Tomas Van Acker
After completing a PhD research project on the legacies of civil war and rebellion in post-war politics in Burundi, Tomas Van Acker is currently interested in understanding how climate change and climate policies affect governance and conflict processes.
He is the coordinator of the Governance in Conflict Network (GIC), which unites researchers and institutes around a shared agenda of fieldwork-based research on governance, conflict and development.
As a lecturer, he teaches introductory courses to critical development studies and political ethnography, as well as a seminar on climate change and the politics of development.
Event: Policy Roundtable Advancing integrated climate–security responses: the role of local institutions, youth, and gender in flood-prone western Burundi
27 May 2026
14.00-15.30
Venue: Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU, Belliardstraat 65, 1040 Brussels
New Report: Climate Change and Conflict in the Ruzizi Plain (DRC)
The report discusses the way in which climate change effects play out locally in South Kivu’s Ruzizi Plain, and how they interact with, add to, or alter existing conflict dynamics in this territory.