Professional summary

Festus is an environmental social scientist whose research focuses on advancing a better understanding of the interdependence and synergies between human, animal and ecosystem health with a view of improving policy outcomes for safeguarding livelihoods, health and well-being across different socio-cultural, political and economic contexts.

Through interdisciplinary engagement, his research revolves around three key inter-linked foci: agriculture, health and environment with climate change as an underlying cross-cutting theme particularly in developing contexts. Under these three broad themes, he specifically focuses on the political ecology of environmental health risks (particularly endemic and emerging zoonotic disease vulnerability within a 'One Health' systems paradigm), land tenure systems and sustainable resource management and climate change adaptation. 

Festus currently leads the social science components of three interdisciplinary One Health projects where he employs empirical mixed-methods and co-production approaches to understand the complex socio-ecological, cultural, political and economic drivers and systems of land and environmental (health) risks and governance challenges as well as strong science-policy interfaces and contextually appropriate interventions towards sustainable, inclusive and equitable resource governance and resilient futures. His previous DPhil (PhD) research at the University of Oxford examined the dynamics of land tenure and sustainable land management in Ghana.

Selected publications