Ronald MacLean Abaroa is a Bolivian politician who was elected mayor of La Paz four times between 1985 and 1997. He also served as national cabinet minister for Foreign Affairs, Finance, Sustained Development, Communication, and Planning and Economic Coordination between 1978 and 2001.

As a Senior Research Fellow, he worked at Harvard Institute for International Development from 1997 to 1999 and at the World Bank as a governance and decentralization specialist between 2003 and 2011. Currently, Ronald MacLean Abaroa is a lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University and the International Anti-Corruption Academy.

Kumar Abhishek, an energy and sustainability sector professional with power engineering and management credentials from National Power Training Institute, through his knowledge and expertise of working across the electricity value chain, energy efficiency and climate change adaptation, brings vantage in terms of research, policymaking, execution and review of the domain and cross-sectoral projects. He has worked extensively with government entities at the national, sub-national and city-level and believes in executing assignments through active involvement.

Michele Acuto is director of the Connected Cities Lab, Professor in Urban Politics and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. He is an expert in international urban development. Michele is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and member of Fondation Botnar’s expert commission.

Biodun Otunola is the founding Managing Director of Planet Projects Limited (PPL), a leading and fast-growing Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Management (EPCM) firm, where he heads a team that provides a wide range of solutions to transport problems in Nigerian cities, across Bus, BRT, Rail, Water Transport and Traffic Engineering, over the entire value chain of Studies, Planning, Engineering Designs, Construction and Operations & Maintenance (O&M). 'Biodun is an experienced engineer, transport planner and projects manager who has been involved in large scale infrastructure and public transport projects including the largest bus terminal in Africa – the Lagos Strategic Transport Master Plan, Oshodi Transport Interchange Project (OTIP), Lekki Port Projects, Ogun Light Rail Projects, Lagos Blue Line Light Rail Project, Lekki Junction Improvement Works, Lagos Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project, among others.

Kweku Addo-Atuah holds degrees in city planning and landscape architecture. Addo-Atuah's passions lie at the intersection of urban design, writing, design research and curatorial practice within a variety of cultural settings. These interests underpin his ongoing career development with positions and experiences in Ghana, Sri Lanka, the United States and the Netherlands.

Olumuyiwa Adegun is Senior Lecturer in Department of Architecture, Federal University of Technology, Akure. Nigeria.He is Affiliate of African Academy of Sciences and Visiting Senior Lecturer, Wits University, Johannesburg. He has held Visiting research positions at University of Stuttgart, Germany; Nordic Africa Institute, Sweden; and Canada Centre for Architecture. He researches environmental sustainability in low-income urban settings.

Paola Adriázola is a senior advisor at adelphi in Berlin. Her work on climate and development has focused on different aspects of local climate responses, climate policy and natural resource governance. She currently leads the Vertical Integration and Learning for Low-Emission Development (V-LED) project.

Sylvanus K. Adzornu is the Director for Urban Development at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in Ghana. He has experience and excessive knowledge on urban development and the local government system. He contributed to the formulation of the National Urban Agenda, the Ghana National Urban Policy and Action Plan, and the establishment of the Ghana Urban Forum. Mr Adzornu served as one of the experts in the preparation of the New Urban Agenda.

He has also led Ghana’s participation in global and continental urban conferences, contributing specifically to the drafting of the New Urban Agenda and the African Urban Agenda through UN-Habitat and the World Urban Forum in Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia.

He is passionate about urban development and about promoting investment in the infrastructure and the financial autonomy of local authorities as a means of ensuring the development of cities.
He holds a BSc in Planning from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Urban Development Finance from IHS, Rotterdam, and a master's degree in Organisational Development. He has over 24 years of experience in planning and urban development and is currently coordinating the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Programme (GUMPP) and Ghana's Urban Agenda.

Nathaly Agurto is a technical advisor in the “Sustainable Transport” projects implemented by GIZ Peru. As such, she contributes to the monitoring and the implementation of the communication strategy and the gender perspective of the projects. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication for Development from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Dr Rüdiger Ahrend is Head of the Urban Programme in the OECD’s Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development. In this capacity, he has been supervising numerous urban projects, for example on metropolitan development and governance, urban productivity, land use, and housing. He is the main author of “The Metropolitan Century: Understanding Urbanisation and its Consequences”. Before he started working at OECD in 2002, Ahrend worked as a researcher and independent consultant. He holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics, as well as degrees in Social Sciences and Mathematics from the University of Göttingen, Paris-IX Dauphine, and the Sorbonne.

A professional in sustainable land use management, Simon Akena currently works as a Junior Advisor with GIZ's Natural Resources Stewardship Programme, specialising in impact monitoring of the programme's stewardship partnerships for resilient cities, circular economies, and catchments.

Dr Olaoluwa Pheabian Akinwale is Director of Research in the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research in Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria. As principal investigator, consultant and technical partner, Dr Akinwale actively participates in several research and disease control programs in Nigeria.

Hedwig K. Ngwa Akum holds a PhD in Gender and Development Studies and a Master's degree in Geography. She is a geography teacher at Government High School, Great Soppo Buea. Hedwig also doubles as part time lecturer in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at the university of Buea. She is an advocate for gender, environment, and development issues. Hedwig is author of “A Gender Perspective of municipal solid waste generation and management in the city of Bamenda, Cameroon" (2019).

Dr. Graham Alabaster is the Chief of Sanitation and Waste Management at the Urban Basic Services Branch of UN-Habitat. He has over 25 years experience in the water sanitation and solid waste management working in over 30 countries. He has a special interest in urban systems and is experienced in provision of services to low income urban populations.

Safiqul Alam is the managing director and CEO at the software and planning company Geomark Limited. He holds an M.Phil in Urban Geography from Dhaka University.

"Al Borde is a project led by four architects. It tries to be consistent with the human dimension of space from minimal resources, not as an apology of precariousness, but as an aesthetic and political resource, placing itself on the edges of artistic practice and architecture. Developing a sort of "intimate speeches of place". As a work ethic, they propose a design that starts from the "intelligence of the common", generating dynamics of community exchanges where people design from their own collective consciousness. A project that questions the idea of an architecture ruled by discipline and driven by capital." Pablo Ramirez, Curator

Laura Alfers is the Director of the Social Protection Programme at WIEGO, where she has worked for the past 13 years, supporting organisations of informal workers to access better social protection as well as health and childcare services globally. She holds a PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and is a Research Associate at the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit at Rhodes University, also in South Africa. Laura is the co-editor of the recent volume Social Contracts and Informal Workers in the Global South.

Kaif Ali (LEED Green Associate) is a young architect and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the start-up Space Era which provides architectural and shelter-tech innovations.
His research and innovations are recognised by the United Nations and Commonwealth of Nations.
His aim is to serve society by ensuring shelter for all especially refugees.

May al-Ibrashy is a licensed architectural engineer with 25 years of field experience in conservation and heritage management in Historic Cairo. She is currently founder and chair of Megawra-Built Environment Collective, a twin institution consisting of an Egyptian NGO and a consultancy firm working on issues of the built environment. She coordinates Athar Lina, an initiative run by Megawra-BEC in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Cairo Governorate that conserves the heritage of al-Khalifa in Historic Cairo and conceives of it as a driver for community development (https://www.facebook.com/Atharlina/).
She is also adjunct lecturer of architecture at the American University in Cairo.

Florencia Almansi is a senior researcher at IIED-AL in Buenos Aires. Her work on urban development has focused on the informal city, urban poverty, participatory process and public policies.

Sahar Aloul Is a women’s rights activist and an executive team member of SADAQA, a leading feminist and women’s economic rights organization in Jordan. She is also a gender and transport consultant. In her capacity at SADAQA, Sahar leads advocacy efforts aiming at lowering structural barriers for women to enter the workforce in Jordan. These culminated in amending the Jordanian Labour Law in 2019 to make it more gender-sensitive, and in widening the social protection for working mothers and underpaid care workers in daycares, as well as introducing a gender perspective into public transport policy. Sahar has been responsible for launching several studies on gender and public transport, and unpaid and underpaid care work.

Juanita Alvarez is Head of Engagement and Networks at World Green Building Council. She focuses on fostering collaboration between Green Building Councils at a global, regional and local scale, promoting an active engagement towards green buildings, sharing best practices and delivering impact through the global projects of the organisation.

María José Amilibia, Physician, Gynecologist, and Master of Science in Global Urban Health, is a technical officer at the Master's program of Global Urban Health at Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, Germany. She studied at the National University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and completed her graduate studies at the University of Freiburg. Her Master's thesis was on Dengue vector prevention and control in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

As a doctoral researcher, Ana Terra Amorim-Maia explores intersectional approaches to urban climate adaptation planning and action, so that resilience projects can be not only environmentally effective but also socially transformative. Ana holds a MSc in Environmental Studies - Cities and Sustainability from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg and an Environmental Engineering degree from the University of São Paulo. She is currently a PhD Candidate at the BCNUEJ from the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Urvashi Aneja is Founding Director of Tandem Research, a multi-disciplinary research collective that generates policy insights at the interface of technology, society, and sustainability. She is also Associate Fellow at Chatham House. Urvashi lives and works out of Goa, India.

Laura Quadros Aniche is an Urban Environment, Sustainability, and Climate Change specialist. She works on education, advisory, and research on urban sustainability and governance. Her expertise focuses on nature-based solutions, ecosystem services, climate adaptation and resilience, urban living labs, and participatory processes.

Oleksandr Anisimov studied Political Science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Integrated Development at the CANactions school in Kyiv. As a consultant, he was involved in the redevelopment of Kontraktova Square in Kyiv. He teaches Urban Studies at Maibutni Independent Academy.

Kofi Annan, the founding chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and was the Secretary-General of the United Nations between 1997 and 2006. With the Foundation, Kofi Annan seeks to mobilise political will to overcome threats to peace, development and human rights.

Casimiro António is a disaster risk reduction and environment expert with nearly 12 years of risk reduction and adaptation experience, including 4 years of implementing a USAID-funded costal city adaptation project in Mozambique. His expertise includes institutional capacity building; adaptation and resilience knowledge product and tools management; trainings and project management. He has also worked as national coordination director with the Government Disaster Management Agency, and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Management Officer with the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) in Mozambique. Mr. António holds a Master’s degree in disaster risk reduction and management from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Lund University (Sweden) and a post-graduate diploma in environmental impact assessment and management from the High Institute for Technology and Communication (ISUTC), Mozambique.

Eillie Anzilotti is Communications Lead for UrbanShift, a WRI Ross Center program supporting sustainable and inclusive urban development across 23 cities in the global South. She manages the program's communications strategy, storytelling efforts and social media platforms.

