Management Group

The Management Group is the central decision-making body, including nine international organisations (UNFCCC, WMO, UNEP, IPCC, GCF, GEF, UNU, UNESCO, and AF) and co-chairs of the Science Committee and the Policy and Finance Committee.

It provides overall guidance and direction on WASP’s strategy, workplan, budget and activities. It is supported by the WASP Secretariat and advises on all other aspects of WASP’s work.

Chair

Chizuru Aoki

The Global Environment Facility (GEF)

Chizuru heads the GEF Division of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and Funds, and is a member of the GEF’s Leadership Team. She oversees the GEF’s work with six MEAs as their financial mechanisms, through strategy development, programming, governance support, and resource mobilization. She manages a growing team of talented colleagues who work with the GEF family of funds, including the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), and the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) Trust Fund, and supports GEF senior management. Chizuru is also responsible for climate finance, and has engaged in coordinating joint action among the Green Climate Fund, Climate Investment Funds, the Adaptation Fund, and the GEF. Chizuru joined the GEF in 2010, and served as the Climate Change Mitigation Coordinator from 2011 to 2015 and the Lead Environmental Specialist until mid-2024. Prior to joining the GEF, she led one of the largest UN-led environmental interventions in post-conflict Iraq to facilitate ecosystem management and technology transfer with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Earlier in her career, she managed a program to promote cleaner production. She was a Fulbright Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), receiving her Ph.D in Technology, Management and Policy. Chizuru also holds a BS in Civil Engineering and a MS in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. She is a citizen of Japan.

Members

Mirey Atallah

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Currently head of the Nature for Climate Branch of UNEP, Mirey Atallah aims to bridge the divide between the well-being of humans and that of the planet that hosts us. Mirey Atallah holds two post-graduate degrees in Land Use Planning and Environmental Management and Policies. Her over 20 years of professional experience consist primarily of leveraging and mobilising environmental funding and programming at the country level, running multi-partner trust funds to support Land Use Finance, Climate, Nature and International Waters. She has supported over 45 countries across the globe, through UNCTs, with their policy programming and inclusion of environmental priorities across different sectors. Her last 5 years before joining UNEP were spent in the DRC as a Climate Finance Advisor to the Ministers of Finance and Environment.

Ana Heureux

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Dr Ana Heureux is Chief of the Climate Research and Information Section at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). In this role, she oversees WMO’s flagship State of the Climate reporting, leads WMO’s engagement with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and strengthens links with key research programmes, including the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). Prior to this position, Ana served as Head of Operations for the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) Secretariat, a specialised financing facility co-founded by WMO, UNEP and UNDP. In SOFF, she oversaw the investment portfolio and led the operations cluster. Previously, Ana worked in various roles within the UN and International Financial Institutions, focused on integrating climate science and climate services into investments and implementation of activities designed to deliver tangible benefits for ecosystems and communities. At the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), she served as the technical lead for environment and climate for the Asia and Pacific Region. Ana holds a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor’s degree in Geology and Biology from Brown University.

Youssef Nassef

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Mr Youssef Nassef is the Director of the Adaptation Programme, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Youssef Nassef has led the adaptation workstreams under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since their inception. He possesses over 30 years of experience in diplomacy and international environmental policy and is a seconded diplomat from the Egyptian Foreign Service. While assuming progressively higher levels of leadership at the UNFCCC, he led UNFCCC support for a number of ongoing initiatives on adaptation. These include the inception and support for NAPAs and NAPs; the Nairobi Work Programme – an international knowledge hub for impacts, vulnerability and adaptation; and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. He recently created the Resilience Frontiers initiative which applies foresight for attaining post-2030 resilience. He regularly contributes his vision, insights and thought leadership to international conferences on resilience and adaptation to climate change and their nexus with sustainable development, often focusing on developing countries. He assumed chairmanship of the World Adaptation Science Programme in July 2020 for a two-year period. He holds a Doctoral degree in International Technology Policy and Management and a Master’s degree in International Environmental Policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, as well as a Master’s degree in Middle East Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Physics from the American University in Cairo.

OSCAR A. GARCIA

Green Climate Fund (GCF)

Oscar A. Garcia is the Director, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at the Green Climate Fund. Oscar has more than 25 years of experience in leading areas of strategic planning, evaluation, results-based management, agriculture, rural development, environment, natural resource management, and human development. He was the Chief Impact Officer at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet GEAPP. He served as Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of UNDP and Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation at IFAD. He was Head of Advisory Services for Green Economy, UNEP. He was chair of the UN Evaluation Group and the Evaluation Cooperation Group of MDBs. Oscar has authored books and articles on development evaluation. He is an economist with a Master’s degree in Organisational Change Management, New School University (NY), and an MBA from Bolivian Catholic University, in association with the Harvard Institute for International Development.

