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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 works on Policy Advocacy Strategy & Engagement at the SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport. Chris supports 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 College in Brooklyn, New York.

Dana de la Fontaine works with the Good Financial Governance Program at GIZ Mozambique. Her focus lies on decentralization 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Ana Falú, Architect, Professor and Researcher, is the Director of INVIHAB Research on Housing and Habitat Institute and Director of the Master Course on Housing Management and Development at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. She is also the co-founder of the Women and Habitat Network and the network’s Focal Point in Argentina, and coordinates the UNI 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 South Cone countries. She studied at the National University of Tucuman in Argentina and completed her doctoral studies at Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Sara Hoeflich works for UCLG, United Cities and Local Governments, the voice and network of cities and regions. She is in charge of the UCLG portfolio on decentralized cooperation and city to city learning (director cooperation). She started working at United Cities and Local Government in 2006, after almost 10 years joining German Development Cooperation in Indonesia and Colombia -in the field of urban planning and management - and after being active in several German urban design projects and engaging in development NGO.

Dr. Rene Peter Hohmann is the Head of Global Programmes at the Cities Alliance (CA) Secretariat, hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Prior to the Cities Alliance, he worked for the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and advised various projects financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in the field of decentralisation, regionalisation and urban governance. As a professional and academic, he is eager to learn more about and share experiences on inclusive development approaches in cities and particularly their application in fast growing secondary cities. He taught urban planning courses at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and holds a PhD in Geography from King’s College London as well as a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from Humboldt University in Berlin.

Sanara received his PhD in Environmental Management from Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan in 2015, his Master of Science, Agricultural Science, Royal Academy of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2006 and Bachelor of Science in Agronomy from Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2003. He Is interested in Geospatial Science, Remote Sensing, Regional Planning, Land Use Science, Environment Management, Rural-and-Urban Studies, and Open Source Software. Contributing to urban development in Phnom Penh, he has guided bachelor students to conduct many small researches related to urban heat island, public land management, and public transportation.

Cornie Huizenga is the Secretary General of the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), the largest multi-stakeholder partnership working on sustainable transport. The SLoCaT Partnership plays a lead role in the integration of sustainable, low-carbon transport in global policies on sustainable development and climate change, especially the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Mark Major is a Senior Advisor to the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT). His focus is on the global sustainable development processes and the developing “action agendas” resulting from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Habitat III. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Transport Science (Ministry of Transport) in Beijing. Previously, he was the Team Leader for Sustainable Urban Mobility for the European Commission.

Jisun Hwang is Senior Climate Advocacy and Policy Officer at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.She supports the coordination of ICLEI’s global policy and advocacy on climate change, actively following and coordinating ICLEI’s engagement in the framework of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).She conducts advocacy, represents the ICLEI network in climate negotiations, and has regular communication with the UNFCCC Secretariat. She also supports ICLEI’s focal point role of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) and engages with the Friends of Cities and Regions at the UNFCCC.

Ayodotun Stephen Ibidunni is a researcher, management consultant and religious leader. He holds a PhD in Business Administration and specializes in strategy & operations management. Dr. Ibidunni works as a researcher and faculty member in the Department of Business Management at Covenant University, Nigeria. He also leads his own business, Shaveh Consulting, a strategy-focused consulting firm with a vision to create knowledge-based solutions for small and medium enterprises’ competitive aspirations.

Carmelo Ignaccolo is a Ph.D. Candidate in City Design and Development at MIT, DUSP, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University GSAPP where he teaches a graduate level course on digital techniques for Urban Design. Prior to MIT, Carmelo worked as Urban Planner for UN-Habitat at the Urban Planning and Design Lab in Nairobi, Kenya. His academic research focuses on built heritage, urban morphology and environmental psychology in historic cities. Carmelo holds a degree in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, where he was a Fulbright scholar. His academic work has been exhibited at the Seoul Architecture Biennale (2019) and at the Bi-City Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (2020).

Festus Imuetinyan holds a PhD in Political Science. He is a research consultant and facilitator specializing in issues regarding Nigeria’s government and administration.

Dr Mohammad Tarikul Islam is an Associate Professor of Government and Politics at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. He was the Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford in 2018. Prior to joining University in 2014, he was serving UNDP for a period of seven years in different capacities.

Dr Islam is the regular contributor to the South Asia Blog of London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK, and the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS). He has recently been offered to take up post-doc fellowship (visiting scholar) by end of 2020 at the University of Cambridge.

Oje Ivagba is Executive Director at the Youth Empowerment & Development Initiaitve (YEDI), a nonprofit that provides comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services to in–and–out-of-school youth, using the Grassroot Soccer SKILLZ methodology. Prior to his present role, Oje has spent over a decade leading highly reputed nonprofits in Nigeria. His most accomplished projects have been dealing with youth and community development, leadership skills, ethics and value reorientation, and employability skills.

