Camilo Benitez
Camilo Benitez is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Twente. Camilo is developing a Game Simulation about structuring multipurpose (green/grey) infrastructure projects as Public Private Partnerships. This game will allow decisions makers to experience the operational trade-offs in such projects during the different phases of infrastructure planning and delivery cycle: from planning, to procurement up to the Operation and Maintenance phase. He is interested in developing theoretical insights into the ways that project partners solve the tension between the need of providing stability to the rules-in-place, and the need to adapt Public Private Partnerships project to emerging issues over time.
Veronica Diaz Sosa
She is the Vice President of the WYN and Communications Officer. She is Mexican but lives in Italy where she is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Engineering. She has volunteered for the WYN since 2013 and had the opportunity to participate in WWF7 in Korea. Now, for WWF8 in Brasilia she is especially eager to take youth participation to the next level. For more info about her click here.
Tatiana Silva
Tatiana is a Brazilian entrepreneur, Co-founder & Projects Director of FA.VELA, a nonprofit that offers entrepreneurial education and business acceleration for favela and ghetto residents engaged in sustainable enterprises and working to take the lead in local transformation. She is also a Youth Delegate of the World Water Council representing the Americas. Tatiana joined the Water Youth Network in 2013 and currently, is a member of the Advisory Board, collaborates in fundraising and cooperation towards meaningful youth contribution to hydro politics, participating in WYN-led activities within international agendas such as the World Water Forum. She holds an MSc in Water Management, with an especialisation in Water Conflict Management (UNESCO-IHE), with research and consultancy experience in Africa, Europe and Brazil.
Javed Ali
Javed is an Erasmus Mundus Master’s Student of Flood Risk Management and Hydroinformatics at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, India. Since May 2017, he has been working with Resurgence (London) and GFDRR, World Bank as an Open Modelling and Urban Flooding Consultant. Where, he is working as Research Lead on OpenDRI Initiative Projects and Risk Modelling and Communication Projects and Facilitator for graphic generation for the Intellectual Framework and Process Diagram and other publication graphics. He is Lead Author for Risk Modelling, Visualization and Communication Projects. He worked with Climate-KIC (the EU’s main climate innovation initiative) as a Research Lead on a project “Climate Change Adaptation for Sustainable Development in the Municipality of Bunnik, the Netherlands”. He also worked as a Technical Advisor with Empresa Mixta Valenciana de Aguas S.A., Global Omnium, Valencia (Spain).
He has actively been engaged with the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as well as IWRM Thematic Groups of the youth led organization Water Youth Network since February 2017. He is co-coordinator of the Human Resources group, Communication Focal Point for DRR group and Focal Point for Capacity Building Communication for IWRM group. He is also the WYN focal point of communication and coordination support for the 8th World Water Forum. Javed is involved in several knowledge sharing and advocacy projects such as the YouKnow project as focal point of Database Management and has organized international events including European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (Istanbul), Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (Mexico) and Stockholm World Water Week 2017 (Stockholm). At present, he is involved in the preparation of a satellite event in Delft as preparation of the 8th World Water Forum (Brazil). He is also involved in the preparation of an “Interdisciplinary Pressure Cooker: Risk Communication Challenge” side event at Understanding Risk Forum 2018 (Mexico) organized by WYN and GFDRR.
He is part of Disaster Risk Reduction team of United Nation Major Group for Children and Youth. He has been volunteering with ‘The Climate Reality Project’ and ‘Citizens’ Climate Lobby’ where he works with a vision to cut carbon pollution and create a healthy and prosperous future powered by clean energy, sustainable development, natural resources management and to make people aware of the impacts of climate change on environment.
