Session 1: Poverty eradication and climate change

Since 2008, Dr. David Bresch heads the Sustainability & Political Risk Management unit at Swiss Re. His previous roles at Swiss Re include Head of University and Risk Research Relations and Head Atmospheric Perils Group and Chief modeller for natural catastrophe risk assessment. He has been member of the deal teams for many innovative risk transfer transactions, like cat bonds and weather index solutions. David Bresch has been a member of the official Swiss delegation to the UNFCCC COP15 (2009) in Copenhagen and COP16 (2010) in Cancun. David Bresch holds a PhD in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH).

In January 2007 Sylvie Lemmet has been appointed Director of the UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE), based in Paris. Ms. Lemmet is a graduate of the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University as well as a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales. She brings to UNEP a wealth of managerial and technical expertise, spanning many years working with the private sector, NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières. She brings more than 10 years of expertise in the field of environment, implementing major sustainable development projects in the World Bank and evaluating environmental policies as a Senior Auditor with the French Cour des comptes. During her tenure, she participated in the audit of the UN. Ms Lemmet is a French national.

Mr. Hui Xu, a master of economic management, is currently the Director General of the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC). Since 1993 he has joined the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development of China LGOP and served as Deputy Director General of the Foreign Capital Project Management Center under LGOP, and the Director General of Department of Planning and Financing of LGOP where he has taken various responsibilities in constituting poverty and development plans, setting and adjusting China’s poverty line, distributing pro-poor funds and evaluating its impacts as well as poverty monitoring.

Laurence Tubiana is founder of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in Paris. She is also professor and director of the Sustainable Development Center at Sciences Po Paris. She was recently asked to set up the new direction of Global Publics Goods of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. She follows and participates in the international negotiations on climate change, in which IDDRI is highly involved. From 1997 to 2002, Laurence Tubiana served as senior advisor to the Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, on environmental issues and conducted a number of international negotiations on this subject. She was also member of the French Council of Economic Analysis and research director for the French National Institute for Agricultural Research.

Rui Brito is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering, University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Maputo, Mozambique. He lectures in Hydraulics, Hydrology, Irrigation and Drainage, and Irrigation Projects. He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Colorado State University, USA (1989-1993), a Master of Science degree in Soil Science and Water Management in Wageningen University, the Netherlands (1993-1995). He has more than 25 years of working experience in the fields of water in agriculture, as a university lecturer, researcher and consultant for UEM, combining academic with hands-on experience in promoting sustainable development both in Mozambique and in Africa. He has extensive diverse experience working with local, national, and international organizations mainly in technical expertise in integrated water resources development, soil and water conservation, design of irrigation and drainage schemes, water harvesting techniques, climate change, and environmental impact assessments. As Dean of the Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering (1998-2001) he initiates the first post-graduate course at the UEM (M.Sc. in Rural
Development).

Lisa Schipper is a Senior Scientist at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and has spent over a decade working on and thinking about development and adaptation to climate change in various countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Lisa's research interests include examining socio-cultural aspects of vulnerability to climate change and other natural hazards, the relationship between adaptation and sustainable development, the links between adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and water management and adaptation to climate change. Lisa holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia. She is currently a Lead Author in the ongoing IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation and a Lead Author of Working Group II of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (due in 2014).

Mr. Sokona is the Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) based in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The ACPC is integral part of Climate for Development Program in Africa (ClimDev Africa) a joint initiative of the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He is also a co-chair of IPCC Working Group III. SOKONA was the Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) from June 2004 to May 2010. A citizen of Mali, Sokona focuses on the energy, environment and sustainable development nexus and he has broad experience in Africa in policy development. Before joining OSS, he worked for the “Environnement et Développement du Tiers Monde,” based in Dakar, Senegal and served as professor at Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieur of Bamako in Mali. Throughout his career, Sokona has served in various advisory capacities to African governments. He has published several books/articles on the issues of energy, environment and development with a focus on Africa.

Marc Dufumier is Professor of Compared Agriculture and Farming Development at AgroParisTech. He is a member of the Strategic Council for Agriculture and Sustainable Agro-industry (CSAAD) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing (MAP) as well as a member of the Committee for environmental monitoring at the Foundation Nicolas Hulot. His research interests lie in policies and programs for the development of sustainable farming in the South, land reforms, and food security. M. Dufumier has led field works in many developing countries, such as Mexico, Haiti, Costa Rica, Brazil, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Laos, Vietnam, etc. Marc Dufumier has published many books and articles on agriculture in developing countries.