Cristina Bernal Aparicio is an expert in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, and has extended experience in digital development projects in Asia and the Pacific, in cooperation with international organisations. Given her passion for climate change adaptation and as an environmental activist, she invests her free time to research on climate change adaptation plans and sustainable development, as well as other activities to preserve the environment.

Brian App is an international natural resource management specialist with over 15 years of experience working in the environmental sector. Mr. App works with Chemonics International where he currently serves as the home office director for the USAID Combatting Wildlife Crime in Southern Africa and Mozambique Costal Cities Adaptation programs. Previously, he served as the deputy chief of party for the Southern Africa Regional Environmental Program (2011-2015) to build resiliency and improve management in the Okavango river basin. He holds a B.S. in management science from the School of Business at the State University of New York and an M.S. in international natural resource management from the School of Forestry at the University of Montana, USA.

With over 10 years of experience on development and climate finance, Jessy currently serves as the Head of C40 Cities UrbanShift. She has worked on several multi-million dollar projects ranging from climate finance to improving energy access in rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. She previously served as the Regional Engagement Manager for the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), which is a project preparation facility. Jessy has completed post-graduate studies at Yale's Centre for Business and Environment, and holds a Masters degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Mario Arauz is the Director of Government Innovation and Intelligent Cities of the Guadalajara City Council, Mexico. He is a specialist for digital media and an activist for governmental transparency. He has many years of experience in the field of data mining and big data.

Ben Arimah is the Chief of the Global Report and Trends Unit and is responsible for the UN-Habitat’s World Cities Report. He has taught at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica; the University of Botswana; the National University of Lesotho and the University of Ibadan. Ben holds a PhD in housing and urban development from the University of Ibadan. His research which focuses on urbanisation and housing in developing countries and human dimensions of environmental change has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in books.

Luis is the Partnership and Development Coordinator at World Enabled. His background is in urban planning with a focus on international regional development, international cooperation, regional and national social inclusion policy, grassroots and community development, corporate social responsibility, and philanthropy.

Mohammad Asfour is the Head of WorldGBC's MENA & Africa regional networks. As a green global citizen, he chaired the WorldGBC MENA Network and the Jordan Green Building Council. He served as a Senior Adviser at the USAID Energy Sector Capacity Building Program and as the Environment, Water and Energy Sector Lead at the USAID Jordan Economic Development Program. He was appointed as a Regional Adviser to OECD' s MENA Investment Program, chaired UNEP - SBCI's Advocacy Committee and is currently the Chair of WADI NGO and a board member at the Jordan Trail Association. Mohammad also co-founded Ahel Al Balad, which is a non-political grassroots movement that aims at spreading positivity in the community through volunteering.

Safa Ashoub is a political scientist and urbanist, specialised in sustainable development. She has worked for more than 14 years in leading positions at several international organisations such as GIZ, UN-Habitat and UN Women. She has in-depth expertise in the fields of urban development, institutional and capacity development, climate change, and community development, among others. She holds two master’s degrees, a Double MSc in International Cooperation in Urban Development (TU Darmstadt, University of Rome Tor Vergata) and an MSc in Political Science from the University of Edinburgh in addition to her BSc in Political Science from Cairo University.

Michael Osei Asibey holds a Ph.D. in Planning and is currently a Lecturer at the Department of Planning, KNUST, Ghana. He has worked in the areas of urban planning and environmental management, urban green space, climate change, and the development of research packages to guide urbanisation and sustainable environmental development in Africa, focusing on Ghana.

Deema Assaf is a Jordanian architect and urban researcher. She is Founder & Director of TAYYŪN, an Amman-based research studio exploring intersections of urbanism, deep ecology, and ethics of place making; focusing on urban rewilding and regeneration of urban ecosystems through urban forest creation and cross-species architecture. Deema received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architecture from the University of Jordan in 2007 & 2012, and received training in permaculture design and forest making using the Miyawaki Methodology. She lives and works in Amman.

Kodjovi E. Atchou is a member of the WoeLab community and designer at the start-up SCOPE, which develops solutions for intelligent waste collection. He does research and development of recycling processes by thinking of and designing a second life for waste. Currently, he works on parts made from recycled paper and plastic that will be presented as part of the Lomé + exhibition, launching a new cultural venue called Lomé Palace.

Jasmin Atwaa arbeitet als Beraterin im GIZ-Regionalvorhaben „Stärkung kommunaler Entwicklung und Demokratie“. Im Rahmen dieses Vorhabens koordiniert sie Aktivitäten desMarseiller Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI) und organisiert regionale Veranstaltungen in Frankreich, Deutschland und im Maghreb.

Jelena Auracher is focusing on accessible urban development issues in connection with the New Urban Agenda and is specialized in accessible mobility. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Science.

bezev is a German NGO which advocates the rights of Persons with Disabilities in development cooperation contexts.

Maria Laura Avila is a social communicator. She has developed her work in the private and public sector as Director of Communication at the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion, the Secretary of Policy, the Coordinating Ministry of Internal and External Security; as well as an advisor to the Ministry of Education and consultant to international cooperation agencies. Her area of expertise is linked to the planning of national communication strategies and development of public policies. Fields of work include human rights communication and attention to population living in conditions of poverty and vulnerability.

Dr Manal Awad was sworn in for the position of governor of Damietta in 2018, becoming the second woman to hold the position of governor and the first Coptic woman to hold this position in the history of Egypt. During her tenure as Governor of Damietta, Damietta won the UNESCO Learning Cities Prize for the year 2021.

Danang Azhari also better known as Dana, is a researcher and deputy program manager of Resilience Development Initiative (RDI), a think-tank institute based in Bandung, Indonesia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning. Dana dedicates his research projects to the topics of Disaster and Climate Resilience (DCR) and Regional and Urban Policy (RUP). Currently, he is doing some research projects on Disaster Management, Disaster Displacement, Sustainable Business, COVID-19 Policy and Governance, Public Acceptance, and Climate Change Adaptation, including Nature-based Solutions (NbS). He has a huge interest in sustainable and resilient development with exposure to climate and disaster risk, risk governance, environmental justice, and urban social sustainability, including gender equality and inclusivity.

Dr. Shadnaz Azizi is an urban thinker, deeply interested in management during change. She is a local pathways fellow at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). She was a consultant to UN Habitat’s National Urban Campaign in Tehran, having contributed to the release of the book “The City Iranians Need”. Shadnaz is currently involved in the project “Hashti Tehran” while serving as the Lead Environmental Specialist in Negin Shahr Ayandeh Consulting Engineer Co.

Wan Azlina is a senior lecturer in landscape architecture with a profound passion for enhancing urban environments through landscape urban planning, design, and spaces management. Her expertise lies in the convergence of environmental design and the pursuit of elevating the liveability and quality of life within urban neighbourhoods.

Ammar is an analyst at Ove Arup & Partners; London. He studied architecture in Syria and completed his PhD in architecture at the University of Bath, UK. His research interests include divided cities, local and international responses to destruction and displacement, and the politics of reconstruction. He has been invited to present his research in different universities including MIT, Cambridge, Bath, Manchester, Essex, and also presented at the V&A museum. He is the author of ‘A tale of a Syrian city at war: Destruction, resilience and memory in Homs.’

Tushar Kanti Baidya, an educator, mediator, and human rights activist, is the project director of Inclusive Bangladesh, a transgender-led community development organisation operating in Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.

Twitter.com/inclusivebangla
Twitter.com/tsrkbd

Aseman G. Bahadori is a communications specialist, editor, and freelance author with a passion for sustainable development, urban planning, intersectional justice and decolonial action. Her professional pursuits include developing campaigns and communication strategies for the good cause.

Claire Baker is Director of Development for LivelyHoods. She was part of an award-winning French NGO, leading projects and communications in the accessibility rights movement and also has experience in solar energy distribution in East Africa. She now applies her knowledge to the development of fundraising, growth, and partnerships strategy for LivelyHoods. as well as overseeing monitoring and evaluation and communications.

M H Bala Subrahmanya is a professor specialised in Industrial Economics with a focus on start-ups, SMEs, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He has extensively researched on Bangalore and its entrepreneurial ecosystem. In addition, he has carried out research and consultancy projects sponsored by international organisations such as the EU, IWMI, the World Bank, and national organisations such as DST, ICSSR, and UGC.

Eloi Juvillà Ballester is an architect currently working for the Barcelona Provincial Council. Being an expert in urban green and public space, he has coordinated the development process of some tools that facilitate the renaturalization of cities, such as master plans and guidelines for urban greenery as well as an online search engine for the definition of species. He is currently working on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. He is a member of the working group "Urban Environment and Health" at the Barcelona Provincial Council.

Martin Baltes is the Team Leader at the GIZ support team for Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA). Martin is a professional in urban planning as well as sustainable energy with many years of experience in large-scale photovoltaic projects and project development in the fields of energy and climate change on the African continent and the Mediterranean.

Apaar Bansal currently works for the New York City government, where he engages in the design and implementation of complete street projects. He has also worked as a data scientist for the NYC bikeshare system and has international experience with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Mexico and World Resources Institute (WRI) India. He holds a Master in City Planning and a Master of Science in Transportation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Howaida Barakat is Advisor of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities in Egypt. Her work focuses on informal settlements and sustainable housing, among other topics.

Emanuela Barbiroglio is a freelance journalist. She holds a bachelor's degree in History and Anthropology and a master's degree in Information and Publishing. Emanuela also spent three years training in Germany, after which she studied Science Journalism at City University London. She then worked as a data journalist for Property Week, the UK’s leading weekly real estate magazine, doing investigations and turning complex datasets into stories. She recently moved to Brussels to write about social issues and science.

As a sustainable mobility expert with on-ground experience in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, Ariadne oversees TUMI’s Africa portfolio and co-leads Women Mobilize Women. Previously, she worked for C40 Cities and UN Environment on public transport, e-mobility and mobility justice. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from London School of Economics.

Julian Baskin is the Principal Urban Advisor of Cities Alliance. He is a town and regional planner, with over 30 years of experience in urban programming, with a focus on participatory planning, slum upgrading and affordable housing. Prior to joining Cities Alliance in 2009, Julian served as Director of the Alexandra Renewal Project, a major urban redevelopment initiative of a slum settlement of some 400,000 inhabitants in Gauteng Province, South Africa. He has also worked for CARE International, UN-Habitat, the Cities of Durban and Johannesburg, and has lived and worked on slum upgrading in Mozambique, Bangladesh and Angola.

Ritwika Basu is a researcher at the UN-Habitat India Office. She works at the intersection of climate change and urban development with a focus on global climate change resilient frameworks and corresponding local action. Previously, she has worked with the climate change adaptation consortium jointly funded by the IDRC and DFID.