Robert Sacik
Robert Sakic Trogrlic is a PhD student in Edinburgh and Hydro Nation Scholar of the Scottish government. He holds a BSc. and MEng. In Civil Engineering (from University of Split in Croatia, where he specialised in Hydrology and Water Resources Management. With an interest of merging his technical background with appreciation for social sciences, he applied and was granted the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship by the European Commission to study MSc in Flood Risk Management (Unesco IHE Institute for Water Education in The Netherlands, TU Dresden in Germany, UPC Barcelona in Spain, and University of Ljubljana in Slovenia). Following his interest in working in developing world, he continued on studying for a PhD in Disaster Risk Reduction, where he is focusing on the role of indigenous knowledge in community-based disaster risk reduction in Malawi. Robert has expertise in participatory stakeholder engagement, disaster risk reduction, risk governance, flood resilience in urban areas and climate change adaptation. He worked on research projects in the United States, Australia, Europe and Africa, and worked as an independent consultant for the non-governmental sectors. Robert is a firm believer in the capacities of local communities to be at the forefront of solving water-related issues, and sees himself doing an applied research solving real life challenges.
Since 2015, Robert has been actively involved in Water Youth Network and United Nations Major Group of Children and Youth, where he volunteered as the Disaster Risk Reduction Team co-coordinator and the Disaster Risk Reduction Science Policy Interface Focal Point, respectively. He was an invited speaker and co-chair at UN Conferences (HABITAT III in Ecuador 2016 and Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction in Mexico 2017) and has organised and participated in numerous international events, such as Singapore International Water Week, ECOSOC Youth Forum, HABITAT III, and GFDRR Understanding Risk Forum. At the moment, he is involved in the preparation of the World Water Forum 8.
Camilla Hellen Peixoto de Lima
Camila Hellen Peixoto de Lima is a researcher. For the past 7 years, she worked with research related to water quality, assessment of the hydrological impact of dams, environmental licensing of dams, rain-flow modelling, water allocation and environmental flows. She holds a BSc. Eng. in Environmental Engineering from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia ÁREA1 DeVry Brazil where she gained experience in water quality by design and implementing a strategy for monitoring water quality at Abaeté lagoon in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She also holds a Master degree in Environment, Water and Sanitation from Universidade Federal da Bahia – UFBA, Brazil where She worked with a research related to assessment and classification of hydrological alteration resulting from the implementation of dams of consumptive and non-consumptive use on rivers. Currently she is a Doctorate student in Civil Engineering – Water Resources and Environment, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ, Brazil, where her topic of research is: Environmental flows to support water management in a participatory manner in a Brazilian watershed committee: a case study. During her PhD period She did a 12-month exchange program as a visiting scholar at the Texas A&M University, USA, from November 2015- October 2016 where I applied the rain-flow model SWAT – Soil and Water Assessment Tool to generate daily and monthly flow for the years 1940-2016 at the Piabanha Basin. Besides her academic background Camilla does volunteer works in several organizations such as Water Youth Network and Brazilian Youth Parliament for Water since 2017 (both youth led) and OMA-BRASIL (Non-governmental Organization of Civil Society for Public Interests) since 2015 working with technical chambers of Brazilian watershed committees. She was also a moderator at the “Your voice” platforms at the World Water Forum 8th and participated of two innovation labs, one in Denmark and another one in Brazil in 2017.
Marina Horta
She is part of the IWRM team at WYN and the focus person for developing new tools for YouKnoW! Platform, volunteering at the organization since 2016. Brazilian, BSc in Biology and Master in Environmental Sciences at UNESCO-IHE, she is now pursuing her second major in Geography at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Marina is based at Belo Horizonte where she works for a local NGO – named FA.VELA – in the fields of Fundraising and Monitoring and Evaluation of Social Impacts. It is her first time in a huge event such as this and she is looking forward to ensuring youth participation and increasing her network.
Vincy Abraham
Vincy is a policy, strategies and partnerships development professional working in the field of sustainable development. She is also an urban policy specialist and has a heart for spatial justice and urban equality especially in the access to basic services and has authored several papers in the field of urban development and planning. She has been a speaker on various development issues at different forums and consultations of the United Nations. She juggles consultancies for a few UN agencies including UN Habitat Youth, UNDP Youth – Asia and Pacific as well as other institutions including Tata Institute of Social Science and the Harmony Foundation’s Compassion Beyond Borders initiative.
Nhilce Esquivel
Nhilce Esquivel, is a Mexican youth that works on the Water Resources sector. She holds a bachelor degree on civil engineering from the Technical Institute of Chetumal in Mexico , a Master degree on Water Science and Engineering with a major on Flood Risk Management by the Institute of Water Education (UNESCO IHE) from the Netherlands, and a Master degree on Hydro science and Engineering from the Technical Institute of Dresden in Germany.