Visiting Professor in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, UK, and senior adviser in sustainable intensification with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome. Kassam was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Honours List in 2005 for services to tropical agriculture and to rural development. Kassam is: Fellow of the Society of Biology, UK; Associate Editor of the Journal of Irrigation Science; Convenor of the Land Husbandry Group of the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA-UK); and the Moderator of FAO-hosted Global Platform for Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice (CA-CoP). Kassam is a former Chairman of: the Aga Khan Foundation (UK); the FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance Europe Foundation, and TAA-UK. He is a former Deputy Director General of WARDA (Africa Rice Centre, Côte d’Ivoire), and Interim Executive Secretary of the CGIAR Science Council.

Mr Rakotondramanana is an agronomist, who has over 30 years of experiences in research and development, including 15 years in Conservation Agriculture (research, extension, capitalization). He has been the Executive Director at GSDM (Groupement Semis Direct Madagascar) from 2004 up to now, a nonprofit organization involved in Conservation Agriculture in Madagascar (GSDM = no till club). He is the focal person for the National Conservation Agriculture Task Force in Madagascar, in the SADC region and in the Indian Ocean. Previously, he was Director of FIFAMANOR, a public organization in charge of research and extension on cereals, tuber crops and milk production.

Jean-François Richard is an agricultural engineer. Since the beginning of his career in 1968, he has devoted his occupational life to tropical agriculture, by leading research activities applied to the development in Africa within the Institute for Tropical Agricultural Research and Food-producing cultures (IRAT), which became one of the components of the International Center for Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD). He then joined the Society for Technical Support and Cooperation and in 1985 he started to work for the Central Fund for Cooperation (which later became the Agence Française de Développement). He has devoted his time to working on agricultural projects and rural development at local, regional, national level in about fifty developing countries. He has contributed to the integration of the agriculture of conservation into the AFD projects for about twenty years. He has retired from the AFD in March 2011.

An electrician engineer, Christian de Gromard started to work on renewable energy at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1980. In 1982, he joined the International Department at the Agence Française de Maîtrise de l’Energie (AFME) as the manager for Africa/Maghreb. Once at the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), he was in charge of the “Climate “ projects at the French Fund for Global Environment (FFEM) from its creation, in 1995, on. From 2002 on, within the Department Facilities at the AFD, he is in charge of projects in the fields of electricity and energy control in various parts of the world (China, India, Thailand, Maghreb, West and South Africa, etc.). Focal person for “Energy“ at the Department “Equipment and Environment“, he is actively involved in the definition and implementation of the “Energy-Climate“ strategy of the AFD.

Harish Hande co-founded SELCO INDIA, a social venture, to eradicate poverty by promoting sustainable technologies in rural India. With its headquarters in Bangalore, SELCO has 28 branches in Karnataka and Gujarat. Since 1995, SELCO INDIA has installed solar lighting systems in over 125,000 households in the rural areas of these states with employee strength of 180. Harish has a PhD. in Energy Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Harish Hande was named the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation. He was also the featured attendee and speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative 2007. In 2007 SELCO INDIA won the Outstanding Achievement Award from Ashden Awards, presented by Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States of America.

Mr. Oumarou Amadou, 45, is a Forest Engineer from Niger and he is currently coordinating the project GESFORCOM on the management of the local forest which is funded by the European Union and set up by the CIRAD and its partners INRAN and ABC Ecology in Niger. This project aims at continuing the development of the domestic energy strategy, which is central to the forestry policy implemented by Niger. The objectives are to sustainably provide urban populations with wood, particularly in Niamey, and to fight against poverty in rural areas. His various positions in the environmental administration give him a unique experience on the sustainable management of the forest.

Mr. Abdessamad Saddouq is currently Director for Participations and Partnerships at the National Office for Electricity of Morocco (ONE). He has been working for the program on global rural electrification in Morocco (PERG) since 2002, first as manager in charge of implementations before becoming director. As such, he has led the post-evaluation of the program and launched a new project, the Plan for Promoting Rural Electrification (Plan VER), which aims at promoting productive uses in rural areas and securing a return on the developed actives in the context of PERG. He manages the projects of rural electrification that the ONE got in Senegal, more particularly in St-Louis’ and Louga’s regions. He is an energy engineer and received a MBA in firm management.