Dr Aaron Opdyke is a Lecturer in Humanitarian Engineering in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on humanitarian response and disaster risk reduction, strengthening preparedness for and recovery after disaster and conflict through the lens of safe and equitable shelter and settlements. Aaron has worked closely with governments and organisations across the Asia-Pacific region on resilient and sustainable infrastructure to address global development challenges.

Ms. Aziza Usoof obtained her Bachelor of Science in Built Environment from the University of Moratuwa in1991, followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in Construction Management from the Open University of Sri Lanka, and Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration from the Open University of Sri Lanka in 2006. Ms. Usoof was involved in construction and project management in private sector and the Sri Lanka Army prior to joining the development sector in 2005. Ms. Usoof’s area of specialization includes post disaster reconstruction of housing and settlements through participatory processes. She has extensive experience in housing with Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) subsequently renamed Practical Action and the Sri Lanka Delegation of the American Red Cross Society. She has been engaged in evaluations of post disaster housing reconstruction projects implemented by the Swiss Red Cross and Sri Lanka Red Cross Societies. Ms. Usoof has been working as the Monitoring and Reporting Manager of UN-Habitat at since 2012.

A non-profit development leader with over 35 years experience in international aid and development; leading teams of 10-60 staff in developing countries in South East Asia. She managed multi-sector projects in Asia and the Pacific on various thematic areas: land, housing, and settlement planning, urban planning, human resource development, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction, and disaster response. A trained organizational development and management professional provided advice to organizations in transition and led change management and localization initiatives. Bernadette led the development, design, and implementation of community organizing capacity-building programs. Throughout her career, she engaged in empowerment and community-driven development projects. She advocated for land and property rights with and for informal settlers in urban and rural areas.

Bernadette, a human settlement planning professional, holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of the Philippines and a Masters in Social and Workplace Development from Australia’s Southern Cross University. Bernadette currently splits her time between Mekong Hub Director and National Director of Habitat for Humanity Cambodia. Before her involvement with Habitat, Bernadette was the Human Resources and Organizational Development Advisor of International Cooperation for Solidarity and Development (CIDSE-Laos).

Enid Madarcos works as the Operations Manager of the Asia-Pacific office of Habitat for Humanity. For this role, Enid supports the implementation of HFHI’s projects related to building sustainable communities using disaster resilient technology. She also provides technical expertise to support delivery of comprehensive urban programming of various Habitat offices in the region. Apart from her work in Habitat for Humanity, Enid has worked on livelihood development, and housing finance in urban communities in the Philippines. On her free time, she volunteers for the Ateneo Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship program where she helps build capacity of Overseas Filipino Workers for reintegration to the Philippine economy and participate in nation building. She previously held consulting roles at the United Nations Development Programme, CORDAID, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit. Enid holds two postgraduate degrees – MSc in Development Finance from the University of Reading, and MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. She recently finished her research on the role of state-led ownership housing policies in the spatial restructuring and fulfillment of rights of the informal settlement families in Metro Manila.

Profile

Karon Shaiva is a social entrepreneur, writer, speaker and trainer. As Chief Impact Officer & Managing Director of Idobro, Karon firmly believes in the people-power of Citizenship, Entrepreneurship and Partnership to address some of the world’s most pressing issues. She has been deeply involved in the women empowerment, community development and social entrepreneurship space even before founding Idobro.

Karon was awarded the “Most Inspiring Social enterprise” at the hands of the late Dr. C. K. Prahlad. She is a member on the international jury for the SEED Gender and SEED Global Awards and was invited to speak at the worldwide launch of the Mentoring Women in Business programme by the Cherie Blair Foundation in New York City. Karon passionately advocates for gender balance in society and the workplace and is on the Internal Complaints Committees for POSH. She mentors’ women and youth to be drivers of change. her personal story has been covered by the iconic series – Chicken Soup for the Indian Women Soul. She has authored the "Impact Shopping" page for the Afternoon Despatch & Courier that included her column "An Empowered World” and regularly contributes articles on Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability.

Karon has over 20 years of experience in Asia and the USA in Technology, education, finance, gemology and development sectors. Karon has lived in India, USA, Africa and Japan. In addition to holding a Masters in Marketing Management, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, she is a Chevening Fellow from Oxford University and an alumnus of the Swedish Institute Management Program in CSR & Sustainability. She is also a certified ISO 9001:2000 Auditor and Six Sigma Green Belt.

A self-professed academician at heart, she has designed multiple theories and models based on the RISE shared values – Responsible, Inclusive, Sustainable and Eco-friendly, to motivate individuals and institutions to be involved in their surroundings and co-create solutions. A certified Faculty Mentor by NEN – London Business School and previously Visiting Faculty at NMIMS, Mumbai, Karon truly believes that learning should never stop and is currently a student of Human Rights and Peace.

About Us - Idobro Impact Solutions is a social enterprise based in India that is a catalyst for innovations and collaborations that benefit people and planet. We do so by measuring and multiplying the socioenvironomic impact of Women, Social and Green (WSG) initiatives through human-centric solutions at 3 levels: Citizenship, Entrepreneurship and Partnerships. Our annual RISE World Summit provides thought leadership to foster dialogue, build capabilities and facilitate alliances for integrated development.
A hybrid organization, The RISE Infinity Foundations (RIF) was established in 2014, to strengthen individuals and institutions to take positive action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and so restore and recreate a better world and greener planet for all.

With a footprint in 7 countries and 24 states of India, our local and global experience in urban and rural settings, with online and offline tools for corporate and non-profit, government and academic initiatives has co-created a 360o knowledge platform. This has advanced advocacy, engagement and collaboration with long term outcomes and value to our communities, enterprise members, partners and associates reaching out to over a million lives.

Nurul Wajah Mujahid or usually called Nurul currently serves as Deputy
Director of Housing at the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas. He graduated from Civil Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and continued his master's degree in Public Management
and Policy Development, Indiana University Bloomington.

Over the last 10 years of his career at Bappenas, he has been dedicating
himself in developing various policies to ensuring the availability of adequate
and affordable housing for low-income people. Currently, he is focusing on
developing multiple schemes and pilot projects for slum upgrading and
encouraging horizontal learning between local governments.

Dr Piyush Tiwari is Professor of Property at University of Melbourne, Australia. Prior to his current position he was Director – Policy at Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), India, where he was responsible for formulating policies for private financing of urban infrastructure in close cooperation with national and state governments. Earlier, he was Senior Lecturer (Property) and Program Leader, MSc (International Real Estate Markets) at the Business School, University of Aberdeen, UK. He has held positions at the largest mortgage company, HDFC, India and the University of Tsukuba, Japan. His research interests include infrastructure policy, housing economics and mortgages, commercial real estate investment, and financing infrastructure in developing countries. He has published numerous research papers on issues related to real estate and infrastructure. He has published ten books including ‘Effective Land Use for Asian Infrastructure’ and ‘Development Paradigms for Urban Housing in BRICS Countries’. He is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). His other professional activities include Director, Asian Real Estate Society and Editorial Board roles with Journal of Property Research, Property Management, International Real Estate Review, Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, Land and International Journal of Planning and Architectural Sciences.

Zeenat Niazi, Sr. vice-president and chief knowledge officer of the Development Alternatives Group provides oversight to the policy studies and development action initiatives at the Development Alternatives Group. Her work addresses resilience building in human settlements through Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) strategies, especially green and inclusive circular economy models.

She leads the policy studies and partnerships initiatives of the DA Group. Her programmatic responsibilities include guiding public policy and action research focused on local and national action for sustainable development and climate change. Her management responsibilities include institutional knowledge management and corporate communications systems of the DA Group.

She has been a founding member and Co-Chair of the Board of the Climate Action Network South Asia, member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC) of the Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme of UN’s One Planet Network, Member of the C&D Waste Sub-Committee of the NITI Aayog on Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Urban Areas, Strategic Steering Committee member of UNEP PAGE Programme in India and the Steering Committee member of the Green Economy Coalition in India. She also contributes to the Global Green Growth Platform.

Yazid Bensaïd has been Regional Director for Southeast Asia at the French Development Agency (AFD) since September 2018, based in Bangkok.
A hydraulic engineer, Yazid Bensaïd began his professional career in a consulting firm, where he worked mainly on projects for access to drinking water in urban areas, in France and abroad (India, Senegal and Viêt Nam).

He joined AFD in 2000 as an infrastructure engineer at headquarters, before joining the AFD network, first in charge of infrastructure portfolio in Antananarivo, then in Addis Ababa. After working in New Delhi on the themes of renewable energy and energy efficiency, he became director of the AFD agency in Conakry for 3 years. He then held the position of Deputy Director of the Africa Department in HQ Paris until August 2018, where he specialized in monitoring operations in the Sahel and West Africa.

Somsook Boonyabancha is a Thai architect and planner who worked with Thailand's National Housing Authority from 1977 to 1989. In 1992, she helped set up the Urban Community Development Office (UCDO) and continued to work with UCDO, becoming its Director in 1998. In 2000, when UCDO became the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI − a public organization under the Thai government's Ministry of Social Development and Human Security), she was appointed Director and continued in that post until 2009. Somsook continues to be active in CODI's work as an advisor and member of its governing board. She was also one of the founders of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), a regional organization she has directed since it was established in 1989, and between 2009 and 2014 was active in facilitating the ACHR's Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA) program, which promoted a process of community-driven and citywide slum upgrading in 175 cities in 19 Asian countries.

Profile

Ms. Sarah Nandudu is a national leader of the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda. She is the Vice Chairperson of the movement and monitors the consolidation of plans and budgets from communities as well as the implementation of all Federation programs across Uganda.

As a national community leader in Uganda, Ms. Nandudu supports the Federation on project design and development, including projects such as housing construction, market upgrading, livelihoods support, and water and sanitation. She played a central role in the implementation of the Transforming Settlements of the Urban Poor in Uganda (TSUPU) country programme, mobilizing communities to conduct citywide data collection exercises in 5 municipalities across Uganda, launching ad sustaining municipal forums, and organizing communities to receive Community Upgrading Funds. Ms. Nandudu has also been part of the team reviewing the Uganda National Urban Policy, ensuring that the policy is inclusive of the urban poor.

On the global stage, Ms. Nandudu has served as the GLTN Urban Cluster co-lead, was selected to sit on the Habitat III Policy Unit 1 on the Right to the City, has given statements at the UN Habitat General Assembly, and has spoken on various panels at global events such as the World Urban Forum.

Luis Quintanilla is a Program Analyst at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, currently supporting research initiatives and courses on land-based financing and municipal fiscal health, as well as collaborating in the elaboration of case studies on land value capture approaches. Before joining the Lincoln Institute in 2016, Luis accumulated 10 years of project management experience in the private sector in Mexico, particularly in the energy and automotive industries. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and an M.B.A. from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) in Mexico, and a Master of City Planning from Boston University.

Mr. Rajan Samuel has over 30 years of experience in microfinance, housing microfinance and social development.

As the Managing Director of Habitat for Humanity India, Rajan inspires partners in government, the private sector and civil society to volunteer, donate, invest and advocate for decent, affordable housing and improved sanitation.

Rajan has worked in over 30 countries in Asia, Central Asia, Africa and the Caucasus, and has been instrumental in establishing 15 independent Microfinance institutions in ten countries including rural banks, cooperatives, credit unions and non-banking finance companies.

Before joining Habitat India, he was the Housing Finance Manager with the Asia Pacific Office of Habitat for Humanity International. He holds a commerce degree, a postgraduate degree in Business Management, and he has presented his Ph.D. thesis on ‘Microfinance as a tool to revitalize Azerbaijan’s economy’. He has completed Harvard University’s Advanced Executive Program.

