Peris Muchiri is currently working with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Somalia office as a hydro-meteorologist. She is undertaking her PhD studies in Climate Change and adaptation at the University of Nairobi, Kenya and holds a MA in Project Planning and Management (2012), MSc in Hydrology (2007) and BSc in Meteorology (2000).

Her key skills include; Climate and water related data analysis, installation of weather and river monitoring systems, weather forecasting, hydrological modelling, GIS, disaster risk management, capacity building, project planning and report writing. Over the years, she has worked with Government institutions of Somalia to help build up the water resources sector destroyed during the civil war in the country. She facilitated and supervised the re-installation of weather and hydrometric monitoring networks comprising over 100 different types in Somalia of which she has remained in charge for over ten years. Peris is responsible for climate and water resources databases and supervises a group of 120 weather observers and an additional 12 technical officers in water resources and climate activities. Ms. Muchiri is also experienced in disaster risk reduction activities especially in droughts and floods. For over ten years she has been the team leader for monitoring of floods and droughts while building resilience of the vulnerable communities in Somalia within FAO projects and this has significantly reduced the suffering of the communities owing to climate related hazards. Her abilities in climate and hydrological modelling have enabled her develop an integrated early warning system for Somalia with a focus on droughts and floods which are frequent in the country she has remained the team leader for the generation and distribution of early warning information.

Peris is the FOA’s principal investigator (PI) in the DOWN2EARTH project. She will be responsible for all the technical responsibilities of the project and see smooth implementation of the projects activities by FAO.