Maria Olanda Bata is a food security, early warning and disaster risk reduction specialist with more than 15 years experience working in the development sector with governmental, academic, and international organisations from Mozambique, southern Africa, and the United States. Ms. Bata currently serves as the Chief of Party for USAID’s Coastal Cities Adaptation Program in Mozambique (CCAP), heading activities to increase understanding of urban adaptation issues and the application of management options for urban adaptation. Prior to CCAP, she served as Country Representative and National Technical Manager for USAID’s Famine Early Warning System Network project where she successfully managed several projects on livelihoods, disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction. She holds a MSc in Agriculture Education and Communication from the University of Florida, USA.

Masooma Batool is an M.Phil. researcher and scientist affiliated with G.C.U Lahore, Pakistan. Her areas of expertise pertain to environmental management, resource recycling and reuse, biochar, wastewater treatment, waste-to-energy, climate change, solid waste management, EIA and environmental governance.

Ms Bolor-Erdene is a digital development leader who is currently working as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Development of Mongolia. She initiated a five-year plan to transform Mongolia into a digital nation and she started by digitalising government services on the e-Mongolia platform. She holds a MPP degree from the University of Oxford and has ten years of experience in international development working with UN, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. She is the youngest and one of the few female leaders in Mongolia and has been selected as Forbes 30 under 30

Barry is an architect and urban designer focusing on sustainable and climate resilient infrastructure and urban development. He is currently the program director of Kota Kita Foundation where he develops methodologies for collaborative planning processes with citizens and governments. Prior to Kota Kita, Barry worked as a designer at Diller Scofidio + Renfro (NYC) on a range of cultural buildings and urban public projects internationally and has previously taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He was a Tata Center for Technology and Design fellow and an affiliate at the MIT Urban Risk Lab.

Hector is an architect and urban planner with expertise on public policy, governance and housing. He is currently a Research Fellow at CONACYT (National Science and Research Council of Mexico). Hector holds a PhD in Development Planning from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL, and a MSc. in Town Planning from the French Institute of Urbanism, University of Paris. Héctor has working experience in the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, and Mexico. He is a founding member of RIVHA - Researcher’s Network on Housing and Habitat in the Americas, which is member of UHPH.

Hannah Behr is a communications specialist with a diverse academic background in Communications, Political and Historical Sciences, and Gender Studies. Passionate about feminist perspectives and climate justice, Hannah gained hands-on communication experience working in publishing and at NATO. Passionate about breaking down complex information, Hannah supports TUMI Labs and TUMI Data.

Roger Behrens is an Associate Professor in the University of Cape Town’s Department of Civil Engineering. He is Director of the Centre for Transport Studies, and of the African Centre of Excellence for Studies in Public and Non-motorised Transport. He graduated with a Master Degree in City and Regional Planning from UCT in 1991, and with a PhD degree in 2002.

Dr Christoph Beier was appointed to the Management Board of former Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) in 2010 and has been Vice-Chair of the GIZ Management Board since 2011. From 2000 he held various leading management positions within GTZ and initially headed the Planning and Development Department and then different Regional Departments. Before, Christoph Beier advised the Ministry of the Interior in Indonesia on decentralization on behalf of GTZ and worked as research and teaching assistant to the chair for economics and social geography at Ruhr-University Bochum as well as for a business promotion agency and for the Ministry of Economics in Saarland.

Zainab is one of the youngest LEED Green Associates in the world. She has been selected for the Youth Forum of the UNCTAD quadrennial ministerial conference (UNCTAD15) where Zainab negotiated with the UN Officials to seek a concrete decade of action in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. She is also the Member and India Representative at the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network (CYCN) and one of 30 youth leaders who were trained by UNITAR, under the young leaders Training Program.

Lou Del Bello is a climate journalist who specialises in science and development issues. She is a COP veteran and has been following the work of the UN climate framework for more than five years.

Tania Berger is a trained architect and has a PhD in construction and building sciences, entertaining a strong focus on social science. She heads the Cluster "Social sPACe based research in built Environment" (SPACE) at the Department for Building and Environment at Danube University Krems, which works on issues of integration in housing on a national level as well as on global urbanisation processes, and precarious housing in an international context.

Tania also coordinates Erasmus projects in the field of “Capacity Building in Higher Education” with a focus on informal settlements in India and Ethiopia.

Ashlie Bermudez is the Development & Communications Associate at SOIL. She is a Boston University graduate and a returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Her passion for sustainable development and social justice in Haiti is amplified through her creative communications and advocacy strategy.

Cynthia Berning is a project management professional with expertise in land tenure, agriculture, irrigation and rural finance projects. She has worked for ten years in rural development and project management with MCC, Peace Corps and USAID. Cynthia has extensive field experience in North and sub-Saharan Africa, China, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe and speaks French, Spanish and Moroccan Arabic.

Franka Marie Bernreiter is one of two official German UN Youth Delegates on Sustainable Development. Through her mandate, she represents German Youth at the High-Level Po-litical Forum on Sustainable Development and other United Nations Conferences regarding sustainability.
Furthermore, she is part of the German campaign team of the international youth-led campaign „World’s Youth for Climate Justice“.

Daphne Besen holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Master’s degree in Social Science. She worked at the International Relations Department of the Rio de Janeiro City Hall for 3 years and is currently working as Head of International Relations at the Duque de Caxias City Hall.

Sharmila Bhagat has been working in the education and social sector for the last thirty years. She has conceptualised and designed pedagogical interventions for marginalised children, young people, and communities. She is a trainer in the areas of children's rights, pedagogy, and gender. She has facilitated collaborative research projects with reputed international universities and has given presentations at various fora such as UNCRC DGD 2016 on ‘Play and Urban Environments’ and at the International seminar on ‘Theorising Child Particpation’. As a Fullbright scholar, she has worked on issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and homelessness in United States.

Dipak Bhowmick is an Urban Planner and Certified Supply Chain Analyst (CSCA). He has a bachelor's degree in Urban & Regional Planning from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology and a posts graduate degree in International Relations from the University of Dhaka. Currently, he is working as a City Project Officer in ICLEI South Asia. He is in the energy and climate team and is based in Narayanganj. Prior to ICLEI, he gained experience in working on several research-based projects with local governments, private organizations, and NGOs. He is passionate about working in environmental management, climate change, disaster risk reduction and sustainable energy.

Eugénie L. Birch is founding Co-Director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, co-editor of Penn Press’s The City in the 21st Century series and co-editor of the SSRN Urban ejournal. Ms. Birch’s recent publications include: Slums: How the Informal Real Estate Markets Work (2016), Global Urbanization (2011), Women’s Health and the World’s Cities (2011), all of which were co-edited with Susan Wachter and others. She has served as a member of the New York City Planning Commission and on the jury to select the designers for the World Trade Center site. She is currently President of the General Assembly of Partners. Ms. Birch, who lives in New York City, holds a Ph.D. and a Masters in Urban Planning from Columbia University.

Steven is a specialist in climate change, urban development, and sustainable energy. Prior to joining UN-Habitat, he spent four years working with local governments in South Africa to drive forward collaborative low-carbon energy transitions. Steven completed a work-based Master’s degree in Leadership for Sustainable Development in 2010 and graduated with a first-class Geography degree from Cambridge University in 2009. In his spare time, he directs Eco MoJo, a small communications agency, which profiles positive stories of change towards sustainability. He cycles everywhere he can.

Robert Böhnke works as project manager for the German Council for Sustainable Development. He is in charge of the “Sustainable City” dialogue with more than 30 German mayors involved. As a geographer, he has broad experience in the field of urban development and sustainability policy.

Eduardo Bohórquez is the Executive Director of Transparencia Mexicana, the national chapter of Transparency International in Mexico. He acted as spokesperson of a broad civic coalition that pushed for a major anti-corruption reform in 2016 through an open parliament scheme. Convinced that you do not have to choose from top-down or bottom-up anti-corruption strategies, he has been crafting “Desde la raíz” (By the roots) a social initiative to control corruption with concrete, measurable actions.

John Bongat is the mayor of Naga City in the Philippines.

Somsook Boonyabancha is currently the Chairperson of Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, a regional network of communities, NGOs and professionals in Asia. She is former Director of the Community Organizations Development Institute, which managed a national community development fund and carried out a city community upgrading program on national scale in Thailand. An architect by training, she holds an honorary PhD in Architecture from Khonkhaen University. She also received special training on Housing and Urbanisation from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Denmark. Her whole life, she has been involved in collective housing and community development processes in which members of poor communities themselves are the key drivers.

Matthijs Bouw is the founder of One Architecture and Urbanism (ONE), an award-winning Amsterdam and New York-based company. ONE is a global leader in the field of using design to conceive and advance climate adaptation and mitigation projects, including Manhattan’s coastal protection and many large-scale Nature-based Solution projects around the world. He is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mathilde Bouyé leads research and technical assistance projects to help countries jointly implement their climate plans and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and achieve equitable and just climate transitions. Prior to joining WRI, Mathilde served as International and European Affairs advisor to the French Environment Minister, acted as coordinator of the French task force for UN negotiations on the SDGs, and was advisor to Jean-Michel Severino in the High Level Panel on the UN post-2015 agenda.

Mathilde holds a master's degree in EU International Relations, Diplomacy, and Law.

Bijal Brahmbhatt is the director of the Mahila Housing Trust and was selected as a Women Changemakers India Fellow by Womanity Foundation. In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation selected her for the Global Fellowship Programme on Social Innovation among 21 leaders from the social and ecological sectors working to transform the systems. In 2013, Bijal was felicitated by WomenChangeMakers of Switzerland for fostering women’s empowerment in the habitat sector.

Chirayu Brahmbhatt is working as a development associate at the Mahila Housing Trust (MHT). Having pursued a finance and an economics degree, his interest lies at the intersection of urban development, poverty, and built habitat.

Alfredo Brillembourg received his Master of Science in Architectural Design from Columbia University. Brillembourg is a fellow of the GRIP Institute at the University of Bergen and held the chair for Architecture and Urban Design at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland from 2010 to 2019. Founded U–TT Design Group has offices in New York, São Paulo, Geneva, Cape Town and Oslo.

Reinder Brolsma is a specialist in urban climate adaptation. He supports cities around the world to become more climate resilient using urban Nature-based Solutions. He does this by providing tools, sharing knowledge and specialist advice.

