About the Project
The project Women’s Children’s and Nature’s Right in Environmental Governance was in 2021 awarded funding to develop a regional Southern and Eastern African Master and PhD program at the Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi. The program, which focuses on environmental governance at international, national and local level cuts across legal areas like environmental law, natural resource law, climate law, human rights, women’s law and child law. To study environmental governance, the program combines legal and empirical methods and sources. The student dissertations shall be based on fieldwork.
The new master program at the Faculty of Law in Nairobi is a continuation of the long lasting cooperation in teaching and research between the partner countries under the auspices of the Southern and Eastern Regional Center in Women's Law (SEARCWL ) at the University of Zimbabwe, particularly regarding women, human rights and natural resources such as land and water.
The program, which is based at the Faculty of Law in Nairobi is led by Dr. Sarah Kinyanjui and Dr. Collins Odote. Participants at the Department of Public and International Law are professor Anne Hellum (program leader), professor Christina Voigt and professor Kirsten Sandberg.
Aim
The overall aim of the WCNREG is to develop a Master og PhD program that set out to strengthen the UN sustainable development goals. It seeks to contribute to:
- Produce a qualified academic/public/private workforce in the intersecting fields of natural resource and climate change law and of women's, children's, nature's rights in environmental governance.
- Develop legal knowledge that responds to the SDGs in the program’s thematic fields.
- Develop practice based legal research that will contribute to evidence-based policies in the project’s thematic area.
- Enhance gender equality and inclusion of candidates with different social and ethnic background in the program area.
Funding
The project is funded by NORADs NORHED II-program with 20 million NOK from 2021-2026.
Cooperation
The project is carried out in close cooperation between the University of Oslo and the University of Nairobi, University of Malawi and the Southern and Eastern Regional Center in Women’s Law (SEARCWL) at the University of Zimbabwe.
- The Faculty of Law at UiO's research group Welfare Rights and Discrimination (VERDI) (uio.no)
- The Faculty of Law at UiO's Research group Global Challenges to Human Rights Law, Policy, and Practice
Organization and leadership
- Project leader at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo Oslo: Professor Anne Hellum
- Leaders of the Master and PhD program at the Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi: Dr. Sarah Kinyanjui, Dr. Collins Odote and Dr. Nkata Kaberi
- Program coordinator at Chancellor College, Malawi: Dr, Ngcimezile Mbano-Mweso
- Program coordinator at SEARCWL, University of Zimbabwe: Dr. Rosalie Katsande
