PURPOSE-LED, PARTNER-FOCUSED AND A LEGACY THAT ENDURES

AS A LEADING VOICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND AN ADVOCATE FOR AFRICA'S GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL, WANJIRA MATHAI SITS DOWN WITH FORBES AFRICA TO DISCUSS HOW HER JOURNEY BEGAN, WHERE THE OPPORTUNITIES LIE AND MORE.

- Words: Nicole Pillay

For Wanjira Mathai, the transition from public health-which is where her training lies—to becoming one of the leading voices in environmental advocacy and activism on the continent, was a natural one.

Currently, serving as Managing Director, Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute, an Advisory Council Member at the World Future Council and Chairperson of the Wangari Maathai Foundation—established in 2015 to support projects that further the values, legacy and vision of her mother—she was drawn into the world of environmental sustainability.

“[After six years in the health sphere], I came back to Nairobi [from the U.S], more or less, to think about what I wanted to do next. And it was in that ‘what next’ that I got sucked into my mother’s work. It was really fun for me. I was resting but I was busy,” she tells FORBES AFRICA.

Her mother, Professor Wangari Maathai, founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 in Nairobi, under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK), to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004; the first environmentalist and African woman to receive it.

“The genius of the work that the Green Belt Movement was doing-mobilizing local women around environmental issues that seem so complex on the outside, but in ways that they could understand-that they actually had the agency to manage and control, that they were responsible for the health of their environment, the health of the soils that produce the food they ate; it was such an empowering process,” says the proud daughter.