Christianna J. Brotsis joined the World Bank in 1997 to work on policy development in urban upgrading and solid waste management. In 2002, she worked with UNDP on an EU-sponsored program for the Rehabilitation of the Walled City in Nicosia. Upon her return to the World Bank, she coordinated the Bank’s work on cultural heritage and introduced the sustainable tourism agenda before moving into the Middle East and North Africa region in 2009 to work on operations in West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and the Gulf Countries. She completed her Master’s Degree in International Trade and Commerce Policy from George Mason University i

Lance Jay Brown – Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) and Distinguished Professor (designated by) the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (DPACSA) – is an Architect, Urban Designer, Educator, Author,
and Curator. He is the President of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, Inaugural Chancellor, ACSA College of Distinguished Professors, past Director of the CCNY/CUNY School of Architecture, and 2007 Topaz Medallion Laureate.

Kirsty Bryant is a Programme Officer on the Learning, Monitoring and Evaluation team at the SDI Secretariat in Cape Town, South Africa. She received her MA from The New School, Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs with a focus on Cities & Social Justice. Her research focuses on the intersections of communities, race, policy, and development in urban centres.

Dr. Saskia Buchholz is a researcher in the field of urban and regional climate at the German Meteorological Service in Offenbach, Germany. Since 2011 she is working mainly in the field of urban climate modelling and adaptation strategies against the impacts of climate change in cities. Her other research interests are urban planning, remote sensing and air quality in cities. Saskia Buchholz holds a PhD degree in environmental meteorology from the University Trier.

Stephanie Buechler, Research Scientist, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona.Dr. Buechler has conducted research on gendered livelihoods linked to urban and peri-urban agriculture in semi-arid Tucson, Arizona, USA; Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and near Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico.

Vera Bukachi is Senior Research Coordinator and leading project manager in the field of flood resilience at the Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), a non-profit design and community development organisation. She predominately works with communities living in Nairobi’s largest slum Kibera, who are affected by flooding events. Prior to joining KDI, Vera Bukachi worked as a consultant at ARUP, where she provided technical expertise in the field of water and sanitation. She has a background in environmental engineering.

Himanshu Burte, architect and urbanist, is an Assistant Professor at the School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. His book Space for Engagement: The Indian Artplace and a Habitational Approach to Architecture (Seagull Books, 2008) proposed a new conceptual framework for architecture, centred on the act of dwelling. He researches infrastructure, architecture, urban space, policy, and practice through concerns about lived experience, spatial justice, structural violence, and sustainability. He is co-editor (with Amita Bhide) of the forthcoming Urban Parallax: Policy and the City in Contemporary India (Yoda Press, 2018).

Hendryk von Busse is one of the co-founders of Freiraumgalerie and is currently working on an international network of urban planners and scientists. He studied urban planning in Dortmund, Germany. His work focuses on creative tools of participation in urban planning and especially on using arts as a method to bring attention to unused urban fabric.

As Executive Director of the Open Data Charter, Ania supports reformers from around the world to implement open data policies based on a shared set of principles. From 2012-2016, she delivered a key presidential mandate for open data in Mexico. Ania holds a MA degree in Public Administration from Columbia University, and was recently selected to the 2019 Assembly cohort for Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence by Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center and the MIT Media Lab. She is chair of the Board of Directors for Global Integrity.

Julia Caminha is a Programme Analyst at UN-Habitat. She is a PhD student in Geography at PUC-Rio, has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning at IPPUR/UFRJ and is a geographer at UFF.

Gizem Caner is a lecturer at Cyprus International University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture. She holds a PhD degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Istanbul Technical University with an emphasis on the spatiality of conflict, multiculturalism, and post-conflict planning. She has professional experience in disaster risk management, urban regeneration, and master planning in numerous Istanbul districts. She was involved in a capacity-building exercise for Gaza and the West Bank, under the joint forces of UNDP, UN-Habitat, and ISOCARP.

Jovana Carapic holds a PhD in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Her dissertation aimed to unpack the state–armed group relationship. Since completing her doctorate, Jovana has been working for the Small Arms Survey where she is an active member of the ‘Weapons and Markets’ cluster and Gender Focal Point of the Small Arms Survey. She also holds an MA in Political Science and a BSc. in Psychology and Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada.

Mieke Lopes Cardozo is an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam in International Development Studies. Her research and academic teaching is focused on the role of education in relation to social justice and peacebuilding. She co-directed the Research Consortium on Education and Peacebuilding (2014-2016), is a member of the Advisory Committee of Experts for a UN mandated study on Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security, and co-chair of Conflict, Education and Emergencies SIG.

Michela provides expertise to national and local governments in different areas related to food systems, focusing on how to integrate food into urban and regional planning and policy. Over the past four years, she has worked extensively on food systems approaches and urban/territorial related matters. Before joining FAO, Michela has worked for C40 Cities Climate Group and for the Municipality of Milan, Mayor’s Office. She has also worked as qualitative food security and nutrition researcher for the National Health Service in Italy. Michela holds a BSc in Nutrition from the University of Florence, and a MSc in Food and Agriculture Policy from City University London.

Rochelle is a Project Officer at ERINN Innovation. She works in science communication and knowledge transfer, focused thematically on health and climate change, to ensure that research has the societal impact needed to address our global challenges. Rochelle holds an MSc in Global Health from Maastricht University (Netherlands).

Katie is a geographer from McGill University with a MSc in Urban Management from Technical University Berlin. She currently works in Santiago, Chile as a sustainable urban development consultant with 2811 and as a freelance journalist.

Taylor Cass Talbott is the Advocacy Coordinator for the International Alliance of Waste Pickers, and the Just Transition Strategic Issue Lead for WIEGO.She is also a founding member of the Portland, Oregon USA-based waste picker organization Ground Score Association.Taylor has worked at the nexus of waste reduction, job creation, and social inclusion for more than a decade, as a project manager, organizer, dumpster diver, and artist.

Emily Castro Pietro is a specialist in climate change and has worked on various GIZ projects since 2012, mainly in the areas of mitigation, monitoring, reporting and verification mechanisms, as well as urban environmental management and waste-to-energy. Currently, she coordinates the VICLIM Project in Mexico to strengthen the role of subnational actors in the achievement of the national climate objectives. Trained as a chemical engineer, Emily holds a Master’s degree in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge.

Nirmita Chandrashekar is an architect and development practitioner at SELCO Foundation in India. Her work has focused on promoting, designing and delivering sustainable habitat solutions for informal settlements, productive workspaces, and public institutions for the marginalised.

Samuel Charandura is an international human rights lawyer, sustainability specialist, and international development expert. He is the Founder and CEO of Legalrico Foundation, a leading centre for business and human rights concerned with the role of SDGs for construction/built environment in South Africa.
He is also a member of the hard hat professional network, Director for KwaZulu Natal SDG awards, and a published author of three books.
He has written extensively on construction, the built environment, engineering, and extractive sectors vis a vis human rights and Sustainable Development Goals. He holds qualifications in law and international relations from the University of South Africa and Midlands State University respectively.

Isabelle’s current work focuses on multi-level governance, decentralisation and subnational public finance. She is the main author of the OECD (2017) “Multi-level governance reforms: overview of OECD country experiences” and one of the authors of OECD (2019) “Making decentralisation work: a handbook for policy makers”. She has coordinated the work of the World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment on the OECD side. Prior the OECD, Isabelle worked as a consultant and at Dexia Crédit Local where she was in charge of research on local government sector in Europe. Graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Fontenay-Saint Cloud, Isabelle holds an "agrégation" in geography.

Soumyadip Chattopadhyay teaches at the Department of Economics and Politics, Visva Bharati University. He was associated with the Graduate School of Geography Clark University as a C V Raman Fellow, and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning University of Sheffield as a Commonwealth Academic Fellow. His research interests lie in the field of development studies and, more specifically, urban finance, urban inequality and ongoing transformations in urban governance in Indian cities. His research has been published in reputed international journals and edited volumes. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), India.

Sudeshna has extensive experience as a globally recognised urban practitioner, evaluation specialist, researcher, and published author. She focuses on enabling inclusive, resilient and child-friendly cities and communities and advocating for including child and youth perspectives in urban policies, planning and urbanisation processes. Sudeshna founded a non-profit-- Action for Children's Environments (ACE)--focusing on action research to improve children’s environments, is a trustee on the global board of the International Play Association, and is an editorial board member of two international journals--Children, Youth and Environments (CYE) and International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR). She also recently led the research and writing of the Global Principles and Guidance for Public Spaces for Children supported by UNICEF, UN-Habitat, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Shivani Chaudhry has been working with Housing and Land Rights Network in New Delhi, India, since 2004. Before that, she worked with the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in Washington, D.C., USA. She was a member of the Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development's Task Force on Land Reforms. She has been involved with developing tools and standards to monitor housing and land rights, and writes and speaks on these issues regularly.

Dr. Saswati Chaudhuri is currently Associate Professor of Economics in St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata. She has a number of publications in national and international Journals to her credit. She actively contributes to leading dailies like “Hindu Business Line”, “Millenium Post”, “India Today” and “Ei Samay”. She is also a consultant economist for BBC Radio. Her research focusses on urban issues, informalisation of labour, and the gender implications of the process, social protection, and issues related to migration and health.

Dr. Chaudhuri teaches in the Department of Economics, St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata and holds a Ph.D. from University of Calcutta.

Elizabeth Wangeci Chege is CEO and co-founder of WEB Limited, a sustainable development consultancy, the chairperson of the Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) and the vice-chairperson of the World Green Building Council Africa Regional Network. She is the Winner of World Green Building Council Chair’s Award 2019-2020.
Elizabeth believes that Kenya and ultimately Africa can leapfrog from no cities to smart carbon positive resilient cities and lives by the motto “What we build today will form the Africa of tomorrow”.

Marty Chen is the International Coordinator of WIEGO, a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Affiliated Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design. An experienced development practitioner and scholar, her areas of specialization are employment, gender, and poverty with a focus on the working poor in the informal economy. Before joining Harvard in 1987, she had two decades of resident experience in Bangladesh working with BRAC (now the world's largest non-governmental organization) and in India, where she served as field representative of Oxfam America for India and Bangladesh.

Olga Chepelianskaia is an International Climate Change, Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Urban Development Specialist. She is the Founding Director of UNICITI and leads the international programme A Third Way of Building Asian Cities, which gathers over 15 international experts and 80 professionals across 30 countries. Over 15 years of her professional engagement, she managed seven major international programmes, covered over 30 cities and 40 countries, and worked with leading international institutions such as ADB, CDIA, ISOCARP, Rockefeller Foundation, UNDP, UNECE, UNEP, UNESCAP and UNIDO.

Dr. Youngha Cho is a senior lecturer in the School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University, UK. Previously she worked at the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research University of Cambridge and the Korean Research Institute for Human Settlement in South Korea. She holds a PhD in Housing Economics from the London School of Economic. Her research expertise lies in housing and land policy, micro analysis of housing market and housebuilding industry, residential mobility, housing finance and mortgage market, housing need and affordability. Her current work includes housing policy and market analysis of US, Japan and African countries.

