RCMRD Director General Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunziza recently hosted the new USAID Environment Office Chief, Ms. Aurelia Micko. Dr. Nkurunziza welcomed Ms. Micko and appreciated her consideration of paying RCMRD a courtesy visit.
The new Envionment Chief was keen to learn more about RCMRD's strategic plan, particularly in matters where USAID has interest for example sustainability and the 'Journey to Self reliance' (J2SR). In the meeting held on November 6, 2019, the RCMRD team comprised of DG Dr. Nkurunziza, Technical Services Director Prof. John Kiema and SERVIR-Eastern and Southern Africa (SERVIR-E&SA) Project Manager Dr. Robinson Mu go.Ms. Chihenyo Kangara the Regional Climate Change & Resilience Specialist in the Environment Office for USAID Kenya and East Africa accompanied Ms. Micko.
In her visit to RCMRD, Ms. Micko listened to a presentation on USAID’s support to RCMRD’s work on Kenya’s county level hazard atlases as well as the thematic areas that SERVIR -E&SA is handling. She visited RCMRD’s Remote Sensing Lab and the Data office as well as the SERVIR-E&SA labs. The DG briefed her on how the USAID supported work at RCMRD had helped support clients and governments with timely and accurate information on issues such as flood monitoring and land cover mapping.
The DG also briefed her on the Governing Council meeting whose delegates are up to Principal Secretary level. He also explained that the Conference of Ministers will convene next year in Uganda. Ms. Micko replaced Ms. Juniper Neil- USAID/KEA Environment Office Director who left post and has now been replaced by . comes in from the USAID Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand where she has worked extensively. She will lead the design of the next USAID/KEA environment strategy and will be critical in the design of the Mission Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS).
Ms. Micko who was previously deployed in Thailand where she interacted extensively with the SERVIR program. She was interested in knowing more about SERVIR-Eastern and Southern Africa (SERVIR-E&SA) that is implemented by the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) as well as other opportunities for partnership with RCMRD. The overarching goal of the SERVIR project is to improve environmental management and resilience to climate change. With an eye toward this goal, the SERVIR project works to build the capacity of SERVIR regional hub institutions, governments and other key stakeholders to integrate earth observation information and geospatial technologies into environmental decision-making. See photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJEzNrz