GCI's newest postdoc Dr Ruwa Matsika: "Knowledge is power"
GCI’s newest postdoc Dr Ruwa Matsika returns to academia following four years in the NGO and private sector.
Dr Ruwa Matsika: Ruwa completed her Masters and PhD at Wits University. Her academic research focused on energy, landscape ecology and modelling sustainable energy for rural socio-ecological systems. Her PhD was entitled: The spatio-temporal dynamics of woody biomass supply and demand in response to human utilisation in an African Savanna woodland. After receiving her PhD, Ruwa worked in the NGO and private sector focusing on sustainability. She worked in areas concerning organisational sustainability, research, policy and advocacy for undertaking business in a sustainable and responsible manner.
After four years, we ask what prompted Ruwa to return to academia. “Knowledge is a very powerful tool. A lot of the time we hear of the importance of making evidence-based decisions. But what evidence-based decisions actually means is dependent on who you are talking to. My interest lies in generating evidence that can be used to achieve sustainable development goals,” says Ruwa.
She explains, “I feel there is a gap on how knowledge can be used responsibly. I wanted to return to the academic sector and pursue some interesting research relating to climate change and adaptation. Climate change and adaptation are technical subjects, and I want to look into ways of how we can take the knowledge we have and innovatively disseminate it to everyone to empower people to make responsible decisions.”
According to Ruwa, GCI’s pursuit of undertaking research in a transdisciplinary manner is very appealing. “I see GCI as a platform at the cutting-edge of transdisciplinary research. Transdisciplinary research is open and not restricted in thinking – it involves different stakeholders, it looks at different types of knowledge such as people’s experiences, indigenous knowledge, scientific knowledge and so forth. It is a practical approach to science and looks at real world challenges and attempts to provide solutions,” she says.
Ruwa’s research will focus on energy, climate change and adaptation. Additionally she wants to also look at ways of how to package knowledge appropriately for different audiences. Another area of interest to her is how to harness the power of the private sector to help drive initiatives related to climate change and adaptation.