Seminar - Researching Climate Change and Development from the Bottom Up – Reflections from Current Practice

Abstract

This roundtable engages speakers from OU partner organisations across the global North and global South to reflect on current challenges and opportunities in researching and influencing climate change and development ‘from the bottom up’. Drawing on their long-standing commitments to participatory action research with marginalised communities, the speakers will discuss what meaningful participation looks like in practice, how to navigate the complexity of locally grounded and interdisciplinary research, and how researchers and practitioners can secure political buy-in while remaining accountable to communities most affected by climate change. The discussion will foreground practical experiences of co-producing knowledge, translating research into action, and working across uneven power relations in diverse social, political and environmental urban contexts. 

Register

Speakers

Arabella Fraser is a senior lecturer in global development at The Open University, UK. Her research focuses on the social and political implications of climate and disaster risk for urban development and development practice. 

Sarah Anyango Ouma is a strategic communications specialist and researcher with over nine years of experience working across development, climate justice, and urban resilience initiatives in Africa. She currently serves as Communications and Youth Engagement Manager at Shack Dwellers International (SDI) Kenya, where she works closely with youth and informal settlement communities to translate community-led data and research into accessible, impactful narratives.

Sarah holds a Master’s degree in Development Communication and is currently pursuing a PhD in Information and Communication at the University of Nairobi. Her work sits at the intersection of participatory research, ethical storytelling, and climate resilience, with a particular focus on youth leadership and knowledge co-production. She is passionate about advancing inclusive, community-driven approaches to research and urban transformation.

Duaa Sameer is a former Research Associate and current Learning and Impact Coordinator at the Karachi Urban Lab at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi, Pakistan. She graduated with a Bachelors in Social Development and Policy from Habib University, Karachi in 2021. Since then, her research and policy work has focused on how urban risk accumulates in the context of urban poverty, growing climate uncertainty and enduring  work of repair that remains unequally gendered.

Shirley Chebet is a Design Associate at Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) Kenya. She is a dynamic Landscape Architect with over 5 years of experience in the development of efficient, safe and people-centric public spaces and transportation systems in Nairobi. She supports the co-development of design strategies and solutions while advancing equity through KDI’s built projects in Kibera and Turkana. She is keen and passionate about inclusive, community-led processes and the inclusion of minority voices in the safeguarding and regeneration of public spaces in the city. Shirley is a graduate of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultural and Technology as well as a graduate of the Architectural Association of Kenya.

When she is not busy providing solutions to complex spatial matters at KDI, she spends time dancing and volunteering at Nipe Sauti Africa, a community based organization that gives a voice to the voiceless.