Lilian Kong’ani: How Mediation Plays a Vital Role in Sustainable Development
TThis blog post is part of series exploring how Kenyan environmentalists and researchers are tackling climate change in the region. The series builds on the Mawazo Institute Climate Week; a week-long campaign held in March 2022 featuring in-person and virtual events that presented local research, ideas, and approaches to planetary health that can strengthen community networks and instigate urgent action on climate issues for individuals and institutions in Eastern Africa, and beyond.
Our first interview is with Lilian Namuma S. Kong’ani, a Mawazo Learning Exchange Fellow and Tutorial Fellow at the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, within the University of Nairobi, where she is pursuing her PhD in Environmental Governance and Management.
What is environmental governance and how does it relate to your research?
Peace is central to development, yet it is also threatened by development. Conflicts arising from the development of climate related projects such as geothermal energy have the potential to slow these projects, increase their cost, lead to their rejection or termination by the community, and in the worst-case scenario, loss of life. Conflicts inevitably render the community more vulnerable to climate change impacts and aggravate their response and resilient capacity.
Environmental governance can be referred to as established regulatory processes, instruments, and organizations through which political actors influence environmental actions and outcomes. The socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development are dependent on effective legal and institutional frameworks and good decision-making processes that must encompass everybody, right from the grass root level to national, regional and global levels.
Good environmental governance, which enables the decentralization of decision-making powers so that it is felt at the grassroot level, provides an opportunity for everyone to participate. My PhD research evaluates the role of mediation in resolving developmental conflicts for sustainable development, with a focus on the Olkaria IV geothermal energy project.
What is the importance of your research for the African continent and Kenya specifically?
The 21st Century has seen increased industrial production and consumption. Countries worldwide have invested heavily in large scale infrastructure, including the exploration of clean energy like geothermal, to not only meet economic needs and human development, but to also realize environmental sustainability and address global concerns such as climate change.
Geothermal energy exploration in Kenya for instance, is aligned to the country’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), goal 7, on affordable, reliable, sustainable, modern energy for all, and importantly goal 13 on climate actions. Through geothermal energy exploration, the country also seeks to transition from a middle-income country to a newly industrialized country by 2030 and provide a higher quality of life to its citizens in a clean and secure environment.
While these kinds of developmental projects are important, their establishments have often resulted in conflicts especially where local communities are displaced. How such conflicts are addressed therefore, determines whether the formation of such important developmental projects will be smooth and sustainable, or hit a gridlock. While attempts have been made to address such developmental conflicts through legal means, court backlogs have frequently slowed justice and where the outcome is finally reached, it’s sadly often unfavorable for the party with less economic or structural support.
It was interesting to learn that mediation had been used to resolve conflicts that emerged between the developer and Project Affected Persons (PAPs) during the establishment of Olkaria IV geothermal energy plant. Thus, this offered an opportunity to evaluate the conflict dynamics that were prompted by the development of this important energy plant, and how mediation was used to reduce the conflicts and foster peaceful co-existence between the PAPs and the developer, and inform policies to use mediation for resolving conflicts arising from similar developments within the country and beyond.
How will your findings address local and global environmental governance?
In order to better understand and address conflicts that arise from environmental development projects, it is integral to evaluate conflict dynamics that follow the establishment of major projects such as the construction of renewable energy facilities, or dams, especially when they intrude on host communities’ lands and other natural resources.
Additionally, my research makes important recommendations to development actors to include local communities in the design and implementation of all important developmental projects. In doing so, it will facilitate local investment in the projects by the community, and avoid unrealistic pledges and expectations, thus averting possible conflicts that could not only hinder progress in achieving developmental goals, but could also further impoverish the host community and render them more vulnerable to impacts of climate change, among other issues.
In addition, my research advocates for policies to use mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism to facilitate amicable resolution of conflicts between the developer and the affected community. The use of mediation’s best practices will promote the sustainable resolution of the inevitable mushrooming developmental conflicts and good environmental governance even beyond Kenya.
Further reading and links
https://mawazolearningexchange.org/lilian-kongani/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilian-namuma-sarah-kong-ani-6505381a9/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lilian-Sarah-Kongani
Lillian Namuma S. Kong’ani has been published in peer-reviewed journals and participated in several local and international conferences, including the 2019 International Student Conference on Environment and Sustainability (ISCE) at Tongji University, and UN Environment, organized by UN Environment -Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD), in Shanghai, China. She also participated in the coordination and implementation of the Stabilizing Kenya through Resolving Forest Related Conflicts (STAKE) project, was a project assistant promoting the critical role of women in climate change in wPOWER Hub Project, and also supported the implementation of the second phase of the Kenyan Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Program (Launch and Grow).