Tahira Mohamed

Tahira Shariff Mohamed is an anthropologist from northern Kenya and a Jameel Observatory Fellow, a lab based in Nairobi which uses data and evidence to prepare for and act in anticipation of environmental shocks and their impacts on climate-vulnerable communities.

Tahira engages in research-based work in areas including social protection in Kenya, human trafficking across the Kenya-Ethiopian border and the resilience of pastoral communities to external shocks. She has worked with the Effective State and Inclusive Development Research Centre at the University of Manchester on a project examining governance and the politics of implementing social protection in Marsabit County in northern Kenya. As part of her work with the Jameel Observatory, Tahira aims to examine how pastoralist communities evolve community safety nets and coping strategies in response to external shocks, and how such strategies are rooted in cultural institutions.

A pastoralist woman, Tahira has noted the lack of minority representation in academia and this deficit has motivated her to also seek a doctoral degree under the PASTRES Project, a research programme that aims to learn from pastoralists about responding to uncertainty and resilience.

Tahira took a master's degree in international studies from the University of Nairobi.