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Research chair to focus on mainstreaming climate-smart financing solutions

03 March 2025 | Story Andre Damons and Adele Louw | Photo Tania Allen

A newly established multi-stakeholder research chair at the University of the Free State (UFS) Business School will focus on holistic and interdisciplinary research that will create new knowledge, contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation in the food and agricultural sector.

The Agriculture Risk Financing research chair, led by Prof Cobus Oberholster from the Business School, will also support sector specific policy development and implementation, and steer the societal discourse on climate financing and sustainable agriculture. The chair forms part of the UFS, Agricultural Research Council (ARC), and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) research chairs. Prof Oberholster joined the university on 1 February 2025 in this prestigious position which is a collaboration between the Business School and the UFS Department of Agricultural Economics.

Prof Oberholster, who spent a big portion of his corporate career in the banking environment, brings extensive expertise in climate finance, resource mobilisation, and sustainable economic practices. His appointment marks a significant milestone in advancing research at the intersection of finance, sustainability, and agriculture, ensuring that innovative financial solutions contribute to environmental resilience and responsible resource management. Prof Oberholster also gained extensive management experience over the past 15 years regarding the agribusiness environment (non-Bank) in South Africa with a specific focus on value-chain financing.

Focus of research chair

Says Prof Oberholster: “The research chair will strategically focus on the mainstreaming of climate-smart financing solutions within the food and agricultural sector. To achieve this, the research will focus on three strategic and interrelated pillars (Regulatory and policy, Entrepreneurial market exchanges and Digital financial innovations), which aim to provide a governance framework within which innovative financing and market mechanisms can be developed and commercialised.

“The chair will reside at the UFS Business School, but form part of a group of research chairs being hosted within the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science. These chairs cover the full food and agricultural value chain, which allow for leveraging the output of the chair within very specific components of the value agrifood value chain.”

The ARC-DALLRD-UFS research chairs were established last year in an effort to address the challenges and impact of climate change in Southern Africa and fall under the umbrella of climate change.

Prof Oberholster, who completed two doctoral degrees focusing on agriculture, agricultural development, and agricultural financing, says he is excited to be part of this joint initiative, and the opportunity to share his business and financing experience. “Climate change, and the corresponding need to find innovative financing solutions, is currently one of the biggest global challenges. It requires an accelerated and responsible approach to research and innovation which, together with the university’s trusted reputation, must be used to build social licence for disruptive technological solutions.”

Contributing to food security

According to Prof Oberholster, both the UFS Business School and the faculty, are ideally suited to find complementary commercial solutions for accessing and mobilising climate finance in South Africa and the wider African continent. The chair, through the UFS Business School, will also focus on capacity building which will be done through selected training and educational interventions, with the aim of addressing existing constraints in mobilising and accessing climate finance.

“The chair will focus on the integration of social, ethical and environmental parameters into climate-financing decisions. By focusing on these key sustainability aspects, access to climate finance will not only contribute to specific development objectives but also significantly contribute to food security,” Prof Oberholster says.

“Climate change, and the corresponding need to find innovative financing solutions, is currently one of the biggest global challenges. As such I’m looking forward to guide the creation of new knowledge in this specialised field, and especially to find complementary commercial solutions for accessing and mobilising climate finance in South Africa and the bigger African continent. What is standing out for me is the level of expertise available within the UFS, and the willingness of academics to work together on grand challenges such as climate finance. This is a winning recipe.”

News Archive

#Women’sMonth: Who am I? Questions of identity among Rwandan rape survivors

2017-08-03

Michelle Nöthling, master’s degree student
in the Centre for Trauma, Forgiveness, and
Reconciliation Studies at the UFS.
Photo: Eugene Seegers

From 7 April to 15 July 1994, a mass genocide swept through Rwanda after years of Belgian colonial rule that divided the country along ethnic lines. Rape was also used as part of a political strategy to torture and humiliate mainly Tutsi women, and as a means of spreading HIV.

Individual focus
Why is it important to listen to what these rape survivors have to say? Michelle Nöthling, a master’s student in the UFS Centre for Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies, responds, “We speak of groups – refugees, foreigners, and the like – yet we tend to forget the individuals and the lasting impact trauma has had on each person.”

Narrative exploration
Michelle maintains that we are the product of the narratives around us; things like – how to be a woman, how to dress, speak, or treat others. Her research delves into how these rape survivors see themselves, how they narrate their lives. She also investigates power relations based on gender; for example, how language can be used as a divisive tool.

Rwandan backdrop
In Rwanda, gender roles are deeply entrenched. Traditionally, a ‘girl’ remains such while she is a virgin. Her transition into womanhood is usually marked by marriage and followed by motherhood. But rape disrupts this structure, leading to an identity crisis as these girls are catapulted into motherhood with an unplanned child resulting from a traumatic event.

“We are the product of
the narratives around us.”

Reaching their mid-teens, the children, too, started asking questions about identity or paternity. For those mothers who were finally able to open up to their children, the experience has been mostly liberating – often leading to a closer relationship between parent and child. Michelle intends to interrogate how such significant moments shape the way these women perceive themselves. Research tends to portray these survivors solely as mothers of rape-born children. Michelle, however, seeks to examine their identities more deeply.

“These survivors still bear the heavy burden of being marginalised, stigmatised, and severely humiliated. Despite this, they have developed their own communities of belonging; people with whom they connect, to whom they relate, and to whom they are not ashamed to tell their experiences,” she said.

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