She is working as an external hydrologist consultant hired by Colima University in Mexico, and developing projects for the National Water Commission. She has also worked in the construction sector as construction supervisor and in the Education sector as English teacher for kids and teenagers.
During her master studies she participated in some events as volunteer such as the 36th IAHR World Congress in The Hague, Netherlands and in some events organised by her university. She is part of the Water Youth Network (WYN) and the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY) where she is part of the Integrated Water resources Management group and Disaster Risk Reduction action groups since 2016.She is interested in the recognition of youth in the professional sector , gender equality, environmental resources preservation, Climate Change , Disaster Risk Reduction and water resources management.
Laura Basco Carrera
Mrs. Laura Basco Carrera is a Water Resources Management adviser. She has about 7 years international experience in projects and research related to water security, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), adaptive planning, water allocation modelling, policy analysis and stakeholder engagement. She holds a BSc. Eng. in Industrial Engineering from Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, where she specialized in the field of Structural Engineering. She also holds a Master degree in Business Management. She has gained expertise in the field of Renewable Energies during her studies MSc. Eng. Mechanical and Process Engineering at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany (graduated with honours). Laura became interested in international development when she was working for two NGOs, FUNDEO (2009-2010) and Engineers without Borders Germany (2011-2012), in Latin America and Africa. Since 2012 she is working at a Dutch-based Research Institute, Deltares, where she has worked in several international projects related to IWRM, water security, climate change and participatory planning. She has supported and provided advise to national and regional governments, NGOs and financial organizations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in more than 19 countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia (including Germany, Spain, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ghana, Kenya, Turkey, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines). At present she is also finalizing her PhD in collaborative modeling for informed and participatory decision making in water resources planning at IHE Delft and University of Twente, in The Netherlands.
Finally, in her free time Laura is involved in several initiatives that aim to empower young people in the water sector. She is in the management board of the youth-led organization, Water Youth Network, since 2013. She commenced as team leader of the Event Management Working Group. In 2015 she became a member of the advisory board as business manager. A year later she became the coordinator of the IWRM thematic group, which is composed of more than 40 members from all over the world. She has organized and participated in many international events such as SDGs (High level panel on water) process, COP21, World Water Forum 7, World Congress on DRR in Sendai, UN HABITAT III, Singapore International Water Week and Stockholm World Water Week. At the moment she is involved in the preparation of the World Water Forum 8.
Niel De Jong
Niel is a member of both the IWRM and the DDR, River, and Coast group. He is Dutch and is currently working as a water system analyst at a Dutch water board (HHNK). He also has a background in Ecohydrology, GIS and Remote Sensing, working on projects in Poland, Brazil, and Malawi. Niel has volunteered with the WYN since the start of 2017. In October, he attended the Youth Climate Summit (COY13) in Bonn. At the WWF8, he wants to continue the battle for improved involvement of youth in water decisions.
Sofia Corradi
Sofia Corradi joined Water Youth Network (WYN) in 2017. She is a part of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) thematic teams and Human Resources (HR) support team. Sofia is a Brazilian Civil Engineering student, member of the National Rural Sanitation Program (PNSR) of the National Health Foundation in Brazil (FUNASA) in partnership with the Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). She is developing a research project entitled: “Indigenous Peoples in Perspective: How to Guarantee their Right to Water and Sanitation?”. Sofia is also a member of Global Shapers Community, a young initiative of the World Economic Forum that seeks to generate impact in each community inserted by developing leadership, giving voice for local youth and implementing a local impact project.
Philip Kruse
Philip joined Water Youth Network after the Stockholm World Water Week in 2017. He is coordinating the Human Resources support group and a member of the Disaster Risk Reduction working group.
Philip is currently pursuing a master’s degree in spatial planning at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, where he is doing a lot of work on green infrastructures and urban water issues.
Younoussa Abbosouka
Younoussa is a young professional from Cameroon working in the field of Water Resources Management. He studied Hydrology and Water Resources Science in at the University of Yaounde in Cameroon, and at present he is coursing a MSc in climate change and water management. He has gained expertise in the implementation of Water Resources Management through his work as manager at Blue Rayame social purpose enterprise (2017 – present).