Rajan has earned several prestigious awards and recognitions such as the National Achievers Award from the Government of India in 1994, the Mahatma Award for two consecutive years – 2019 and 2020, the Golden Combatant Award and the PeopleQ Inspiration Award in 2020. He was also conferred upon the Global Economy Change Makers 2020 Charity Leadership Award to celebrate his prominent impact in leading Habitat for Humanity India’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 of building sustainable cities and communities.

Ms. Dipti Hingorani is the Regional Shelter and Settlements Coordinator of IFRC Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) Disaster and Crisis Unit. She has over ten years of professional international experience working in the humanitarian and development sectors, coordinating, designing and implementing shelter and settlements response and recovery programs in a variety of post-disaster/conflict countries. Her key areas of specialization are disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness, relief and reconstruction programming with a focus on shelter and affordable housing strategies, integrated community recovery, neighbourhood upgrading, sustainable urban management, community participation and cash programming. She previously worked in a similar role in the IFRC Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, Kenya where she supported a number of operations that had a large shelter component, including key operations namely in Mozambique and Malawi. She has also as the National Shelter and NFI Cluster Coordinator with IOM based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and as a Capacity Development Specialist with UN-Habitat in Nairobi on a project to strengthen accountability systems and monitor the SDGs. Dipti holds a Master’s Degree in Structural Engineering and Architecture from University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, and an MA in Development and Emergency Practice from Oxford Brookes University.

Hisaka is the Advisor to Private Sector Operations Department and East Asia Head of Infrastructure Finance of Asian Development Bank, has over 25 years of experience in arranging finance for livable cities, natural resources, renewable energy projects in various countries, including East Asia, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe.

Based in Beijing, Hisaka oversees the entire project cycle covering strategy, business development, structuring, negotiation, implementation, regulatory monitoring, and knowledge-sharing. She builds and manages relationships with key clients, co-financiers, and governments. She holds master degrees in Finance from London Business School and in Environmental Economics from Imperial College, University of London and obtained executive certificate in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Jane Katz is a Senior Partnership and Resource Advisor at Cadasta Foundation where she helps build and expand strategic alliances and resource capacities. As the former Director of International Affairs and Programs in Habitat for Humanity International’s Government Relations and Advocacy Office for close to twenty years, she brings extensive expertise in global housing, land, and urban policies, including managing partnerships for its Solid Ground advocacy campaign on secure tenure and representing Habitat on the UN Global Land Tool Network Advisory Board. Previously, Jane held a variety of management positions in the public and private sectors at Fannie Mae and United States government agencies.Jane is currently Board Vice Chair of Global Urban Development (GUD); co-chairs the civil society group of the General Assembly of Partners (GAP), and coordinates policy/advocacy for the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction/Sendai Stakeholder Engagement Advisory Group. She received her Masters Degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland and Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs from the University of Cincinnati.

Jayaratne has been a pioneer in developing participatory methodologies for urban upgrading in Sri Lanka since the mid-80s. He has worked in both the public and Non-Governmental sectors to implement owner-driven community-led projects in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangladesh. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Town Planners, Sri Lanka and holds a Master’s in human Settlements Planning and Development from AIT, Thailand and a s degree in real estate management.
He has worked as a senior urban planner in Urban Development Authority and National Housing Authority, Sri Lanka. In addition, he has worked as a lecturer and trainer specializing in urban land management in academic and professional organizations. As a Technical Advisor, he has taken Sri Lankan experience on participatory land management and urban upgrading to UN-Habitat programs and projects in Tanzania, Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangladesh.
He is a founding member of Sevanatha, Urban Resource Center, a leading national NGO in Sri Lanka established in 1989 that promotes participatory mechanisms to improve tenure security and infrastructure of poor urban settlements and decentralized waste management at the local government level. He has done community-led settlement mapping in 30 big cities. A community-managed housing finance model successfully with secure tenure arrangement for urban poor in Bangladesh working as an International Advisor on Secure Tenure, Housing and Planning under Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction project from 2009 to 2014. Currently, he works as a consultant of Urban Building Safety Project in Bangladesh

Manikandan KP is the Institution Builder at Indian Housing Federation (IHF), an organisation that works towards reducing the inequalities faced by socially and economically weaker sections of the society by providing them access to affordable and sustainable housing. As an Institution Builder, he interacts with Stakeholders in low-income Housing Sector in an effort to increase their participation in the Housing ecosystem targeted at this segment of the population.
Until late 2019, he was part of the PMAY(U) – Project Management Unit (PMU) at the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA). As part of the team, Mani played the role of the Lead - Housing Finance and Policy for the Mission.
Manikandan is also a consultant to The World Bank and International Finance Corporation. He has about 12 years of corporate experience in retail Housing finance and over 9 Years in government and social development sector shaping the Low-Income Housing Ecosystem. He holds an MBA in Marketing and has completed a course in Housing Finance from the Wharton Real Estate Center at University of Pennsylvania.

Jota Samper is Assistant Professor at the Environmental Design Program ENVD in the University of Colorado Boulder. He is an architect, and planner, he has taught architecture, urban design, and planning. His work at Informal Settlements Research ISR concentrates on sustainable urban growth and dwells at the intersection between urban informality ("slums") and violent urban conflict. The main goal of ISR is to create and reveal innovative urban tools to visualize the challenges (climate, regulatory and violence) presented in informal landscapes. He is a co-founder of Mobility/Movilidad a nonprofit dedicated to video archive and mapping with marginalized communities. Born and raised in Medellín. He obtained his BA in architecture in Universidad Nacional de Colombia, a master’s in city Planning and a Ph.D. On Urban and Regional Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he lectured. His project “Living rooms at the Border,” with estudio teddy cruz, exhibited at the MoMA. He is a fellow of the “Drugs, Security and Democracy, SSRC,” alongside colleges from Oxford University he develops the “The Changing Character of Conflict Platform,” Samper’s work the “Atlas of Informality” has been presented in a TEDx talk to an audience o more than one million viewers.

Social Environment Consultant on Informal Settlements

Is a free-lance consultant in various capacities as trainer, facilitator and in the design of participatory events and processes using Technology of Participation (ToP). These group processes include capacity building, local development planning and budgeting toward a more participatory, transparent and accountable governance.

Mr. Tenebro has been a Participatory Specialist of the Coalition for Change Program of The Asia Foundation and has worked on reforms in the housing sector to broaden housing options to include Rental Housing Subsidy Program, in addition to what is currently available in the country.

He has been a community development worker and has helped organized urban poor communities in the National Government Center Housing Project in Quezon City, Philippines in securing land tenure and developing communities based on approved community development plans by the government.

To date Mr. Tenebro is a Social Environment Consultant on the resettlement of informal settler families affected by the North-South Commuter Railways Project under the Build, Build, Build Program of the government.

A licensed Chemical Engineer, Mr. Tenebro earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Technological Institute of the Philippines. He also earned units on Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Santo Tomas.

Barsha Poricha, PhD, is an urban and regional planning professional with advanced qualifications in social planning and urban governance and her doctoral research has been on water and urban ecology. She is presently working as Technical Head at Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence, CURE India based in Delhi.

Dr Barsha Poricha has over two decades of experience in the Urban Development sector with a focus on Inclusive and Resilient City Planning frameworks. She has been engaged with issues of civil society engagement and development and her work particularly has been around developing and designing inclusive participatory planning and development mechanisms within urban governance processes. She specifically works on issues of city planning, women, youth development and capacity building in an effort to influence and deepen policy discourse and strengthen citizen engagement, participatory processes and gender perspectives in the urban sector.

Dr. Eva-Maria Unger works with the international arm of the Netherlands national mapping, land registration and cadastral agency (Kadaster International) as a Senior Land Administration Advisor. She gives advice, assessments, designs and oversees the conceptualisation and implementation of affordable and effective land administration systems. She is responsible for developing deeper relationships with international donors, partner countries and other consultants and worked with UN-GGIM, UN Habitat, GLTN, World Bank, The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU, and private sector companies. Dr. Unger started a virtual secondment with the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management, section Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs while still being employed by the Netherlands national mapping, land registration and cadastral agency (Kadaster). She holds a MSc. in Geodesy and Geoinformation, and a PhD in Land Administration. She brings a special focus on community-based disaster risk management and its relation to land. As a researcher Eva-Maria is involved in teaching and supervising Msc and PhD students at KU Leuven. Eva-Maria was chair of the FIG Young Surveyors Network from 2014-2018 dedicated to the STDM Training of Trainers Program and initiator of the Volunteer Community Surveyors Program (VCSP) supporting the GLTN's county-level implementation plans and programmes.

Kerstin Sommer is lead expert on slum upgrading, informal settlements, land, housing and shelter management. She contributes to poverty and inequality reduction, and inclusion and participation in slum transformation at UN-Habitat Headquarters. She is focal point for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda implementation in informal settlements, slums and marginalized. She is managing the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme in 40 countries and 200 cities for the past 10 years.

She has initiated slum upgrading strategies in all regions globally. Her mission currently is to move countries towards scaling slum upgrading, regeneration and affordable housing assisting governments to deliver Sustainable Development Goals in cities in the Decade of Action.
Before then she contributed to the work of the Regional Office for Africa and Arab States on housing, slum upgrading, capacity building, governance and participation, municipal finance, participatory budgeting and sustainable villages programme of UN-Habitat. She has been with UN-Habitat for 16 years now. She holds a master-degree in Urban Geography – Spatial Development, Business Administration and Political Science from the University of Trier.
She is passionate about making cities homes with equitable opportunities for everyone.

Urban Sociologist

Dr. Pham Quynh Huong is a sociologist. She has over 30 years of experience in the field of sociology, at the Institute of Sociology, Academy of Social Sciences. Her key areas of interest are research and policy advice in the areas of urban development, urbanization, housing, environment, and urban health. She is a member of the Vietnam Planning Association.

Dr. Pham Quynh Huong has experience in research and policy advocacy on urban housing, which focuses on social housing, urban upgrading, and housing for disadvantaged groups such as housing for the poor, labour migrants, and workers.

Simon Walley has been with the World Bank for 15 years – his role has been varied covering a range of countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. In particular, he has worked on the development of affordable housing solutions through improving the access to financial services. He has worked extensively on developing secondary mortgage markets through the creation of liquidity facilities, mortgage subsidy schemes and housing microfinance.

Prior to the World Bank, Simon spent 3 years in Brussels with the European Mortgage Federation as Deputy Secretary General. He was responsible for promoting the interest of mortgage lenders at the European level and worked on issues such as the European regulatory framework for mortgages under Basel II. He also worked 3 years as an economist for the Nationwide Building Society in UK where he covered competitor analysis, strategic planning and market forecasting. This followed on from 4 years spent as a banking regulator for the Bank of England and later the Financial Services Authority.

Michael is the Regional Coordinator for Cash and Voucher assistance of the Disaster, Climate and Crises (DCC) Unit of the international Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Michael has over a decade of experiences in both humanitarian response and development programming, spent in community development, food security, livelihoods, cash and market-based interventions – including support to shelter and settlements programming. He has been involved program implementation in protracted crisis and natural disaster contexts including major responses such as the Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines, population movement in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, cross-border operations for Syria in Turkey and has been the technical resource on cash preparedness in the last four years in Asia-Pacific region.

Lars Gronvald, European Commission, is head of the Urban Development Section in the Directorate General for International Partnerships. Previously within in the EU Commission he has served in number of delegations, most recently as head of Cooperation covering China and Mongolia, overseeing programmes inter alia on urban development, low carbon development, and employment creation. Prior to this, he has worked as international consultant on issues on municipal services, environmental regulation and financing across a range of countries, as well as having worked as energy economist.

Angela Oetama is the co-founder of Gradana, a pioneer of property fintech in South East Asia that through its P2P mechanism, bridges the issue of making property more affordable and yet investable at the same time.

