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.
Prior to joining Cadasta, he worked for USAID 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.

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.

Maricen S. Jalandoni – 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

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.

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 Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport in the Republic of Korea and Urban Redevelopment Authority in Singapore.

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 trainings 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 a 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 Housing Specialist for the Asia Pacific World Bank

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.

Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair
University of New South Wales

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 author of the 2019 ODI/ALNAP Urban Humanitarian Response Good Practice Review.

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.

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.

Regional urban development task team leader
Agence Française De Développement (AFD)

Clément Larrue, French Development Agency – AFD - has over 15 years 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 to benefit to cities. He contributes actively with advocacy role to the GCA Cities & Regions dynamic, and participate actively to 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 South east Asia Region

Regional Manager, Latin America and Caribbean Cities Alliance

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 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 endeavours, projects, knowledge exchange activities, publications, reviews, 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 was acted as an expert for the Policy Unit on National Urban Policies. Currently she is Regional Manager for the Latin America and Caribbean at Cities Alliance, based in Mexico City.

Team Leader - EU SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility

Arab Hoballah is currently the Team Leader of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Facility (SCP Facility) of the SWITCH-Asia Programme. This Facility is part of the largest EU project for sustainable consumption and production in Asia and strengthens small and medium-sized enterprises in integrating environmental and climate protection into their business models. He has a longstanding experience in this sector as he used to be the Chief of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Branch in the United Nations Environment Programme. Arab launched and supervised various initiatives and partnerships (buildings, tourism, cities). He also coordinated the preparation and supervised the implementation of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on SCP.

Habitat for Humanity, Asia-Pacific Region

International Relief and Development Executive and Expert.

Luis has extensive experience in nonprofit management, having held several leadership roles at Food for the Hungry, and currently with Habitat for Humanity International.
Luis had a progressive experience of more than 27 years in International Relief and Development that started in his country of birth Bolivia. In 2006, he was Country Director of FH Bolivia. Subsequently, Regional Director of Latin America and the Caribbean, and in 2009, invited to be part of the Global Executive Office of FH and to move to Washington, D.C. in order to serve as the Chief International Operations Officer. In his last years with FH, he served as the Vice President for Transformational Engagement. He currently works with Habitat for Humanity International as the Vice President for the Asia Pacific area based in Manila, Philippines.

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

Habitat for Humanity, Asia-Pacific Region

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.