Yuna Chun is a Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Consultant at the World Bank. She has over 8 years of professional experience in East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, supporting projects concerning cultural heritage, tourism, urban policies, urban resilience and regeneration, local economic development, and stakeholder engagement. She holds an MA in World Heritage Studies from Brandenburgische Technische Universität, Germany, and a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia, U.S, as well as a certification in Cultural Landscapes and Urban Resilience from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany.

CDIA is an international partnership initiative established by the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Germany in 2007. It receives additional core funding support from the governments of Austria, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as the Shanghai Municipal Government. Aside from working with at least 117 cities, from 2007 until 2016, CDIA has also completed 109 Pre-Feasibility Studies; and directly linked 52 projects to finance. In total, CDIA’s urban development measures have an estimated investment value of USD 6.0 billion.

Pauline is an urban planner and architect with over eight years of professional experience in participatory design, data analysis, local climate adaptation, and community engagement. She has worked with the private sector, international development agencies, local governments, and non-profit organizations focusing on vulnerable communities. Pauline has developed projects in Chile, United States, Angola, Mozambique, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. She holds a Ms. degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University and an architect professional degree from Universidad de Chile. She is currently working in New York City.

Patrick’s background is in human geography with broad experience in urban and regional planning gained through teaching and research conducted at universities in Ghana and Australia. Patrick's research on Africa is heavily cited and has received a number of awards.

William Cobbett ist Direktor der Cities Alliance. Bevor er dort 2001 anfing, arbeitete er beim Programm für menschliche Siedlungen der Vereinten Nationen in Nairobi. Zuvor hatte William Cobbett den Posten des Nationalen Koordinators der Abteilung für kommunale und regionale Verwaltung sowie Wohnungswesen in Südafrika inne, und war Direktor für Wohnungswesen in Kapstadt.

Sarah is an environmental economist focusing on low-carbon cities and sustainable finance. She has supported national and municipal policymakers across Asia, Africa, and Latin America to develop low-carbon development strategies. She has co-authored a wide range of academic papers, as well as reports for the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN Environment, and the World Bank.

Sarah is a guest lecturer at the University of Oxford, University College London, and the University of Manchester. She holds a Masters in Environment and Development from Trinity College, Dublin.

Stephania Constantinou is a professional in international sustainable development and a former diplomatic advisor at the Permanent Mission of Cyprus to the United Nations. She is currently completing her postgraduate studies in International Development at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on (feminist) foreign policy, multilateralism and global governance, sustainable cities, refugees, women's peace and security agenda, conflict prevention, mediation, and peacebuilding.
She is a member of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group and holds a Sustainable Business Strategy certificate from the University of Harvard Business School. She has written and published articles on US-American politics, discrimination in Latin America, the Sustainable Development Goals and gender equality, among other topics.

An engineer by training, Macoura Dao Coulibaly is currently the elected Mayor of the Commune of Foumbolo in the Dabakala Department in Côte D'Ivoire and the Regional Director of Transport of the District of Abidjan. Mayor Dao is the recipient of several distinctions and recognitions for service to her country, such as the Excellence Award and the Officer of the Ivorian Order of Merit.

Since 2019 Mayor Dao is the President of the Network of Locally Elected Women of Africa (REFELA) and the Vice-President of REFELA for West Africa. She is also acting Vice-President of the Union of Cities and Communes of Côte d'Ivoire (UVICOCI).

Eileen is an urban planner and project designer. Her work focuses on identifying, developing and converting opportunities for urban and regional development solutions into funded projects. She is an expert evaluator for the European Commission and has over 20 years of experience working in local and regional government, academia and research management. In 2018 she founded Ascent Consulting, specializing in project development, co-creation and innovation support.

Dina Dahood Dabash is an architect and urbanist with more than ten years of experience at several UN agencies, such as UNRWA, UNDP, and UNHCR, where she has been involved in several humanitarian and development projects in the Middle East.

She is currently a Technical Coordinator at UN-Habitat and a Ph.D. candidate at KU Leuven.

Annika Dalén is a gender equality and strategic development officer at the city of Umeå, Sweden, with a special focus on gender in relation to social sustainability, urban planning, mobility, and climate change on the local level. For the past three years, she co-coordinated the URBACT Gendered landscape action planning network, focusing on developing locally contextualised tools and approaches to work towards gender equality in urban policies, planning, and services.

She has worked on several projects and initiatives on gender equality and sustainable urban development and has more than 15 years of experience working with gender equality and human rights issues from both Sweden and Latin America.

Marco Dall’Orso is Chief Operating Officer at Arexpo, the public-sector company in charge of the urban regeneration of the 1 million sqm former Expo Milan 2015 site. In this role he is orchestrating the transformation of the site into "MIND - Milano Innovation District", a catalyst for sustainable socio-economic growth, a new vibrant community fully integrated with the city centre of Milan. The mission is to create a unique, competitive national platform able to attract talents, businesses, universities, research centres and capital at global level. Before joining Arexpo he held senior executive positions with leading real estate development and asset management organisations internationally. He holds a Civil Engineering degree, Laude, from University of Genoa, a Master of Science, Distinction, from Imperial College in London and an MBA Valedictorian from IMD in Lausanne. He has over 25 years combined experience in commercial real estate, infrastructure and environmental projects. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Kaustubh Das is an architect and AssociateProfessor at Sri Sri University, Cuttack, India. Currently, he is completing his PhD on Sustainable SMART Urban Form from IIEST Shibpur, India. Kaustubh has 14 years of full-time teaching experience along with 5 years of industry experience. He has been invited to present in various international forums like Forum UNESCO and the Oxford Conference 2008, to name a few.

Aniruddha (Ani) Dasgupta is the Global Director of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. Prior to joining WRI, Ani served at the Director of Knowledge and Learning at the World Bank, where he provided leadership and direction for the Bank’s role in offering knowledge services for development. Ani holds a Masters Degree in City Planning and a Masters Degree in Architecture, both from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His PhD work, at the planning school at MIT, focused on services for urban poor.

Alana leads the ITF global programme on public transport, which includes strategic projects on labour impacts and workers issues, including the transition from informal to formal employment. She led the development of a global trade union public transport policy to further decent work, formalisation, social and climate justice and gender equality. Alana represents the ITF in external relationships with political decision makers and public transport employers.

He is currently Officer in Charge of UN-Habitat’s new Programme Development Branch and acting Emergency Director for UN-Habitat. He is Chair of the Global Alliance for Urban Crises. He is trained as a civil engineer, architect, and urban and regional planner.

Michelle DeFreese is a Senior Officer with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) office based in Kigali, Rwanda.

Michael Dehoyos is a writer, marketer, and editor at NextCoursework and Academicbrits. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children and feels constantly inspired walking around the city, where past and future seem to coalesce. Also, he is a tutor at PhD Kingdom.

Chris Dekki is the Director of Global Advocacy and Engagement at the SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport. Chris leads the policy advocacy and outreach dimension of SLOCAT, engaging with a wide multi-stakeholder base and shaping intergovernmental spaces. Beyond SLOCAT, Chris has many years of policy experience, working for the UN system at the global and regional levels, civil society platforms and youth-led organisations. Chris is also a part-time professor of political science and law at St. Joseph's University and the City University of New York - Baruch College in New York City.

Dana de la Fontaine works with the Urban/Climate Cluster at GIZ Bangladesh. Her focus lies on decentralisation and local government development. In the context of the cooperation between GIZ and Cities Alliance, her main objective is to support the national dialogue between national and local governments as well as actors of civil society, aiming at the development of a national urban agenda. De la Fontaine is a political scientist and holds a PhD in International Relations.

Jônatas de Paula is a programme analyst at UN-Habitat at the Maceió (AL) office. He holds a Master in Urban and Regional Planning from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA in International Relations from USP.

Eric Denis Eric DENIS, director of research at Géographie-cités lab, holds a PhD in urban and economic geography from the University of Caen, France, and a Habilitation from Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University. Posted in Cairo from 1993 to 2003, he afterwards worked in India. His studies concern socio-spatial inequalities and the evolution of systems of cities with a particular focus on land transformations, small towns and international comparisons.

Elizabeth Dessie is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium located at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute. Her research concentrates on youth in cities with a focus on gendered livelihoods, citizenship, and migration trajectories.

Amit is an architect with a master’s degree in Sustainable Architecture and an inclination for sustainable urban design. He likes to travel, take a lot of photographs, try local delicacies and read. He has lately taken to writing and has been enjoying it thoroughly. He is venturesome in the aspects of his work and allied as well, and he likes to thrive in a competitive yet interactive work environment.

Amit is currently working as an Associate Director at Urban Design Research Institute where his expertise lies in verbal and written communication with the municipal authorities, indigenous communities, and various other stakeholders in the public participation process for Mumbai city and its metropolitan region.

Dialogues for urban Change (D4uC) is commissioned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI) with the objective to strengthen integrated urban development through innovative learning and exchange formats. The project works globally with national ministries responsible for urban development, city associations, urban practitioners and other relevant stakeholders. At the heart of the intervention is the conviction that no country of city should have to reinvent the wheel, but capacities can be strengthened through systematic and long-term peer advice and exchange formats as well as through a trusting and supportive multi-level governance. In addition to various bilateral and multilateral activities the implementation of several transcontinental peer learning networks builds the core of the project.

A sociologist by training, Sonia refers to herself as a “garbologist” and specialises in solid waste management. Sonia has been active in the field in Brazil since 1985 with a focus on promoting the integration of social inclusion aspects into the technical planning of waste collection and recycling. Through her graduate studies and PhD she has delved deeply into the role of participation in solid waste management in Brazil and the role of the local governments in strengthening waste pickers' organisations in Belo Horizonte City. She is WIEGO´s waste specialist at the Urban Policies Programme.

Mariana Dias Simpson is an action-researcher and holds an MSc in Urban Development Planning (Bartlett DPU/ University College London). With broad international experience in research and project development on topics addressing poverty and inequalities, her main areas of work relate to informal settlements, housing and the right to the city, social mobility, public services, food security, and sustainability.

Astrid Díaz is a renowned architect in Puerto Rico and public figure in television, newspapers and social media influencer. She is President of ADV Architect and advises the FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team Washington, DC for the rebuilding assessment of Puerto Rico. For 20 years, she has been leading architectural projects, public campaigns for "Hurricanes and Safe Houses" and TV programs about architecture, for which was nominated for two EMMY Awards. Díaz designed the “Casa Segura de Puerto Rico” and the “Prescriptives Residential Designs” in response to the strong necessity of code compliance houses for Puerto Ricans. She was a former Sub-Director for Puerto Rico's Public Building Authority. She has a Master Degree in Architecture and a Bachelor Degree in Environmental Design of the UPR where she has been professor. Astrid Díaz received the “National Architecture Award of Puerto Rico”.