Younoussa’s interest in the promotion of youth leadership and advocacy commenced in 2016 when he worked at APYLAV Cameroon as field technician. After his internship at the Global Water Partnership Central Africa the same year, he understood the importance of connecting with youth to solve water-related issues. So in October 2016; he joined Water Youth Network (WYN). He is the co-coordinator of the IWRM thematic group, which is composed of more than 40 members from all over the world. He is also the WYN focal point for the United Nations Major Group of Children and Youth. Younoussa is involved in several knowledge sharing and advocacy projects such as the YouKnow project and has organized international events including COP23. At present is involved in the preparation of a satellite event in Cameroon as preparation of the World Water Forum 8.
Veronica Minaya
Veronica joined the Water Youth Network (WYN) in July 2015 and she has been engaged with an active participation in the 7th World Water Forum 2015, Stockholm World Water Week 2015 and Singapore International Water Week 2016. At the moment she is involved in the Regional process for the WWF8. She is an ecohydrologist with background in engineering, limnology and environment and currently she is a Post-doc Researcher at the Vrije Univesiteit Brussel in Belgium working with different international cooperation projects in Africa and Latin America. In general, she is very interested in research development, and women & youth empowerment.
Leah Pope
Leah is a water resources engineer (EIT) in the United States with experience in hydrologic modelling, spatial analysis, disaster risk reduction, serious gaming, and stakeholder engagement. She has a MSc in Hydroinformatics and Water management with an emphasis in decision support systems as well as a B.S. in Civil Engineering. She has been involved in a variety of water resources projects in her four years of experience. Professional experience includes calibrations for hydrologic numerical models and geospatial analysis. She has capacity in a suite of geospatial, hydrologic, and early warning system analysis software and tools. Through serious gaming, community-based risk analysis, citizen science platforms, and leading capacity building forums, Leah has effectively involved stakeholders in decision making processes. Her current project involves developing a citizen science adaptive management plan for river restoration in the state of Colorado.
Through her professional affiliations, Ms. Pope has used her technical and capacity building skills to lead and collaborate in international and multidisciplinary teams. Leah volunteers as project lead for Engineers Without Borders to develop a water system in rural Guatemala as well as an active role in the Disaster Risk Reduction Group of Water Youth Network. For the WWF8, Leah has been in charge of organizing the regional process strategy of the Network and coordinating the design and the execution of 10 youth satellite events to mobilize young people across the globe.
Juanita Ayala
Juanita is a Political Scientist, fascinated by how water can become a tool to enhance peacebuilding and social cohesion processes. She has been volunteering for WYN since 2017. Ms. Ayala also volunteered in a WASH NGO in Mexico, and now is applying all the acquired knowledge leading new projects in her home country- Colombia. She attended World Water Week 2017 and is looking forward to her participation in World Water Forum 8. She expects to engage soon in a MSc. on water and diplomacy.
Kelly Fouchy
Kelly graduated with a Master in Ecohydrology in 2014 and has since worked as a project coordinator in the fields of integrated water resource management, environmental flows and agroecology. She actively joined the IWRM team at WYN in 2017 and is involved in the development of the How To Toolbox, and organization of the World Water Forum 8 and Stockholm Water Week 2018.
Miguel Trejo
Miguel Angel Trejo Rangel is a Water Risk Manager. He is a consultant at the Water National Commission of Mexico and Collaborator in two NGOs, México Sostenible and Water Youth Network. He holds a BSc. in Sustainable Management of Coastal Areas from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and an Erasmus Mundus Master degree in Flood Risk Management from TU Dresden, Germany; Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain; UNESCO-IHE, the Netherlands and University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Recently, he was accepted in a PhD program that will start in March 2018 at the National Institute for Space Research of Brazil, where he will work with Social Innovation for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Finally, Miguel has participated in some high-level international events as COP16, Strengthening Disaster Risk Reduction across the Americas: A Regional Summit on the Contribution of Earth Observations and Global Forum on Science and Technology for Disaster Resilience 2017. At the moment, he is involved in the preparation of the World Water Forum 8 and UR2018.