Joining in Sinarmas Land in 2012 as a Section Head for Regional & Investment – South East Asia & Asia Pacific, she was quickly promoted to Department Head of New Business Venture, Department Head of Build to Suit and last as the Division Head of Business Development, all within six years, making her the youngest employee to hold a senior management position. As part of a huge corporation and the largest property developer in Indonesia, Angela is mainly responsible for business development activities. This is when she meets her co-founder for Gradana, William, who was the company’s head of Strategic Planning. The idea came out of their mutual concerns that a lot of their peers and colleagues can’t even afford to purchase property yet due to a mismatch between earnings and property prices, and they decide to put their minds, skills and beliefs to make Gradana a reality happen and solve property-related issues through financial technology products.

Prior to Sinarmas Land, Angela has previously worked for Salim and the Sampoerna group, both in Business Development, Marketing and Tenant Relations. Angela earned a Bachelor of Science in International Business from San Jose State University, in California, USA, and worked in Emphasys Medical after graduation until returning to Indonesia in 2005.

Brennan Rigby is Manger Systems Shift at Community Housing Aotearoa, focused on changes above the level of policy - often referred to as system change or mindset change. The human right to adequate housing offers one example of a system intervention, pointing us toward key values we need to insert into our politicised housing debate. Brennan has a background working with Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a written part of an otherwise ‘unwritten’ constitution, in which the location and role of human rights for example, is both contested and contestable. He has close links with Leilani Farha and The Shift movement having supported parts of Leilani’s mission to New Zealand as UN Special Rapporteur, and having previously followed her work. Brennan sees the domination of economic analysis in housing and elsewhere as a critical problem, and human rights as a values framework with the potential to address those flaws.

Jessan Catre leads the market systems development program for Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center in the Philippines, and brings a unique blend of more than two decades of rural development, private sector, humanitarian response and disaster risk reduction and management experience. Previously, he co-led in developing Catholic Relief Services Cluster Approach to Agroenterprise Development in the Philippines, which eventually became its global model. He led in introducing cash transfer programming for Oxfam in conflict-affected areas in the country; co-headed the local Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods Team in Oxfam’s Haiyan Response and more recently advised Save the Children’s biggest Disaster Risk Reduction and Management program in partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government in the country. In his brief stint in the private sector, he managed a portfolio of key dealers in Mindanao for a major consumer durable goods company

Architect by training, co-founder of mHS CITY LAB and mHS Global Impact. Marco is involved in innovative-tech project development and implementation, while playing an advocating and advisory roles that have helped promote a multidisciplinary approach to urban resilience and inclusion. Marco graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 2002, learnt about microfinance and social business at Grameen Bank, worked as consultant for the World Bank and Habitat for Humanity International.

Tereza Herling is an Architect and Urban Planner, and possesses a PhD. from the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Sao Paulo, where also teaches and practices as a researcher. Her professional trajectory is dedicated to public policy formulation and implementation, development of plans, policies for urban projects, including social housing. She was the Joint Secretary of Sao Paulo urban development Secretary and now works as a senior urban specialist consultant for several international organisations.

Vic Crockford is a community housing sector advocate in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a background in the energy and transport sectors. As Chief Executive at Community Housing Aotearoa, she works with community housing providers, the government and developers to realise the vision of “All New Zealanders Well-Housed”. For her sector this means lobbying for enabling of community-led solutions to delivering affordable housing, better standards in the built environment, and for housing to become a human right in domestic legislation. As someone who lives with low vision and a commitment to climate justice, she views the connections between inclusive public spaces and transport systems and universally designed homes as fundamental to creating thriving, resilient communities where everyone feels uplifted.

Deepak works as a Consultant for Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter where he provides technical and programmatic support to the India team on assessing products and technologies and making recommendations for market intervention, conducting field visits with the India Team for market analysis and to support in designing interventions, assessing intervention ideas and providing strategic guidance and suggestions on the way forward, as well as Business Development and research. Previously he worked at Habitat for Humanity India Trust in various capacities and roles, including Project Manager at Jimmy Carter Work Project at Lonavla from 2006 to 2008, Director Habitat Resource Centre (HRC) Mumbai from 2008 to 2010, Director/Senior Director for Operations and Technical Services at HFH National Office from 2010-2015 and Consultant to HFH India from 2015 to Dec 2016

Mar-Len Abigail S. Binay was elected Mayor of Makati in 2016, after serving nine years in Congress as Representative of the 2nd District of Makati. Long before her first day as the city’s chief executive, Mayor Abby vowed to restore efficiency, responsiveness, and compassion in the delivery of services. One of her priorities is to integrate modern technology into the systems and operations of the city government and further enhance Makati’s overall competitiveness.

After graduating from the University of the Philippines – Los Baños, Mayor Abby entered the Ateneo School of Law in 1997 and completed her juris doctorate in four years. Immediately after passing the bar exams in 2002, she joined the Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity, and Nationalism where she provided free legal services to poor clients. She is also a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and the Federacion Internaciones de Abogadas.

Sanjay is leading several One ADB initiatives at the PPP Thematic Group, including Creating Investable Cities, and flagship PPP knowledge products, including the PPP Monitor and the PPP Roadmap to support country partnership strategies.

Prior to joining ADB, Sanjay worked as a Senior Equity Investments Manager with Fannie Mae in the US, leading equity and debt investments and joint ventures to provide affordable and workforce housing. At Fannie Mae, Sanjay also supported the launch of a mezzanine loan product for financing rehabilitation and energy efficiency improvements in apartment buildings, a precursor to Fannie Mae’s Multifamily Green MBS. Prior to Fannie Mae, at Washington DC’s PPP Unit, Sanjay managed a project development facility with Morgan Stanley Real Estate leading the District’s planning and investments in several large-scale transit-oriented developments.

Sanjay has an MBA in finance and strategy from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, a Masters in City Planning and a Masters in Transport from Georgia Tech, and a Bachelor’s in Architecture.

Marco Meyrat joined the Board of Directors in 2020. Since January 1, 2020 he serves as a Trustee of the Martin Hilti Family Trust and has been elected as Chairman of the Hilti Foundation Board. Marco Meyrat joined Hilti in 1989 and held various positions. From 2005 to 2019 he was a member of the Hilti Group Executive Board. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Ardex GmbH, Germany, Member of the Board of Directors of Hälg Group, Switzerland, Member of the Board of Directors of OLMeRO AG, Switzerland, Chairman of Board of Directors of Venture Incubator AG, Switzerland, Member of the Foundation Board of the Cantonal Hospital Grisons, Switzerland, and Trustee of the Toni Hilti Family, Liechtenstein.

Lara Shankar Chandra has over 16 years of experience as a social development professional in India. She is a published author with Penguin India. She is on the Board of Trustees of Kriti Team – a communications praxis organization and is a Founder and Advisory Board member of Citizen’s Association for Child Rights (CACR) – an NGO working in education and WASH in Maharashtra.

In the affordable housing and sanitation sector in India, Lara has led strategy, initiated and managed coalitions, and forged multiple partnerships with Governments and bi-lateral and multi-lateral organizations for policy implementation, fund raising and intervention. She comes from a strong background in child protection, child rights, advocacy and gender programming. She has valuable experience in strategic and program planning on inclusive development, land rights for housing and housing finance.

Gautam Chatterjee is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer from the Maharashtra Cadre, batch of 1982. He superannuated on 31st January, 2016. In his illustrious career, Mr. Chatterjee has held several important assignments pertaining to Housing and Urban Development, notable among them being Additional Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai Municipal Corporation, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, the CEO of Slum Rehabilitation Authority, the Officer on Special Duty for Dharavi Redevelopment Project, and the Principal Secretary of Housing Department, Government of Maharashtra. After his superannuation, he served as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra before taking over as the first Chairperson of the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), where he served until January, 2021.
A Gold Medalist in M.Sc. Mathematics from Patna University, Mr. Chatterjee also holds a postgraduate diploma in Urban Planning and Housing from the Institute of Housing Studies in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Mr. Laxman Perera serves as a Human Settlements Officer at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP). Mr. Perera is responsible for UN-Habitat programmes in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, Pakistan and Vietnam. He is also the focal point for housing and slum upgrading, urban basic services, private sector partnership, human rights and safer cities programme at the regional office.
He has served as the UN-Habitat Habitat Programme Manager in Sri Lanka over 5 years and as the Deputy Country Manager of UN-Habitat in Myanmar. Prior to his engagement with United Nations, he has served more than 20 years in the Sri Lankan government as a senior official of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and worked in the fields of urban development, housing, urban basic services, post disaster and post conflict reconstruction and community development. Mr. Perera is a Sri Lankan national and has a Master of Arts in International Relations.

Alisia Evans is currently the Water for Women Project Manager under Habitat for Humanity Fiji’s WASH Program. She joined Habitat in 2018 as the Gender Officer. Since 2014 Alisia has experience working within Fiji’s women’s rights movement and has also contributed to reports on Women, Peace and Security in the Pacific.

Claire du Trevou is an architect and urbanist, passionate about the inclusive transformation of South African cities. She is a founding member of and architect at Bitprop, a social enterprise that seeks to address housing shortages by using a unique funding model, allowing private investors to invest in small scale rental units. The rental income is shared with the property owner to gradually recover the upfront investment and the owner earns a supplementary income. The idea of micro development at a macro scale, guides the work of the social enterprise and is incrementally transforming the small scale rental sector from grassroots.

Having stepped back from the daily operations to pursue an MBA, Claire is currently spearheading the development of the Bitprop Foundation, which will invest in neighbourhood regeneration projects. Claire is also an active Rotary member and pursues her passion projects where she uses research, action research and coproduction to support localized development of neighbourhoods and community infrastructure. In her spare time she is an avid reader, swimmer, and roller-skater.

Douglas Ragan has worked in children and youth development at the local, national and international level for the past 30 years. Currently he is a Programme Management Officer for the Human Rights and Social Inclusion Unit for UN-Habitat, managing UN-Habitat's children and youth programme which has engaged over 500,000 youth through projects in over 70 developing countries. His current focus is working with youth in informal settlements and in conflict cities.

Doug has authored, co-authored and edited 17 research and policy publications on urban youth issues, the most recent being the Global Youth-Led Development series, representing research done on youth-led agencies in the developing world. Doug holds a Bachelors Degree in Latin American Studies and a Masters Degree in Management.

Jen is committed to advocating for equitable housing opportunities for whānau as a catalyst for improved wellbeing and contribution to thriving communities. Jen works with government agencies, local authorities, Iwi, and Māori to promote meaningful outcomes within the system and across the housing continuum.

Te Matapihi He Tirohanga Mō te Iwi Trust is the independent voice for Māori in the delivery of housing to our whānau. Public housing, rental housing, and home ownership are the key areas that Jen operates in for her role as Lead Advisor. This involves navigating the housing eco-system to build connections between the policy levers of government with the desire and capability of Māori.

Outside of her role with Te Matapihi, she works more closely with Iwi and Māori on the development and deployment of their strategic plans to realise the opportunities that exist within the housing system. Jen is also the Founder of Applause Charitable Trust which is where she invests her spare time.

Kanika Bansal is Senior Programme Associate at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)- premier think tank of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, India.

She has been leading the Policy Intervention and City Innovation track of the Building Accessible, Safe and Inclusive Indian Cities (BASIIC) Programme at NIUA. In this role, she is working with key partners to work with the quadrupole helix to mainstream disability Inclusion into the discourse of city development in India. Revision the key guidelines of architecture and planning, provide technical assistance, build up the capacities and sensitise the key stakeholders, by fostering support from strategic partners, has been some of her key responsibilities.

Kanika has almost a decade of experience in inclusive planning, universal accessibility, environmental design and sustainable development. She is an architect and Urban Planner by profession.