Abdalah Mokssit

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Mr Abdalah Mokssit is the Secretary of the IPCC. He has vast experience with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). He is a former Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group I, which deals with the physical science basis of climate change, and has served as a member of the WMO commissions apart from serving as the vice president of the World Meteorological Congress. Mr. Mokssit has held a number of leadership positions including Chief of dynamic meteorology service of Morocco, the Head the National Centre for Climate and Meteorological Research (CNCRM) in Morocco, and was also appointed as the Director of the National Meteorological Department of Morocco, a career spanning over 25 years in strategic management. He is an alumnus of the University of Rabat in Morocco where he earned a degree in mathematics. In 1995, he acquired a Telematics and Information Systems degree as well as a meteorology degree from the National School of Meteorology of Toulouse in France.

Shen Xiaomeng

United Nations University (UNU)

Ms Xiaomeng Shen concurrently holds the roles of UNU Vice-Rector in Europe (UNU-ViE) and Director of the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). Previously, Xiaomeng worked with the then International Bureau of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; BMBF) at the Project Management Agency of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt-Projektträger; DLR-PT), both as Senior Scientific Officer (2011‒2012), with a focus on multilateral science and technology development in Asia and Oceania, and as Deputy Head of the Department for Cooperation with Asia and Oceania; Head of the Cooperation with East Asia and Oceania Unit; and as Coordinator of the European Commission’s EURAXESS Worldwide initiative facilitating the mobility of scientists (from 2013 – 2020). Before joining DLR-PT, Ms Shen worked with UNU-EHS as a Resident Scholar and PhD Researcher (2004‒2008), and thereafter as an Associate Academic Officer (2008‒2010) with a focus on social vulnerability, environmentally induced migration issues and water–related disaster and risk research from cultural perspectives. Ms Shen holds a BA degree from the Beijing Foreign Studies University, a MA degree from the University of Bonn, and a PhD degree from the University of Bonn/UNU-EHS, with a focus on flood risk perception and communication in different cultural contexts.

Anil Mishra

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

As Chief of Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation of UNESCO, Dr Anil Mishra provides science policy advice underpinned by scientific research findings to deal with climate and water related challenges to UNESCO Member States. Dr. Anil Mishra’s academic, professional, and managerial experiences in the field of hydrology, water resources and environment have spanned over 25 years and included a number of international research studies, initiating and leading thematic groups, coordinating center of excellencies, and supporting decision and policy making in the fields of hydrology, cryosphere, water resources and coupled human-environment systems across the globe. Dr. Mishra has authored, co-authored numerous scientific publications, edited books, scientific reports and policy briefs and convened and co-convened conferences focusing on Climate Change Adaptation, Hydrological Extremes, Cryosphere, and Water Resources Management.

Saliha Dobardzic

The Adaptation Fund (AF)

Saliha Dobardzic is the Lead of the Programming and Innovation Unit at the Adaptation Fund, which processes over half a billion of dollars in funding requests annually and has been leading the development of the Fund’s innovation program since joining the Fund in 2018. Prior to this role, she was a Senior Climate Change Specialist with the Global Environment Facility’s climate change adaptation program, namely the Least Developed Countries Fund and Special Climate Change Fund, working on various strategic, technical, and policy aspects of $1.4 billion program portfolio. Previously, Saliha worked on environmental, international waters, and integrated coastal zone management issues with the World Bank’s MENA region. She has also supported the World Bank’s MENA climate change beam in devising and implementing the first corporate climate change strategy for the region, and the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction in support of mainstreaming climate change considerations in ex-ante disaster risk management. Her experience also includes stints with the UN-Habitat in Nairobi, The Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center, and a number of prominent NGOs, in the private sector in the United States and abroad, as well as the World Bank’s country office in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which she is a national.

Co-chairs of the Science Committee

Cynthia Rosenzweig

NASA and Columbia University

Ms Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, an Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia University Earth Institute, and a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Barnard College. At NASA GISS, she heads the Climate Impacts Group whose mission is to investigate the interactions of climate (both variability and change) on systems and sectors important to human well-being. Dr. Rosenzweig is co-director of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) and co-editor of the UCCRN Assessment Reports on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3). Dr. Rosenzweig is a co-founder and co-leader of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP). Dr. Rosenzweig was the Coordinating Lead Author of the Food Security Chapter for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land and the Coordinating Lead Author on observed climate change impacts for the IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report.

