Johns Muleso Kharika

Johns Muleso Kharika is the Chief of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Unit at the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). His primary functions are to oversee, lead and manage the secretariat’s integrated support and programme of work for the Convention’s two subsidiary bodies and their governance structures namely, the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC), and the Committee on Science and Technology (CST), including the activities and outputs of the Convention’s Science-Policy Interface (SPI). He also manages capacity building initiatives and drives the secretariat’s innovation agenda towards sustainable land management.

Prior to joining the UNCCD Secretariat, Mr Kharika worked in Malawi and in South Africa – holding various positions in the private, public and development sectors – and gaining vast experience in strategic management, policy making – specializing in both ‘science for policy’ and ‘policy for science’ processes. An experienced negotiator, he focused on aligning science-based targets under Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) to suit local, national, sub-regional and regional contexts.

Mr Kharika’s training background spans the fields of Agriculture, Landscape Architecture, Project Management, Town and Regional Planning, and Construction Management Sciences. An avid lover of sports, nature and the political economy, he hails from a tea growing district in south-eastern Malawi.