Meet Our Resource People
This meeting is a milestone event in many respects. One of the more notable is that we have convened some of the leading thinkers and doers on climate change and gender issues in the world. The below backgrounds provide a brief overview of the achievements of the resource people attending the meeting.
Resource People
(Alphabetically by organization)
Lauren Sorkin
100 Resilient Cities
Lauren Sorkin is the Regional Co-Director of Asia Pacific for 100 Resilient Cities and is an environment and knowledge management specialist. Lauren spent six years working with the ADB promoting climate responsive development and also served in the ADB Vietnam Resident Mission managing the integration of climate resilience into the Bank’s $7 billion investment portfolio in country. Prior to this, Lauren worked through the USAID Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon to promote green growth as well as with the USAID Eco-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program. Lauren worked with the European Commission and the Worldwatch Institute where she published work on biofuels, trans-boundary water management, climate change, infant mortality and HIV/AIDS. Lauren holds a BA in International Relations and a MSc in Environment and Development.
Rachel A. Aron
African Development Bank Group (AfDB)
Rachel A. Aron is a Principal Social Development Specialist at the African Development Bank Group.
Rachel is responsible for mainstreaming social development concerns primarily in private sector operations and also in public sector operations across diverse sectors. She is responsible for integrating gender considerations into operations. She is engaged in innovative work on environmental, social, and/or gender matters for the Climate Investment Funds, the Global Environment Facility, and the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa.
She has a MA in International Development from American University (Washington, DC, United States) with specializations in community development and gender. She is fluent in French.
Anne T. Kuriakose, Ph.D.
Climate Investment Funds (CIF)
Anne T. Kuriakose, Ph.D. is Senior Social Development Specialist at the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) at the World Bank in Washington DC, where she is responsible for mainstreaming gender across the USD 8.3 billion CIF program. Anne also serves as Gender and Climate Lead for the World Bank Group. Anne has over 20 years of experience in gender and social development, with particular expertise in climate adaptation, rural development, and water resources. Since joining the World Bank in 2005, Anne has worked in regional and anchor units on operations in CDD, irrigation, and governance. She has led analytical work on gender and labor, adaptation, social protection, and water management. Her country experience includes work in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Romania, Tajikistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Burkina Faso.
Jiwoo Choi
Green Climate Fund (GCF)
Jiwoo Choi is the Head (Acting) of GCF’s Private Sector Facility —PSF. Jiwoo has 15 years of experience in corporate, project and structured finance. Prior to joining the Fund, Jiwoo served for ten years at Standard & Poor’s covering a whole suite of structured finance and project finance transactions, coupled with infrastructure and utility corporates in the Asia Pacific Region. She also worked as Head of Credit for Overseas Investment in Hanwha Life and served at the Financial Intelligence Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economy in Korea. She holds a Master’s Degree from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Sookmyung Women’s University (South Korea).
Rajib Ghosal
Green Climate Fund (GCF)
Rajib Ghosal is currently the Gender and Social Specialist at the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Republic of Korea. He is responsible for ensuring that gender and social issues are successfully mainstreamed in the GCF’s operations and programs. He has more than eighteen years of experience working as a consultant/staff member with leading multilateral and development organizations like World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNICEF, CARE, Natural Resources International, UK, Union of Concerned Scientists, US, and Aga Khan Foundation, US. His areas of work include: gender equality and women’s empowerment, climate change, social and human development, social policy, social protection, community development and social cohesion, and sustainable livelihoods. Rajib has successfully started up and managed multi-million donor financed projects and has undertaken substantial social policy analysis work for government agencies.
Dagmar Zwebe
Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
Dagmar Zwebe is the Principal Program Manager of the GGGI Indonesia program since the mid of 2016 and ensures timely, high quality delivery of GGGI’s commitments to the Government of Indonesia, GGGI’s donors and other stakeholders. It is focusing on mitigation with a special focus on Energy, Special Economic Zones and Forestry and Land use.
Prior to joining GGGI, Dagmar was as Renewable Energy Sector Leader managing the quality and development of the Renewable Energy portfolio of SNV Vietnam. Furthermore, she was the Team Leader of a multi country (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam) ADB funded Climate Change Mitigation project focusing on gender inclusion in mitigation initiatives (RETA7914).