Anand Patwardhan

University of Maryland

Mr Anand Patwardhan is Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was earlier a Professor at the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay and a Visiting Professor at the Nicholas School of Environment, Duke University. He served as Executive Director of the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), India from 2004-2008. Anand has a BTech (Electrical Engineering) from IIT-Bombay and a MS (Civil Engineering) and PhD (Engineering and Public Policy), both from Carnegie Mellon University. Anand has worked extensively in the area of climate policy at the national and multilateral level, focusing on mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change, and the assessment of vulnerability and adaptation. He has also worked on broader issues of science, technology and innovation policy, including the diffusion and adoption of clean technology. He is particularly interested in questions of vulnerability and resilience and the linkages with sustainable development. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) 6 and one of the Co-chairs of the Science Committee of the World Adaptation Science Program. He was a coordinating lead author for the Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). He was associated with the Global Energy Assessment (GEA) as coordinating lead author and co-chair of the Executive Committee. He is on the editorial board of Climate and Development and Climatic Change Letters and was a founding editor and former editor-in-chief of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.

Johanna Nalau

Griffith University

Ms Johanna Nalau is an award-winning adaptation scientist who thrives on finding clues how humans can better see into the future and make robust decisions today that secure a more resilient future for us all. Her research focuses on understanding climate adaptation decision principles and what role adaptation science does and can play in decision- and policy-making. She is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at Griffith University leading an Australian first project on the development and feasibility of adaptation heuristics. The project aims to uncover such key principles, interrogate their feasibility as decision guides, and provide more robust advice on how to invest and pursue effective and successful adaptation to climate change that enables benefits to the environment, society and security. Dr Nalau is Lead Author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment report in Working Group II (Chapter 15 Small Islands), Managing Editor of the Journal of Climate Risk Management, and Co-chair of the Science Committee of the World Adaptation Science Program. She also leads the Adaptation Science Research Theme at Cities Research Institute at Griffith University that focuses on bringing together the university’s key thinkers on adaptation. She was awarded Griffith University Young Outstanding Alumni Award 2019 for the Sciences Group, and the Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award 2020. She is passionate about building the capacity of the next generation through enabling leadership and career development and innovation in adaptation science.

Co-chairs of the Policy and Finance Committee

Minpeng Chen

Remin University, China

Ms Minpeng Chen is a full professor in the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (SARD) at Renmin University of China.She has working experiences of adaptation and mitigation in agriculture, and the sustainability of agriculture at Tsinghua University, Yale University, Yamanashi University, IIASA, and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. She acted as a negotiator on adaptation and loss and damage of Chinese Delegation from 2014 to 2016, as well as a member and co-chair of the Adaptation Committee of UNFCCC from 2015 to 2017. Prof. Chen holds a B.A. in Environmental Economics and obtained her PH.D. from Tsinghua University in Environmental System Analysis.

Bhim Adhikari

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

Dr. Adhikari is a Senior Program Specialist at Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and work specifically on environment, climate change and sustainable development issues. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Adhikari has worked with several international organizations and academic institutions, including the United Nations agencies. Prior to IDRC, he worked with the Institute of Water, Environment and Health, United Nations University (UNU), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). His research appointments include a Research Fellow at the School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, USA; visiting Research Fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo, Japan; and an UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellow. He obtained a PhD in Environmental Economics and Management form the University of York, UK and has researched and written widely on climate change and the economics of environment and natural resources management.

Sivapuram Venkata Rama Krishna Prabhakar

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)

Prabhakar works with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan, as a Principal Policy Researcher. He works on transboundary impacts of climate change, vulnerability assessments, risk insurance, loss and damage, mainstreaming CCA and DRR into development plans and policies, adaptation metrics, adaptive policies and institutions, and capacity needs assessments. He led several research and development projects on climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) in South and South-East Asian countries. Prabhakar obtained a PhD in Field Crop Management from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India, and possesses more than 20 years of experience in participatory research and development with international and national research and development organizations, including IGES, Kyoto University, UNDP, NIDM, CIMMYT-RWC, IARI, and ICRISAT. A strong publication record with several peer-reviewed papers supports his work experience. He has been a Contributing Author to the Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports of the IPCC Working Group II, Coordinating Lead Author for the UNEP Geo-6 report, Lead Author for the ASEAN State of Climate Report (SOE6), and Lead Author for the HIMAP Report.