Naeem Razwani is the global director for financial inclusion and capital markets at Habitat for Humanity International’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter. An accomplished Senior Business Leader with multifaceted global experience gained in South and East Asia, Middle East, and Africa, Naeem also leads the advisory vertical of a USD 100m debt financing facility for housing, MicroBuild Fund.

Naeem possesses demonstrable experience in microfinance, financial inclusion, social and economic development, housing finance, and business growth. Utilizing a holistic leadership style, a collaborative work ethic, and a belief in sustainability, Naeem has successfully translated ideas into scalable actions.

He has led initiatives for projects sponsored by Aga Khan Development Network, International Finance Corporation – World Bank Group, USAID, Swiss Capacity Building Facility, and others throughout his career. His current portfolio of work focuses on gender, climate, resilience, and technology.

Tri Dewi Virgiyanti or called Virgi currently serves as Director of Housing and Settlements at the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas of Indonesia. She graduated from Environmental Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and continued her master's degree in Environmental Management and Development, Australian National University (ANU).

Over the last 6 years, she has been actively promoting and advocating the urgency of housing, drinking water, and sanitation in Indonesia, including formulating policy and program recommendations. She also leads the National Task Force for Housing and Settlements, a trans-institutional organization under several government agencies which plays a role in institutional strengthening and policy development for slum alleviation.

David has 30 years of experience working across the world in development and emergencies. He worked for eight years for the NGO CARE International followed by eight years as Director of CENDEP, a centre at Oxford Brookes University focusing on development and emergencies. Between 2013-14 David was a full-time Visiting Professor at Harvard University. David was appointed the Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair at the University of New South Wales, Sydney in 2016. He is and has been a member of several NGO boards and committees, including CARE International, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF). David is the author of the 2019 ODI/ALNAP Urban Humanitarian Response Good Practice Review.

Enrique R. Silva is the Director of International Initiatives at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LILP).  He is responsible for the oversight of existing and new initiatives that leverage the Institute’s resources and expand its presence globally. Silva collaborates on the development and management of initiatives that focus on a range of themes from land-based fiscal instruments, the fiscal and land policy dimensions of large-scale urban projects, to planning regimes and climate change adaptation. He is also working with South African national and local authorities on a range of activities promoting the use of land based financial tools to finance urban development and inclusionary housing projects. While at the Lincoln Institute, Silva has also taught courses on urban governance, land policy, and the politics of planning at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Prior to his arrival at LILP, Silva was an Assistant Professor of city planning and urban affairs and the Program Coordinator for the graduate programs in city planning and urban affairs at Boston University. Silva holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master’s of Science in Planning from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University.

Key Expert South Asia - EU SWITCH - Asia SCP Facility

Cosima Stahr manages the government advisory services for South Asian countries and the financing component for the SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility. As an expert in sustainable development and finance, she is experienced in designing and managing international projects. She has led numerous projects in Europe and around the world, bringing in her expertise in collaboration with companies, the financial sector, the European Commission, and ministries. Cosima is Director of Adelphi's Bangkok office and Senior Advisor + Co-Lead Finance at Adelphi.

Anna Konotchick is the Director of Program Strategy for Habitat for Humanity International. As part of the global Program Effectiveness team, she leads the development of the international program strategy and related efforts including results measurement. Anna recently served as Habitat’s Asia Pacific Operations Director, leading a team that provides program support across 17 countries.
Between 2010 and 2018, Anna worked in Haiti on post-earthquake response, recovery and reconstruction with Habitat for Humanity, the World Bank, and the American Red Cross. Based upon these experiences in Haiti, she has co-written the chapter “Haiti’s Disaster Urbanisms: The Emerging City of Canaan” in the book Informal Urbanisation. She completed her two masters’ degrees from the University of California Berkeley in Architecture and City and Regional Planning; her thesis was supported by USAID OFDA and Interaction and examined self-recovery mechanisms after disaster, and its interaction with humanitarian aid. Prior to Haiti, she received her Bachelors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked in architectural design in New Orleans, New York and Buenos Aires.

Mr. Budiarsa Sastrawinata is the Managing Director of CIPUTRA Group and the President Director of PT CIPUTRA Residence, the company behind numerous leading new town developments in Indonesia (i.e. CitraGarden City - Jakarta, CitraRaya - Tangerang, CitraGrand City - Palembang, CitraRaya City - Jambi). He is also the Chief Executive Officer of CIPUTRA Group's international new town developments in Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. He is a Member of the Honorary Council of the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI) and has served as President of International Urban Development Association (INTA) from 2007 to 2013. Mr. Sastrawinata holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Plymouth Polytechnic in Plymouth, UK, as well as a master’s degree in Business Administration from Prasetiya Mulya Institute of Management in Jakarta.

Delphine Le Duff is an urbanist and a specialist in housing policies.
Initially responsible for major urban projects in the Architecture Department of Paris’ Municipality, she then specialised in the implementation of housing policies, within the Paris housing Department. She joined the urban, housing, and local authorities division of AFD in 2017 as a Task Team Leader, in charge of the preparation and supervision of urban project financing. She is currently working in several countries, and specifically in Ecuador, Brazil and French overseas territories, where she has been involved in housing projects.

Fauzal Rizki is the CEO and co-founder of Sampangan, an Indonesia based circular technology company that converts waste into various sustainable materials for use in agriculture, construction, healthcare and more.

His academic background was in Computer Science and started his career building CIMB X, a digital team for one of the largest banks in Southeast Asia, before joining fintech payment Xendit, one of fastest growing Y Combinator startup as Head of Business Development. Later he became Indonesia country launcher for a Singapore based fintech, Socash, an offline distribution platform for digital banking, to set up their operations in Indonesia from the ground up.

He started his journey in Social Enterprise from creating Makesense chapter in Indonesia, a Paris based social enterprise platform promoting citizen engagement in solving social issues. Upon meeting Impact Hub Jakarta founders, Stephanie Arrowsmith and Cynthia Hasan and joining the community, Sampangan was born.

Jessie Cubijano is the executive director of the Primary Structures Educational Foundation Inc. (PSEFI), the corporate foundation of the Primary Group of Builders. Jessie’s roles at PSEFI include management of scholarship programs, administrative supervision, donor management and external relations, internal process innovations, and oversight of the School of Knowledge for Industrial Labor, Leadership and Service (SKILLS). SKILLS is a technical vocational institute managed by PSEFI.

Jessie graduated BA Political Science from the University of the Philippines Cebu. Before joining PSEFI SKILLS, Jessie handled corporate social responsibility programs at the Philippine Business for Social Progress and the Aboitiz Group.

Lisa is Co-Founder of Global Urban Village, an impact investing company focused on startups with solutions in housing innovation, HR tech, and healthcare, and an emphasis on women-led businesses. Using a collaborative approach across public and private stakeholders, she delivers capacity development programs, investment readiness support, and places capital and program related investments. As a former senior leader at Fortune 500 global consulting firm, Mercer (MMC), she draws on deep experience in leadership development, business strategy, and marketing to drive innovations for a better future.

Tech Mentor
Brigade REAP

Apul has over 25 years of experience as a technologist and as an entrepreneur that extends across Consumer Internet, Mobile & Telephony, PropTech & VR among other domains, both in the US & India. Apul's corporate career included leading roles at Fortune 500 companies such as Fujitsu Business Communications Systems Inc & Qualcomm Inc. in the US. Apul’s startup journey started with TringME as a Co-founder & then extended to setting up GenNext Ventures for startups at Reliance Industries. He was also the Co-founder & CTO at Kalpanik Technologies, the world’s first AR/VR devotional platform.

He is adept at harmonizing technology streams and finding the right product fitment to derive the maximum value. Apul has mentored 60+ start-ups, some of which have raised millions of dollars in funding. He also holds patents in wireless communications and areas of computing.

Banashree Banerjee is an architect and urban planner who is a teacher, researcher and practitioner. Currently she works as an independent consultant, teaches at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Rotterdam and provides professional support to a number of NGOs. In the past she has worked with Kerala Government, HUDCO and Delhi School of Planning and Architecture. Her professional work focuses on urban poverty and informality, affordable housing, inclusive and participatory planning and urban land management. Banashree has worked with several international organisations and has experience of working in several countries besides India. These include Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Philippines, Korea and Egypt. She has several publications to her credit and has lectured extensively at universities in Asia, Europe and the Americas and has undertaken prestigious international assignments.

Beth is a Portfolio & Investment Manager at the Autodesk Foundation. In this role, she deploys the full spectrum of capital, from grants to impact investments, to support a global portfolio of organizations using technology for positive social and environmental impact. Prior to joining Autodesk Foundation, Beth worked in East Africa as the Investment Manager for EWB Ventures, the impact investing arm of Engineers Without Borders Canada, supporting startups in the areas of financial inclusion, agriculture innovation, affordable housing, and education technology.

Beth first became interested in social entrepreneurship & innovation during her time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda where she developed income-generating initiatives alongside cassava farmers and coordinated national Gender and Development programs. She co-authored Scaling the Social Enterprise, Grameen America: The Pivotal Role of Technology in Scaling, and contributed to Socio-Tech Innovation: Harnessing Technology for Social Good. Beth received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and a BA in Political Science from Middlebury College.

Lokesh is professional with 28 + years’ work experience in Corporate Quality field as Master Black belt, in Manufacturing, ITES sector & Environmental Management, Experienced Manufacturing, BPO/ITES professional handling BFSI, Healthcare, Telecom & Media verticals, Shipping and Logistics. A team player instrumental in spearheading organizational change and improvement in quality deliverables in terms of COPC Certifications, Audits, Lean Six Sigma, Quality Management System, Business Strategy, Work Force Management & Digital Transformation.

A graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University with experience in Business transformation across industry sector his last stint was heading the Workforce management for AP Moller Maersk and AB InBev before joining ECOSTP.

Currently driving Business with a team of finest sustainability engineers powered by purpose. Working with global experts to provide the most eco-friendly sewage treatment solution possible to meet customer needs.

Project Manager
urbaMonde Suisse

Léa Oswald works as a project manager for the Swiss NGO urbaMonde Suisse, based in Geneva. She is in charge of international cooperation projects in Latin America and Asia in the field of community-led housing, with a special focus on the housing cooperative model. She coordinates the CoHabitat Network, facilitates experience exchanges internationally and participates in the development of documentation and financial tools to support collaborative housing initiatives. She is also personally involved in cooperative housing projects in Geneva. Léa holds a MA degree in Social Sciences from the University of Neuchâtel and a MA degree in Asian Studies from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute.

Mr. Monu Ratra is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of IIFL Home Finance Ltd., a pioneer in green affordable housing finance. Monu has over 15 years of experience leading business growth and assets under management of over $10 billion across leading banks and NBFCs including HDFC Ltd., ICICI Bank and India bulls Housing Finance. Monu aims to build IIFL Home Finance as a fintech-enabled, green, affordable housing finance company that believes in impact creation through both environmental and social aspects of business. At IIFL Home Finance, he has been instrumental in implementing strategies that resulted in an exponential growth in the retail portfolio built on the foundation of a strong digital culture.
In his past stints, he has worked with India bulls Housing Finance as a National Business Manager – Mortgages and Property services from 2006 to 2014. At India bulls he was responsible in establishing the company as a significant mortgage player especially home loans with pan India presence in tier - i, ii & iii towns. He has also been a part of ICICI Bank from 2001 to 2006 – as a Regional Business Head – Mortgages and HDFC Ltd from 1999 to 2001as a Senior Officer – Operations.
Mr. Monu Ratra holds a Post Graduate degree in Management from the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management in New Delhi. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture (BArch) from Guru Nanak Dev University.

