Aisha Khan heads the Mountain and Glacier Protection Organization and the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change to protect and preserve the environment. She has a long track record of successful management of multi-sectoral projects that benefit poor and vulnerable communities and empowers them to make informed choices based on the principles of social equity, equitable distribution of resources, and proportional representation of women in decision-making.
Alka Tomar is Director of Centre for Environment Communication (CEC). She spearheads Centre for Youth (C4Y). She has worked on climate change, biodiversity, environmental education, water and sanitation, and other developmental issues.
Arjuna Seneviratne is the Chief Technical Officer of the Green Movement of Sri Lanka. He is the convenor of the National Consumer Network of Sri Lanka and a research advisor to the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute. He is also the Chief Consultant for ICT Systems Design, Marketing, and Business Planning, at the Scandinavian Scholastic Center, in Helsinki, Finland.
Dilip Surkar is the Executive Director of Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC) and the Director of VIKSAT in India. Under his leadership, VASCSC received the ‘National Award for Science & Technology Communication’ from Govt. of India, and the ‘Times of India Social Impact Award for Education.’ He worked as the National Coordinator of the GEF UNDP SGP India. He earlier served as Co-chair of End Water Poverty (EWP) and as Board member of CANSA. He is the Chairman of Society for Sustainable Urban Development (SSUD). He has been a Senior Fellow with American India Foundation (AIF). He is on the Boards of CEE, CHETNA, KHAMIR, and Paryavaran Edutech.
Dr Farah Kabir is Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh. She is a renowned human rights figure at home and abroad with an uncompromising voice against human-rights violations. She is the Chair of the Global Board of the Global Network of Disaster Risk Reduction (GNDR) since 2015, a Board Member of Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) in 2019, a member of the Advisory committee of Bangladesh’s NDA to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
Gothami Chandraratne is Director Operations, Janathakshan (Gte) Ltd, Sri Lanka. She is a member of the Regional Advisory Group of South Asia region and a member of the Task Force on Climate Change of the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR), and Co-Chair of Sri Lanka Preparedness Partnership.
Ms. Julie Gurung, working as Programme Quality and Innovation Director, holds more than 18 years of experience on promoting the rights of women, girls and marginalized groups in Nepal. Her expertise has been demonstrated primarily through her in-depth understanding of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, community mobilization and Resource mobilization. Embedding gender equality and social inclusion as one of the key approaches of community mobilization, she has played a significant role in to promote the active participation of the most marginalized groups of Nepal. Her strength lies in harnessing and nurturing social accountability mechanisms. That paves way for interface/dialogues between the service providers and the service seekers. her capacities on understanding the norms and challenging the mindset to elevate the works of development organizations is enriching.
Ms. Gurung hold a Master Degree on Social Work from Bangalore University where she specialized on human resource and labour rights. Prior to Plan, she was associated with Action Aid Nepal and CARE Nepal. Her passion and contribution can be demonstrated through her leadership in promoting integrated programmes to end Child and early forced marriage in Nepal.
Md Shamsuddoha is the Chief Executive of Center for Participatory Research and Development –CPRD (www.cprdbd.org), a policy think tank in Bangladesh. Being a marine scientist by training, over the last two decades, Md Shamsuddoha has turned to a development enthusiast with his progressive involvement in research, advocacy and activism. He is conversant with the UNFCCC process and actively involved in influencing global and national policy discourse to make them just and rights based.
Dr Ngamindra Dahal is Chair of the Governing Board of Nepal Water Conservation Foundation for Academic Research (waternepal.org.np), and Senior Research Fellow at Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS, sias-southasia.org). He is Co-founder of the Climate Change Network of Nepal (CCNN, 2003).
Prabin Man Singh, Programme Director at Prakriti Resources Centre (PRC) since 2017. He has been associated with CANSA since 2012 in different capacities. He had also served as Coordinator of the National Steering Committee of CANSA in Nepal.
Rabeya Begum is the Executive Director of SDS- (Shariatpur Development Society) (www.sdsbd.org), a national organization with a strong grassroots presence in the disaster and climate risk-exposed areas of the lower Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river basin. For years, she has been playing a pivotal role in raising localized vulnerability and adaptation needs to the national and international policy processes. She also has an amazing track record of campaigning and activism toward ending gender-based violations and child marriage.
Ramesh Babu is the current Executive Director of EFICOR. Under his leadership as the Director of Programmes, EFICOR has been awarded three times over the last 6 years by Project Management India (PMI) for efficient and dedicated work for marginalized communities. He has been part of Board of Directors of various organizations and network bodies. As a member of Sphere India Executive Body, he has engaged with national and state-level administration.
Dr Shafqat Munir Ahmad currently serves as Deputy Executive Director (Policy) and Head of Sustainability and Resilience Programme at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan. Earlier, he had worked with ActionAid, Oxfam GB, and UNDP regional offices in Bangkok for almost a decade in his regional role in humanitarian policy and the then MDGs. He has long been associated with CANSA. He specializes in policy development in climate change, disaster risk reduction, and climate risks, resilience, and risk sensitive urban development, sustainable development, SDGs, human rights, and peace-building.
He leads and undertakes research, grants, and humanitarian and development projects in diverse disciplines, especially in resilience and sustainability- DRR, Climate Change, hazards and risks sensitive development. Hisspecializations and skills build nexus among development, humanitarian, and policy influencing and research work to track achievement on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ranging from no poverty to climate action, urban development to risk sensitivities due to climatic hazards and disasters.