Alexander Jachnow leitet das USP (Urban Strategies and Planning) im Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS). In seiner Forschung und Lehre konzentriert er sich auf die Herausforderungen und Chancen von Urbanisierungsprozessen im globalen Süden. Er repräsentierte das IHS und dessen akademische Netzwerke bei der Erarbeitung der New Urban Agenda und während der HABITAT Konferenz in Quito.

David Jácome-Pólit, Master of Science with double specialisation in architectural engineering and technology in sustainable development (TU Delft). He currently holds the position of Metropolitan Director of Resilience and Chief Resilience Officer as part of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative. He is the former resilience advisor to the United Nations Development Program in Quito and member of the Esteemed Program Committee for the ICLEI's Resilient Cities 2018/2019 Congress, organized by ICLEI and member of theAdvisory Group for the Communities and Affordable Homes Summit (US Green Building Council).

Arne Georg Janssen is an Urban Environment Specialist at Cities Alliance. As a political scientist, he is interested in the social and economic impacts of climate change on the local level, as well as the political responses on the international level. Currently, he manages a global programme on Climate Change, Resilience and Urban Informality.

Having previously worked with GIZ, KFW Development Bank and UN HABITAT on sustainable urban development in the global south, Ravi is currently researching Pathways towards a sustainable urban transformation in the urban built environment sector in Cambodia.
His work within the Build4People Project is located on both an analytical and a normative level, as it involves the research and support of transformative change towards urban sustainability together with local stakeholders.

Ravi holds a Master of Arts in Urban Geography from the Humboldt University Berlin.

Nick is a senior expert at the Ellen Macarthur Foundation and a professional environmental civil engineer. His main current work addresses the many challenges of the global food system, by applying system-thinking and circular economy principles. Before joining the Foundation, he spent more than 15 years designing practical solutions for water and environmental projects around the world.

JIRAMA (Jiro sy rano malagasy) is Madagascar’s national state-owned electric utility and water services company. Playing a predominant role in the electricity and water sectors, JIRAMA has an important part in the economic and social development of the country. The company provides almost exclusively public water and power services for the whole island and a population of 13 million. Headquartered in Antananarivo, it serves 334.000 clients for electricity in 114 localities and 65 water distribution centres.

Marina Joseph has been working on issues of urbanisation, poverty and habitat in India. She is a campaigner for people’s rights in urban spaces, focusing on participation and inclusion in housing, urban planning and governance. She was the Regional Focal Point (South and Central Asia) for the Habitat III process within the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth.

Andrew Jones is Research & Policy Manager at Reall, an innovator and investor in affordable housing for people on low incomes in urban Africa and Asia. A PhD-qualified multidisciplinary researcher and policy professional, Andrew works on demonstrating the commercial viability and sustainable developmental impact of Reall’s global affordable housing interventions. This includes recent peer-reviewed research on end-user housing finance innovations (Environment & Urbanization, 2020) and speaking slots at the 10th World Urban Forum (2020).

Yang Jun was the Deputy Mayor of the Huaibei Municipal People’s Government from 2007 to 2014. Afterwards, he worked as Board Chairman of Wanbei Coal Electricity Group Co., Ltd until he became Mayor of the Suzhou Municipal People’s Government in 2016. He has a degree in Mining Engineering from Fuxin Mining Institute, and holds a PhD in Management Science and Engineering from China University of Mining and Technology.

Farah Kabir has been working with ActionAid Bangladesh as Country Director since June 2007. More than 21 years of experience in the field of development and research have made Farah Kabir a renowned human rights figure at home and abroad with an uncompromising voice against human rights violations. As Country Director, she has taken up new initiatives such as women-led emergency and humanitarian response, and the first ever Water Museum in South Asia located in Kuakata. She represents civil society at high levels both internationally and nationally, for instance for the CSO dialogue at the UN, the Sendai Framework, and the High-Level Political Forum.

Lalitha is an urbanist and Associate Professor at the Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her first book, Participolis: Consent and Contention in Neoliberal Urban Governance (Routledge Cities and the Urban Imperative Series, 2013, co-edited with K. Coelho and M. Vijayabaskar) focused on a critical exploration of emerging discourses and practices of "citizen participation" in urban governance reforms in India. More recent work has focused on the violence of becoming urban in the global south ("The Violence of Worlding Producing Space in Neoliberal Durban, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro,” Economic and Political Weekly 2017, co-authored with Himanshu Burte).

As head of UN-Habitat’s Urban Economy and Finance Branch, Marco Kamiya leads global operational and normative work on urban economy and municipal finance. He supports cities in terms of financing related to planning, participatory approaches, and infrastructure. Prior to joining UN-Habitat, Marco worked for CAF Development Bank for Latin America in the Department of Public Policy and Competitiveness. Previously, he also worked for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC, and for PADECO Co., Ltd. in Tokyo.

Freshta Karim started her career at the age of 12, working as a journalist for various radio and television channels in Afghanistan. She produced investigative reports on the situation and challenges facing Afghan children. She also ran a popular TV show called ‘Freshta ba Buzurgan’, interviewing accomplished national figures to provide children with role models. Freshta is currently the director of Charmaghz, a Kabul-based NGO dedicated to promoting critical thinking among children through providing resources and spaces on buses turned into mobile libraries. She has previously worked with UN agencies, and the Afghan President’s office.

