Prof Simon Onywere

Prof. Simon Onywere is the Research Associate (Field Coordination) at the KU-WEE Hub and a Co-PI on the project “Gendered Impacts of the Kenyan Government Policy Response to Covid-19”. He was the immediate former Director, Capacity Development and Consultancy Services and he lectures in the Department of Environmental Planning and Management. He is Esri Eastern Africa GIS Champion for institutionalizing use of GIS Technology of Knowledge for which he has a Esri SAG Award, and he is Esri GIS African Ambassador. He serves in the board of the Society for the Advancement of Science in Africa (SASA). He has been involved in research management and quality in higher education through DAAD Scholars Association and was the Kenyatta University Champion during Development Research Uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa (DRUSSA) programme. Prof. Onywere has trained in Integrated Watershed Management Planning and Catchment Management with eight participatory plans developed with Water Resource Users Associations. He was a Cluster lead of 15 Lake Victoria Research Initiative (VICRES) projects on Pollution. He led a Regional Disaster Risk Management Mainstreaming Study in 5 IGAD States in 2010 and facilitated IGAD Regional Workshop on technical approaches in Community Based Disaster Risk Management Training in Hawassa. He was leader in Risk, Hazard, Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment mapping in Kenya and in 2014 he mapped the extent of flooding of Kenyan Rift Valley Lakes and Implication on Ecosystems. More recently he land a team of 8 technical committee members in the scoping of the extent of lake level rise in lake Turkana, Logipi and Turkwel Dam on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. He will support coordination of field data collection activities and in the Covid-19 project he will use participatory geodesign methods and develop geospatial database