Nabeel Siddiqui is an innovator and social entrepreneur at heart. He's currently the CEO and co-founder of ModulusTech, a Pakistan based cleantech startup pioneering in affordable net-zero housing. Siddiqui has been given multiple awards by the UN for his social and environmental impact and was part of the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2021. At ModulusTech their proprietary technology makes it possible to deliver housing in 10% of the time at a much lower cost. With 90% reductions in embodied carbon while providing international standards of living. The houses are also climate smart, extremely energy efficient and run 100% off grid.

Drawing on 25 years of leadership in nongovernmental organizations and the private sector, Patrick Canagasingham oversees the operations of Habitat for Humanity’s work in more than 70 countries as Chief Operating Officer since he began in March 2020. Prior to joining Habitat, he served as CEO of Toronto-based Children Believe since 2017, He was formerly the COO of Oxfam International, where he applied his considerable experience in operational management, strategic planning and organizational leadership to serve a global workforce of 10,000 staff members and oversee a $1.3 billion budget. Before his time with Oxfam, Patrick held senior leadership roles with World Vision in Canada and East Asia from 2007 to 2015, including as vice president of international programs at World Vision Canada, where he was responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating the organization's international program commitments in nearly 70 countries in conjunction with other World Vision offices. Patrick holds a master’s degree in human rights from the University of London and a bachelor’s degree from York University in Toronto.

Lajana Manandhar is the founder and Executive Director of Lumanti Support Group for Shelter based in Kathmandu, Nepal. She holds M.Phil degree in Agriculture Economics. She has a working experience of 28 years in the areas of housing, water and sanitation, governance and economic empowerment. The activities that she has initiated in these areas have left a mark in transformation of the lives of the marginalised people in Nepal. She believes in strengthening collective voices for policy advocacy. She is also the Regional Convenor of Freshwater Action Network South Asia.

Leilani is the Global Director of The Shift, an international movement to secure the right to housing and the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (2014- 2020). The Shift was launched in 2017 with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Cities and Local Government and works with multi-level stakeholders around the world including with several city governments in North America and Europe.
Leilani’s work is animated by the principle that housing is a social good, not a commodity. She has helped develop global human rights standards on the right to housing, including through her topical reports on homelessness, the financialization of housing, informal settlements, rights- based housing strategies, and the first UN Guidelines for the implementation of the right to housing. She is the central character in the award-winning documentary PUSH regarding the financialization of housing, directed by the Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten. PUSH is screening around the world and to continue its momentum Leilani and Fredrik now co-host a podcast – PUSHBACK Talks - about finance, housing and human rights.

As Associate Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the Terwilliger Center, Lizan Kuster leads the global efforts to raise the profile of affordable housing in the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems and expanding ShelterTech. ShelterTech is the world’s leading platform for affordable housing innovation, advancing entrepreneurial housing solutions that radically improve the lives of low-income families. Lizan is based out of Zurich, Switzerland. Before joining Habitat, Lizan oversaw business development, establishing partnerships in the private and public sector with Kickstart Innovation, one of the largest open innovation accelerators. She has worked closely with members of the managing board and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, serving as project lead for the global digital platform for start-ups, UpLink. Lizan is the co-founder of Impact Hub PH Inc.,. She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration, International Management from the University of Northwestern Switzerland and speaks five languages.
Leilani’s work is animated by the principle that housing is a social good, not a commodity. She has helped develop global human rights standards on the right to housing, including through her topical reports on homelessness, the financialization of housing, informal settlements, rights- based housing strategies, and the first UN Guidelines for the implementation of the right to housing. She is the central character in the award-winning documentary PUSH regarding the financialization of housing, directed by the Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten. PUSH is screening around the world and to continue its momentum Leilani and Fredrik now co-host a podcast – PUSHBACK Talks - about finance, housing and human rights.

Dr. Arab Hoballah is currently the Executive Director of SEED, a global partnership for action on sustainable development and green economy, founded in 2002 by UNEP, UNDP and IUCN, managed by adelphi. SEED aims at promoting Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development, focusing on providing adequate support to small and growing eco-inclusive enterprises. Arab has recently completed his responsibility as Team Leader of EU-SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility, 2017-2021, with the aim to induce and enable stakeholders in Asian Countries in developing and delivering policies and actions in support to transformative change for sustainable consumption and production/SCP. Previously, Arab served as UNEP Chief of Sustainable Consumption and Production and in senior positions for more than 30 years in support to sustainable development. World Citizen, Arab is specialized in systemic and prospective analysis. He holds a PhD in economic development and a Master in international relations.

Aparna Das is an urban planning professional working as a Senior Advisor with GIZ, India, for the last ten years. She received her master's degree in Urban Development Planning from Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College London (UCL), in 2000. Aparna received a SPURS fellowship (2018-19) located within the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, she focused on urbanization aspects in the Global South and explored methodologies for efficiently distributing economic resources and achieving spatial justice in urban areas.
Aparna has more than 20 years of work experience with different sector partners; national, state and city governments, national and international NGOs, and multi and bilateral agencies such as UNICEF, UNDP, DFID India, and the World Bank. She has also worked in Cairo, Egypt, and Bangladesh. Her key sectors of experience are affordable housing, municipal governance, basic urban services, urban planning, and in situ slum upgrading and linkages of these thematic areas with the land legislation and land tenure in urban areas. At Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, India between 2014-2018, she worked as a deputy leader to the project "Inclusive Cities Partnership Programme (ICPP)" jointly implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and GIZ. In recent years, she focuses on the contestations over land in urban areas and equity concerns in cities. In her current role at GIZ, she leads the Housing and Planning vertical of the Sustainable Urban Development in Smart Cities project.

Amanda Entrikin is the Director of Global Affairs and Advocacy at Habitat for Humanity International, a global non-profit focused on creating decent housing for all. Based in Washington, DC, she works to influence global development priorities of the U.S. government, the EU, and other regional bodies and multilateral organizations to reflect HFHI’s priorities centered on equitable access to housing. Previously, she worked in advocacy and government relations for Doctors Without Borders in New York, engaging with the United Nations Security Council and US government agencies on urgent humanitarian priorities. Ms. Entrikin has over ten years of international experience, having worked in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe on both development and humanitarian portfolios. She graduated from The New School in New York City with a Master’s in International Affairs.

Abhishek Chhazed is a Mechanical Engineer with more than three years of experience in the field of manufacturing green products. He loves being part of projects that have real life impact. During his college days, he started working on Eco-Bricks to mitigate waste and build sustainable toilets. Since his graduation, he has been in the space of utilizing waste to build products that can be used by the infrastructure industry. Abhishek founded RecycleX in 2020 to manufacture products out of plastic & industrial waste that are eco-friendly and carbon negative.

Expert Consultant: Affordable Housing and Housing Finance

Zaigham serves as an Expert Consultant on Housing and Housing Finance to international agencies including World Bank/IFC, UNHABITAT, DFID, ShelterAfrique, CMHC-Canada, Affordable Housing Institute (AHI)-USA, etc. He is also associated with Association of Development Finance Association of Asia & Pacific (ADFIAP) as its ex-Vice Chairman and Life Member. Previously, Zaigham served as the Chairman/CEO of House Building Finance Company (HBFC-Pakistan), and is credited with turning around the sole specialized housing finance institution in the country. Over the years Zaigham has developed a passion for low-cost affordable housing for economically weaker segments of the society, addressing housing supply-side, finance-side and housing related regulatory regimes, with a regional focus on Asia-Pacific, Middle East and African regions. He has also a passion to address growing challenge of Energy Poverty mainly through Renewable Energy/Solar Power solutions. Zaigham authored Pakistan’s Affordable Housing Policy and Program for the present Government, which aims to provide five million housing units in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. He is also the Chairman of Academia Platform for Housing Research, which promotes research on innovations in construction materials and technologies, as well as the design of green housing and habitat.

Sumedha is the Founder & CEO of Syntellect, a financial technology company which through its enterprise product RightProfile™ works closely with lenders to underwrite and accurately rationalize risk for customers who are new to banking and new to credit.

Sumedha has worked with some of India’s prominent enterprises in the lending & mortgage sector. Her ten-year stint with HDFC, India’s largest housing finance company, was a defining time in her professional career. Here, she recognized the challenges faced by non-salaried people in securing a loan. This coupled with her experience in navigating and knowledge in managing sheer volume of transactions at HDFC, was the genesis of RightProfile™ in 2014.

Sumedha holds an MBA and is an alumnus of NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies).

Sandeep Bedi is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Janaadhar (India) Pvt Ltd. An entrepreneur at heart, with over 20 years’ experience of successfully starting and establishing businesses in Precast Construction Technology, Real Estate Development, Upstream Oil & Gas, Entertainment and Information Technology internationally.

His Legal, Business Strategy & Management background, aided his pursuit as a serial entrepreneur, enabling him to establish, sustainable and profitable ventures and new business verticals.

Sandeep also has more than ten years of holistic real estate & construction experience. At Janaadhar (India) Pvt. Ltd., he is not only responsible for the organization’s day-to-day operations, but he also addresses affordable housing policy-related issues in various states, participates in formulation of strategies and coordinates with the government entities to ensure smooth implementation of affordable housing projects. Sandeep is a keen business and IT strategist who brings structure to complex business challenges and align IT strategies with business KPIs to optimise efficiency, improve performance, and reduce costs.

Adrian Torres joined ADB in 2010 and is the Chief of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Thematic Group. Before his current role, Adrian was involved in strategy and policy work where he led the development of ADB’s first Private Sector Window and held the role of Chair of Blended Finance Committee.
During his time at ADB, Adrian worked on several infrastructure projects, PPP projects, and public finance transactions in the regional departments.
Before joining ADB, Adrian worked for ANZ Investment Bank’s Capital Solutions team, Societe Generale’s Project Finance team, and Westpac’s Specialised Capital Group in Australia on the financing and acquisition of infrastructure and utility projects including PPPs.
In addition, Adrian has advised government agencies on several PPP projects which include toll roads, health, and social infrastructure during his time at Ernst & Young Corporate Finance and Andersen.
Adrian received a Master’s of Commerce (Economics & Finance) from Sydney University and dual degrees in Civil Engineering and Business Administration from RMIT University. Adrian also received a diploma in Strategic Finance from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Ajay Suri is an economist and a development expert with long standing experience in formulating strategies and managing people-centred development programmes across various states and cities in India, south Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives), south-east Asia (Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam), West Asia (Lebanon), Central Asia (Iran) and Africa (Kenya).

His main areas of expertise are urban policy and strategy formulation, urban poverty assessment, city-wide service delivery profiling, participatory planning for livelihoods promotion and service delivery, programme management, and institutional strengthening for improved governance. He has earlier worked with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) at Bangkok and New Delhi besides Government of India and an eminent urban policy think tank.

Anacláudia Rossbach from São Paulo, Brazil holds a master’s degree in political economics and has been working for 20 years in the housing and urban fields, as a practitioner and researcher for international organizations, local and national governments, universities, and non-profit organizations. She worked most part of her professional life in Brazil but also participated in a diverse and large number of international endeavors, projects, knowledge exchange activities, publications, reviews, and conferences. During her professional life, she had the opportunity to provide support and advice for key stakeholders from the urban sector from Brazil and a broad range of countries, such as the Philippines, China, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Egypt, Namibia, Bolivia, Paraguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, and Peru. During the Habitat III process, she acted as an expert for the Policy Unit on National Urban Policies. Currently, she is Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at Cities Alliance, based in Mexico City.

Alexander is an education specialist at the Asian Development Bank specializing in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with a focus on work-based training. His research interests include cross-sectoral approaches and embedding education in local economic development and infrastructure projects. Prior to working with ADB, he was a project manager at the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) working in the field of regional cooperation in Southeast Asia based in Viet Nam. He has a master’s degree in Political Economy from the University of Sussex as well as in Management of Development Projects from the University of Manchester.

