Regional Director for Africa at C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

Hastings Chikoko is the Regional Director for Africa at C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. He serves on the Advisory Board for the African Centre for Cities (University of Cape Town). His work with local authorities started at the City of Blantyre and later at the Ministry of Local Government in Malawi working with Mchinji District Council. Prior to joining C40, Hastings had a long career with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) where he served in leadership roles in Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa and Switzerland; including being the Regional Director for East and Southern Africa (ad Interim) and Head of IUCN in South Africa. He has also been one of the International Development Research Center’s (IDRC) African Mentors for policy think-tanks in Africa; and a member of the Regional Technical Committee for the Global Water Partnership (Southern Africa). Besides an MSc degree in Cities from the London School of Economics (LSE Cities), he also holds an MSc degree in Strategic Management (University of Derby, UK), Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Diplomacy - specializing in Green Economy (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and a BSc degree in Economics (University of Malawi). He has had focused training in Climate Change Diplomacy and Bilateral Diplomacy at the Diplo Foundation, Switzerland.