Dona Geagea
Dona is a stakeholder engagement specialist and experienced facilitator with a Master in Water Governance and a joint graduate diploma from the United Nations University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health. Over the past 7 years, she has been applying creative methodologies and techniques to propel people and projects at the intersection of social and water innovation, particularly in her role as Global Lead for the Water Innovation Labs with the Canadian organisation Waterlution. She is trained in Art of Hosting, Cooperative Games, Non-Violent Communication, and Systems Theory. Dona joined the Water Youth Network in 2014 and combined with her work, she has hosted and facilitated workshops internationally at Water Innovation Labs – Canada, Europe, India; Budapest Water Summit; 7th World Water Forum in South Korea; Singapore International Water Week, and more. Her experience ranges from working with indigenous elders in South America, to presenting in corporate boardrooms in North America. She is leading two sessions in the Citizen’s Forum at the 8th World Water Forum in Brasilia (Water Innovation Led by Youth; and Indigenous Perspectives), and coordinating a side event with IADB on e-learning tools.
Vanh Mixap
Vanh is the developer and facilitator of the Emerging Water Professionals Program of the International RiverFoundation in Australia. She is volunteering with WYN supporting the Usability Improvement team under YouKnow! Platform. She is passionate about building cross-generational collaboration and innovating education. Vanh has a strong background in leading change in the water, gender equity and tourism sectors. She is a Collaborating Partner of TransformationFirst.Asia Pte Ltd and a certified Social + Emotional Intelligence coach and facilitator who helps professionals develop their leadership skills. She has worked with OXFAM, Australian AID, UN International Labour Organisation, Global Water Partnership, Engineers Without Borders, and People Builders Asia. Vanh founded Everyone Matters, with a vision to create an enabling environment where every professional gives an extra mile for the work that they do and where they are respected and valued regardless of their position, age, gender and look.
Prapti Verma
Prapti Verma has been working since over 3 years on Urban issues in India, more specifically in Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, Cleanliness, and Infrastructure in urban cities. She is based of out of India where she has gained experience in understanding and addressing water and environmental problems faced by developing countries. She is an Economics graduate (University of Delhi, India) and has completed her masters in Water Science and Governance from TERI School of Advanced Studies, India.
Prapti has extensive experience in Policy Research, Data Analysis, Documentation, Monitoring and Stakeholder Engagement in Water Resource Management, Wastewater, Sanitation, Climate Change, and Environment and has also actively contributed to project management and proposal development during her work experience. She is the supporting author for the report “State of Urban Water and Sanitation in India”, published by TERI University, with funding from USAID and Coca-Cola, supported by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI). Previously, she worked for a year with GE Water and Process technologies (Now Suez Water Treatment Technologies) on Urban Municipal and Industrial Water and Wastewater management for sustainable cities.
Daud Hamidi
Ana Lambert
Ana’s research focuses on issues surrounding the importance of freshwater estuaries, their vulnerability in the face of climate change, and the international responses associated with migratory bird protocols. She is most interested in understanding how policies are developed considering the many competing social interests that are prevalent in multi-functional landscapes. Ana holds a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Instituto Tecnologico y Estudios Superiores del Occidente (ITESO), Mexico. She has extensive academic and working experience in Latin America, the United States, Africa, and Australia that spans the disciplines of social science, engineering, and wildlife conservation.
Camilo Huneeus
Camilo Huneeus is a Chilean industrial engineer pursuing a Master of Environmental Management at Yale. From a system dynamics perspective, he is interested in both water management and disaster risk reduction. He is currently working in trans-boundary flood resilience in India and Nepal and at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Water Management. Prior to coming to Yale, Camilo worked as a Wastewater treatment engineer and as an advisor on Social Economy to the Chilean Ministry of Economics.
External Young Professionals collaborating with WYN
Christiana Matzker
Christiana Metzker is a Brazilian PhD candidate at IHE-Delft. Her research aims to understand how Brazilian water and sanitation utilities learn, and how this can help reducing non-revenue water. She is joining WYN team for the WWF8.