Dr Mohammad Rezaul Karim has been working for 20 years as a faculty member at the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, the principal training institute for civil servants in Bangladesh. Dr Karim studied Public Administration at the University of Dhaka, has an MA HRM from the University of Leeds, England and a PhD in Development Administration from NIDA, Thailand. His research areas include policy analysis and evaluation, human security, capacity building and social development.

He has more than 80 publications in various national and international peer-reviewed journals, conferences, book chapters and commentaries.

Lennard Kehl is currently working for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as an Advisor in the Sector Project City Regions 2030, where he is responsible for knowledge management and the development of technical-methodological approaches on integrated urban development for the German Development Cooperation. Furthermore, he is thematically working on the topics Smart Cities and Local Economic Development. Prior to that he worked for the GIZ as a Development Advisor for the Urban Development Unit of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in Ghana, in headquarters for the Unit for Monitoring and Evaluation as well as in Vietnam in the Wastewater Management Programme in Vietnam. Before that, he worked for the DAAD Expert Network for Urban Future in Southeast Asia.

Ramin Keivani is Research Lead and Professor of International Land Policy and Urban Development at the School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University, UK. He is an urbanist with a particular research interest in low income housing policy and urban sustainability in the Global South. He has researched and published widely on these and other related areas including interface of economic globalization and land markets and their impacts on urban equity and spatial development. He is also the founding and managing editor of the International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development and sits on the steering group for the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign.

Daniel Kerber is the founder of More than Shelters. For 18 years, he has been working on the interconnections of planning, architecture, and design with people living in slums and refugee camps. Before embarking on the path of humanitarian innovation, Daniel Kerber worked as an artist and designer, and taught Social Design at the Hamburg School of Fine Arts (HBFK).

Teresa Kerber is currently Head of the Advisory Program “International Smart Cities Network” (ISCN) and the Global Program “ICT-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Cities” at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Prior to that, she was in the Division Methodological Approaches at GIZ’s Sectoral Department. Her areas of specialization include ICT for development, Urban Development, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Governance, Local Economic Development, Value Chains, and Energy. She is working at GIZ’s headquarters after supporting international development projects in Asia and Latin America as well as working for the private sector and academic institutions in Germany.

Tobias Kettner is an Outreach and Ombuds Officer of the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome, Italy. He previously worked with GIZ on the linkages between climate policies and urban development. In the run up to Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, he served as the Habitat III focal point for Europe. The conference took place in October 2016 and resulted in the New Urban Agenda, a United Nations agreement that guides worldwide efforts around urbanization of a wide range of actors for the next 20 years. Before this, Mr. Kettner worked at UN-Habitat’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, where he coordinated the online communications of the United Nations cities programme. Tobias Kettner has a background in urbanism, international relations and communications, he studied Political Science, Economy and Geography in Bonn and Stockholm.

Die KfW Entwicklungsbank betreut im Auftrag der Bundesregierung die finanzielle Zusammenarbeit Deutschlands mit Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern in Afrika, Asien, Lateinamerika, dem Nahen Osten und dem Kaukasus. Die Schwerpunkte bilden dabei Projekte, die darauf zielen, Armut zu bekämpfen und die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung zu fördern, Maßnahmen im Bereich Klima- und Umweltschutz zu unterstützen sowie Menschen Zugang zu gesundheitlicher Versorgung und Bildung zu ermöglichen.

Prabha Khosla holds a master’s degree in urban planning and has over 15 years of experience working in cities with women, communities, local governments, public utilities and other urban stakeholders. Her work has been focused on urban sustainability, gender equality and pro-poor planning and governance, water and sanitation, participatory and environmentally sensitive planning, gender mainstreaming, development of training materials on urban and gender issues, and capacity development of elected officials, municipal staff, and civil society partners on sustainability, gender, governance, and water and sanitation.

For 20 years and in over five African countries, Michael has provided technical support in planning for, managing, and implementing built environment projects. He has a special interest and focus on urban mobility systems, having assessed, designed, and implemented urban mobility projects in large urban areas. Michael has training in urban planning and law.

Boram Kimhur has worked as a Housing and Urban Specialist at UN-Habitat (Vietnam), the Hilti Foundation (the Philippines and Indonesia), KOICA (Viet Nam), and INGO Asian Bridge (South Korea). Her work has been dedicated to the housing issues of the urban poor and marginalized groups and housing rights. She mainly focuses on community-driven housing approaches and delivering communities’ voices to governments and the public. Currently, she is researching how to bring social justice to the centre of housing policy.

More information: https://boramkimhur.com/blog/

Hanna Klein holds a BA in Social Science of the Leibniz University of Hannover. Currently, she is finalising an MA in Sociology at FLACSO Ecuador, specialising in topics on development, migration and urban studies, among others.

