Activism from the Outside: A Conversation with Wanjira Mathai

When: 29 September, 2021 | 8:00 EDT, 15:00 EAT, 14:00 CET, 12:00 UTC

Where: Online, Register here

Anniversaries offer opportunities to reflect on the past and imagine the future. In 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme turns fifty and has a chance to reimagine itself. Created to catalyze environmental work within the United Nations and beyond, how has UNEP done? What are the new challenges and what should it do differently? Who can cause that change, and how can they do so?

To explore the questions over the year that commemorates UNEP’s 50th anniversary, the Center for Governance and Sustainability at UMass Boston convenes a series of conversations with leaders around the world who have shaped UNEP’s history. Guests will engage with the new book by Center Director Prof. Maria Ivanova, The Untold Story of the World’s Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty.

For our third dialogue, Dr. Maria Ivanova will be joined by the Vice President & Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute, Wanjira Mathai, to discuss environmental activism and leadership outside of the UN system.

In addition to her work at WRI, Mathai is Chair of the Wangari Maathai Foundation and formerly chaired the Green Belt Movement, a tree-planting initiative founded by her mother Wangari Maathai. With over 20 years of advocacy and activism experience, Mathai has helped raise the profile of numerous causes and championed environmental action in Kenya and East Africa.

The Center for Governance and Sustainability was honored to launch the inaugural conversation for the UNEP at 50 Dialogue Series with Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of UNEP, earlier on 7 May, 2021. The second dialogue

For the second dialogue on 3 June, 2021, Dr. Maria Ivanova was joined by the Administrator of UNDP and former Executive Director of UNEP, Achim Steiner, to discuss the interconnectedness of environment and development and the future of the two organizations.