Eva Dick is a senior researcher at the Department of Environmental Policy and Natural Resources at DIE working on urban development, urban/regional governance, urban informality and migration, among other topics.

María Mercedes Di Virgilio is an Argentinian sociologist who developed her research career at Instituto Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires. From 2018 to 2019 she worked as Under-Secretary of Science and Technology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. As a Senior Research Fellow, she works on the residential mobility processes of lower and middle classes families. She studied housing strategies and residential careers.

She is particularly interested in public policies and social policies in the city, and their relations with space mobility. The study of residential motilities allowed her to move forward in other directions of research, such as social mobility processes and relations between social class and territory.

Michelle Diederichs is Communications Specialist for the Sector Project Cities at GIZ. She has a background in International Communication Management and Global Citizenship Education. Before joining GIZ, she worked at UNESCO as part of the core team to establish the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, as well as in public relations at UNESCO and other non-profit organisations.

Dr Ingolf Dietrich heads Directorate 41 at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which is responsible for the 2030 Agenda, social and environmental transformation and feminist development policy.

Since 2014, Dr Dietrich has also been the Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the BMZ. He is responsible for the BMZ's position in national and international processes on the 2030 Agenda. Other tasks include advancing Germany's development policy and its alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as supporting partner countries in their efforts to align their national policies with the Agenda. Dr Dietrich's responsibilities also include the areas of respect for human rights, gender equality, and inclusion of persons with disabilities so that a life of dignity for all – and thus sustainable development – can become a reality.

Dr Dietrich studied agricultural sciences at the Technical University Munich and the Technical University Berlin. He holds a doctorate in agricultural economics from the Technical University of Munich. He is an alumnus of the GDI postgraduate programme.

Harya S. Dillon, or Koko as his friends call him, specialises in transportation planning and policy. His area of expertise includes urban mobility, transport economics, and statistical analysis. He has carried out research and consultancy projects sponsored by international organisations such as the EU, the ADB, the World Bank, UNDP, and GIZ. Koko’s academic articles have appeared in Research in Transportation Economics, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning Education and Research, and Strategic Review, the Indonesian Journal of Leadership, Policy, and World Affairs. His Op-Eds have appeared in The Jakarta Post.

Simon Dixon is the Co-Founder of Kwangu Kwako Limited, a social enterprise which is delivering safer, more secure, healthier precast concrete homes to families in the informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya.
His varied previous experience comprises 20 years in UK construction/property, working initially for consultants and latterly for client organisations. More recently he volunteered for 2 years in Rural Kenya as a Business Advisor. Having seen first-hand the devastating effects of fire in the informal settlements, he decided to develop a safer, affordable solution to bring improved housing to those most in need. Kwangu Kwako are now delivering that solution.

Felix Dodds is co-director of the 2018 Nexus Conference and author of a new book, Power to the People, co-author of Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals, and co-editor of The Water, Food, Energy and Climate Nexus.

Felix Döhler is an Urban Policy Advisor with GIZ’s Global and Sector Programmes Department in Bonn. He supports the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), specialising in urban climate change issues. Apart from this, he is affiliated with the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA).

Felix’s previous occupations include five years as a freelance consultant, researcher, and facilitator as well as four years as a GTZ programme manager in China.

Katja Dörner was elected Mayor of Bonn in 2020. She is a former member of the German Bundestag (2009-2020), also serving as Deputy Chair of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group and member of the Committee for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

Mayor Dörner co-chairs the ICLEI Global Executive Committee 2021-2024 portfolio on Climate Action and Low Emission Development. Her goals are making Bonn climate neutral by 2035, advancing sustainable mobility and circular economy, fighting inequalities and promoting affordable housing.

Sam leads WSUP’s knowledge management, helping to ensure programme learning is captured and disseminated for impact through technical publications, research, learning events and programme reviews. He has authored, co-authored or edited over 50 publications on diverse aspects of urban WASH. Sam has a background in evaluation, research and learning, having previously worked as an analyst specialising in programme evaluation at RAND Europe.

Mairi Dupar is the ODI‘s Strategic Knowledge Manager. She designs public and policy engagements with developing country partners, to encourage people to talk and act on climate change solutions. She is also a technical advisor for the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and managing editor for CDKN's website, www.cdkn.org.

Dr. Gerhard Dust, born 1952 in Soest, Germany, started his career in the construction business. After service in the Luftwaffe and graduation from university he followed his family tradition of working in the book industry.

Being COO of Libri 1991-2008 he earned an international reputation for the analysis, design and implementation of high level automated storage and distribution systems.

During these years he was also founder and general manager of the book transport company BOOXpress, member of the Board of Top Holding AG and chairman of the International Group of Book-Distributors.

2010 under the impression of the earthquake in Haiti he founded PolyCare.

Juliana Echeverri holds a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology. She is especially interested in how the relationship between nature and human beings is constructed. Working in sustainable environmental projects for GIZ since 2016, she is currently involved in a conservation project for biodiversity in protected areas, building local authority capacities in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. In the past, she worked with the Ministry of the Environment, National Natural Parks, the National Research Institute of Biodiversity of Colombia and other national and international organizations. Among the different projects aiming to mainstream biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban planning and land-use was the biodiversity proposal for the city of Medellín.

As an environmental engineering specialist Erik van Eekelen looks both at controlling negative impacts (turbidity) around dredging works and optimising positive impacts of infrastructure development projects. For Van Oord he acts as programme director at the EcoShape consortium, overseeing knowledge development and promotion on Building with Nature.

Charles Ogheneruonah Eghweree lectures at the Political Science Department at the University of Benin, Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. His research interests cover International Relations, Development Studies, discourses on African Development, and migration as well as youth and security in Africa.

Hans-Peter Egler is Director of Public Affairs and Head of the Cities Practice at South Pole, a leading global sustainability financing solutions and services provider. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Global Infrastructure Basel (GIB), a leading non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting sustainable infrastructure financing practices. Hans-Peter Egler has long-standing expertise in international cooperation, management, and project innovation. Before joining GIB he led the Trade Promotion Division of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). From 1992 to 1994, Hans-Peter was Deputy Country Director of Swiss Development Cooperation in Bolivia. He holds a degree in public economy.

Katrin Eisenbeiß is a Policy Advisor at GIZ and part of the Sector Project "Sustainable Development of Metropolitan Regions". Her current focus of work is on integrated urban development, resource management and city region food systems. Before joining GIZ, she worked with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO) in Stuttgart for the research project "Morgenstadt – City Insights" at the interface of mobility and governance. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Regional and Urban Research with a focus on international development cooperation and transport planning at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Ahmed Eiweida is the World Bank Global Coordinator for Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development. He is also Lead Urban Specialist covering East Asia & Pacific Region. He is based in the World Bank’s Singapore Urban & Infrastructure Hub Office. Ahmed has 30-year experience on cultural heritage, sustainable tourism, urban policies, municipal finance & infrastructure, local economic development, urban upgrading and urban regeneration. He joined the World Bank in 2000. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked as Technical Advisor to GiZ, DANIDA, DFID and UNDP. He holds a PhD on Urban Development and an MSc. on Environmental Management from the University of Glasgow, UK.

Elmouelhi is an architect and urban planner by training and works as a senior researcher and lecturer at Berlin Technical University. His academic interests include culture and urban informality in relation to aspects of urban development and governance, focusing on the Arab region. In partnership with several universities and international cooperation organisations, he coordinates and acts as a principle investigator for several projects in different interdisciplinary topics, mainly informal urbanism, urban management, urban mobility, new settlements, and to the localising of SDGs.

Ruth Erlbeck has worked for the GIZ in Ethiopia, Mongolia and South America. She currently works as a project manager of the regional "Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: the Urban Nexus Project".

Ralph Trosse has a background in civil engineering and architecture. He has worked in many development projects in Benin, El Salvador and Nicaragua among others. He currently works as a technical director of the "Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: the Urban Nexus Project" in Bangkok.

Francesca Esses is Hello Lamp Post's Content Creator and Marketing Strategist, whose role is to engage with our audience and attract new clients, through innovative thinking and creativity. She is a passionate brand advocate and thought leader, whose purpose is to entertain, inspire, educate and inform. When she isn’t focusing on our brand engagement and communication, she is usually found exploring the latest art exhibitions in London or ticking more travel destinations off her bucket-list.

Jacob Ewing is pursuing a master’s degree in law and diplomacy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, studying human rights, gender analysis, and refugee issues. He is a senior research assistant with the Refugees in Towns Project, which leverages migrant- and refugee-led research to promote understanding of their experiences. Previously, Jacob served as analyst to the CEO at The Obama Foundation.

Kathrin Faltermeier arbeitet seit 2015 als Juniorberaterin im CoMun-Büro in Tunis, insbesondere zum Themenfeld Bürgerbeteiligung in tunesischen Kommunen.

Ana Falú - architect, professor, researcher, and feminist activist - used to be the Director of INVIHAB Research on Housing and Habitat Institute. Ana is now the Executive Director of the NGO Ciudades Feministas (CISCSA) as well as the Director of the Master Course on Housing Management and Development at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the National University of Córdoba in Argentina. She is also the co-founder of the Women and Habitat Network and the network’s Focal Point in Argentina and coordinates the UN-Habitat Gender Hub. Between 2002 and 2009, Ana Falú was Head of UNIFEM (today UN Women), first for the Andean Countries and later for Brazil and the Southern Cone countries. She studied at the National University of Tucumán in Argentina and completed her doctoral studies at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands.

Raed Fares is a Finance Manager at Habitat for Humanity with over eighteen years of experience in financial management in non-for-profits organizations and corporates. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance and Accountancy from the Cairo University of Egypt.

Jéssica has a background in animal biology and is currently a PhD candidate at the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn. Her research interests are in the interface people-nature, with transdisciplinary and policy-practice-oriented projects to address socio-ecological challenges.

Rafael Feltran-Barbieri is an economist with WRI-Brasil’s Forest Program.

Santiago leads ITDP Mexico’s research and urban development initiatives since 2022. He holds a masters degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science in Economics from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). His areas of interest involve urban mobility systems and coordinated land use and transportation planning. Prior to joining ITDP, Santiago worked as a consultant for the Samuel Tak Lee Center for Real Estate at MIT. He has collaborated with institutions related to transportation infrastructure worldwide, for example, in places like Chile and India.

Gero Fischer ist Redakteur beim Vorwärts Verlag. Einer seiner Schwerpunkte ist dabei Kommunalpolitik.