Philip Koch holds a master's degree in Economic Development. He is working for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as a junior advisor in the project “Climate Policy Meets Urban Development”. The project advises the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety on the vertical integration of climate action measures and the role of cities in green recovery strategies from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carina Koop is a research fellow in the Circular Economy division at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Her research focuses on waste prevention measures and resource efficiency. Currently, she is working on remanufacturing, the economic effectiveness of food waste prevention measures, and climate-adapted urban development. She holds an MSc in Geography from the University of Bonn.

Braima Koroma is currently the Director of Research and Training at SLURC and also a lecturer in the Institute of Geography and Development Studies, School of Environmental Sciences, Njala University.

Braima has over 14 years experience in teaching, research, training and facilitation, and consultancy on a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary research to examine complex development problems with various national government ministries, department and agencies, international organisations and institutions including the World Bank, African Development Bank, UN, JICA and the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ), amongst others. Braima has published extensively, reaching both academic and non-academic audiences.

Chris Kost leads ITDP’s initiatives in Kenya, Uganda, and other African countries. Prior to setting up the ITDP Africa office, Chris was involved in projects in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Jharkhand, covering areas such as bus rapid transit, street design, parking management, and transit-oriented development. Chris was involved in a number of TOD projects, including the Local Area Plan for Ahmedabad’s Central Business District, an updated TOD policy for BRT corridors in Pimpri Chinchwad, TOD planning efforts for Chennai’s metro and suburban rail networks, and TOD elements in Nashik’s new Development Plan. In Cape Town, Accra, and Johannesburg, he assessed the impacts of proposed BRT systems on greenhouse gas emissions. Chris received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental policy from the Earth Systems Program at Stanford University.

Daniela Kostadinova has been a project manager with the “Municipal Economic Development in Eastern Serbia” project since its onset in 2008. She has provided technical assistance to partner municipalities in various fields, thereby promoting economic development and good governance. In 2012, she took over the project’s monitoring and evaluation responsibilities, including the gender equality component. Daniela Kostadinova would like to thank Natasa Ristic, who was actively involved in drafting this article.

Mr Krishnan is currently the Principal Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu’s Housing and Urban Development Department. He holds full additional charge as Managing Director of the New Tirupur Area Development Corporation, Vice Chairman in-charge of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, and Chairman at Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board. He holds a master's degree in economics and is a member of the Indian Administrative Services.

Petra Kuenkel is an author and leading strategic advisor to pioneering international multi-stakeholder initiatives that tackle common goods and sustainability issues. As a Member of the Club of Rome and the Executive Director of the Collective Leadership Institute, she promotes the scaling-up of collaboration skills for change agents from the private sector, public sector and civil society. She is a pioneering thinker on re-inventing leadership as a collective competence. Petra Kuenkel is the author of the ground-breaking publication “The Art of Leading Collectively” (Chelsea Green, US, 2016).

Isabel Küppers arbeitet seit Mai 2015 als technische Beraterin für das Projekt "Stärkung ausgewählter Kommunen im Umgang mit Migration und Flucht" in Marokko. Von 2012 bis 2015 war sie als technische Beraterin für GIZ-Projekte im Bereich Dezentralisierung in Burkina Faso und Benin tätig, wobei der Fokus ihrer Arbeit auf Bürgerbeteiligung and Anti-Korruptionsmaßnahmen auf lokaler Ebene lag. Bevor sie bei der GIZ anfing, arbeitete Isabel Küppers für zwei Jahre ehrenamtlich für den Flüchtlingsrat Berlin. Sie erwarb ihren Studienabschluss in Politikwissenschaften und Romanischer Philologie an der Freien Universität Berlin und ein Zertifikat in nachhaltiger Entwicklung von der Universität Kaiserslautern.

Arjun Kumar is the Director of the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. With training in development economics, he specialises in quantitative and qualitative research methods, econometrics and the use of statistical software to crunch big data. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Development (IHD) and has been associated with several think tanks, research institutes, governments, civil society organisations, and private enterprises. His research interests are the economy, development studies, housing and basic amenities, urban and regional research, inclusive and sustainable development, data and evidence-based policy, and, research methods.

Dr. Mathew Kurian heads the Capacity Development and Governance (CDG) Unit at United Nations University (UNU-FLORES) in Dresden, Germany. Mathew has previously held faculty positions at University College London (UCL), UK and UNESCO-IHE, Delft besides working with The World Bank and the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) in Sri Lanka, Laos and Ethiopia.

Alexandra Kurth joined Cities Alliance in March 2014 and works as a Senior Urban Specialist in the Programme Unit. She is the most recent in a long line of GIZ staff that have been very successfully seconded to the Cities Alliance Secretariat. She is the Task Manager for the Ghana Country Programme and the focal point for the Habitat III Joint Work Programme. She also provides support to the Latin America and Caribbean Region and the Resilience Joint Work Programme.

Dr. Peter Kurz has been the Mayor of Mannheim, Germany since 2007. In the run up to Habitat III, Mannheim hosted an Urban Thinkers Campus on “Urban Citizenship in a Nomadic World”. Dr. Kurz is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Parliament of Mayors and represents Europe on its Steering Committee. He has a background in law, having served as a judge at the administrative court in Karlsruhe for several years.

