October 20, 2003

Challenges of International Collaborative Capacity Building

How can organizations from different nations and different continents work together to build effective environmental institutions? What problems and solutions arise when funders, governments, and non-governmental institutions seek to enhance the ability of existing organizations in the developing world to address environmental issues?

On October 20, 2003 Professor Charles Odidi Okidi discussed the challenges that face corporations, foundations, governments, international organizations, and civil society in building the capacity of environmental institutions to address the needs of our times. He also spoke about the conceptual and practical considerations in international collaboration as well as problems of resource mobilization, specifically for capacity building in environmental law and policy.

Professor Okidi is the first Futrell Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute. He teaches at the Institute for Development Studies and Faculty of Law at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He founded the School of Environmental Studies at Moi University and is creating the Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy at University of Nairobi. He has also taught at the University of Malta and Dalhousie University and was Senior Legal Officer at the United Nations Environment Programme. Professor Okidi was Vice Chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law from 1984 to 2000 and has been the Regional Governor of the International Council of Environmental Law. In 1985, he received the Elizabeth Haub Prize in Environmental Law.