Kusi Ideas Festival 2022

Climate Change: Exploring African Responses and Solutions

Venue Nairobi, Kenya
8th – 9th December 2022

NMG created the Kusi Ideas Festival four years ago as a pan-African platform to examine our continent’s place in the world; its citizen’s problem-solving ideas and innovations; and how these prepare us to deal with the coming challenges. This is living up to our mission to be the “Media of Africa for Africa”, which aims to contribute to shaping the agenda of positioning Africa as a leading player in global politics and economics. Previous festivals have been held in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2019, Kisumu, Kenya, in 2020, and Accra, Ghana, in 2021. 

Africa continues to be among the worst hit by the consequences of climate change, despite having contributed the least to global warming and having the lowest emissions. Climate change has become the existential threat of our time. 

This year’s festival will therefore revolve around the theme, “Climate Change: Exploring African Responses and Solutions” and will explore the impact of the warming climate on the continent – from its impact on our food security to the financing and technology needed to mitigate its impact on its environment and the people. This edition of the festival, slated for the first week of December, will be hosted on the backdrop of COP27, which will just have been concluded in Egypt. 

The Beginning

About Kusi Ideas

Nation Media Group (NMG) launched the Kusi Ideas Festival early in 2019 as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, to be an “ideas transaction market” for the challenges facing Africa, and the various solutions and innovations the continent is undertaking to secure its future in the 21st century.

Kusi is the southerly tradewind that blows over the Indian Ocean between April to mid-September, and enabled trade up north along the east African coast and between Asia and Africa for millennia.

Kusi Ideas Festival

Thematic areas

Voices of Hope, And The Good Climate Fight
Climate Change, Water & Resources
The Climate Hackers, Innovations and Solutions
Powering Africa Without Burning It: Renewable Energy To The Rescue
Feeding Every African Mouth: Food and the Climate Problem
Africa Faces Up to Rising Climate-Related Health Emergencies
Climate Change Narratives, And Mobilising Action
Green Cities And The Making of Sustainable Urban Communities
Adaptation And Mitigation: Where is The Money and Plan?
Climate Change And The Development Challenge In Africa
Kusi Ideas Festival

Program

8:00 - 9:00am
Arrivals and registrations
9:00am - 9:15am
Opening Performance & Presentation
9:15am - 9:25am
Welcome remarks
9:25am - 9:35am
Opening Remarks

Panelists

H.E. Johson Sakaja

Governor, County Government of Nairobi

H.E. Anne Waiguru

Chair – Council Of Governors

Hon. Roselinda Soipan Tuya, CBS

Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forestry

9:35am – 10:00am
Keynote address
10:00am – 11:30am
Presidential Panel Climate Change And The Development Challenge In Africa

Without action climate change would present serious threats to African development in the decades ahead. Some regions of the continent could see lose up to 15% of their GDP by 2050. By 2030, it’s estimated that up to 118 million extremely poor people will face devastating consequences from climate change. However, the AfDB projects that there are great benefits in macroeconomic stability, job creation, and decreased negative impacts of climate change where robust mitigation action is taken. What the state of government action in Africa? What opportunities resources exist in policy and structure exist for collective action?

Panelists

H.E. Dr. William Samoei Ruto, CGH

President of The Republic Of Kenya

Prof. Dr. Patrick Verkooijen

C.E.O Global Centre on Adaptation

Moderator

Dr. James Mwangi, CBS

Group MD & CEO, Equity Group Holdings

11:30am – 11:45am
Tea Break
11:45am – 1:00pm
Adaptation And Mitigation: Where is The Money and Plan?

African countries will need to invest more than $3 trillion in mitigation and adaptation by 2030 in order to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. Where is the money? What are the innovative instruments that can be, or are being tapped in Africa to finance adaptation and mitigation?

Panelists

Mr. John Gachora

Group Managing Director, NCBA Group PLC

Peter Ndegwa

Chief Executive Officer, Safaricom PLC

Paul Russo

Group Chief Executive Officer, KCB Group

Richard Munang

Deputy Regional Director, UNEP

H.E Giovanna Valverde Stark

Amb. & Permanent Resident UNEP & UN-Habitat

Moderator

Julians Amboko

Business Editor, NTV Kenya

1:00pm – 2:00pm
Lunch Break
2:00pm – 3:00pm
Green Cities And The Making of Sustainable Urban Communities

African has the world’s fastest rate of urbanisation. In 1960, only 20% of Africans lived in cities. By 2050, that number is projected to be 60%. On average, 50% of Africa’s urban population lives in slums where living conditions are poor and have been made worse by increasing floods and increased erosion in coastal cities. This coupled with forced migration from climate-affected rural areas, and the exploitation of rural ecosystems to meet increased food demands, have increased health risks for urban communities. How will cities transition to sustainable transport, housing, and energy systems that don’t turn up the heat? How will they be kept healthy?

Panelists

Dr. Olasunkanmi Habeeb

Alexandra Von Humboldt Research Scholar, United Nations University-Germany

Maurice Makoloo

Area VP, Africa Habitat for Humanity International

Moderator

Zeynab Wandati

Science & Technology Editor, NTV Kenya

3:00pm – 3:15pm
Tea Break
4:15pm- 5:15pm
Africa Faces Up to Rising Climate-Related Health Emergencies

Climate change is already having adverse effects on human health in Africa in many ways. It is worsening malnutrition, and is estimated to account for half of the 12,000 and 19,000 heat-related child deaths per year in Africa between 2011 and 2022. Projections see increased poor air quality, polluted drinking water, and the expansion of the range of infectious disease pathogens and vectors. How can the worst be averted, and which are the ingenious interventions that hold up hope?

Panelists

Dr. Elisha Osati, MD, MMED

Internal Medicine specialist Cardio-Respiratory Physician Muhimbili National Hospital

Dr. Andrew Kambugu

Sande-McKinnell Executive Director, Infectious Diseases Institute Uganda

Moderator

Chris Higenyi

Host/Anchor, NTV Uganda

5:15pm
Closing of Day One and Wrap Up
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Gala Dinner
Kusi Ideas Festival 2021

Venue: The Accra International Conference Centre (AICC)

Ghana is a country in West Africa that spans the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean to the South, sharing borders with the Ivory Coast in West, Burkina Faso in the North and Togo in the East. The country has become the main convergence market between Africa and the black diaspora, following its “Year of Return, Ghana 2019”. The event was a major landmark marketing campaign targeting the African – American and Diaspora Market to mark 400 years of the first enslaved African arriving in Jamestown Virginia.

The Year of Return sort to make Ghana the focus for millions of African descendants reacting to their marginalisation by tracing their ancestry and identity. By this, Ghana became the beacon for African people living on the continent and the diaspora. The country is also the headquarters of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area and as such fits the bill as the ideal location from which to view the possibilities of Intra African and Diaspora trade in practical terms.

Accra, the capital city of Ghana covers an an area of 225.67 km with an estimated urban population of 4.2 million as of 2020 and is the main gateway to the country through Kotoka International Airport as well as the region’s economic and administrative hub.  The city is a bustling metropolis, an interesting city of contrasts where the old blends with the new and where tradition meets foreign cultures.

The Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) is a famous meeting venue founded in 1991. The venue boasts six fully equipped halls with a total capacity of 6000 people.

Kusi Ideas Festival

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Kusi Ideas Festival

Contact us

For more information, help with your registration or any concerns, you can call us or fill the form below and one of our representatives will contact you.

Telephone Number

+254 719 038 251
+254 718 020 020

Email

kusiafrica@ke.nationmedia.com