Reuben Kyama is a Nairobi-based freelance journalist and the founder of One World Public Relations. For more than 15 years, Kyama has covered developments in Africa for major media networks such as Deutsche Welle, the Voice of America (VoA) and The New York Times, among others. He is a Media Fellow at the Africa Leadership Initiative part of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa and a former DANIDA Fellow at the Danish School of Media and Journalism.

Patrick Lamson-Hall is an urban planner and a research scholar at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management. He is co-author of the “Atlas of Urban Expansion – 2016 Edition”, a ground-breaking and original study of the dynamics of global urban growth. Patrick is also the New York-based coordinator of the Ethiopia Urban Expansion Initiative and the lead Urban Expansion Planner for the Cities Alliance Cities and Migration Programme.

Dr Tucker Landesman is an urban geographer working at the nexus of urban development, sustainability, and the politics of socio-economic inclusion/exclusion.

Dr Taibat Lawanson is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Lagos, Nigeria where she leads the Pro-Poor Development research cluster, and serves as acting director of the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development. She holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.

Her research interests include urban informality, pro-poor development, urban governance, environmental justice as well as formal - informal linkages in African urban contexts.

Stephen Leahy is an award-winning author and environmental journalist based in Canada who writes for National Geographic, The Guardian, Vice Motherboard, Al Jazeera, Mo Magazine (Brussels), TerraGreen (India), China Dialogue, Ecologist, Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) and more. He is a co-winner of the United Nations Global Prize For Climate Change And Environment Reporting. His critically-acclaimed book, “Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use To Make Everyday Products” received a national award as the Best General Audience Science Book.

Dr. Christine Lemaitre is CEO of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). She was born in Gießen, Germany, and studied structural engineering at the University of Stuttgart. After working in the USA, she started working at the Institute of Lightweight Structures Design and Construction at the University of Stuttgart in 2003. In 2007, she started working at Bilfinger Berger AG as project manager for research and development. In January 2009, she took on the role as director system of the DGNB and was appointed the CEO of the German Sustainable Building Council in February 2010. She has been on the Chair of the Europe Regional Network since 2015 and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Green Building Council since 2016. She is also a member of the Advisory Council for Baukultur of the State of Baden-Württemberg and of the Sustainability Board of the German Property Federation (ZIA).

Emily Levenson is pursuing a BS in Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where she focuses on environmental policy and planning. She has worked on research projects studying overtourism in Venice, equitable and resilient housing projects, and the experiences of outsiders running for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Dan Lewis is the Chief of the Urban Risk Reduction Unit, UN-Habitat. He has worked for UN-Habitat since 1997 based in Somalia, Kosovo and Nairobi, and has managed the global portfolio of disaster and conflict related work of the Agency since 2002. As a civil engineer and private consultant, he has worked in urban reconstruction and housing programmes in South Africa and Chile as well as with First Nations communities in his home region on Vancouver Island, Canada since 1987. He is currently leading the UN-Habitat global Urban Resilience Programme designing new standards for measuring and monitoring the resilience of cities. The City Resilience Profiling Programme, and its associated projects and team, are based in the Risk Reduction Unit’s programme office in Barcelona, Spain.

Astrid Ley ist Direktorin des internationalen Masterprogramms "Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD)". Ihre Expertise und ihre Publikationen liegen in den Themenfeldernder Urbanisierung im globalen Süden, Prozessen des Wohnungsbaus sowie der Rolle kommunaler Regierungsführung und der Zivilgesellschaft.

Alexandra Linden unterstützt zur Zeit die Dezentralisierungsreform und den Prozess der regionalen Entwicklung in der Ukraine im Auftrag der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH).

Clarisse Cunha Linke has 17 years’ working experience in Brazil, Mozambique, and Namibia. She holds a MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics. Until 2011, Clarisse was a BEN Namibia director, developing the largest community-based bicycle distribution network in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010, she won the Ashoka Changemakers Challenge "Women, Tools and Technology". She is member of the Board of Directors to the Network for Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), Transporte Ativo, and Casa Fluminense. She has a seat in the Fórum Brasileiro de Mudanças Climáticas, Transport Advisory Boards to City Rio de Janeiro and the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region.

Todd Litman is founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems. His work helps expand the range of impacts and options considered in transportation decision-making, improve evaluation methods, and make specialized technical concepts accessible to a larger audience. His research is used worldwide in transport planning and policy analysis.

Rosario Loayza is an architect with a Masters degree in anthropology. She has work experience in South America and Africa. Since 2007, she has been working in the EnDev programme where she is responsible for the overall activities of the programme and for advising and supporting the government and implementing partners.

Max Lohmann is an international development professional, with over 5 years of experience in international policy processes and urban infrastructure development, mainly for the GIZ. In his current role, Max is heading the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF) Partnerships team. The CFF is a global initiative supporting C40 member cities in developing countries and emerging economies to identify and access financing instruments to realize their low-carbon investment projects.

