Dr Sithabile Hlahla (Future Water)

Sithabile joined the Future Water Institute as a post-doctoral research fellow working within the Water resilience and environmental health project under the Carnegie DEAL programme. Prior to joining UCT, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where she worked under the building Well-being, sOcial cOhesion, and Dignity by restoring environmental RIGHTS (WoodRIGHTS) project and the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) programme. Her work under the SHEFS programme focussed on the agriculture-environment-health nexus and the associated policy impacts of food production system transformation for low-income groups in the rural areas of South Africa, while her work under WOODRights focussed on ecosystem restoration and the enhancement of natural capital through neglected and underutilised tree species, and the benefits that can be derived for human wellbeing.

Sithabile has spent over 10 years in the research space and her research interests have been interdisciplinary in nature. These interests have included: environmental due diligence in banks; community-based payments for environmental services projects; community and local government response to climate variability and change; gender and climate change response; sustainable food production systems; the water-energy-food nexus; and ecosystem system restoration and neglected and underutilised trees.