 and 2015 where Mr Barwell was the lead author. In 2011, Mr Barwell led the development of the strategy and implementation plan for the CSIR Water Sustainability Flagship programme. This resulted in the development of novel fit-for-purpose technologies for domestic water supply (including rainwater harvesting), and algal-based domestic waste water treatment.

He authored the Book Chapter on State of the WIOC Coast: Coastal mining and its influence on coastline stability which was published by UNEP in 2015. This enabled him to gain insight into the key issues related to the coastlines of Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa, and especially relating to the risk and vulnerability of these areas in the context of climate change. Mr Barwell’s current focus is   on   formulating   adaptation   responses   to   climate   change (specifically sea level rise along the coast), nature-based water treatment systems and in particular the application of ‘soft-engineering’ solutions to the provision of goods and services at the sub-national and city level. Technology transfer is facilitated via in-field capacity building learning workshops and hands- on mentoring of officials, researchers and Young Professionals in the field of civil engineering.

Nicoli Nattrass (Economic Policy and Inequality Advisor) is a professor of economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a regular visiting professor at Yale. She is also the co-director of the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild) at UCT where her work focuses on community-based natural resource management in Southern Africa, human-wildlife conflict (especially between livestock farmers and predators) and environmentally sustainable practices.

Prof. Nattrass is a development specialist who has published widely on the labour market, the political economy of growth and trajectories of development. Her most recent book, co-authored with Jeremy Seekings (Inclusive Dualism: Labour-intensive development, Decent Work and Surplus Labour in Southern Africa, 2019, Oxford University Press) highlights the relationship between job creation and poverty reduction.

Prof. Nattrass also has a long-standing research focus on the political economy of health, initially AIDS and the scientific governance of medicine, and more recently the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. She has twice won the UCT book award: in 2005 for ‘The Moral Economy of AIDS in South Africa’, and in 2014 for ‘The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back’.

Prof. Nattrass is an interdisciplinary scholar with a strong orientation towards problem-driven research. She conducts mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) research including conducting and analysing social surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and historical research.

Professor Martin Hall is Emeritus Professor, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, where he teaches for the Master of Philosophy in Inclusive Innovation programme and is an Associate of the Allan Gray Centre for Values Based Leadership. He is Advisor to the Valenture Institute, which operates the UCT Online High School in partnership with the University of Cape Town, and is a Non-Executive Director of Advanced Secure Technologies, which provides secure credentialling for colleges and universities across the world.

Before re-joining the Graduate School of Business, Martin Hall was Vice-Chancellor (President) of the University of Salford, Manchester (2009-2014), Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town (2002-2008), and Dean of Higher Education Development, also at the University of Cape Town (19992002). He was a founding member of the board of The Conversation (UK) and was Chair of the Board of Jisc, (2014- 2015). He was awarded Doctor of the University, honoris causa, for services to the University of Salford in 2015.

Martin is a partner with Artefact Transformation and Facilitation Services. In this capacity he advices on digital learning solutions, Higher Education leadership and management, and on organizational transformation and conflict resolution. He has written extensively about the Internet and its political and cultural implications at an early stage in its development and has continued to work in these interconnected spheres of culture and connectivity, both in his writing and in areas of application. Previous and current writing, perspectives and blog post are at martinhallfacilitation.org.

As an associate of OneWorld, he has provided expertise in digital learning, digitalisation and artificial intelligence for a number of OneWorld projects, including Development of Capacities for Green Climate Fund Project Development for the AFDB, and UNESCO-UNEVOC Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Leadership Programme 2023. He has also provided strategic inputs and mentorship services for OneWorld.