Prior to this, Max worked as a policy advisor to the Federal German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for international conferences, including the 2030 Agenda, the Habitat III conference, or the German G20 presidency. Max has a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Since 2012 Hilmar has held the post of elected councillor for urban development, building, housing, and transport for the German Association of Cities and the City Association of North Rhine-Westphalia. He studied spatial planning in Dortmund and urban and regional planning in Ankara.

Hilmar worked as a freelance urban planner in Dortmund and took his second state examination in urban design in Frankfurt am Main in 1991. Until 1994, he worked for the GTZ as a planning advisor on urban development in Kathmandu. Until 2000, he was head of a division at Dresden City Planning Office. Hilmar also worked in Berlin from 2000 to 2012, where he was responsible for urban design, approval of all building projects, and legal affairs. From 2007 to 2010 he worked for GIZ and headed the Program for Sustainable Urban Development in Syria.

Alfonso Cabrillo Losada was born and grown in Santander, Spain, into a family of architects. He studied to become MSC in Civil Engineering and has developed a career in infrastructure public investments, institutional development, and policy and strategy analysis in developing countries.

After having successfully worked for more than 15 years at the European Commission, Alfonso took a career break to develop new ideas and innovative approaches in the area of urban transformation and housing, and to contribute to the creation of a think-and-do tank specialized in public policy in Mozambique.

Three years ago, he started Casa Minha Lda. with his brother and a small group of Mozambican architects and engineers.

Heiner von Lüpke is a PhD researcher working on comparative politics of climate and sectoral policy integration with energy and land use change sectors. Prior to joining the DIW Berlin, he worked as climate policy advisors for the UN and governments for 15 years. His educational background is Forestry and Latin-American studies, while his personal interest is to find ways to reconcile international developmental objectives with climate change policy targets.

Dr. Joseph Mustapha Macarthy is an innovative urban planner and a well-established scholar in urban development with backgrounds in urban management, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk and resilience with specific expertise in urban Sierra Leone.

He also lectures in the Institute of Geography and Development Studies at Njala University in Sierra Leone. He has worked in various capacities on urban development in Sierra Leone including, as the lead local consultant in the design of a Structure Plan for Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. Joseph’s research interest centers mainly on urban development, vulnerability and resilience, mobility, public health, housing and informal settlements.

Harry has been working in humanitarian mapping activities since 2013 and is the country manager in Indonesia. His responsibility includes leading the humanitarian mapping team in Indonesia and creating strategic planning and development programs. He is also responsible for developing and managing donor relations, and cooperating with local NGOs, CSOs, partner organizations, government agencies, and technology hubs to develop and support the project’s presence and reach in Indonesia, particularly with regards to disaster management and humanitarian activities.

Environmentalist and urbanist by passion, consultant, facilitator, and researcher by profession and engineer by formation, Luciana is a dreamer, world citizen, and life-long learner. Working with development/international cooperation for the past twelve years, she is currently involved in enabling urban stakeholders to implement global agendas locally. Experienced project manager, trainer, and networker, Luciana has been engaging mainly with government and research organisations, but also with NGOs and associations in Germany as well as in the global south, with experiences in India, China, Ghana and Brazil, among others.

Markus Maier ist Entwicklungsberater beim Reformprogramm zur Kommunalentwicklung mit Sitz in Ramallah. Er arbeitet zur Institutionalisierung von Social Accountability in den palästinensischen Gebieten. Bevor er bei der GIZ anfing, arbeitete er am United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) und entwickelte Trainingskurse für Diplomaten aus Entwicklungsländern. Maier studierte im BachelorPolitik- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und schloss sein Studium mit einem Master of Science in "International Conflict and Cooperation" an der University of Stirling ab.

Roman Malec is an international consultant in the Resilience and Emergency Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As such, he contributes, among others, to the Food for the Cities Programme, specifically as part of the City Region Food Systems project, currently being implemented in Antananarivo, Kigali and Colombo. Roman holds a M.Sc. degree in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) from the University of Jordan and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.

Camila Maleronka is an architect and independent consultant both for the public and private sectors from São Paulo, Brazil. She focusses on urbanism and urban financing tools. Between 2010 and 2013, she was Manager of the Economic Studies Department at SP Urbanismo, a company linked to the Municipal Secretariat of Urbanism of São Paulo. From 2013 to 2018, she worked for P3urb, a company focused on real estate projects based on public-private partnerships. Since 2010, she has collaborated with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, as a professor and as a researcher.

Sebastian Malter is a climate resiliency expert based in Philadelphia, U.S. He has vast experience climate change vulnerability and risk assessments. He has served as a project manager and expert on several water resource and climate change-related projects in South America, South-East Asia and the United States. Sebastian lived in Central Vietnam and worked as a component manager of GIZ’s Flood Proofing Program.

He is currently working as a climate resiliency expert supporting municipalities and utilities across the U.S. in their adaptation and resiliency efforts. He is not only passionate about water and the environment but also about capacity development as well as approaches and mechanisms to enable and facilitate institutional and systemic change in a sustainable way.

