Scientific Advisory Board
Dr Naxhelli Ruiz Rivera (Chair)
Dr Ruiz-Rivera is a full-time, Interim Associate Researcher grade ‘A’ at the Department of Social Geography of UNAM’S Institute of Geography. Her line of research is territorial studies and territorial planning policies. Her work has focused on analysing the various socio-environmental problems prevalent in urban and rural-urban transition spaces, as well as social vulnerability and management models for the prevention of risks associated with natural and technological threats. She has a PhD in Development Studies (University of East Anglia).
She is a lecturer and tutor of the UNAM’s Postgraduate Program in Geography. She is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers Level 1 since 2012.
She was distinguished with the Scholarship for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, in 2011. She is a member of the Risk Interpretation and Action Program (RIA) of the International Social Science Council. She is also affiliated to both the Network of Researchers in Mexican Local Governments (IGLOM) and the Network of Disasters Associated with Hydrometeorological and Climatic Phenomena (RedesClim). She is Deputy Director of UNAM’s Institute of Geography of the UNAM.
Dr Hemant Ojha
Dr Ojha is Director of the Institute for Research and Development Worldwide (IFSD). Through the past 20 years of research, development practice, and innovation, Dr Ojha has championed the cause of democratic governance, equitable development, decentralised natural resources management, and community empowerment. He is particularly known for his works on critical action research, deliberative governance of natural resources, methodological innovations for evidence informed policies, and catalysing social change through participatory action and learning. He has been a key player in the development of community forestry in Nepal which is now recognised as a world innovation in community based natural resource management. He has written widely in the scientific and the pubic media. He has worked with a number of research, academic, and civil society organisations across Asia and Africa. He has served as a consultant for the programs of UK DFID, USAID, NORAD and other international development agencies.
Dr Suzanty Sitorus
Dr Suzanty Sitorus directs Climate Policy Initiative (CPI)‘s Indonesia program, leading analysis and advising government, business, and civil society leaders on land use, energy and climate finance.
Dr Sitours has two decades of experience in climate finance, land use, and natural resources management. She is the Chair of the Executive Board of the Indonesia Biodiversity Foundation (KEHATI), and the founder and Secretary of the Executive Board of the Association of Philanthropy Indonesia (PFI). From 2009 to 2015, Suzanty worked in the National Council on Climate Change, a government body coordinating climate change policy and strategy, and served as Indonesia’s lead negotiator on climate finance in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) processes. From 2014-2016 she served as a member of the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance, and from 2012-2014 she was an adviser to the Green Climate Fund Board member from Indonesia. As an expert on climate finance and land use, and in her capacity as a negotiator, Suzanty regularly moderates and speaks at high-profile events. She co-facilitated UNFCCC negotiation sessions on issues related to finance, including the Adaptation Fund. She was Co-Chair of the group discussions on issues related to climate finance at meetings of the OECD’s Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG) Global Forum from 2012-2014.
Suzanty has a Doctor of Philosophy from the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia, UK, a Master of Arts from the School of Communication at Charles Sturt University in Australia, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from the School of International Relations at the University of Padjadjaran, Indonesia.
Dr Karl-Heinz Simon
Karl-Heinz Simon studied electrical engineering, sociology, political science and philosophy and works on system studies at the Center for Environmental Systems Research of the University of Kassel. His research interests lie in the fields of human ecology, socio-cybernetics and utopias. He is a member of the study group System Theory and Human Ecology.