Irene Karani is a Special Adviser on strategy with a focus on Sustainable Land Use and Agriculture, adaptation, resilience, and advocacy. Previously, she served as the Africa Director for Climate at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). With over 30 years of international experience in climate change, natural resource management, and monitoring and evaluation across more than 13 African countries, her career has been both diverse and impactful.

Irene’s professional journey began in academia, where she taught natural resource management disciplines at public and private universities in Kenya. She then transitioned to civil society, developing and implementing various programmes and projects in the development, conservation, and humanitarian sectors. Thereafter, for 18 years, Irene worked as a development consultant, providing policy and programme development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation services in the climate, natural resources, and development sectors to governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, civil society, and private sector clients in Africa, Europe, and the United States.

She has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed papers and articles on climate change and measuring resilience. Additionally, Irene actively contributes to global, regional, and national discussions on Africa’s opportunities and challenges in addressing climate change, advocating for African-led solutions to foster resilient economic development growth.