Kaj Fischer works as a Project Manager in the field of urban transformation, focusing on urban governance and local climate action. In his work, he develops strategies to advance this policy field and designs concepts and instruments for multi-stakeholder dialogues.

Florencia Florido is a communications specialist at CREAF, a Catalan public research centre dedicated to terrestrial ecology, territorial analysis, and global change. Naturally eclectic, Florencia is a former conservator-restorer of archaeological heritage, a former English-Spanish translator, and passionate about natural history collections, the environment, and its intricate relation with human evolution. At CREAF, she can deploy her multi-faceted interests through communications and knowledge management. Florido is a member of the Uforest alliance.

Alexander Follmann (PhD in Human Geography) is research fellow and lecturer at the Institute of Geography and the Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne. He is an expert on peri-urban dynamics in the Global South. His current research focuses on agricultural transformation and dynamic urbanization processes at the urban periphery in India and Kenya.

Viola has several years of experience working on developing and implementing strategies to help cities reduce their carbon emissions and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change. She has been working with C40 Cities for the past five years. Viola is a dedicated sustainability professional with experience in climate change and integrated urban planning and currently supports UrbanShift cities in integrating climate considerations into their urban planning processes. Viola holds an MA in Sustainable Cities and a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Management from King’s College London.

M. Scott Frank holds degrees from Stanford University and New York University. After working in the political realm for six years as a policy advisor and campaigner, Scott is now committed to seeing The InteRoots Initiative achieve its mission. Scott's approach to forwarding equitable systems is informed by his academic and professional experience, which allows him to engage in work with InteRoots' partners both as an advisor and mobilizer.

Kathrin’s journey as a social entrepreneur started in an unlikely place – the World Bank Institute, the World Bank’s incubation lab. While working there, Kathrin and her team began a user-centered iterative process to create a global organisation that was better equipped than the World Bank to work across stakeholder groups in developed and developing countries to open up government contracting. She holds a MA in Advanced International Relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in Economics from the University of Vienna.

Louis is an urban geographer with a PhD in Geography and Resource Development from the University of Ghana, Legon. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, Somanya, Ghana. Louis’ research focuses on the multiple aspects of urbanity in African cities with a mission-oriented goal of fostering evidence-based equitable and sustainable local development.

Xiaotian Fu is the China Food and Natural Resources Program Lead and the China Water Program Lead at the World Resources Institute. She leads the team to work on the sustainable transition of the natural resources and environment systems, including water, food, land, ocean, and forest to accelerate the global climate, biodiversity agendas and SDGs.

Gacheke Gachihi is the coordinator of Mathare Social Justice Centre and a member of the Social Justice Centres Working Group Steering Committee in Nairobi, Kenya. He is also involved in regional social movements and politics. He researches and writes about police violence, criminalization of the poor, social justice, and social struggles, amongst other areas. His articles and video interviews are published by roape.net, Africa Is a Country (AIAC), Daraja Press, Verso Books,and others.

Alessandro Galimberti is a Senior Social and Economic Development Specialist with a masters degree in Economics. He spent the first part of his professional career as Marketing and Commercial Director in different international companies. During the last ten years, he has worked in Africa as Country Director and Team Leader for the AVSI Foundation, a leading NGO in the sector of slum upgrading, education and renewable energies. For AVSI, he has supervised the strategy design, the startup and management of ICSs production and distribution activities in different countries such as Mozambique, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo. He now supervises the climate change and clean cooking sectors and is technical advisor for urban development.

Mariana leads the Community-led Housing Programme at World Habitat. She has worked in the development sector in the UK, Kenya, and Malawi, where she managed country-wide housing programmes. She also worked as a consultant in the housing and development sector for a number of years. She holds an MSc in Science, Technology and International Development from the University of Edinburgh.

Pippa works as Southeast Europe Energy Advisor, with a specialisation in the environmental and social impacts of coal and hydropower in the Western Balkans. Originally from the United Kingdom, she is based in Zagreb, Croatia and has almost two decades of experience tackling environmental issues in the region. Among others, she has recently co-authored a report entitled “The Western Balkan Power Sector – Between Crisis and Transition.”

As an urbanist, Irene has envisioned an enjoyable city, with thriving public spaces where biodiversity reclaims its role within the urban landscape and where people may rethink how they commute.
She is a Biotech Engineer with an MBA in Marketing from ITCR, the leading tech university in Costa Rica, and has a Sustainability Management degree from INCAE Business School. She worked as the Director of the Mayor’s Office, and currently works as the Mayors´ advisor and leads its innovation team.

Irene has represented the Municipality of Curridabat as Chief Innovation Officer at City Lab 2018 and 2019 and the Sweet City Vision has been recognized with the Innovative Practices for the New Urban 2016 Award by UN-HABITAT, MercoCiudades, FLACMA, The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation 2016 (Certificate of Recognition), Le Monde Smart Cities Global Innovation Awards, International LafargeHolcim Awards 2017, Acknowledgement Prize for “Socio-Spatial Governmentality in Costa Rica”. Congress for the New Urbanism, 2018 Charter Award for “Sweet City: defeating the city-nature antagonism, Curridabat, Costa Rica. A plan to recover urban nature for a healthier city.”

Vidhee Garg is a housing and urban development expert with a >10-year track record of leading housing and social enterprise projects globally, identifying new business opportunities, and driving organizational growth. Over the last six years, she has advised governments, multilateral agencies, and financial institutions in 25+ countries on designing new policies and programs, developing business plans and financial projections, and preparing investment pitches, among other assistance. Vidhee holds a Master’s degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University and a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from Mumbai University.

Aníbal Gaviria Correa is a business administrator, husband, and father of four children. Over the past two decades, Aníbal Gaviria has played a pivotal role in the development and transformation of Medellín, Antioquia, and Colombia. Anibal was elected Governor of Antioquia for two terms (2004–2007 and 2020–2023). His leadership was characterised by his commitment to the well-being, protection, and dignity of life. In 2012, he assumed the position of Mayor of Medellín. During his tenure, he spearheaded transformative urban development initiatives, with a keen focus on social equity and sustainability. Until early May 2024, he held the esteemed position of President of the Cities Alliance Assembly. For nearly five years, he has been working with the organisation in promoting sustainable urban development across cities worldwide.

Ebru Gencer is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience, an independent research organisation based in New York City. She is an urban planner specialized in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Dr Gencer is also the Co-Chair of the Urban Planning Advisory Group to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction and to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from Columbia University, New York.

Davide Geneletti is specialised in impact assessment of projects, plans and policies; ecosystem services and urban green infrastructures; multicriteria analysis. He is a formerly Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Sustainability Science Program. He has consulted for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-HABITAT, and the European Commission. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management and Deputy Editor of the open access journal One Ecosystem. He is a founding member of the start-up company Skopia, specialized in anticipation services for environmental, social and economic planning.

Ms Stefania Giannini was appointed UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education in May 2018. With an academic background in the Humanities, Ms Giannini has served as Rector of the University for Foreigners of Perugia (2004 – 2012). As Senator of the Republic of Italy (2013 – 2018) and Minister of Education, Universities and Research (2014 – 2016), she developed and implemented a structural reform of the Italian education system.

Natalie Rose Gill is Program and Policy Coordinator at IHC Global. Her work on gender and technology has been featured in Open Global Rights and Land Portal. Her research has been presented at the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference and at the World Urban Forum 10 in Abu Dhabi. Natalie received her B.A. and her M.A. in History from the University of Maryland.

Eddy Gitonga is a passionate environmentalist in innovations who catalyses solutions to problems facing communities. Eddy was awarded as a Young African Thinker in 2018, courtesy of UN-Habitat & African Union, and as one of the Top 15 Innovators in Kenya 2020, courtesy of Konza Technopolis & Climate Innovation Academy 2021. His most recent project was working with a Danish news team to produce an environmental documentary to help ban plastic bags in Denmark, using Kenya as a model.

Eddy has worked closely with organisations like UNEP, UN ECOSOC, and international governments. Currently, he is working to realise a pilot household environmental project to be scaled up periodically, capturing real-time monitoring and evaluation. Eddy hopes to integrate his innovations throughout East and Central Africa to help communities thrive and grow economically, as well as in health and peace.

Michael Glotz-Richter is Senior Project Manager of “Sustainable Mobility” at the City of Bremen, Germany. As such, he is responsible for several innovation projects in the field of sustainable mobility. He also reviewed the European RTD projects “Citymobil” and “Citymobil2” on autonomous vehicles. As a trained urban planner (SRL), he has a special interest in the interaction between built environment, human behaviour and technical/technological development.

S. Emmanuelle Laurinda Godjo is a young urban planner. She completed her Master's degree in Spatial Planning for Growing Economies (SPRING) at the Technische Universität of Dortmund, Germany with a specialisation in development planning at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. She is currently Programme Officer – Urban Planner of the Justice Empowerment Initiative (JEI), an affiliated organisation of Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) in Benin. Laurinda is also an alumna of the U.S State Department for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African leaders in 2019. She is passionate about topics related to slums upgrading, advocating for urban poor, smart cities, and community participation in urban planning.

Ronaldo “Onal” Golez is the mayor of Dumangas, Philippines. He already served as the city’s mayor from 2007 to 2013 and was re-elected in 2016. He launched several initiatives to build climate resilience in his city. Under mayor Golez, Dumangas signed the campaign "Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready" and entered a municipal climate partnership with the city of Herdecke in Germany. Before entering politics, he was an artist.

Verena Goranko advises the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on the topic of sustainable development of metropolitan regions. Her focus is on urban and metropolitan governance in the field of development cooperation. Within her work she deals with key questions of institutional arrangements, inter-municipal cooperation and managing rural-urban linkages in order to create inclusive, livable and sustainable urban areas. Verena holds a Masters’ degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from Malmö University, Sweden.

Dr. Limota Goroso Giwa is a prolific writer, grassroots women leader, and community organiser. Presently, she is the convener of The City we Need and the Urban Thinkers Project in Nigeria. The Urban Thinkers project is an initiative of the UN Habitat World Urban Campaign.

Dr. Gorosa Giwa has written several books and articles in local and international journals, and has received several local and international awards, namely the Rear Germ Award in 2003 by UNIFEM, the ASHOKA Award for social entrepreneurship in 2001. She was also among the 1000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Specialist in Environment and Development. Mayté has more than 20 years of experience in the design and implementation of development and climate action programs in LAC. She has collaborated with international organizations such as Wetlands International, The Nature Conservancy, UN Environment, CAF, Green Climate Fund, IICA. Mayté is a Panamanian Lawyer with a Master's Degree in Industrial Administration with postgraduate courses in management, risk assessment and specialization in economic, social and cultural rights.

