Healthy Cities Series Part I: Rethinking Food Systems in Africa
African cities have experienced rapid population growth, leading to increased demand for food, congestion, and stretched Infrastructure and services. These challenges call for strategic and deliberate city planning efforts to address increased energy consumption, poor water quality, and air pollution.
CGC | Nairobi, in partnership with the Global Columbia Collaboratory, is curating the Healthy Cities Series composed of 3 seminars exploring solutions for transforming and growing African cities with equitable services and good governance.
The first session will be on September 18th at 5:00 p.m. EAT and is titled Rethinking Food Systems in Africa. The session will discuss the importance of transitioning to natural, local foods for African communities and ways of establishing safe, accessible and sustainable food systems. The second seminar, Reimagining African Cities | October 2nd, will explore the factors needed to create thriving, long-lasting, adaptable, and inclusive African cities. The final seminar, Providing Safe and Affordable Cooking Energy in African Cities | October 16th, aims to explore solutions for African urban households to obtain secure and affordable cooking energy.
Speakers
Dr. Cj Jones is an experienced strategic thinker, business leader and entrepreneur with highly developed analytical, program management and team leadership skills. She builds relationships and delivers strategy at the executive level across various sectors and in challenging markets. Dr. Jones has extensive experience in African agriculture, leading market entry, acquisition, due diligence and business structuring assignments in the private and development sectors. She also has experience building cross-cultural teams and reinforcing capacity at all levels. Her specialties include: Strategy and Sustainability - primary agriculture and agribusiness, business restructuring and remodeling across many levels of African agribusiness, emergent market analysis, program design and management, negotiation and facilitation, capacity development and professional mentorship of young practitioners. Most recently, Dr. Jones has been driving change in African food systems, creating solutions to the multiple problems facing Africa's fractured food system. Through Wawazee Ltd., Dr. Jones has also continued to engage in work that looks at the food systems of Kenya's vast arid and semi-arid areas, seeking to create a unique food culture to add to the experience of both local and international visitors.
Hesborn Omondi Ongudi (CPA) is the founder and CEO of Fairways Green Markets, a social enterprise linking farmers to market and essential services through a digital platform. Hesborn is also a founder of GroBiz Africa, a management consultancy firm that provides strategic financial management support and skills to small and medium-sized businesses.
Hesborn is a Sustainable Business Growth Consultant with over 15 years of experience in financial management, operations and administration in non-governmental and not-for-profit organizations and corporate settings. Ongudi's experience entails establishing and maintaining sound financial, administrative and operational controls and systems that ensure accurate reporting and utilization of organizational resources to achieve sustainable growth. He has also been engaged with FiRe Awards as a level-one evaluator since 2014.
He is an expert in corporate reporting, corporate governance and sustainability reporting in line with the UN SDG 2030 Agenda and has attended UNCTAD GDI training of trainers (ToT) for SMEs on sustainability reporting in line with SDG 2030 facilitated and sponsored by UNCTAD and ICPAK in 2021.
Collins Chibole is a dedicated professional with a strong academic background in Grow Biointensive Agriculture. Holding a deep passion for sustainable farming practices, he serves as an Agro-Ecology Outreach Program Officer at the Grow Biointensive Agriculture Canter of Kenya (GBiACK).