Angelo Tan is the Country Lead for the Philippines (Climate Business) of the International Finance Corporation, a sister organization of the World Bank, and a member of the World Bank Group.

In this role, he forges partnerships with real estate developers, investors building professionals, certification providers, academia. and public policy markers across the Philippines, towards advancing the adoption of EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) and BRI (Building Resilience Index) — integrated online platforms, green building and resilience standards, and rating systems designed to make green and resilient buildings much more accessible, affordable, and inclusive for emerging markets and developing economies.

Angelo has a decade of real estate experience in mixed-use development management, commercial real estate transactions, and architecture business development. He is an industrial engineer by profession, and finished his Master of Sustainable Built Environment at UNSW Sydney under an Australia Awards Scholarship.

Anindita Mukherjee is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Research. As part of CPR’s Scaling City Institutions for India (SCI FI) Initiative, she anchors the research on demystifying the urban land-planning-housing intersections with a specific focus on residential vulnerability among the urban poor. Currently, she is supporting the Governments of Odisha and Punjab in forming strategies towards unlocking land tenure security enabling slum upgradation, and improving the inclusion of the urban poor settlements into the city fabric. She has supported in formulation of various programmes and policies: National housing programmes and policies of MoHUA e.g. Rajiv Awaas Yojana (RAY) and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY), Rural Sanitation Policy of Odisha and provided specific support in developing Credit risk Guarantee fund Scheme, affordable housing policies among others. Apart from that, as part of CPR she has worked extensively on areas related to the economics of sanitation service delivery in India, monitoring and evaluation of government rolled out national schemes and programmes, in economic and planning issues related to urban development, land management and sanitation. Her key sectors of expertise include urban economics, slum upgradation, inclusion, housing & urban basic services (water & sanitation) for the poor and other marginalized sections of the society, issues pertaining to land and land tenure in urban areas, and associated research work. Spanning almost 18 years of her career she has worked with different sector partners; Government agencies e.g. the Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs, various State Governments, urban local body in Kolkata, civil society organisations, other bilateral agencies such as erstwhile DFID, GIZ India and the World Bank. Anindita is an Economist and has a specialization in Statistics and Econometrics.

Principle Investment Specialist

Anshukant Taneja, the Principle Investment Specialist in Private Sector Operations Department at the Asia Development Bank (ADB). He leads ADB’s Micro Finance Program, which focuses on financial inclusion and helping microfinance institutions deepen their access to commercial finance. Before joining ADB, he worked as regional director of ratings at Standard & Poor’s in Singapore, and with ABN AMRO Bank in India.

Humanitarian Shelter and Settlement Practitioner

Arwin Soelaksono currently based in Jakarta, Indonesia and works as Humanitarian Shelter and Settlement Practitioner. Before joining the humanitarian sector, Arwin worked in the construction of public infrastructure and private housing for 15 years. After the Asian Tsunami of 2004, he began working for NGOs in Aceh in the sphere of housing reconstruction. He continues to work in the humanitarian sector and has worked for NGOs, donors, UN agencies and the Red Cross movement.

He brings his experience from his previous work to humanitarian sector i.e. project management for massive reconstruction and earthquake resistant structure. During 16 years in humanitarian sector, he added his experience on managing project with total budget more than USD 90 million, built and retrofit more than 8,000 houses and more than 50 clinics and schools.

Ashna Mathema is an architect and urban planner with 24 years of experience in nearly 40 countries. She specializes in housing, and her work ranges from in-depth micro-level field work in poor communities to more macro-level market assessments and policy / strategy formulation. She brings extensive experience in all facets of the housing sector, including housing and land markets, urban infrastructure and services, informality and poverty, urban upgrading, city planning and regulations, housing finance/ microfinance, energy efficiency, and disaster risk reduction and reconstruction.
Ashna is the Principal and Founder of Total Housing Inc., established in late 2019, that offers advisory services in housing. From 2012 until January 2020, she served as a Senior Urban Development Specialist with the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia group where she contributed significantly to housing policy development in several client countries. Her previous experience includes working with the World Bank’s Housing Finance team (2008-10); with PADCO/ AECOM (2000-04); as an independent international development consultant for over 6 years; and as an architect/Partner in Mathema Associates (1995-98).
Ashna is the co-author of “Development Poverty and Politics: Putting Communities in the Driver’s Seat”, with a Foreword by John F.C. Turner. This book was inspired from her field experiences and interactions with people in low-income communities around the globe, and emphasizes meaningful community participation as a path to real development.

Senior Shelter, Settlements, and Hazard Mitigation Advisor

Mr. Charlse Setchell has more than 40 years of experience in managing the process of physical, social, and economic change, both in the US and abroad. This professional experience is rooted in undergraduate (University of California, Davis) and graduate (University of California, Berkeley) degrees in urban and environmental planning, doctoral studies in urban planning at MIT, and doctoral research supported by a Fulbright Fellowship and MacArthur Foundation award.

Mr. Setchell has participated in all major international disasters/crises involving a shelter response since his arrival at the USAID Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA; now BHA) in 1998, designing and implementing Shelter and Settlements projects and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities in numerous countries.

Regional Urban Development Task Team Leader

Clément Larrue, French Development Agency – AFD - has over 15 years of working experience in consultancy firm in local public policies before joining the French Development Agency in 2013.
As Senior project manager in the Urban Development and Local Authorities Division in Paris HQ, Clement follow and evaluate projects related to sustainable urban development and urban planning in emerging countries (Ivory Coast, Brazil, China, Peru, Uganda) with different types of counterparts (municipalities, local urban development companies or ministry at national level).
From 2015 to 2018, he was AFD Lead Specialist on cities and climate change. In this capacity, Clement led AFD efforts to innovate and strengthen with new financial mechanisms benefit to cities. He contributes actively with advocacy role to the GCA Cities & Regions dynamic and participates actively in the COP 21 action linked with the French Ministry COP 21 negotiation team.
Since August 2018, he’s Regional urban development task team leader, in Bangkok AFD technical hub, in charge of Cities & urban operational activities in the Southeast Asia Region

Curt Garrigan is Chief of the Sustainable Urban Development Section for the Environment and Development Division of UN-ESCAP. In this role, he contributes to ESCAP’s efforts to work with governments to localize the Sustainable Development Goals and promote sustainable urban development solutions in cities throughout the Asia Pacific region. Before joining ESCAP, he spent seven years with UN Environment Programme in Paris, France as Coordinator of the Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative and as Cities and Buildings Programme Manager. He led UNEP’s efforts to launch the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, which promotes building sector climate actions. He also coordinated a UNEP project assisting countries in Southeast Asia to develop Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs). Prior to joining the UN system, Mr. Garrigan served more than 22 years in a number of operational and management roles for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville, Tennessee USA, including Deputy Mayor, Parks Director, and Infrastructure and Planning Coordinator of the city’s post-Flood Recovery Team.

Senior Housing Specialist for the Asia-Pacific

Dao Harrison is the Senior Housing Specialist for the World Bank serving markets in the Asia Pacific region from the Singapore Urban Hub. Her work focuses on deepening and strengthening housing markets, policies and programs, particularly in developing market economies. Prior to the World Bank, Mrs. Harrison was the International Risk Director for Genworth Financial where she worked to develop and extend mortgage guarantee / insurance products and platforms in new markets. Her housing-related work has led her to work with governments and/or institutions in Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mongolia, Maldives, Thailand, S. Korea, Japan, Mexico, and Fiji.

Dr Donovan Storey is currently Head of Global Policy and Influence at REALL, where he works to influence and leverage key stakeholders to bring about changes which transform global affordable housing markets through innovative solutions, including those which create synergies between affordable and climate-smart housing for the bottom 40%. Previous positions have included as Deputy Director and Urban Lead – Green Cities, at the Global Green Growth Institute, Seoul, and with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in Bangkok, first as Chief of Social Policy and Population and then as Chief of the Sustainable Urban Development Section. Prior to the United Nations Donovan was a researcher, senior academic and consultant specializing in development management, urban planning, social inclusion and environmental management. Donovan has a PhD in International Development and postgraduate qualifications in Public International Law. He is a member of ISOCARP, The Planning Institute of Australia and the British Institute for Comparative and International Law.

Associate Director for Operations, Asia Pacific

Gregg is currently the Associate Director for Operations in the Asia Pacific Region with Habitat for Humanity International Regional office based in Manila. Previous roles have included the Country Manager for Australian Red Cross in the Philippines and Global Focal Points for Coordination with UNHCR and the International Federation of the Red Cross assisting various country operations in complex and protracted emergencies. He has over 15 years of direct field experience as a humanitarian practitioner in various settings having worked with different international non-government organizations (NRC, IRC, SCI, ACAPS) and the Red Cross with a focus in the Asia Pacific region.

Roles have included being environmental health manager, site planner, water and sanitation program manager, construction and program manager amongst others.

He has specific technical expertise in a shelter and extensive cluster coordination experience in various emergencies.
He has extensive experience in the design and facilitation of training including the development of curricular materials for direct staff training and mentoring as well as organizational capacity building.
Gregg is a graduate of the Humanitarian Leadership Programme and holds a Masters degree in Humanitarian Assistance from Deakin University.
Previously he worked as an environmental engineer and consultant with over 10 years of project and construction management experience across various industry sectors.

Rohan Bennett is a surveyor, Associate Professor and international advisor on land administration, specialising in land information systems. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and has worked with University of Twente, Kadaster Netherlands, and Swinburne University of Technology. He works on projects dealing with the responsible digital transformation of land administration data and processes, at scale, and making use of emerging geospatial technologies. He also brings specialisation in the area of institutional capacity development and training program implementation. Recent collaborations have included supporting property registry archive digitisation in Armenia, training toolkit development in Mozambique, and digital transformation strategizing in Indonesia. He was a member of the editing team for the recently UN-GGIM endorsed 'Framework for Effective Land Administration' (FELA) and is the Chair Elect for Commission 7 of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), on Cadastre and Land Management.

Mr. Hirotaka Koike is a programme management consultant of the Sustainable Urban Development Section for the Environment and Development Division of United Nations ESCAP. In this role, he coordinates the Asia Pacific Mayors Academy, which provides executive-level training for newly-elected/appointed mayors with tools, methods, and networks to implement future policy pathways, and the global inter-UN Regional Commissions’ project on “building urban economic resilience during and after COVID-19”, in which UNESCAP supports four cities across the Asia-Pacific region to develop sustainable recovery plans. Before joining ESCAP, he was a policy researcher at the City Taskforce of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), coordinating activities around the Voluntary Local Review (VLRs) and localization of the SDGs in the Asia-Pacific, and supporting the IGES’ engagements in the UN and global fora. Prior to IGES, he was the Global Focal Point for Habitat III process and the Organising Partner for the High-level Political Forum in the UN Major Group for Children and Youth and the founder of the Japan Youth Platform for Sustainability.

Senior Urban Specialist (Smart Cities)

Hong Soo Lee is a smart city expert with a background in urban policy, planning, and development. Before he joined ADB, he worked at Seoul Housing Corporation and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport in the Republic of Korea, and Urban Redevelopment Authority in Singapore.

James Samuel, currently serves as the National Director for Habitat for Humanity International, Bangladesh. His diverse regional and national level experience, including two previous national director roles, and technical strengths in Disaster Risk Reduction and Response (DR3), shelter, and WASH set him well placed in the Bangladesh context. Starting his development career with World Vision, he has worked with several international organizations in leadership roles including the WASH Advisor at the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) now FCDO, Country Director at Samaritan’s Purse International Relief at Haiti with additional responsibility for Latin America and Caribbean leadership team and Country Director of Mission East, Nepal. He has successfully resourced and managed institutional funding from USAID/OFDA, DFID, WFP, DANIDA, EU, and BMZ among others.