Jimena de Gortari Ludlow is a full-time professor and the Research Coordinator at Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City. She is the author of the book “Sound guide for a City” and and investigates urban acoustics. She also writes regularly on topics such as soundscape, noise pollution, urban health and public space. She is a government and citizen advisor to the Environmental and Territorial Planning Office of Mexico City. Jimena is a nember of the National System of Researchers, LEVEL I and is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities of UAM-Cuajimalpa. Jimena holds a PhD from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (2010), with a specialty in museography (2005).

Sahana is a manager for the Cities Program at WRI India. She works on urban water issues focussing on natural infrastructure, restoration of urban blue spaces, and on reuse and resource recovery from urban wastewater streams. At WRI India, she has also worked on transit-oriented development and provision of safe access to transit station areas across urban centers in India.

Cynthia Goytia is professor and Head of the M.Sc. in Urban Economics at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2012, she founded and chairs its Center on Housing and Urban Policies, one of the most prestigious urban research centers in Latin America. She holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Goytia developed many fundamental publications on informal land markets and land use regulation. She is a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and a senior urban consultant to governments and multilateral organisations.

Anja Graner holds a BA in Landscape Architecture from the Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil, Switzerland. She is currently studying for a Master’s degree in the Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design Program at Stuttgart University. Anja has a strong interest in urban life and the interactions between built environment, people and their quality of life.

Richard Grant is a Professor at the University of Miami, Florida, USA. He is the Director of International Studies as well as Urban Studies. He is a senior Research Associate, School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a graduate of University College Dublin, Ireland, the University of Illinois, and University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.He was a PEW Faculty Fellow in International Affairs at Harvard University and is the 2020 Association of American Geographers’ Kwado Konadu-Agyemang Distinguished Scholar in African Geography.

Julie Greenwalt is responsible for the Cities Alliance portfolio on climate change, environment and resilient cities, including the Joint Work Programme on Resilient Cities, and is one of the Organizing Committee co-chairs for the Cities and Climate Change Science Conference. She holds an M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a B.A. in International Relations, Spanish and Philosophy from Tulane University.

For over ten years, Emma has been planning, designing, and delivering building and urban-scale projects that leverage digital technologies to create a positive impact for humans and nature. As Climateflux’s Climate Action Strategist, she focuses on citizen-powered data ecosystems for climate change adaptation, green infrastructure, and neighbourhood-scale urban planning.

Delfina is a Research Analyst at World Resources Institute, working jointly with the Climate Program and Governance Center. She conducts research and supports in-country technical assistance projects to promote alignment between the sustainable development and climate agendas. Delfina holds a B.A. in International and Area Studies with a minor in Chinese Language from Washington University in St. Louis.

Marion Guénard is a Senior Officer within ICLEI’s Circular Development team. She works with cities around the world on implementing circular economy projects and policy frameworks at the local level. She is currently supporting the city of Turku, Finland, in designing the Circular Turku Roadmap in collaboration with regional stakeholders. Marion has an MSc in Environmental Management from the Paris-Sorbonne University.

Alexis Gueu is a social entrepreneur, consultant in public speaking, cyber-activist and writer from Cote d’Ivoire. He founded the Cote d’Ivoire Young Leaders Association and is its chairman.

Madina M. Guloba is a development economist, with a PhD in Economics from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the Collaborative Postgraduate Programme of the African Economic Research Consortium. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow and head of the Microeconomics Department at the Economic Policy Research Centre in Uganda She has more than nine years of research experience in the field of development economics, gender, climate change, education, environment, natural resources, and labour markets. Madina is a member of the International Association for Feminist Economics and member of the National Subcommittee of Evaluations in the Office of the Prime Minister.

M. Azka Gulsyan is an Urban Management Policy Associate at Governor’s Delivery Unit, Jakarta. He is responsible for delivering the Governor of Jakarta’s strategic programs in housing, urban planning, and community development. He has a master's degree in sustainability science from The University of Tokyo and trained as an urban planner at Institut Teknologi Bandung.

Ulrich Gunka works as freelance journalist and photographer. One of his main commissioning parties is the climate municipality of Saerbeck, Germany. Since 2013, he is continuously following the local development of the town.

Jaideep Gupte is Fellow of the IDS, University of Sussex, and currently leads the Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure Portfolio of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). He is currently the Principal Investigator on ‘Smart Data for Inclusive Cities’ programme funded by the European Commission; a Co-Investigator of the GCRF Accountability in Urban Health Research Hub; and the Principle Investigator of the ‘Governing the Ungovernable’ programme funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.

Jean-François Habeau is Executive Director of FMDV, the International Alliance of Local Governments dedicated to promoting and developing solutions to finance urban development and local economic development.

Sabine Hammer, journalist and freelance correspondent, is specialised on municipal development cooperation, sustainability and conflict management. The German Federal President awarded her the First Media Prize on Development Policy of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). She is Special Advisor to Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. José Ramos-Horta.

Matthew S. Hanchard is a digital geographer and sociologist with interests in digital media and society, data science/critical data studies, medical sociology, and awkward multimodal methodologies. He currently works at the University of Sheffield (UK) iHuman Institute for a Wellcome Trust funded project on rare disease drug access, innovation, and pricing. His previous work spans film audiences, transport mobilities, smart cities, and follows on from a PhD at Newcastle University examining how people engage with digital maps.

Lea Happ is a PhD candidate at the King’s College London, based at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. Her PhD research investigates feminist activist abortion support and political subjectivities in urban and rural Argentina. She is particularly interested in affective communities and the biopolitics of pharmaceutical abortion.

Mariaflavia (Nina) Harari is an Assistant Professor of Real Estate at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, specialising in urban economics and development economics. Her research agenda is centered on urbanisation in developing countries. Her current projects focus on urban structure in India and slums in Indonesia. She holds a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. and a M.Sc. in Economics and Social Sciences from Bocconi University.

Jorgelina Hardoy is coordinator and senior researcher at IIED – América Latina, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Trained as a geographer (University of Buenos Aires and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), her work focuses in the Latin America region, developing multi-stakeholder processes to address urban environmental problems associated with poor living conditions and climate risks, aiming to improve climate resilience and climate action capacities. She mostly works with local communities and local governments contributing to develop more integrated and transformative urban agendas.

Mr. Hari represents Kochi Metro Rail Ltd., a joint venture company of Govt. of India and the provincial Govt. of Kerala. He is working since inception of the company and presently designated as Additional General Manager-Urban Transport.He is a mechanical engineer with railway engineering and public transportation background, served in the mainline railway projects, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. and in the Automotive testing & validation infrastructure project, prior to joining Kochi Metro Rail Ltd in 2012.

Oliver Harman is a Cities Economist for Cities that Work, an International Growth Centre initiative based at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Oliver works on policymaker demanded research with local government ministries and city mayoral teams across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. Specific engagements include local government reform in Guyana, urban resilience in Ghana, post-disaster policy in Mozambique and municipal finance in Malawi, Senegal, Somaliland and Uganda as well as inclusive growth in his hometown, Oxford. He has previously written for the World Economic Forum, World Bank, UN Habitat, OECD and, of course, the IGC.

Ron Harris leads the engagement for the North American region of the network. As the former Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Minneapolis, Ron led the development and implementation of the City's resilience strategy with a key emphasis on racial equity, economic development, and climate change adaptation. Ron is also a founding member and Chair of the Racial Equity through Resilience Community of Practice.

Idayat Hassan is the Director, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), an Abuja based policy advocacy and research organisation with focus on Deepening Democracy and Development in West Africa.Her core interest spans democracy, peace and security and transitional justice in West Africa. She is a lawyer by profession and has held fellowship in several universities across Europe and America.

Mary has over 10 years’ experience delivering exceptional environmental and social sustainability outcomes in the built environment. As leader of the City of Cape Town’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency team, she facilitates a wide range of projects within the Sustainable Energy Markets department to enable further uptake of small scale embedded generation and the development of policies for new technologies. Mary holds degrees from Stanford University and The Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm.

Graduated from Sciences Po in Paris, Joséphine Hébert a French-Brazilian young professional working internationally on urban governance. After more than one year working in Mozambique with UN-Habitat and GIZ's Good Financial Governance Program, she will now move to Egypt to work there on urban sustainable development.

Linda Heiß is an urban practitioner passionate about the co-production of green, creative, and healthy spaces for liveable cities. She holds a B.A. in Architecture and an M.Sc. in Integrated Urbanism & Sustainable Design. Linda currently supports GIZ within the programme “Dialogues for Urban Change”.

Rahel Hermann is the manager of the ILCA project. She has been working in municipal and urban development with a focus on pro-poor service delivery and social participation for GIZ and other organizations in various countries over the past 18 years. She was a major driver in the realization of the study "Public Space & Gender in Amman",identifying and scoping the research questions as well as defining the methods and reviewing contents throughout.

Claudia Hermes sammelte Arbeitserfahrungen in mehreren deutschen Unternehmen und im Deutschen Bundestag, bevor sie vor zehn Jahren zur GIZ stieß. Seither war sie für die GIZ an verschiedenen Standorten in Ost- und Westafrika tätig, u.a. als Landesdirektorin für Mauretanien. Seit 2016 leitet sie von Manila aus das Programm Cities Development in Asia (CDIA), ein gemeinsames Projekt der Asiatischen Entwicklungsbank (ADB) und des Bundesministeriums für wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit (BMZ).

With a background in architecture and a master’s degree in Urban Management from the Technical University of Berlin, Carolina brings a wealth of expertise to her role, contributing to the advancement of sustainable development initiatives at the intersection of urban planning and environmental conservation.

Dr. Peter Herrle is Professor Emeritus for International Urbanism. Until 2012 he was director of the Habitat Unit at Technische Universität Berlin. His research focus is on urban informality, urban governance, housing and mega-urban regions. He is Advisory Professor at the Tongji University Shanghai and a consultant to bilateral and international development agencies. He is founding editor of the ‘Habitat International Series’ at LIT-Publishers and co-editor of ‘Megacities and Global Change’ series at Steiner Publishers.

Danielle Higgins is the Senior Researcher for Tadamun: the Cairo Urban Solidarity Initiative, as well as a PhD candidate and adjunct instructor in the Department of Government at American University. Her dissertation examines the linkages between employment policies, women’s political participation, and societal gender roles, norms, and attitudes. She has expertise in working with geospatial data, which she utilizes in her research for Tadamun to investigate spatial inequality both broadly and from a gendered perspective.

Dr. Ralitsa Hiteva is a Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex. She is a geographer and a member of the Sussex Energy Group and the Infrastructure group at SPRU. Her research in the past 5 years has been focused on nexus interactions between resources, infrastructure sectors, and governance.