Davie is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa and a member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates specializing in international human rights law, environmental law, law on co-operative enterprises and a general litigation practice.

Since February 2018, Davie has been a consultant on SDGs at Amnesty International’s Law and Policy Program in London, UK. His work is focused on international human rights law in the context of SDGs accountability. He has worked with partners at the UN in New York and Geneva and provided technical support to local partners in India.

Sneha Mandhan is an urban planner, urban designer and architect who has worked on several urban planning, environmental planning, and urban design projects in the US and India. She is a graduate of the Master in City Planning program at MIT, where she received the Flora Crockett Stephenson Writing Prize for her thesis on 'Designing Indian Streets as Social Public Spaces – Contextual design and planning in Bangalore'. Her research focuses on the integration of physical form with social and cultural forces within cities, disaster resilient planning, community engagement, and spatial planning pedagogy.

Priya Manwaring works as part of the IGC’s Uganda programme and on the Cities that Work initiative, translating cutting-edge economic research into clear urban policy guidance. Her current research areas include urban land use and planning, public infrastructure and service provision, housing markets, and municipal finance. She holds an MSc in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies from the University of Oxford.

Luis Marinheiro has worked in both the public and private sectors of the waste management for well over 15 years. He holds an Environmental Engineering Degree from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and a Biological Engineering MSc from the University of Minho, Portugal. Since 2014 he is Chair of the Working Group on Landfill at the ISWA.

Anacláudia Rossbach from São Paulo, Brazil has been working for 20 years in the housing and urban field, as practitioner and researcher for international organisations, local and national governments, universities and non-profit organizations. She provided support and advice for key stakeholders from the urban sector in various countries in Latin America, South East Asia and Africa. During the Habitat III process, she participated as an expert for the Policy Unit on National Urban Policies. Currently she is Regional Manager for the Latin America and Caribbean at Cities Alliance, based in Brazil.

Born 1956 in Bogotá, Colombia, Franz Marré joined the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 1989 after having studied Law in Bonn. Since 2014 he is head of the division responsible for Water, Urban Development and Transport which also includes Waste Management and cross-sectoral issues (the “Nexus”). Before, he headed the BMZ Infrastructure Division.

Prior positions in the BMZ included the Southeast Asia section (a.o. coordination of the German Post-Tsunamireconstruction assistance in the Indian Ocean), the Organisation division, the Latin America desk (desk officer for Peru, Ecuador and Colombia) and private sector cooperation.

He was posted in Washington, D.C. at the Interamerican Development Bank in 1991-1992 and served as Development Counsellor at the German Embassy in Pretoria from 1994 to 1998.

Franz Marré is married and has three children.

Robert has over 30 years of experience in design consulting services. He has been responsible for the development of master plans for new cities in the Middle East, India and Asia, large private development plans across the Gulf Region, North Africa and South East Asia, regeneration plans, campuses, transit-oriented developments and resort plans in Asia, Europe and the Middle East and a wide variety of master plans, campus developments and public facility development projects in the United States and Canada. A frequent international speaker, Robert is recognized as a leading specialist in the planning and design of large-scale, sustainable urban environments.

Eden Mati-Mwangi is a civil engineer and programme management professional. She has developed and managed socio-technical WASH development programmes targeting marginalised and low-income communities in Kenya. Her experience covers institutional and strategy support to water utilities, national institutions and the private sector. She is also experienced in managing multi-stakeholder partnerships, donor-funded WASH projects as well as projects on infrastructure, public policy, governance, innovation and technology. Eden has previously worked at Water Services Trust Fund, HP Gauff and GIZ.

Mamokete Matjomane is a junior researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory and a PhD candidate in the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand. She holds an MSc in Town and Regional Planning (Urban Studies). Her research interests include street trading governance in cities of the South, participatory governance, township economies and spatial transformation.

Hannah Maul is a policy advisor and research associate at BGR´sector project “Extractives and Development”. She works on local value addition and is responsible for the sector projects work on building raw materials.

Peter Maurer is the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (appointed in 2012).
Under his leadership, the ICRC carries out humanitarian work in over 80 countries. As President, Mr Maurer has a unique exposure to today's main armed conflicts and the challenges of assisting and protecting people in need. He travels regularly to the major conflict theatres of the world including Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan and Central African Republic. As the ICRC’s chief diplomat, and through the ICRC’s principled, neutral approach, Mr Maurer regularly meets with heads of states and other high-level officials as well as parties to conflict, to find solutions to pressing humanitarian concerns.
Mr Maurer has served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Switzerland as well as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York.

Marcus is working as Programme Officer at UN-Habitat. Being passionate about cities, Marcus has been working since 2006 as an urban development practitioner in local, national and multilateral institutions, with a focus on Sustainable Urban Development. His goal is improving urban planning and investments for city development and infrastructure, and all the jazz that comes with it. In the past, he had the chance to design, negotiate and implement some concrete urban development projects – big and small – that helped improve cities and lives in a few countries around the globe.

