Since January 2020 Oumar Sylla has been acting as Director for the Regional Office for Africa in the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat). Before this, he was Branch Coordinator, Urban Legislation, Land and Governance in UN Habitat and, from September 2015, Head of UN Habitat’s Land and GLTN Unit. Prior to joining the Land and GLTN Unit, Oumar served as a Senior Advisor in UN Habitat’s Regional Office for Africa and focal point to support urban policies development and sustainable urbanization in francophone countries.

Bishnu Raj Upreti has a Master’s in Sociology (1994) from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and an MSc in Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems (1998) and a PhD in Conflict Management (2001) from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. From 2001-3, he did post doctoral work at the University of London (King’s College) and the Centre for Environmental Studies at the University of Surrey, UK. In 40 years of professional work he has gained wide experience in research and development from the local to international level.

Dr Dhanasree Jayaram took on her current positions of Assistant Professor in the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations and Co-coordinator at the Centre for Climate Studies, at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), in 2018. She is also a Research Fellow of Earth System Governance (ESG) and a Project Associate of the Manipal Advanced Research Group (MARG).

Maxi Pia Louis is the Director of the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO). Her background is in tourism and conservation; in 1995 she co-founded the Namibia Community Based Tourism Association (NACOBTA) and was its Director for nine years. Maxi joined NACSO in 2005 as the Secretariat Coordinator. Her current activities include coordinating the NACSO’s three main thematic working groups and nine non-profit organizations, as well as researchers and consultants working in communication.

Himanshu Kulkarni has led ACWADAM, a not-for-profit knowledge institution and think-tank on groundwater since 1998. He is a hydrogeologist by qualification and has been working on aquifers and groundwater across India’s diverse groundwater typology for more than 35 years. ACWADAM has partnered with a variety of organizations on piloting and mainstreaming the ideas of participatory groundwater management and springshed development across India, Nepal, Bhutan and Vietnam and has begun work in Africa.

Thomas Gauthier is Professor of Strategy at Emlyon Business School. Prior to moving into academia, he worked at Philips Healthcare and Philips Group Innovation where he held various positions including Clinical Research Director. His research interests have now brought him to explore how anticipation may help organizations make decisions in unpredictable times.

Oli Brown has been working at the nexus of security, natural resources and climate change for the past 17 years, with a particular interest in peacebuilding, conflict mediation, natural resource management, environmental politics and trade policy. He is an Associate Fellow with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and also Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs).

Saurav Malhotra is the co-founder and designer of the Balipara Foundation’s Rural Futures framework. Saurav believes in stewardship by indigenous groups to create a new pathway for development and biodiversity restoration. Through the Rural Futures programme, Saurav and his team across the Eastern Himalayas are implementing a framework for community-led habitat restoration linked to universal basic asset delivery.

Ranjit Barthakur is an ardent social entrepreneur, with a special interest in improving health and education and preserving culture and environment across the Eastern Himalayas. He is the chief architect of the vision behind NaturenomicsTM, which defines the interdependence between ecology and economics. He and his team at the Balipara Foundation have developed Rural Futures, a vision for enhancing community-based conservation and social mobility through natural capital regeneration.