Nishchal Sardjoe
Nishchal Sardjoe hails from the South American country of Suriname, and came to the Netherlands for his studies. In 2017 he graduated from the Technical University of Delft with a MSc degree in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management, with a specialisation in Transport & Logistics. His interests lie primarily in translating hard engineering solutions in the right and comprehensible options for policy makers, thus acting as the interface between beta and gamma sciences. At Deltares he works within the department of Urban Water and Subsurface and is involved in various projects such as the OECD Water Governance Initiative, governance for land subsidence and knowledge transfer within climate-proof networks.
Imran Jalalkhan
Imran Jalalkhan is a young water and agriculture professional from Mombasa, Kenya working in the field of Water and Agriculture. He studied a Bachelor of Science degree in Soil, Water and Environmental Engineering at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. He has gained expertise in the field of Agriculture through his consultancy services with Greentech Contractors and Consultants since 2009. Through this work, he has been engaged with the youth and his passion to work with the youth has grown exponentially which made him be selected to be present at the Tunza youth conference on climate change in 2009. He has consulted for a renewable water project for UNIDO between 2011 and 2013 and in 2016 and currently the Project Coordinator for a water project at the Coastal Kenya for Siemens Stiftung. In his free time, Imran enjoys mentoring youth and university graduates in the field of water and agriculture and advocates the youth to consider them as a career. He is a member for IWA and from time to time reviews abstracts submitted for water conferences and have joined the thematic group on wastewater in IWA. In addition, he enjoys travel and landscape photography whenever he unwinds.
Alex Zizanga
Alex Zizinga is a Natural Resource Scientist with 9 years of practical and professional experience in Integrated Watershed Management and Natural Resource Management as a whole. Academically I hold Post Masters Diploma from University of Reading, UK & University of Dar es Salaam collaboration (Watershed Management and Climate), MSc in Environment and Natural Resources from Makerere University and currently I am undertaking a Ph.D with a focus on watershed restoration and biodiversity conservation. I have also previously worked as a Graduate Research Assistant (Integrated Watershed Management Master Program Coordinator, Makerere University), consultant for Integrated Water Resource Management with United Nations Development Program for climate change risk mitigation and adaptation in national institutions of Uganda, Ministry of Water and Environment in Uganda, Other organisations in Water, food security and other livelihood programs with different organisations. My activities have very much concentrated on Integrated Watershed Management and Integrated Water Resources Management in the east African region. I have gained enormous expertise in conservation and restoration of watersheds. I have skills in presentations, conducting debates related to natural resource management, modelling and research Finally I am a member of World Water Youth Network and Executive Director (Volunteer) of Umoja East Africa Fund http://umojafund.org/ in Uganda where I mobilize, engage and work with youth and communities in Catchment Management activities in the region.
Lako Stephane
He is a Water Resource and Services Manager. He has 10 years’ experience in water and sanitation engineering, planning, teaching, writing and communication. He holds an Agricultural Engineer Degree and Two Master’s Degree in Water Management. He is pursuing a Water Resources Management PhD program (specialized on climate and urban change adaptation in urban wetlands). Used to field work with NGO’s since 2008, he actually chair a Youth-Led Organization (Water For Life Cameroon) and is a Recent member of Water Youth Network DRR team. He contributed to COY11, 112 and 13 and is motivated to bring further Youth contribution to fulfill various water related SDGs.
Bassel Daher
Bassel Daher is a Research Associate at Texas A&M University’s Water-Energy-Food Nexus Research Group (since 2014) and Coordinator at the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Initiative (since 2016). Daher’s work focuses on policy-oriented research in natural resource management, environmental sustainability, and resource security. He is particularly interested in developing Water-Energy-Food Nexus solutions that respond to biophysical, socioeconomic, governance, and financing constraints, at multiple scales, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. Daher also has expertise in water-energy-food nexus analytics and development of resources allocation assessment tools. His focus lies in developing analytics to catalyze a dialogue, and improve cooperation, across cross sectoral stakeholders.
