Abstract n.a.

• Prof. Mugendi M’Rithaa is a transdisciplinary industrial designer, educator and researcher at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He studied in Kenya, the USA, India and South Africa and holds postgraduate qualifications in Industrial Design, Higher Education, and Universal Design. He has taught in Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and Sweden and is passionate about various expressions of socially conscious design, including Designerly Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change; Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability; Distributed Renewable Energy; Indigenous Knowledge Systems; Participatory Design; and Universal Design. Mugendi has a special interest in the pivotal role of design thinking in advancing the developmental agenda on the African continent. He is a founding member of the Network of Afrika Designers (NAD), and is associated with a number of other international networks focusing on design within industrially developing (or majority world contexts). Mugendi is also President Emeritus and Convenor of the Senate of the World Design Organization (formerly known as Icsid – the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design). Much of his work with the WDO focuses on the importance of supporting the aspirations of younger designers worldwide in our profession’s collective quest to resolve wicked problems in diverse contexts.