Dr. Joseph Adelegan, a Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer earned a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Nigerian Premier University, the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is an Ashoka Fellow; an Inventor-Entrepreneur supported by US based Lemelson Foundation, a Salzburg Fellow, a Royal Government of the Netherlands Scholar, a 2006 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland and a 2007 Revolutionary Mind Award Recipient of the SEED Media Group, New York, USA.
He also holds an MSc and BSc degrees in Civil Engineering. He also earns a Postgraduate Diploma in Structural Engineering and an MBA degree specializing in Business Finance. He is an Alumnus of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
He is the Founder and the Executive Chairman of the Global Network for Environment and Economic Development Research, a front-line African citizen sector organization (CSO) organization involved in environment and sustainable development issues. He has about two decade of professional experience spread across engineering consulting on internationally financed (World Bank and African Development Bank) water and sanitation projects, construction, project management, research, public service, university lecturing, policy advocacy and social entrepreneurship.
Dr. Adelegan was appointed into public service as the Project Director for the US $200 million World Bank Assisted Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project in January 2006. He had a brief stay in academics and research between 1999 and 2001 teaching undergraduate class at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He was a Faculty of the UNU-ILA, Amman, Jordan and UNU-INRA, Accra, Ghana jointly organized course on ‘Leadership for Natural Resources Management in Africa” held in May 2007 at UNU-INRA, Accra, Ghana.
He is in great demand as an international conference speaker. He has attended and presented papers at international conferences in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and North America spreading over 36 countries of the World. He is a recipient of several international research grants, awards, fellowships and scholarships on environment and sustainable development issues from the United Nations, United Nations University, World Bank, International Foundation for Science, OECD, IDRC, German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) and The Council of American Overseas Research Centres among others.
In 2001, he pioneered the first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in Nigeria dubbed “Cows to Kilowatts”. The project is abating water pollution, improving human and ecosystem health, mitigating greenhouse gas emission and creating cheap source of domestic energy with environmentally safe organic fertiliser from slaughterhouse waste through the installation of sustainable biogas plant. The project is a winner of the prestigious 2005 Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) International Awards (
www.seedinit.org). SEED is supported by IUCN-The World Conservation Union, UNDP, UNEP, GPPi, VRom, Global Compact, Swiss-Re, the Government of United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa and the United States of America. The initiative is also a recipient of the Global Social Benefits Incubator (GSBI) Scholarship at Santa Clara University, California, USA.
