Thelma is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto Mississauga, working on health equity in the Greater Toronto Area. She completed her PhD in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. Her research interests include water security, climate change, health, livelihoods, and environmental impact assessment. Thelma is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship (QEScholars) She is working on the Water Security as a Foundation for Healthy Communities and Sustainable Livelihoods project. Thelma intends to pursue research on ensuring WaSH for resilient healthcare systems in the Horn of Africa.
Thelma holds an MPhil from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a BSc from the University of Ghana. During her master’s, she researched the competing uses of water in the context of climate variability in the Lawra district of Ghana under the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) Project. Thelma worked as an intern in WaterAid and as an independent environmental consultant on environmental impact assessment in Ghana.
Conference presentations
- O'Hearn, S., Nunbogu, A., Manjang, B. & Abu, TZ. Water security at the intersection of health and governance. Canadian Conference on Global Health, Ottawa, Ontario. (October 16th - 19th, 2019).
- Abu, TZ. Water use and management in the context of climate variability in the Lawra District. CAGONT Annual Meeting, Kingston, Ontario (October 20th - 21st, 2017).
- Abu, TZ. Climate Change and Water Management: Implications for Shared Use of Water Resources. 5th Climate Change and Population Conference on Africa, Accra, Ghana (July 19th - 21st, 2016).
- Abu, TZ. Exploring the competing uses of water in the context of climate change and variability in the Lawra District. College of Basic and Applied Science (CBAS) Annual Science and Development Platform, Accra, Ghana (February 17th - 19th, 2016).
Knowledge sharing on climate change research
- Hoffman. T., (2016, March, 17). University of Ghana ASSAR student - Thelma Zulfawu Abu. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w9VZ2XXbrc
- Abu, T.Z., (2017). Exploring the competing uses of Ghana’s Lawra District. ASSAR Spotlight. Retrieved from: http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/138/Spotlights/ASSAR%20Spotlight%20on%20Water%20-%20June%202017.pdf