Dr. Richard Munang is the Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Africa Office. Before this appointment, Richard was the Climate Change Coordinator of the same office, where he guided the implementation of UNEP’s climate-resilient development strategy at national and regional levels. He has extensive programming and policy implementation experience, serving as Regional Coordinator for Africa, Climate Change Sub Programme. Richard’s first assignment at UNEP was as a Project Manager with its Ecosystems Division in 2009. He managed the first UNEP Adaptation Project called Climate Change Adaptation and Development Programme (CCDare), implemented jointly with UNDP. He later worked on EBA for mountains, EBA for Food security, EBA for Coastal ecosystems, low emissions development and Climate action projects.

When he joined the Africa office, he pioneered the first UNEP Africa Adaptation Gap report series, which helped galvanize a coherent continental strategic climate policy position resulting in the elevation of adaptation to be at par with mitigation, an AMCEN priority. He spearheaded the conceptualization and creation of the Ecosystem-Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA), a continental policy framework and implementation platform for adaptation and food security in Africa. He has enhanced youth skills retooling to leverage their passion for turning climate change challenges into climate opportunities.

Before joining the United Nations, Richard worked as a Research Fellow at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and a Lecturer at Nottingham University. He has participated in various research projects and has published over 500 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and magazines. He is the author of the book– Making Africa work through the Power of Innovative Volunteerism.

He is the 2016 winner of UNEP’s Baobab staff awards for Programme Innovation for enhancing efficiency and efficacy, with UNEP work on EBA policy integration being up-scaled nationally and regionally.

Richard is a Cameroonian Citizen who holds a PhD in Environmental Change and Policy from the University of Nottingham and completed the first pioneering Executive Certificate in ‘Climate Change and Energy: Policy Making for the Long Term at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.