We are deeply saddened to announce the death of one of our PROCOL Africa citizen scientists, Duncan Kipkore, following a serious car accident in Kenya earlier this week.

Duncan was a valued member of our team of citizen scientists and had recently been working with us on value chains and on the evaluation of citizen science work in PROCOL Africa. He had always planned to use his work with us to launch a career in data and digital analytics.

Duncan’s father, Professor Wilson Kipkore is a Faculty member at the University of Eldoret and a very longstanding collaborator of PROCOL Africa.

This is a grievous blow for the family, but also for all the members of the PROCOL Africa team. Our thoughts are with Duncan’s family, friends and colleagues at this difficult time. 

Prosperity Co-Laboratory (PROCOL) Africa is an innovative collaborative research programme seeking to broaden the discussion of what constitutes prosperity in Africa. Led by the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) at University College London in close collaboration with local partners, our research harnesses cutting edge science, community knowledge, astute policy development and participatory research methods to develop smarter, localised understandings of prosperity that can be tailored to communities across Africa.

Our understanding of prosperity is changing. For decades prosperity has been associated with economic development through industrialisation, and GDP oriented economic growth has been seen as the only way to improve standards of living. Environmental degradation, pressure on resources and the persistence of widespread poverty have demonstrated not only the shortcomings of this vision, but have also made it evident that it is fundamentally unsustainable, and cannot deliver wellbeing and long-term opportunities for citizens and communities across the globe.

Looking ahead to the challenges Africa faces, notably climate change, urbanisation and the future of work it is clear a new vision encompassing natural prosperity will be needed to create communities that are sustainable, autonomous and resilient. While Kenya embodies many of the challenges faced across sub-Saharan Africa, we also see it as a hub of innovation and inspiration that is fostering African solutions to global problems.

Alongside PROCOL Africa, the IGP is also running Prosperity Co-laboratories in Lebanon and London. Follow this link to find out more about the IGP.