Jana is a performance-driven professional with 10+ years of experience in the international and non-governmental environment. Dedicated to making an impact on people and society, she is carving her way in international development, project management, research and policy making. Currently, she works as Head of Mission of Caritas Czech Republic (CCR) in Mongolia and overviews several development projects funded by the European Union, SWITCH-Asia and other co-funding entities. These include: Sustainable Plastic Recycling in Mongolia (ongoing), All for youth, youth for all (ongoing) and Recycling Building Materials (completed). Before joining CCR, Jana had worked in several European and Asian countries, including Slovakia, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Singapore. She received a BA degree in International Economic Relations from the University of Economics in Bratislava and an MSc degree in European Affairs from the Aalborg University in Denmark. She is currently pursuing an Executive Master's of Public Administration at Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Jana is fluent in English, German, Czech, and Slovak and has a good knowledge of Russian, Mongolian and French.

Mr. Jawed Ali Khan joined UN-Habitat in September 2017 after retiring as Director General Environment and Climate Change at the Ministry of Climate Change, Government of Pakistan, where he worked for 30 years. He has remained the National Focal point for several Environmental and Climate Change Treaties and Conventions, and has also served as Projector Director for many GEF, World Bank and UNDP projects including One UN Program component on Policy and Planning.

Mr. Jawed works as technical expert for various UN Agencies, including EU SWITCH ASIA, where he is the Lead Expert on Green Building Code and Guidelines for Pakistan Prime Minister’s Five Million Housing Programme. He also works as the UN Environment National Coordinator for developing the National Action Plan for SCP as well as the National Sustainable Development Strategy for Pakistan (NSDS). Mr. Jawed holds postgraduate degrees and diplomas in Housing and Human Settlements Planning, Environment and Climate Change from renowned International Universities and institutions such as Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Tufts University in Boston, USA.

Jitendra works as an Associate Director-Financial Inclusion and Capital Markets with Habitat for Humanity's Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter. He supports financial institutions to develop, test, and scale affordable housing finance solutions, develops global advisory solutions, manages portfolio relationships, and drives the regional strategy and growth of the work with financial institutions. He has 12 years of experience in advisory, consulting, and investment services in the financial inclusion sector, focusing on thematic areas of microfinance, digital financial services, and housing finance. Jitendra has worked with more than 70 financial intermediaries in 12 countries across Asia and Africa. He has provided support on a broad range of topics, including strategy, risk, operations, digital transformation, products, and delivery channels. Before joining Habitat for Humanity, Jitendra was a manager for the inclusive finance and banking domain at MicroSave Consulting, where he led and delivered several consulting assignments across Asia and Africa, including a two-year full-time stint in Indonesia. Jitendra has a master's degree in Development Management, an undergraduate degree in Commerce, and a professional certificate of financial modeling and valuation analyst (FMVA).

Julie LaPalme is Secretary General for Cooperative Housing International, one of the eight sectors of the International Cooperative Alliance. Since 2014, Julie has been raising awareness about housing cooperatives at a global level, facilitating peer to peer exchanges, and sharing good practices through a comprehensive communications program.
Her career in cooperative and non-profit housing began in the 1990s in organizational development, government relations, and property management. In 2006 she began working with the Agency for Co-operative Housing, a cooperative housing administrative body, as an Information Officer and later as a Relationship Manager. She also delivered the Agency’s social media strategy for three years.
In an effort to offset carbon emissions and raise awareness about environmental sustainability in housing co-ops Julie founded the Greener Co-op Microgrants program which she manages for the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. She also delivers their Diversity Scholarships and Grants programs.

Head of Research and Development

Julieta Moradei, Partner at Hometeam Ventures; Head of Research and Development at NewStory Charity

As a Partner and founding member of Hometeam Ventures, Julieta drives dealflow and operations of the venture fund investing in founders bringing breakthrough technology to the world's largest - but least innovative - industries: construction and housing.
Previously, she was the Head of R+D at New Story and an engineer at Arup. At New Story, she formed 50+ partnerships with key academic and industry leaders (Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Thorton Tomasetti, Arup, SOM, etc.) to pioneer groundbreaking solutions for affordable housing. In partnership with ICON, New Story permitted and built the world's first 3D printed housing community.

She has an M.S. in structural engineering from UC Berkeley, a bachelor’s in structural engineering and architecture, and was a research assistant in Boston, Berkeley, and Switzerland. She postponed her Harvard Business School MBA to kick-start Hometeam VC.
Her academic and industry research in AEC is focused on circular economy, virtual reality, automated drone inspection, resiliency, and sustainability. Julieta is passionate about bridging the gap between architecture, engineering, and construction through collaborative design to maximize innovation for social impact.

Karima works as an Urban and Disaster Risk Management Specialist and task team leader at the World Bank’s Urban, disaster risk management, Resilience and Land Global Practice (URL). Based in Washington DC, she focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, and with an emphasis on post-conflict urban recovery and reconstruction, DRM, low-income housing, and local economic development. Karima holds a PhD in architecture and urban studies focusing on post-disaster reconstruction of dense agglomerations from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an M.Arch with focus on post-disaster shelter design from l’Ecole Nationale d’Architecture de Rabat. Prior to joining the World bank, she has worked for over 10 years in the private sector and with international NGOs and international organizations on housing policy, urban disaster risk management, and urban planning.

Luis has extensive experience in executive nonprofit management, having held several leadership roles through his career.

Luis have had a progressive experience of almost 30 years in International Relief and Development that started in his country of birth, Bolivia. In his career he was country director, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Chief International Operations Officer, Vice President and part of the C-suite of Food for the Hungry. He currently works with Habitat for Humanity International as the Vice President of Asia-Pacific area in Manila, Philippines.

Luis has experience managing large multidisciplinary community development projects related to food security, livelihoods and economic development, public health, education, and disaster risk and resilience. He also had under his supervision the implementation of humanitarian and disaster responses due to natural or man-made catastrophes such as the response to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan due to the civil war in 2013. In his career he oversaw the implementation of projects and NGO operations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In his executive role capacity, he participated in the development of global strategic plans for and international NGO, managed a multi-ethnic and multi-culture team of leaders reporting from different locations in the world, and stewarded relationships with private and public donors, including bilateral government donors like USAID, and multilateral donors like the Inter-American Development Bank.

Luis has a Bachelors in Agricultural Engineering from University Mayor San Simon in Bolivia, a Master of Science in Agricultural Development from the University of Ghent in Belgium, a Master of Arts in Development Evaluation and Management from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and an NGO Management Executive Certificate from Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Renu Khosla is the Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE). Her work is aimed at unthinking and reimagining slum and inclusive urban development – building resilience and nudging change in community-led initiatives. Through her work, she has been seeking to strengthen local capacities for participative planning, data visualization and analytics using spatial technologies, localizing and de-engineering solutions and simplifying institutions – hoping to change the policy narrative and deepen the policy discourse on urban poor, slum upgrading and improving quality of living. Her projects are innovative and awarded. She was also recognized by the Government of India on International Women’s Day for her work in sanitation and promoting equality.

Founder and Director, International Housing Finance Program

Dr. Marja Hoek-Smit, Founder and Director, International Housing Finance Program, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an Adjunct Professor in the Real Estate Department of the Wharton School. She teaches executive education programs in housing finance and housing market analysis. Marja is a frequent advisor to governments and private- and non-profit sector clients in Emerging Market and Developing Countries in the field of housing and housing finance policy, institutional and product development. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Habitat for Humanity Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Housing.
Marja is also the Executive Director of the Housing Finance Information Network—HOFINET—a global web portal that consolidates international housing finance information and statistical data for public use.

Senior Coordinator and Technical Specialist for Humanitarian Policy and Practice

Mohamed Hilmi is InterAction’s Senior Coordinator and Technical Specialist for Humanitarian Policy and Practice. He is a humanitarian shelter and reconstruction specialist who works to improve the collaboration, capacity, practice, and policies of stakeholders who respond to humanitarian disasters and crises.
Before joining InterAction, Hilmi worked for U.N. Agencies and INGOs in complex humanitarian emergencies and development programs. He has responded to and managed emergencies such as the conflict and famine in Somalia, the post-genocide refugee crisis in Tanzania/Rwanda, the Asian tsunami and armed conflict in Sri Lanka, the cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, as well as emergencies in Haiti, Eretria, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon, and Sudan. He has also managed several large infrastructures, reconstruction, and refugee resettlement programs in the MENA region. In the private sector, he has worked for Shell Petroleum in Singapore and with SAIC on a U.S. Government chemical weapons demilitarization project in Maryland.

Mohammad Riaz is the was appointed program manager for Kabul Green Homes Project funded by EU through SWITCH – Asia program. He currently works as deputy country director & project manager for Geres- Afghanistan. Mohammad Riaz have over 18 years’ experience in project management, energy efficiency in public and private houses, climate change and environment related projects. He has been participated in more than 25 conferences worldwide and trained over 500 engineers and technicities on energy efficiency in buildings and housing. He holds a Bachelor on Civil Engineering from Kabul University.

Olivia Nielsen is an Associate Principal at Miyamoto International where she focuses on resilient housing solutions. From post-disaster Haiti to Papua New Guinea, she has developed and worked on critical housing programs in over 30 countries. Olivia has a decade of experience in housing finance, housing public-private partnerships, post-disaster reconstruction, and green construction. Through her work, she hopes to make safe and affordable housing available to all.

Pranab Choudhury has founded and coordinates the NRMC Center for Land Governance (CLG) that espouses the criticality of Land Tenure Security for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development. CLG contributes to expanding India’s Land Governance space with actors, evidence, and innovations, through policy and action research, piloting and scaling up solutions, capacity building, and triggering partnerships. First, as a scientist, researching landscape restoration in India’s tribal regions, and later as a consultant engaging on inter-disciplinary issues around agriculture, forestry, and rural livelihoods, across South Asian geographies, Pranab is exposed to diverse land use and tenure dynamics and how they influence development.

Prachi Acharya is a built environment professional with over eight years of experience in research, policy and practice and has recently completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Risk in the Built Environment. Prachi's interdisciplinary study focused on India's welfare housing programme in settlements with high flood risk in the coastal State of Odisha. Prior to the PhD, she consulted for UNDP India. Prachi holds a MSc with Distinction from the Centre for Alternative Technology, Wales and a Bachelor of Architecture from CEPT University, where her research focusing on urban housing received a number of awards. Prachi is currently a member of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Associate Director, People-Public-Private Partnerships

Puja Sawhney is the People-Public-Private Partnerships (P4) Associate Director at Habitat for Humanity. She leads the formulation of a global P4 framework that will build upon and help to accelerate Habitat’s P4 multilateral existing initiatives. She also leads in developing and establishing national, regional, and global coalitions focusing on addressing affordable and adequate housing challenges.

Puja has more than two decades of development work, from research, policy analysis, program and project implementation, policy research, and coalition building. She has served as an expert on various development concerns, from climate change to disaster management, and sustainable development, and has established and led many networks and platforms. Her work has covered the breadth of the Asia Pacific Region, as her various engagements have spanned 48 countries.

Puja has extensive experience working for international organizations, the UN, International Organizations, and NGOs.

Puja holds a Ph.D. in Natural Science, a double Masters of Arts degree in Environment and Development and Geography, and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography.

Senior Development Professional, Quentin Moreau was appointed Central Asia Regional Director for Geres – Acting for Climate Solidarity INGO in 2019. Based in Dushanbe, he is supervising international development programmes in the fields of access to energy, energy efficiency, renewables and climate – energy policies mainstreaming in Mongolia, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

He has previously contributed to building meaningful programmes & teams for several INGOs in Mongolia (AVSF, People in Need, Mercy Corps), serving the needs and best interests of its civil society and peoples. Looking tirelessly at linking research with practitioners' experience, he has renewed recently an academic collaboration with the Oxford University Silk Road Society think tank on the co-definition of sustainability frameworks around BRI projects and countries.