He was recently selected as one of 8 young water professionals globally to serve on the Young Scientific Committee for the 2016 Stockholm World Water Week. Daher has contributed to multiple chapters of the UN Global Sustainable Development Report, co-authored a report on “Renewable Energy and the Water, Energy, and Food Nexus” for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and has multiple other journal articles, book chapters, and policy briefs relating to the interconnected water-energy-food securities and nexus assessment tools, including with Chatham House and Water International. He was a recipient of the Montgomery Award in 2017, in recognition of major contributions to the academic opportunities and quality of life of their fellow graduate students at Texas A&M University. He also currently is the Vice President for the Texas Chapter of the American Water Works Association.
Daher holds a B.Sc. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the American University of Beirut (2010), and an MSE (2012) from Purdue University, Biological and Agricultural Engineering-Multi-Scale Hydrology Group. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Water Management and Hydrologic Sciences at Texas A&M (2018). He was a Research Associate (2012-2014) with the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, Doha.
Ntiokam Divine
Ntiokam Divine has over 15 years of experience in youth entrepreneurship, advocacy and mobilization of youth interested in agriculture.In May 2014,He recently established the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth network (CSAYN), which is now operational in thirty (30) countries across; Africa, Asia,North America and USA.His background includes international exposure in youth mainstreaming, notably participating in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development since inception where he coordinated and facilitated the translation of the Global Goals into over sixty (60) local languages, as well as transcriptioninto Braille for the visually impaired. This is to ensure “Leave No One Behind”.
In additionto this, for the SDGs to be for youth with youth, Divine designed a program entitled: African Youth for the SDGs training (AYSDGT) where youth are trained tobetter comprehend and own the SDGs in their local languages.He has hands-on experience and training developing and managing youth projects within the EUand Non-EU countries.He is a committed young professional with team building potential, having demonstrated his ability to reach out to youth in urban and rural areas.To sum up, his bilingual (French and English) skills and networking abilities h ave led to the CSAYN becoming operational.To sum up , reason being water a imperative resource for the entire agricultural value chain, attending the WWF in Brazil shall be another huge opportunity . He recently gave a key statement at the African Union Heads of States Summit in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on the 27 th January 2018 on Zero Hunger High – Level Special Event.
Hussam Hussein
Hussam joined the WYN in 2017. He is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Hussam’s research focuses on hydropolitics in the cases of Jordan and of Lebanon, exploring the role of discourses in shaping water policies. Hussam is also member of the Water Security Research Centre and of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia (UEA) since 2012. Hussam has working experience from the European Parliament, the Italian Embassy in Amman, and from the World Bank, Washington DC. After his studies in international relations at the University of Trieste (Gorizia), at SOAS, and at the College of Europe, Hussam has obtained his PhD degree at the School of International Development at the UEA. His PhD thesis focused on water scarcity discourses and transboundary water governance in the case of Jordan.
Mavuto Banda
Mavuto Banda is a Malawian young man currently pursuing MSc in Land and Water Development for Food Security at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, in the Netherlands. He is an Irrigation Engineer by profession and has just joined the membership of WYN and has been an active member in the organisation of the Netherlands Satellite Event and will also be part of the participants in the WWF8 in Brasilia. He is enthusiastic to be part of this forum in March.
Naditha Imbulana
Miss. Naditha Imbulana is a M.Sc. student studying Water Engineering and Management at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. In May 2016, she graduated with a first-class honors degree in BSc. in Civil and Infrastructure Engineering from the same institute. Naditha is currently engaged in her master’s thesis research focusing on climate change impacts on river morphology and resulting socio economic vulnerability of the community. She was employed as an intern at the Stockholm Environment Institute-Asia for 6 months, working on one of their projects in Myanmar, “Chindwin Futures”, which supports sustainable development in the Chindwin River Basin through evidence-based and inclusive multi-stakeholder participatory planning processes in the water sector. Naditha was a youth parliamentarian in 6th Asia Pacific Youth Parliament for Water where she was awarded for exceptional participation, contributing significantly to the discussions. She wishes to pursue a PhD in the field of climate change and water resources management.
Realizing the potential of the youth in finding solutions for water related issues in the world, Naditha decided to join a youth-led organization that connects youth around the globe in finding inclusive sustainable solutions to these issues. Therefore, in November 2017, she joined the Water Youth Network. She is currently involved in coordination of the session titled “Local communities and hydro-climatic risks” in the 8th World Water Forum.