Aashraya Seth
India
Aashraya is an award-winning social innovator, inventor, and founder of projects like STEMinism in India, Menstrual Hygiene Friendly Spaces, among others, most of which act as a case study for MENA and ASEM countries. He has led several development projects of the British, Indian, and Australian governments and was recently placed amongst the top 80 social innovators in India and the top 50 emerging policy leaders in the world. Aashraya has fellowships in public policy and international development from the US, the UK, South Korea, Germany, and the UN. Aashraya professionally works with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the Australian High Commission and voluntarily leads the Inclusion strand of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, UK.
Achala Ran Arunalu Meddegama
Sri Lanka
As a technocrat entreprenuer, social activist, and pioneer in forest restoration in Sri Lanka, Achala believes in actions today for a better tomorrow. He has rallied for peaceful change against autocracy of the Rajapakse regime in 2022. His current work includes creating an open-source MIS for sustainable development, assisting nations in fulfilling their UNFCC Paris agreement pledges. His focus: a better planet for all.
Ayesha Majid
Pakistan
Ayesha Majid is a sustainability advocate working to make cities environmentally compatible and socially equitable. She specializes in action research, fact-based policy advocacy, and social mobilization to bring about systemic change. Ayesha aspires to bridge the gap between various stakeholders to make urban settings economically, socially, and environmentally resilient.
Arzoo Karki
Nepal
Arzoo Karki is a human rights lawyer from Nepal. She is the founder of Initiative for Business and Human Rights. She holds an experience of working at various human rights institutions in Nepal including INSEC. Ms. Karki is currently pursuing her LLM at UC Berkeley.
Bakht Noor Khan
Pakistan
Bakht Noor Khan is a development and policy research professional with over 7 years experience working in government departments and international development organizations. His work has focused on socioeconomic development of the backward regions, identity conflicts, combined and uneven developent, and has contributed to ground-breaking policy making and research in volatile contexts. Khan has advanced research degree in Political Economy from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
Debarshee Dasgupta
India
Debarshee Dasgupta is a Senior Research Associate with CPR’s Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies, and Development Studies (TREADS) programme and the MoJS (Ministry of Jal Shakti) Research Chair- Water Conflicts and Governance. In this role, he researches various aspects of federal and inter-state governance of water in India and South Asia. His research and writing focuses on institutional aspects of water governance, river basin management, and environmental planning.
Fathimath Lahfa
Maldives
Fathimath is a development practitioner committed to unpack the complex challenges facing the Maldives by leveraging her past experiences in the public, private and development sector. In her current role as the Head of Exploration at UNDP Maldives Accelerator Lab, she explores these challenges through innovation approaches such as systems thinking and horizon scanning. She has a Masters in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Ginisha Dewani
India
Ginisha currently serves as a Programme Officer at the Embassy of Denmark in India, supporting the ongoing Strategic Sector Cooperation programmes in Water and Urban Development between India and Denmark. In her prior role, she worked as a young professional in the G20 Division, where she liaised with delegates from diverse countries. She has served as the President at IAPSS in a voluntary capacity. She has been a proud alumni of ASEF fraternity under- ARC8 as Expert and ASEFSU23 as Project Assistant and Young Reporter. She has also supported as the Project consultant to the EU-India Policy Dialogue Support Facility, to smoothen policy understandings in diverse sectors among these regions. Ginisha previously worked at the British Council as a Manager- Arts for South India to promote project based collaborations between the UK and India. She is academically driven towards Public Policy, Local Governance, Development Studies and International Relations. She holds a gold medal for excelling in her graduate studies and was a rank holder in her Masters in Public Administration program. With a PhD in Urban Governance and Sustainability sector from NIT Jaipur, India, she also worked as a researcher at LBSNAA.
Habib Hassan
Pakistan
Habib Hassan is working as Data and Research Analyst at Federal SDGs Support Unit Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives. He is instructor for Urban Economics course at school of Economics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He holds master in macroeconomics and financial policies from University of Paris and University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has experience of working with youth in Pakistan. Gilgit-Baltistan Youth Summit 2016 was held under his supervision sponsored by US Embassy in Pakistan. He also worked as United Nations Volunteer(UNV) with UNDP for six month training students on civic education. His interest revolve around cities, youth, innovation and ideas for sustainable future communities.
Lakshila Wanigasinghe
Sri Lanka
Lakshila is a researcher from Colombo, Sri Lanka. She currently works at an economic policy think tank, primarily in poverty and social welfare related research. Her research interests include social welfare, gender, education, and sustainable development. Lakshila holds a MSc in Economics with a concentration in Development Economics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), USA. She is passionate about conducting research that positively impacts policy decisions in the hopes of improving the lives of all Sri Lankans.
