Climate-resilient Water Management Approaches: Application Towards Climate Action and 2030 Agenda

Ms. Shamilla Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO

Mr. Jonahan Hanssens, Sec. General Flanders Department od Economy, Science and Innovation

Session moderated by Mr. Abou Amani, Director of the Division of Water Sciences, UNESCO

 

Mr. Han Seung-Soo, Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea and Chair of the High-Level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters, HELP

 

Mr. Taikan Oki, Former Vice-Rector of United Nations University, Tokyo  (download presentation)

Mr. John Matthews, Executive Director, AGWA  (download presentation)

 

Mr. Sulton Rahimzoda, Chair of the Executive Commitee, International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, and Co-chair of the International Advisory Committee for the Dushanbe Water Process to promote the implementation of the International Decade for Action, 2018-2028

Ms. Blanca Jiménez Cisneros, Ambassador of Mexico in the French Republic;

Mr. Anil Mishra, Chief of Hydrological Systems and Water Scarcity Section, UNESCO

 

Mr. Anil Mishra, Chief of Hydrological Systems and Water Scarcity Section, UNESCO

 

Dr Amani is the Director of the Division of Water Sciences at UNESCO, based in Paris. He is also Secretary of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP). Dr Amani is a civil engineer with graduation from the Ecole Polytechnic of Thies in Senegal (1990). He holds a PhD on civil engineering with focus on hydrology and water resources from Polytechnic of Montreal in Canada (1995). He also holds the title of “Maitre de recherche” which is equivalent to senior researcher or Associate Professor delivered by CAMES (African Higher Education Council). He joined UNESCO in 2006, first as science programme specialist in Accra, Ghana. He later was in charge of IHP for the Sub-Saharan Africa based in Nairobi before moving to headquarters in Paris as Chief of Section on hydrological systems and water scarcity within the Division of water sciences and then Chief of Executive Office of the Natural Sciences Sector. Before joining UNESCO, he worked at AGRHYMET regional centre in Niamey as regional hydrologist, head of water unit and scientific coordinator. He worked for three years for the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) as researcher and visiting scientist. He has been member and contributor of various committees, initiatives, panels for among others: World Water Council (WWC), IPCC and World Water Development Report (WWDR). He has many years of research and teaching and he is author of more than 50 scientific papers.

 

Ad Jeuken is a climate change adaptation expert at Deltares since 2008 holding a PhD in climate modelling (KNMI and technical university Eindhoven) and a professional background in water management. Now 12 years with Deltares he has developed as an international expert on climate change adaptation and has worked for international organizations like the European commission, ADB, GCF, WB, FAO and UNFCCC and for governments worldwide on climate change risk analysis, adaptation planning, training and capacity building. He is an author of the Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis guide for water resources management as well as many other publications in the field of water, DRR and climate.

Mr. Ahmed Mujthaba was appointed as the Minister of State for Environment on 29th December 2018. He has been entrusted with handling of sectoral policy co-ordination and monitoring of the services related to Water and Sanitation, as well as planning and implementation of Government Investment Programs in the area of safe Water and Sewerage. Mr. Ahmed Mujthaba has specialized in the area of governance and the national development. He graduated in Public Administration (INTAN/Malaysia & SLIDA/Sri Lanka 1986-1989) and has completed Post-Graduate studies in Development Policy and Planning at University of Wales, UK (1991/1992). He holds Master’s Degree in Development Management, from the Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad (IIM-A). He was awarded the title of Professional Membership with Fellow Certified Professional Manager (FCPM) in March 2012. Before joining politics, Mr. Ahmed Mujthaba has worked at executive level in various government agencies for more than 25 years. This includes, Department of Telecommunication, Maldives Ports Authority, Maldives Center for Management and Administration (MCMA)/ Ministry of Planning, and Department of Penitentiary & Rehabilitation. He joined politics in 2006 and since then has filled a number of key positions, including the member of Policy Committee (2007 to 2012) and the party President for the South Central Province of the Maldivian Democratic Party (2009 – to-date), State Minister of Home Affairs (2008 to 2010) and State Minister at Ministry of Economic Development (2011 to 2012).  Additionally, Mr. Ahmed Mujthaba has been the elected member of the Governing Board of Commonwealth Local Government Forum (2009 to 2012). He has also gained experience of the UN System in the Maldives. He was the UNDP Consultant in the area of Decentralization and Civil Society Development at different times. Mr. Ahmed Mujthaba has gained experience in the private sector too. He was a Board Member at Island Transport Pte Ltd, (from 1996 to 2006), Executive Director of Sterling Group Pte Ltd, (2005 to 2008) and the Managing Director of Premier International Pte Ltd (from 2012 to 2018) and the Chairman of Haneen Shipping and Trading Pte Ltd., (from 2012 to 2018).

