GCAP Kenya

Currently undergoing development, GCAP Kenya represents our committment to developing in-country local capacity in vulnerable regions. GCAP Kenya, based in Nairobi, Kenya, will have a strong regional focus on East Africa. We have a strong network of partners and associates throughout East Africa and are excited to expand and strengthen those relationships and develop new ones. GCAP Kenya's development is led by Mica Longanecker, Basra Ali and Mark de Blois. 

For more information on GCAP Kenya and to explore opportunities to work with us, please email gcapkenya@climateadaptation.cc.

Thomas Downing

 

Professor Thomas E Downing is a Director of GCAP Kenya. Though primarily based in the UK, he travels often to East Africa. He spent four years in Kenya in the 1980s, working for the National Environment Secretariat and completing the field work for his PhD (Geography, Clark University) on coping with drought in Eastern and Southern Kenya (parts of the research was published in Coping with Drought in Kenya, Routledge, 1988). He has worked in Kenya since then, notably on the Economics of Climate Change in Kenya. He established the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership (GCAP) in order to promote client-driven solutions. Before establishing GCAP, he was the Director of the Stockholm Environmental Institute’s Oxford office, where he managed a $2million revenue base. Over his career he has held a number of influential positions, including advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme and the Munich Re Foundation Chair forsocial vulnerability. He is an internationally recognised thought leader in adaptation and has published over 100 papers, books, reports and book reviews, including the Atlas of ClimateChange (with Kirstin Dow). He is currently directing a project on an adaptation mainstreaming for the African Development Bank and has previously worked with the World Bank and Inter AmericanDevelopment Bank.

Mica Longanecker

 

Mica Longanecker is a Director of GCAP Kenya and Business Development Officer for GCAP Global. He has worked the past two years in the UK at GCAP's Global Headquarters. He received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, with concentrations in Finance and Management. He has been directly involved in the development and facilitation of the Adaptation Academy; responsibilities include managing budgets, coordination and communication, and marketing.  He has helped with the management and administration of several projects including the DFID Economics of Climate Change Adaptation in Tanzania, EC ClimateCost, DFID Climate Change Strategic Evaluation of the Rwanda Programme and UNISDR/EUR-OPA Governance of Climate Change Adaptation in Europe.  He works closely with the GCAP senior staff and directors and is responsible for managing and performing many of the day-to-day tasks.  As a Director of GCAP Kenya, he will manage the day-to-day operations and play a strong role in business development and networking.

Basra Ali

 

Basra Ali is a Director and communication coordinator of GCAP Kenya. She has over a decade of experience working with different stakeholders throughout Kenya and will be crucial in our communication and dissemination strategy. She has a large Kenyan network and has been involved in providing advisory services to key ministries on the impacts of climate change, and conducting research on environmentally induced migration and livelihood alternatives.

Mark de Blois

 

Mark de Blois is a Director of GCAP Kenya and a Director of Upande Ltd.  He is a Geographical Information Systems specialist and consultant with over ten years of experience and expertise in consultancy, GIS training and implementation projects, software development and project management.  He specializes in bespoke GIS curriculum development and training, project management of software application development, spatial data infrastructure (SDI) implementation and cross-cultural communication.

As Director of Upande Ltd., he was instrumental in the joint launch of Virtual Kenya, an online interactive platform with related materials for those with no access to the Internet, with the World Resources Institute.   Virtual Kenya is designed to provide improved access to high quality spatial data and cutting- edge mapping technology to allow more Kenyans to use and interact with spatial data in their educational and professional pursuits.