Cathy McIlwaine has been researching gender and international development issues for over 25 years with reference to poverty, violence, employment, and migration in cities. Her research has always tried to connect across academic and policy boundaries and has entailed working with international organisations such as the World Bank and UN-Habitat as well as with smaller NGOs in the global South and the UK. She has published eleven books including most recently Dores que Liberam (with Miriam Krenzinger, Eliana Sousa Silva and Paul Heritage [2018], Attis) and Cities, Slums and Gender in the Global South (with Sylvia Chant [2016], Routledge), as well as over 40 journal papers.

Francesca Romana Medda is Professor of Applied Economics and Finance at the University College London (UCL) and Director of the UCL QASER (Quantitative and Applied Spatial Economics Research) Laboratory. She serves as economic adviser to the UK Ministry of Environment and Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance. She is Vice-President of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. Her research focuses on project finance, innovative financial mechanisms and risk evaluation in different infrastructure sectors such as: transport industry, energy innovation and new technologies, urban investments (smart cities), supply chain provision and optimisation, and efficiency. Her work is published in leading academic and practitioner journals. She has worked and works actively with the private and public sector including The European Investment Bank, The World Bank, UNESCO, UN-Habitat, WILLIS Re, HALCROW, and UITP.

Rakhi Mehra is co-founder of MHS GLOBAL IMPACT, an interdisciplinary social enterprise leveraging technology to enable resilient housing for urban poor in India and globally. Rakhi advised the Low income Housing Finance Program of the World Bank, and worked at Rabo Bank and CARE India on financial inclusion. In 2011, Rakhi was awarded the Social Enterprise Fellowship by Harvard Business School. She studied Economics at St. Stephens College, Delhi (2001), and Politics, Philosophy & Economics at Oxford University (2001-03) on the Rhodes Scholarship.

Simi is the CEO and Editorial Director of the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI). She holds a PhD in American Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and was a Fulbright Fellow at Ohio State University, USA. Her areas of research include US and India’s agriculture and foreign policies, international security studies, sustainable development, climate change, gender justice, urban environment and food security.

Guenter Meinert has extensive work experience in decentralization, local governance and urban development in developing countries. He is Programme Manager atheadquarter, advising the German Ministry of Cooperation on its urban development policies. In 2008, he was appointed honorary professor for urban management at the Berlin Institute of Technology. He began his professional career as researcher at the University of Kaiserslautern. From 2007 until 2011 he was seconded as a Senior Urban Specialist to the Secretariat of the "Cities Alliance – Cities without Slums", a global program hosted by the World Bank.

Maria Meija holds a double major / Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics and a minor in urban studies. She is currently studying Global Change Ecology (MSc.) at the University of Bayreuth (Germany). In the beginning of 2018, she completed an internship with GIZ and the Asian Development Bank in Manila (Philippines), assisting with the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA). In the past, she worked for the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Research Institute of Biodiversity in Colombia. As part of her work for the Institute of Biodiversity, she edited the book "Urban Nature: Platform of Experiences" (2016), a thrilling project reporting on urban biodiversity in Colombia. Maria Meija is keen to learn more about networking initiatives among cities, especially in high biodiverse and urbanising regions.

Gabriela Mercurio leads the Innovation Programme at Cities Alliance. A sociologist with specialization in urban governance, Gabriela is interested in strategies to strengthen civil society and co-create inclusive, equitable and sustainable cities.

Mathias Merforth ist Transportökonom and arbeitet seit 2013 bei der GIZ im Bereich Transport & Mobilität. Er ist beteiligt an dem Capacity-Building-Programm "Nachhaltiger städtischer Transport (GIZ-SUTP)", der Deutschen Partnerschaft für nachhaltige Mobilität (GPSM) and der "Transforming Urban Mobility"-Initiative (TUMI). In seiner Arbeit konzentriert sich Merforth auf städtische Mobilitätsplanung, integrierte Transportsysteme und die Finanzierung von nachhaltigem Transport. Er ist Co-Author und Manager mehrerer Studien und Publikationen von SUTP und GPSM, und unterstützt Dialogformate für internationale Kooperation in den Feldern Mobilität und Logistik.

Dirk Messner is Co-Chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and director of the German Development Institute (DIE). He is one of the lead authors of the report Humanity on the move: The transformative power of cities.

Paula Meth is a Reader in the Urban Studies and Planning Department at the University of Sheffield. She works on gender, violence and housing in the global South, including South Africa and India.

Martin Meyer is an urban researcher and program coordinator at Technical University of Berlin as well as a freelance consultant. His interests include urban governance, planning theory, informal urbanism and international development, with a focus on urban issues in Egypt and Iran. As strong proponent of knowledge transfer, he is actively involved in several international projects in the MENA-region.

Maria Adelaida “Laids” Mias-Cea is the Regional Coordinator of UN-Habitat’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI) Asia Pacific. She has worked on urban development issues over the last fifteen years specialising in capacity development in the areas of disaster risk management, climate change adaptation and settlement planning.