 

Mr. Alexis Dufour is a water resources engineer at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Water Enterprise. He is a licensed professional civil engineer with over 18 years of experience in hydrology, reservoir system operation and water resources planning. In recent years, he worked on how to integrate forecast information into operational decisions. Since 2016, he is leading a project on Long-term Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan for the SFPUC Water Enterprise. He represents SFPUC at the Water Utilities Climate Alliance and is member of the American Meteorological Society Water Resources Committee.

Since 2007, Bhava has been working at international level in the field of climate change. Her current duties include, supporting and advising developing country Parties to prepare for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, with a focus on the enhanced transparency framework. In this context, Bhava lead’s the UN Climate Change secretariat’s training programme called the Adaptation Academy, which falls under the flagship programme “Climate Action Support Transparency Training.” This programme brings together numerous partners from research and educational intuitions to provide targeted trainings to experts from developing country Parties on conducting climate change assessments and enhancing national climate change reporting systems. Bhava as a master’s degree in natural resource management form the Asian Institute of Technology. She also has experience in areas of access to energy services for poverty reduction having worked for the UNDP Asia-Pacific region previously.

Dr. Casey Brown is Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University. His primary research interest is the development of analytical methods for improving the use of scientific observations and data in decision making, with a focus on climate and water resources, and he has worked extensively on projects around the world in this regard. He has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Science from Harvard University and led the water team at the International Research Institute (IRI) for Climate and Society at Columbia University.

 

 

Dr. Fiona Ngarachu is a research fellow working at the Kenyatta University Geography department under the BRECcIA project. The focus of her current role is to undertake research and engagement that helps us to understand policy making agendas, processes and mechanisms concerning food and water security in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana. Fiona is also the Kenya stakeholder country coordinator working with several partners to ensure that stakeholder priorities are integrated within the project. Fiona has previously conducted both qualitative and quantitative research around refugee resettlement and reproductive health in Africa having worked with HIAS Kenya refugee agency and the UNAIDS technical support facility for East Africa. Fiona holds a B.A degree from the United States International UniversityAfrica in international relations, an Msc degree from Strathclyde University in political science and a PhD degree from the University of Southampton in political science.

 

Geoff is a professional civil engineer with over 30 years’ consultancy experience covering a wide range of water-related disciplines, including hydraulic engineering, hydrology, water resources, flood risk, water supply, coastal and maritime projects in Europe, Middle East and Asia/Pacific. Geoff’s current position is within the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department of ADB where he provides specialist advice and supports project preparation for a variety of water-related projects.

 

Johan Hanssens is Secretary-general of the Department of Economy, Science & Innovation within the Flemish administration since 1 December 2015. He holds master’s degrees in economics and law from KU Leuven.  He started his career in the banking sector. From 2000 to 2015 he was advisor (deputy chief of staff / chief of staff) of different party leaders in Flanders and ministers in the Flemish government. He advocates the ‘quadruple helix’ R&I model and transformational innovation policy.

Dr. John H. Matthews is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), an international NGO focused on supporting experts, decision makers, and institutions within the water community to work together to find solutions for resilient water resources management. His work primarily targets decision-making frameworks for adapting water infrastructure and ecosystems to climate impacts. John has been published in many policy, scientific, and technical journals and books, including Science and Nature Climate Change. He has advised a wide range of institutions, including bilateral, multilateral, NGO, national level agencies, UN agencies, foundations, and corporations on topics including non-stationary resource management, finance, economics, and management practice. He is a columnist with OOSKAnews and a Courtesy Faculty member of Oregon State University’s Water Resources Graduate Program. Previously, John started and directed global freshwater climate adaptation programs for WWF and Conservation International. He has PhD in Aquatic Ecology from the University of Texas.

 

José Luis Gutiérrez-Ossio is a civil engineer with a master's degree in photogrammetry and geographic information systems. He has been working in the adaptation to climate change field for many years contributing to design adaptation projects, monitoring and evaluation systems, and training on the scientific bases of climate change and on the use of different tools to mainstream adaptation to climate change on developing projects. José Luis worked for the public and private institutions, as well as for international cooperation programs and projects financed by World Bank and GIZ.  