Dagmar has two MSc degrees in “Industrial Engineering and Management” (University of Twente) and “Poverty Reduction; Policy and Practice” (SOAS, University of London).
Bulganmurun Tsevegjav
Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
Bulganmurun Tsevegjav is a Program Integration Lead/Specialist at the Green Growth Planning and Implementation Division of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). Based in Manila, she currently works at Philippine Country Program, providing professional expertise on ongoing program activities where GGGI is continuing to build its in-country assistance directed towards the paths to inclusive growth and climate resilience together with the Philippine Government. She was extensively involved in design, formulation and translation of gender-sensitive and inclusive green growth policy planning documents in collaboration with National Government agencies and International organizations (WB, UNDP, ADB, TAF and UNFCCC Secretariat), delivered a series of capacity building programs and participated promotion of climate change mitigation, low-carbon financing and environmental projects at international, national and local levels. She holds M.Sc. in Energy and Environmental Management, University of Twente in Netherlands.
Liane Schalatek
Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America
Liane Schalatek is the Associate Director of the Washington Office of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. Since 2008, she has been leading the work on climate finance for the Heinrich Böll Stiftung (a German non-profit political foundation affiliated with the German Green Party) and its 30 offices worldwide. She monitors the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) and was involved in its design process from the beginning in 2011. From January 2016 to December 2017, she is representing developed countries civil society as active observer on the GCF Board. As a leading expert on gender and climate finance, she has worked with governments, UN agencies and existing multilateral climate funds on this issue. She co-founded and co-leads one of the primary civil society climate finance transparency efforts, the website, a joint project with ODI. She has engaged in UNFCCC climate negotiations as a civil society observer since COP 14.
Lorena Aguilar
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Lorena Aguilar is a Global Senior Gender Advisor with over thirty years of experience in initiatives involving public policy development, building local institutions and the incorporation of social and gender issues into development. Lorena established and consolidated the IUCN Global Gender Office - the preferred partner for international governments and NGOs seeking to promote gender equality and women empowerment for achieving biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. She has created and/or is part of some of the most influential international gender networks; e.g. the Network of Women Ministers and Leaders of the Environment and the Global Gender and Climate Alliance. She developed strategies for mainstreaming gender in leading organizations, including UNFCCC, UNISDR, UNEP, CBD and the UNCCD and supports governments to develop gender policies and to create organizational capacity in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Lorena authored over seventy publications on gender, development, disaster risk, climate change, water, health and environment.
Bridget Burns
Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)
Bridget Burns specializes in policy advocacy, research and movement building at the intersection of gender equality, women’s rights and climate justice. For several years, she has been particularly focused on integrating gender equality into the decisions and outcomes of the UNFCCC and facilitated capacity building for over 250 women form the Global South to participate as part of their national delegations in UNFCCC meetings under WEDO’s flagship Women Delegates Fund program. Bridget serves as the co-Focal Point of the Women and Gender Constituency, which supports the political participation of women’s rights advocates into the climate process. Through synergies with key civil society activists, this work has supported the international of gender equality language across 50 programs and decisions of the UNFCCC. Bridget has also sat the Developed Country Observer for the Pilot Program on Climate Resilience of the CIF. She obtained a Master from the LSE in Gender, Development and Globalization.
Verona Collantes-Lebale
UN Women
Verona Collantes-Lebale is an Intergovernmental Specialist at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). She works with governments, UN entities and other non-government partners to ensure that intergovernmental processes and their outcomes promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. She serves as UN Women’s focal point for the climate change process where she works with partners in (i) implementing gender-related decisions of Parties to the UNFCCC; (ii) enhancing women’s participation in the UNFCCC process; (iii) supporting women-led climate initiatives and projects; and (iv) providing a platform to enhance understanding on gender mainstreaming in climate policy, programmes and finance, among others. Her professional experience straddles diplomacy, trade and development, investment, migration, least developed countries, sustainable development, gender equality and women’s empowerment. Verona has a Master in International Law and Economics and completed post-graduate courses in International Relations.
Fleur Newman
UNFCCC
Fleur Newman is currently the lead programme officer for the Gender and Climate Change agenda item under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Gender Focal Point for the UNFCCC secretariat. Fleur has a background in climate change, sustainable development, energy and international law in the private sector, and in advocating for gender equality and women and girl's empowerment.