Mavra Bari
Pakistan
Mavra is a sociologist, journalist and writer with a special focus on gender and intersectionality, sustainable urbanism and resource equity, climate change mitigation and adaptation particularly in the Global South. She is also a social innovation and communications specialist working in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Pakistan. She is currently working with the UN on a project that is helping clean energy companies raise climate investment.
Mehak Dudeja
India
Mehak Dudeja is a lawyer turned Development Professional who believes in the cause of environment protection and sustainable development. She aspires to achieve her aim via policy implementation. In her previous days as a lawyer, she realised that while environmental law is one tool to protect environment, policy implementation is definitely another. As a part of Air Pollution Action Group (member of Commission on Air Quality Management) she is responsible for consulting government stakeholders and implementing policies on ground. With her specialisation in environmental laws and on ground policy implementation, she aims to achieve sustainable development and establish effective governance mechanisms.
Mohammad Arif Nezami
Bangladesh
Arif Nezami is a serial entrepreneur from Bangladesh. Arif is known for being the tech and startup eco-system builder in Bangladesh for the last 10 years. Arif's passion is to solve social problems with technology and empowering young people, women and entrepreneurs. He is an alumnus of the “International Visitors Leadership Program” by the US State Dept, fellow of Dubai Expo2020 and fellow of IAF Germany.
Raghavendra Mahto
Nepal
Raghavendra has co-founded a social enterprise in waste management in Nepal that offers services to retain useful resources within the economy by establishing Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to process segregated dry waste and Nepal’s first E-waste Management Facility to allow access to a wealth of secondary raw materials. Alongside, working on strategies to guide Nepal’s foray into a circular economy with concepts like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), bringing stakeholders together to mandate regulatory framework for businesses in Nepal to be part of the circular economy and to collaborate in the waste value chain. He has an appetite for working through ideas, iterating until they come to fruition. They work to bridge the gap between municipalities, international and national organizations, and local communities to create long-lasting, comprehensive, and self-sustaining solutions in waste.
Rohullah Safi
Afghanistan
Rohullah Safi, an Environmental Sciences graduate, is actively involved in volunteer work with organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With a strong advocacy for climate change and environmental issues, he organizes impactful workshops, seminars, and campaigns centered around climate change and environmental sustainability. Rohullah's dedication shines through as he actively promotes awareness and action, working tirelessly to create a greener and more sustainable future.
Sana Khan
Pakistan
Sana Khan is a sustainable development professional with strong climate change domain knowledge. She is passionate about leveraging market mechanisms to address climate change challenges and achieve global climate targets. She is currently associated with Sustainable Development Practice Group at the World Bank in Pakistan. Previously, she has also served as a researcher at government’s National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. In her professional career, she has been engaged in various sustainable development policy operations to assist the government and takes pride in having contributed to Pakistan’s first Biennial Update Report (BUR) and the updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the UNFCCC.
Sarah Nizamani
Pakistan
Sarah Nizamani is an economist by training and works as a Research Fellow at IBA Karachi and a consultant for Social Protection and Jobs at the World Bank. Previously she has worked with organizations such as the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and Bondh e Shams (a global water charity). She also frequently publishes on sustainable economic growth and other development issues in Pakistan's leading english newspaper. Her research and writings are rooted in understanding economic mobility, human development and impact evaluations of development programs. Previously she has studied inequality of opportunities and is currently investigating the welfare impacts of microfinance and seasonal hunger in Sindh.
Sohara Mehroze Shachi
Bangladesh
Sohara studied environmental change management at the university of Oxford and worked with the United Nations on addressing climate change in Bangladesh. She also led the Dhaka hub of the Global Shapers Community - an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Sohara conducts freelance environmental journalism and is serving as a climate corps fellow of the Environmental Defence Fund.
Sudesh Pokhrel
Bhutan
Sudesh Pokhrel currently works as a Country Sustainability Manager for Six Senses- Bhutan. He is a Young Leader from Bhutan and holds a Master's in International Relations. Recently he has delegated Bhutan as a Climate Action Champion in India and Sri-lanka supported by US Department of State, SDJF, ORF, Genlab and ISSR. He is an amabssador for "Global Solutions : World Policy Forum" and also the Young Global Changer- 2020 in the “Global Solutions Summit: World Policy Forum” in Berlin, Germany.
Yeshi Choden
Bhutan
After topping the Bhutan Civil Service Examinations in 2019, Yeshi Choden joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade as a Foreign Service Officer starting Jan 2021. Since Oct 2021, she has been working on deputation as a research officer at the Centre for Bhutan and GNH Studies where she assists in conducting research and publishing papers on socio-economic challenges and opportunities in Bhutan. Her areas of interest include international relations, political science, literature, and psychology among others.