 

Mario López Pérez has over 40 years of experience in water management, with expertise in climate change water rights, nature-based solutions, transboundary management, and the water-energy nexus. He has served as a World Bank Consultant for the MENA Region and held posts at UNCD, GWP Central America, CIIFEN, The Nature Conservancy, WWF Perú, the Sonoran Institute, and Pronatura Méxci. Currently, Mario is a Senior Water Resources Consultant for the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, working to support the Bolivian government with targeted climate-centric adaptation guidance relating to their NDC. He is also engaged in the Water Tracker initiative, a tool and diagnostic guide to help countries self-assess and enhance water resilience in their national climate planning.

Mojtaba Shafiei is a hydrologist and water resources strategic planning consultant. His expertise and main activities during the past ten years span over hydrological modelling, water accounting, socio-hydrological studying, roadmapping in water management, and sustainability assessment of river basin systems. Mojtaba is currently working at EWERI (a private-sector research institute in Iran). He is active internationally collaborating with IHE Delft, The Hague Academy for Local Governance, various scientific associations and consulting engineering companies. Additionally, he participated/organized in several national and international water-related capacity-building programs. Mojtaba is keen to find solutions for narrowing the actionable knowledge gap between researchers (science) and policymakers (policy) in the context of sustainable water management.

 

 

Pooja Prasad is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Land and Water Management at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. Her research experience is in water and agriculture for food security in semi-arid regions of Asia and Africa. Her research explores the use of data and models to inform and be informed by participatory methods for decision making under uncertainty. In eastern Africa, she is applying participatory adaptive investment pathways in the context of smallholder farmer-led irrigation. Her PhD research focused on systems analysis of agricultural intensification in the drought-prone regions of Maharashtra, India, and contributed to the Government of Maharashtra Project on Climate Resilient Agriculture (PoCRA). Her thesis was awarded IIT Bombay’s Excellence in PhD research award. Pooja has a PhD from the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and a Masters’ degree from Stanford University.

 

 

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An engineer, a social scientist and a conservationist, I work at the interface of science, policy and practice. I have almost a decade of work experience in freshwater conservation projects where I have set up multi-stakeholder platforms, facilitated transdisciplinary research through knowledge brokering tools and implemented community-based adaptation projects in urban and rural contexts. I am also a contributing author to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report Working Group II Chapter 4 on Water and Adaptation. I currently work with Global Resilience Partnership on knowledge brokering and MEL on climate and water resilience initiatives. I have previously worked with The Nature Conservancy and WWF. I have degrees from University of Oxford and Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai. When not found working on resilience initiatives, I enjoy music, reading writing, Yoga, gardening, cooking and meditation.

Mr. Rahimzoda was appointed in 2005 a Chairman of the EC IFAS and has since then led the high-level dialogue on transboundary water resources and environmental management in the Aral Sea basin. Mr. Rahimzoda held several prominent positions in the Gov-ernment of Tajikistan, including the position of the Head of Environment and Emergency Situation Department at the President Executive Office, the First Deputy Minister of Land Reclamation and Water Resources in 2010-2013, and the First Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Resources in 2013-2019, at the same time representing Tajikistan as a member of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of the Central Asia. From September 2019 to mid-2020, he served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipoten-tiary of the Republic of Tajikistan to the Republic of India. In September 2020 Mr. Rahimzoda was once again appointed a Chairman of the EC IFAS representing the President of Tajikistan as a Pres-ident of IFAS. Mr. Rahimzoda is also an esteemed water diplomat actively promoting and advocating water issu-es at global level. Mr. Rahimzoda authored a number of publications on different aspects of water resources ma-nagement in Tajikistan and Central Asia.

 

 

Prof. Taikan Oki is a special advisor to the president of The University of Tokyo, and a professor of the Department of Civil Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. His previous academic positions include Associate Professor with the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo and Associate Professor with the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. His areas of expertise are global hydrology and the sustainability of world water resources under climate change including the virtual water trade and water footprint. He was one of the coordinating lead authors for the chapter “Freshwater Resources” of the IPCC WGII AR5. He got many awards such as the Biwako Prize for Ecology in 2011, and the Japan Academy Medal in 2008. He is the first Japanese AGU Fellow in its Hydrology Section (2014) and the first Japanese winner of the Dooge Medal of the International Hydrology Prize (2021).