Sandra van Niekerk

Sandra van Niekerk

Project Coordinator for Climate Change and Africa Local and Regional Government (LRG)

sandra.van.niekerk@world-psi.org

Sandra van Niekerk has started working as PSI Climate Change Project Coordinator (80% position) on 1st July 2020.

Sandra will be responsible for the effective implementation of the PSI climate change strategy in the Africa and Arab Countries Region and will act as liaison coordinator for climate change work with other PSI regions. She will work with relevant trade unions and allies to promote the PSI policy on climate change, and to build capacity and knowledge of this issue in the public sector trade unions. The PSI project work on climate change in Africa and Arab Countries is implemented in Kenya, Zambia, Tunisia, Tanzania, Morocco and Nigeria.

She will be based in South Africa and can be reached via her PSI email address: sandra.van.niekerk@world-psi.org and her mobile phone number +27 83 63 36 052.

Kenyan public service trade unions came together for the last workshop activity of the project from 27 – 29 May 2025. As the project comes to a close, the workshop provided an opportunity to reflect on the process - building knowledge, deepening organising capacity, and strengthening their ability to defend workers in an era of increasingly severe climate impacts.

Since 2023, when this iteration of the project began, Kenya has faced a succession of climate-related emergencies. Some counties have been devastated by heavy rains and catastrophic flooding, while others have endured prolonged drought, acute water scarcity, crop failure, and livestock deaths. The country experienced its worst drought in 40 years between 2020 and early 2023, followed by intense rains that caused widespread flooding at the end of 2023, and from March - May 2024.

Public sector workers are on the frontlines of these crises—supporting communities, maintaining vital services, and often working in unsafe or rapidly changing environments. The workshop reaffirmed that strengthening public services and worker protection is central to a just transition.

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