SOEs - Membership

The terms of reference of the SOEs Expert Group were adopted at ExCom 12 (October 2020). The Executive Committee launched the SOEs Expert Group, currently comprising 11 members, including 4 ExCom members serving as facilitators of the expert group.

Current members are:

Credit: Mariya Aleksandrova

Mariya ALEKSANDROVA

German Institute of Development and Sustainability

Mariya Aleksandrova is a Senior Researcher and Project Lead at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability. Her areas of expertise include adaptation and loss and damage governance and finance, and social protection and climate change. Her current research focuses on finance mechanisms for addressing compound risks and slow onset climate impacts. Previously, she consulted various UN organizations with operations across Central and Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Credit: Rubén Basantes Serrano

Ruben BASANTES

Associate Professor, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam

Rubén Basantes Serrano currently works as an Assistant Professor at the Earth and Water Science Faculty at the Universidad regional Amazónica Ikiam in Ecuador. He collaborates with international research groups such as the GLACIOCLIM monitoring program (France), INAIGEM (Peru), UMSA (Bolivia), UAF and UAH (US). His areas of expertise include glaciology, remote sensing, risk assessment, and understanding climate through the glacier response in the Andes region. Previously, he served as a climate risk and adaptation Advisor to the Government of Ecuador, as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centro de Estudios Cientìficos (CECS), Glaciology Lab in Chile and as a Research Assistant at the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS).

Credit: Bettina Koelle

Bettina KOELLE

Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

Bettina Koelle is a Senior Knowledge and Learning Specialist with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. She has 20 years of experience in facilitating community-based development and adaptation and in policy-related research and discourse both in South Africa and globally. She is a Contributing Author to the current draft of the IPCC 6^th Assessment Report and is a member of the Adaptation Fund NGO network. Previously, she served as Senior Technical Advisor at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and has also contributed to the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (IPCC SREX). She has also served on the South African Steering Committee of the National Implementing Entity (NIE) for the Adaptation Fund as well as on the Project Advisory Committee for the NIE’s Community Adaptation Small Grants Facility Project.

Credit: Jaroslav Mysiak

Jaroslav MYSIAK

Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change

Jaroslav Mysiak currently serves as Senior Scientist and Research Director at the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change. His research focuses on risk assessment and governance, including behavioural responses to risks and risk-reduction measures, risk perception and transformational social change, environmental economics, sustainable finance, climate adaptation and services. Previously, he served as a Senior Scientist at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.

Credit: Albert Salamanca

Albert SALAMANCA

Stockholm Environment Institute – Asia Centre

Albert Salamanca is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Asia Centre where he leads the Climate Change, Disasters and Development cluster. He has over 15 years of experience working on climate change adaptation, natural resource management, conservation, development, and sustainable livelihoods issues in several countries in Southeast Asia. Previously, he served as a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute - Asia Centre.

Credit: Marioldy Sanchez Santivañez

Marioldy SANCHEZ-SANTIVANEZ

Associate, Asociación para la Investigación y el Desarrollo Integral

Marioldy Sanchez Santivañez is a forest engineer with expertise in project management, monitoring and evaluation. She has 18 years of experience in implementing and managing forest conservation and sustainable development projects in the Peruvian Amazon and drylands of Peru. Her areas of expertise are community-based forest management, sustainable land management, land restoration, participatory management of protected areas and climate change mitigation initiatives in the land use, land-use change and forestry sector and private sector engagement. She has eight years of experience in the follow-up of the negotiations of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and served in the UNCCD Civil Society Panel and in the UNCCD Science- Politicy Interface, representing civil society.

Credit: Emmanuel Seck

Emmanuel SECK

Environnement et Developpement du Tiers Monde

Emmanuel Seck is Executive Director of ENDA Energie member of the Environment and Development TM network. He is a Board Member of the Global Network for Disaster Reduction where he serves as a Regional Representative of West and Central Africa. His areas of expertise include Climate Change adaptation, climate finance, loss and damage, sustainable land management and energy planning. He has been engaged at the national, regional, and international levels in the intergovernmental processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the Sendai Framework.

Credit: Akhilesh Surjan

Akhilesh SURJAN

Charles Darwin University, Australia

Akhilesh Surjan is an Associate Professor and Research and Theme Leader at the Humanitarian, Emergency and Disaster Management Studies Program at the Charles Darwin University in Australia. His areas of expertise include disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation (in human settlements), urban sustainability (urban resilience, local governance, sustainable consumption and waste reduction). Previously, he served as Associate Professor in the Inter-Graduate School Program for Sustainable Development and Survivable Societies at the Kyoto University in Japan. He was also a Lead Author of the IPCC 5^th Assessment Report and Contributing Author of the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.