Scaling nature-based solutions for climate resilient infrastructure

Project: Perceiving inequality in an unequal city: A case study of youth in Mathare, Kenya
Role: Former Msc Candidate 2023
Affiliation: PhD Candidate in Environmental Policy and Development at the London School of Economics
Orcid ID: N/A
Email: z.essa@lse.ac.uk

After an honour’s degree in Economics from the University of Cape Town, Zak worked in the rural Eastern Cape to work at the Bulungula Incubator, an organisation committed to sustainably ending poverty in a generation. Living in Nqileni Village, he was surrounded by people who were committed to a better future for everyone in the region and to preserving strong social cohesion and vibrant community life.

In 2021, Zak migrated northwards to study for a Masters in Development Studies at the University of Oxford where he aspired to build a toolkit to better understand the world’s inequalities: learned why politics matters, why history’s ills linger long after liberation, and about the dangers of searching for silver bullet solutions to complex problems. While at Oxford Zak worked as a Research Assistant for the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and was elected as a Global Leadership Initiative Fellow.

Afterward, he supported the Presidential Employment Stimulus – a large Public Employment programme coordinated through the Project Management Office in the South African Presidency – where he worked on policy analysis and strategy related to livelihood pathways out of poverty and the role of social protection in the climate crisis.  Zak is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental Policy and Development at the London School of Economics, where I am interested in how climate action can make a tangible difference for people experiencing poverty.