Keen advocate of climate justice, he has hands-on experience in matters related to resources management, land use, value chain development, energy, governance, education & climate related policies.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow

Serene Ho is a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow at RMIT University, Australia. Her interdisciplinary research explores issues of social innovation in land administration, especially around how new geospatial technologies used to map land rights impact trust relationships between communities and governments.

Shubhagato Dasgupta is a senior fellow at CPR and director of the Scaling City Institutions for India (Sci-Fi) Sanitation initiative. His current research focuses on informal settlement, drinking water and sanitation in India and the world, with particular reference to flagship government programs and service delivery challenges in smaller cities. Before joining CPR, Shubhagato led the Support to National Policies for Urban Poverty Reduction project, a collaboration between the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to develop pro-poor urban policies in 20 cities across 15 states. Prior to this, he has also worked on issues of urban development with a wide range of other public, private, multilateral, and non-governmental organisations, including as Senior Urban Specialist at the World Bank, Assistant Vice President at the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and The Action Research Unit. In addition, Shubhagato has also worked on private sector participation projects in urban and drinking water programs in eastern and southern Africa for the International Finance Corporation and the Acumen Fund. Shubhagato Dasgupta is trained as an architect Urban Planner and currently undertaking a PhD at the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Rithika Thomas works with integrating multidisciplinary experts and resources to provide innovative solutions to build sustainable communities. She strives to ensure that all her projects have a positive impact on the built environment, workspaces, and the communities that we live in.

Currently, she leads the Future Community vertical at EcoLabs Center of Innovation for Energy@NTU and her focus is on designing and deploying a prototype of a self-sustaining civilization kit for the future, through co-creation collaborations with start-ups, SMEs and educational institutes. Her research focus for the past 6 years, is on multidisciplinary sustainable design, passive design strategies and designing zero energy buildings in the tropics through testing and deploying these innovative solutions for smart building technologies, applications and solutions.

Before joining EcoLabs, she practised architecture in India and completed her Masters in Integrated Sustainable Design from NUS, School of Design, Singapore. She is a registered LEED Accredited Professional and has obtained her Green Mark Manager certification.

Mr. Piaskowy currently serves as Global Program Director at Cadasta Foundation where he manages project implementation processes and strategies, including partner training and grants administration. He holds more than 15 years of international experience working with community-based NGOs and governments at the national, sub-national, and local levels.

Before joining Cadasta, he worked for USAID in managing and evaluating global land tenure and property rights programs. His research and field experience focuses on land and urban development in East Africa and Southeast Asia. He holds a graduate degree in international public service from American University, and an undergraduate degree in urban planning from Ball State University.

Zinaida Fadeeva is the Team Leader of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Facility (SCP Facility) of the SWITCH-Asia Programme. Zinaida has over 25 years of leading international professional experience in policy for and practice of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and Education for Sustainable Development, amongst others working with the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Studies of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). Her work has focused on diverse topics such as tourism, plastics, construction, small and medium enterprises, procurement, and lifestyle. Zinaida has worked extensively with governments, the private sector, international organizations, and academia in East, South East, South, and Central Asia.

Dr. Zhi Liu is Senior Fellow and Director, China and Asia Program, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and Director, Peking University – Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land Policy. He is specialized in land and housing policy, urban and infrastructure finance, and urban and regional planning. Previously he was a lead infrastructure specialist at the World Bank, with years of operational experience in the infrastructure and urban sectors. He is a member of the Expert Committees for Housing and Real Estate, and for Human Settlements, Ministry of Housing and Urban & Rural Development, China. He co-edited International Housing Market Experience and Implications for China (Routledge 2019) and Infrastructure Economic and Policy: International Perspectives (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, forthcoming).

Sukumaporn Jongpukdee is the Assistant Governor of Thailand's National Housing Authority and has been with the organization since 1995. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and a Master's degree in Urban Environmental Management from Pathumthani's Asian Institute of Technology. Sukumaporn has participated in several international housing and urban development training programs in the Netherlands, Japan, and Singapore.

Ana Falú is an Argentine architect and a social activist for human rights and for women's rights. She has been Regional Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM; now part of UN Women) for the Andean Region (2002–2004) and for Brazil and the Southern Cone Countries (2004–2009). She is a researcher and Professor at the National University of Córdoba (UNC), where she is the Director of the Housing and Habitat Research Institute (INVIHAB). In the field of feminist action, she promoted numerous institutional initiatives and contributed to the establishment of women's rights to the city, to housing, and to the habitat. She is co-founder of the Women and Habitat Network of Latin America, of the Centro de Intercambio y Servicios para el Cono Sur Argentina (CISCSA), of UNC's Interdisciplinary Program of Women's and Gender Studies (PIEMG), and of Articulación Feminista Marcosur, among other areas of action in favor of women's rights. In 2013 she won the Feminist Career Award together with other Argentine women

Pablo Jorillo Jr. studied Civil Engineering and Master of Science in Structural Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He received his Doctor of Engineering degree from Nihon University (Tokyo, Japan). As part of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Monbusho programs, he earned post-doctoral grants from Rajamangala Institute of Technology (Thailand) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan).

In 1990, he was promoted to full Professor IV at the university and had exchange professorial assignments in Thailand and Japan. From 1995 to 2000, he was the Executive Director of the Integrated Research and Training Center (a JICA Grant) leading engineering research in SUCs (state universities) in the Philippines. He has worked on various researches on underwater concrete, fiber concrete, alternative cementitious materials and structural composites.

In 2000, he joined Hilti Philippines Inc., an MNC subsidiary of Hilti Group as the Engineering Manager. In 2005, he was appointed as the company’s first local General Manager, leading a local executive management team, a first for Hilti in Region Asia at the time. He was instrumental in developing and growing Hilti Philippines to ten times its revenue size in ten years, with a CAGR growth of 30%.

In 2020, he left the corporate world to become the General Manager of Hilti Foundation’s initiated organization in the Philippines – BASE-Bahay Foundation. BASE is a non-profit, non-government organization with a mandate to build communities through a network of partners by utilizing alternative building technologies and providing comfortable, affordable, resilient, eco-friendly houses with social impact. The vision is to scale-up partnership and the use of bamboo and other green building materials for socialized housing.

She is the President and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees for Base Bahay Foundation, an initiative supported by the HILTI Foundation. Maricen also serves as the liaison for the projects of Hilti Foundation in Asia which covers Affordable Housing and Technology, Economic Empowerment and Music for Social change. She is responsible for providing the strategic direction for the organization, in coordination with the other Board members ,as well as ensuring that it continues to live up to its Vision and Mission as technology provider for high quality social houses that have a social, environmental and economic impact. This involves working with a network that can initiate, organize, undertake, and participate in livelihood, economic, cultural, educational, and social development programs and activities for the benefit of selected beneficiaries Prior to Base, Maricen presents over 30 years of Sales, Marketing and Operations experience covering consumer goods, banking and real estate, in different senior management positions. She is also engaged in entrepreneurial ventures and continues to support private relief and livelihood projects and is focused on her calling for nation building.

Loraine is currently a Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Senior Adviser at the EU SWITCH-Asia Programme, SCP Facility. For the past 20 years, she has worked on international and national projects focusing on environmental and sustainable development issues in the Asian Region, with a focus on SCP and resource efficiency, climate change, biosafety, access rights in environmental decision-making, transparency and accountability.

She worked in the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme - Regional Office in Asia and Pacific, and in the Asia-Pacific Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (APRSCP). She also worked at the Climate Change Commission (CCC) Philippines, the Ateneo School of Government and the Maximo Kalaw Institute for Sustainable Development. She holds a Master of Arts Degree on Politics of Sustainable Development in Keele University, UK. She obtained her BA degree in Ateneo de Manila University.

As Member of the Executive Board, Johann leads the Hilti Foundation’s work on safe and affordable housing. A priority is the promotion of pioneering technical solutions helping families in need improve their housing situation as a basis to start their journey into a better, self-determinant life.

To achieve its goals, the foundation engages in long-term relationships with trusted partners testing and driving innovative models and ambitious projects for sustainable impact at scale. Besides Affordable Housing, the Hilti Foundation focuses its engagement around the program areas “Music for Social Change” and “Economic Empowerment”.

In earlier positions with institutions like the German Federal Chancellery, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Robert Bosch Foundation, Johann gained strong understanding of related fields, incl. EU and international politics, good governance and the global civil society. Following studies in Germany , Poland and Hungary, he earned his Master of Public Policy degree from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

Dr. Herry Trisaputra Zuna is the Director General of Infrastructure Financing for Public Works and Housing, Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Indonesia and is on the board of PT Wijaya Karya Beton Tbk. In his past career, Dr. Herry occupied the position of Head-Toll Road Development Sub-Directorate at the Ministry of Public Works. Dr. Herry Trisaputra Zuna earned a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Institut Teknologi Bandung and a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management from Universitas Padjadjaran. He also holds a master's degree in Transportation and Highway Engineering from Institut Teknologi Bandung, as well as a doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Indonesia.

A champion of sustainable built environments, Prashant Kapoor, is a passionate advocate for sustainable solutions that align the interests of businesses, financial institutions, governments and civil society.

He is the entrepreneur who created EDGE to mainstream resource-efficient building growth in emerging markets. Prashant is currently leading the APEX Green Cities Program that supports cities to transition to low-carbon and resource-efficient growth pathways. As a part of the Program, he has developed the APEX online app that allows cities to map out different action plans and evaluate their cost, feasibility, and impact. Under his leadership, IFC has created a green buildings portfolio that totals more than $6 billion.

Before joining IFC, Prashant was a director at WSP consultants in London where he led the sustainability strategy and master planning business. He holds architecture degrees from Manipal Institute of Technology (India) and a master’s degree from Oxford Brooks University (UK).

Rebecca Ochong is the Senior Manager – Hilti Pillar 3 for the Asia Pacific region at Habitat for Humanity International. She leads the planning and execution of the Asia Pacific housing forum, a platform that fosters collaboration, partnerships, and advocacy aimed at scaling up impactful housing solutions for the most vulnerable. She also serves as the key technical specialist in areas of secure tenure and housing policies as well as providing knowledge, expertise, and advocacy related to various aspects of shelter/housing programs conducted by Habitat for Humanity. Previously, she worked as a land governance expert at UN-Habitat’s Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) where she was instrumental in the implementation of various GLTN initiatives such as tool development, knowledge management, capacity enhancement, and country-level work. Rebecca holds a Master of Science degree in Land Management from KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, a Post-graduate Diploma in Computer Science, and a Bachelor of Science in Surveying & Photogrammetry from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Hotta holds Dphil in International Relations from University of Sussex in 2004. Before joining IGES in September 2005, he was a project assistant of UNU/ Zero Emissions Research Initiative at United Nations University/Institute for Advanced Studies, Contracted Researcher (Industrial Policy Area), Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. He has been involved in both policy initiatives and research projects in relation to sustainable resource circulation such as G8’s 3R Initiative, Working Group for 3R Policies for Southeast and East Asia at Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and OECD Working Party on Resource Productivity and Waste. From 2016 to 2021, Hotta served as one of four theme leaders of Japan's Environment Research and Technology Development Fund S-16 Project on Policy Design and Evaluation to Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns in Asian Region (PECoP-Asia) heading Policy Design component of the 5 year multi-year project involving University of Tokyo, IGES, NIES and Keio University. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management. He is also a part-time lecturer for Tokyo Institute of Technology. From 2021, Hotta is appointed as the Vice President of Asia Pacific Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (APRSCP).