Kobie Brand

Kobie has more than 25 years of practical and managerial experience in Environmental Management and Urban Development. Her expertise range from biodiversity, climate change, coastal management to urban sustainability and planning. She is responsible for the strategic direction, growth, partnerships, programmes and scope of work for ICLEI in Africa. Kobie is also Global Director for ICLEI’s Biodiversity and Nature-based solutions work, and in this capacity heads up the Cities Biodiversity Center embedded in ICLEI Africa.

Paul Currie

Paul is fascinated by the multi-layered relationships that give each city its unique flavour. With his Sustainable Development MPhil and current doctoral research, Paul uses urban metabolism, resource nexus and political ecology as lenses for shaping sustainable, inclusive cities. At ICLEI, he supports local governments to apply systems perspectives to food, water, energy and nature, and facilitates the development of policies and plans appropriate to contexts of change and uncertainty.

Daniel Adeniyi

Daniel has over seven years research and project management experience spanning areas including food systems, urban planning, and M&E. His work at ICLEI focuses on how to ensure sustainability of urban food systems and ways of incorporating sustainability principles into urban development plans and processes. Daniel holds Masters (Cum Laude) and PhD degrees in Development Studies from the University of the Western Cape. Daniel is a registered city planner and a member of the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA).

Esethu Mmngxunyeni

Jehan Bhikoo

Jehan has extensive experience in public sector healthcare design, development and infrastructure delivery. With a deep understanding of the correlation between environmental issues and public health, and the importance of good planning, urban development and policy, she pursued a Masters in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College London (UCL). Positioned within the urban systems team, Jehan is excited to explore a range of areas from mobility to circular development.

Jokudu Guya

Jokudu Guya is an Urban Systems Professional Officer. Her focus areas include Circular Economies, Nexus, and smart cities, amongst other urban systems focus areas. She has a background in city development research and holds a Master of Urban Studies Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Bachelor’s degree with Honours in Urban and Regional Planning.

Kevin Mutia

Kevin is a Professional Officer at ICLEI Africa, in the Urban Systems unit. He hopes to change public spaces and urban forms in our cities. He especially hopes to do so through research, well analysed data and information, and a duly followed design process for developing plans, frameworks and strategies to improve the quality of urban spaces in Africa. This will ensure that all the users in these spaces, regardless of economic and cultural background, will have a good quality of life.

Lauren Arendse

Lauren has extensive experience in the public infrastructure development and maintenance. She completed a Master’s in Water Science and Engineering from IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. She has a good grasp of integrated water systems from water governance to river and coastal management in the context of global issues like climate change. She is analytically minded and strives to use interdisciplinary and system thinking approaches to translate scientific research to inform better governance, policy or action towards sustainable futures, which is well suited for the urban systems team.

Solophina Nekesa

Solophina is passionate about Green Architecture and Urban Design. She has worked with an architectural practice to plan off-grid sustainable communities and affordable net-zero energy buildings in Uganda. As a sustainability consultant, she has worked on projects that seek to promote comprehensive sustainable practices. Solophina holds a Master of Architecture (Sustainable and Energy Efficient Cities) from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Thabo Thulare

Thabo, a Professional Officer: Urban Systems, has extensive development management working experience at provincial government and worked closely with local and national spheres of government. He has been active in the fields of sustainable development; project financing; sustainable education and training; spatial planning and land-use management; regional and LED; municipal Integrated Development Planning; development research, Special Economic Zone and Industrial Development Zone planning and infrastructure; provincial and regional development corridors planning; community and SMME development. His knowledge, skills and expertise include strategy and policy development; programme and project management; construction of public infrastructure; development planning and facilitation; public sector procurement and public finance. Thabo already joined us during the course of December 2020 and will, for now, mainly work on the Planning-focused project with the National Government of Tanzania.

Thea Buckle

Thea joined ICLEI in 2016 after completing her Master’s at Nelson Mandela University’s Sustainability Research Unit. She initially embarked on a trans disciplinary Master’s, combining her aptitude for communication with her love of nature, learning that your passions and talents will often meet to reveal your vocation. Her expertise ranges from online marketing campaign conceptualization to graphic design and social media management. She has more than 5 years’ experience.